Chapter Text
Tick.
Tick.
Tick.
Lexa watches as the second hand ticks over the six, then the seven. She’s spent the last two days trying to fix this watch, spent more money than she probably should have and more time she probably would care to admit. But she’s kept this watch safe for the last four years and made a promise to return it, and Lexa had every intention to do so.
It was a classic, simple watch. It had a dark brown leather strap, white face with a silver edge with silver roman numerals around the circle. Lexa tinkers a little further with the back of it, tightening a few of the screws before adjusting it to the correct time.
9:10 AM
Lexa wipes the front face of the watch with a small cloth and puts it aside. She drops her head into her hands and lets out a long, deep sigh. Her life has anything but normal, but the last four years have just been beyond anything she could imagine. But there was no turning back now. Everything is now in its place and everyone was ready to go. It was now, officially, the beginning of the end.
Her phone rings and Lexa taps on her Bluetooth earpiece to answer the call. “B,” Lexa greets.
“Lexa.”
Lexa lifts her head from her hands and gives her face a harsh rub. “The watch is fixed. I’m going in today.”
“Are you sure?”
“It’s not like we can call quits now,” Lexa laughs sarcastically. “We’ve been working for this for the last four years. Don’t tell me you’re getting cold feet.”
“No. Like you said, we’ve been working at this for a while now. I want to see The Ark go down as much as you do.” There’s a small pause. “How long till you think Octavia can activate the shell box?”
“At least a couple of days,” Lexa answers.
“A lot can happen in a couple of days.”
Lexa sighs. “Well I gave you the opportunity to meet her but you didn’t take it. She’s a fighter and Octavia has her reasons for going into The Ark as well.”
“And you’re sure she’s going to be able to remain focused on the big picture?”
Lexa stands up from her chair and starts to make her way around her loft. “Look B, stop. I know you have your concerns but I’m the one who's been with Octavia these past four years. I’ve trained her just like The Ark will. I know her, she’s a fighter and she can do this.”
“You’re right.”
“Of course I am,” Lexa replies. She packs a few items into her backpack and holsters her sidearm into her belt. “I’m ready.”
“Okay. Sending you the address now. Good luck, Lexa.”
“Talk to you soon.” Lexa taps her earpiece to end the call and moves back to the table to grab her phone and watch.
B 9:15AM
4555 Thunder Street, Arkadia
She pockets both items and heads out.
Jumping into her car, Lexa types in the address and sets off for the two-hour drive. Her mind is both running with a million thoughts, but at the same time she just feels empty. There was definitely no turning back now, but it didn’t stop her from feeling sick in the stomach at what the future was going to hold.
Four years ago she faked her death to escape an organisation called “The Ark.” The Ark is a covert agency of trained assassins. It is maintained and directed by Thelonious Jaha, and funded by six of the biggest organisations in the country – a group called “The Council”.
To put it in the most basic terms, Ark agents are hired assassins. They have been trained and taught by the best to do their jobs without any questions asked. That’s what made them ruthless. That’s what made them practically unstoppable. But that was now going to change and Lexa was going to make sure of it.
Lexa was recruited into The Ark at age 19. To put it simply, she was a troubled kid. Lexa did not have the easiest life growing up, which saw her getting involved with the wrong type of people at every turn. She was no stranger to juvie and wasn’t surprised that when she was first tried as an adult – she was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
But what did surprise her is that she isn’t taken to prison. She wakes up in a bright white room and meets Jake Griffin. And that’s where her Ark story begins. They told her that they were going to give her a second chance and well, Lexa didn’t really have a choice. So over the next year she was trained along with a few other recruits in combat, weapons, agility, strength and IT.
She made Ark history when she graduated to field agent in just under a year later, which saw her being placed in the Alpha team – The Ark’s elite team of assassins. For the next three years, she was a loyal agent, believing that what she was doing was right. But it wasn’t. There was a string of events that pushed Lexa to her breaking point. But it was the death of her girlfriend, Costia Winters, that pushed her over the edge.
So for a year after Costia’s death, Lexa remained loyal to The Ark whilst she planned her great escape. It was not easy and she almost got caught once and failed the first and second time she tried to fake her death. The third time was a success, but not entirely. Whilst Lexa was able to escape – the mission had an unexpected turn of events. An agent Lexa respected, despite the situation they were in, was killed in the process.
So for the four years after her “death” she worked day in and day out to form an elaborate plan to take down The Ark. Jaha had what he called a “black box”. It was essentially a hard drive that contained all the missions and dirty dealings The Ark has done. The information in that box had the power to bring down entire industries, which would cause worldwide damage. So the ultimate plan was to destroy the black box, then bring down Jaha and The Ark overall.
But it wasn’t that simple. Lexa wasn’t working alone and for good reason too. If The Ark has taught her anything, it was that working in a team (with people she trusted) was always better than working alone. And one of those people was Octavia Blake. For the last four years, Lexa has been training Octavia the way The Ark trained her. Octavia’s mission was to infiltrate The Ark and help take down the organisation from the inside.
Lexa knew exactly what she needed to do to get Octavia on The Ark’s radar. So just a few days before, she instigated a bank heist where Octavia was caught in the process. Octavia’s name has not shown up on any official police records, meaning that her plan worked and Octavia was in. That’s how The Ark worked – they took ‘troubled’ teens and young adults to give them “a second chance at life.”
While Lexa had plenty to do on the outside, in terms of Octavia, it was just a waiting game. Octavia needed to activate the shell box that Lexa had planted within The Ark system from the time she was still an agent. The shell box was an encrypted chat system that was hidden in the network. It would allow them to communicate whilst Octavia was undercover. It was essentially a paper-cup phone, it couldn’t be traced and it didn’t keep history logs. It couldn’t be found unless someone was looking for it.
Now with everything in play, Lexa’s first mission was to let The Ark know that she was in fact, still alive.
Lexa arrives at the address two hours later. It was like The Ark wasn’t even trying. Because for someone they have been trying to hide, trying to protect, they surely made it a bit too easy to find. It’s a small, humble home but that is to be expected when there’s only one person living here. Lexa parks across the street and a couple of houses down before walking up to the house and around the back.
Picking the lock is easy enough and Lexa is inside within a matter of minutes. She walks into the living room and eyes the framed photos along the wall. There's a small pang in her chest, because despite how much the mantra of “love is weakness” is engraved into her mind, there has been two people who have made her question it. One of those people were in these photos. But that part of her life is long gone.
As if on cue Lexa hears the car drive up into the driveway. She slips off her backpack and takes out a bottle of chloroform and a cloth. Dousing the cloth with just enough of the liquid, she takes her position behind one of the walls and waits patiently to make her move. She can hear the garage closing and she’s more nervous than she’s ever been, despite being a highly trained (ex)assassin.
It’s not even a minute later that the door is opened and a familiar voice starts to echo through the house.
“Yeah, yoga was great this morning. Thanks for inviting me, I’ll definitely be there tomorrow.”
Lexa takes a deep breath as the footsteps come closer to her. The hand that’s holding the cloth starts to shake and she quickly takes a moment to get herself together. Three seconds till she can make her move.
Two.
One.
Lexa steps out from behind the wall and quickly covers the woman’s mouth with the chloroform-drenched cloth. The woman struggles for a bit but the chemicals work fast. “You’re alright,” Lexa whispers as she pulls them towards the living room. Once she’s sure the woman is unconscious, she throws the cloth aside. Slowly, Lexa lies the woman down on the couch and runs back to where she left her backpack.
She returns moments later with a zip tie and threads it around the woman’s hands. Lexa lets out a small sigh in the process, “Good to see you again, Abby Griffin.”
Lexa sits on the couch across from Abby, her head in her hands as she waits for the woman to come to. She wasn’t here to hurt Abby – she just needed to get a message to The Ark and Abby was the perfect person to give it to them. Of course Lexa contemplated this decision for months given her history with the Griffin family, but there was no other way.
About ten minutes pass and Abby should be waking up any moment, so Lexa refocuses. Again it hits her that there is no coming back from this. She’s started something that she now has to follow through with – which meant bringing a war against people she once fought besides, fought for.
When Lexa sees Abby stir on the couch, she gets up and helps the woman up into a seating position. She grabs the water bottle sitting on the table and lifts it to Abby’s lips, encouraging her to take a sip. At this moment Abby still hasn’t really opened her eyes, but once she does she spits the water right back out.
Lexa takes a step back. “You’re okay, I’m not going to hurt you Abby.”
Abby lifts both her hands and realises that their tied together, it doesn’t stop her from pointing towards Lexa though. “You’re– no– no– You’re meant to be dead.”
“Not dead,” Lexa whispers as she takes a seat across from Abby.
“Lexa…? Is it really you?”
“It’s me.”
Abby shakes her head in disbelief. “It can’t be. You’re–”
“Meant to be dead,” Lexa finishes. “I know.” She pauses and takes a good look at Abby. Four years isn’t that long so the woman still looks like how Lexa remembers her. When Lexa was in The Ark, Abby was also there. She was a doctor and Lexa’s assigned psychologist. She was one of the few people Lexa really trusted in The Ark.
“How?” Abby breathes.
Lexa shakes her head this time. “How isn’t important right now. I need you to know the why.”
“Then why? Why are you back?”
“I need you to get a message to The Ark for me.”
Abby raises an eyebrow, “What?”
“I need you to tell them that I’m back and tell Jaha that I’m coming after him and his black box.” Lexa pauses again and tries to read the expression on Abby’s face. There’s a little bit of confusion, shock and disbelief – all of which Lexa expected.
“Why now?” Abby asks. “You are free. The Ark thinks you’re dead. You’re not on their radar – you could literally live any life you want.”
“You and I both know that we can never be free from this life,” Lexa says.
“Other agents can’t even begin to dream about being in your position, Lexa. Go – keep doing what you’ve been doing for the last four years.”
“I’ve been planning to take down The Ark for the last four years,” Lexa reveals. “I’ve done too much unspeakable things, I’ve seen too much, I have the blood of hundreds on my hands.”
“Lexa…” Abby whispers. “We all do.”
Lexa shakes her head. “No. There is no turning back now.” She reaches into her jacket pocket and takes out the watch, placing it on the table and sliding it closer towards Abby. “Jake wanted Clarke to have this.”
Abby’s mouth opens slightly, as if she’s about to say something. But instead she reaches forward and takes the watch in her hands.
Lexa watches Abby stare at the watch and she takes a deep breath. “Operation Blue Box was not meant to go down the way it did. I’m four years late, but I am sorry Jake died that day.”
“Tell me what happened,” Abby whispers, her eyes still on her late husband’s watch. “He wasn’t even meant to be on that mission.”
Lexa takes a deep breath and nods. “He wasn’t but Phillip got held up on another mission and Jake put up his hand to come with. I didn’t want him to come, it was the mission I was going to escape and I didn’t want him to be in that mess but he insisted…”
May 8th 2012
“It’s fine, Lexa,” Jake reassures. “You just need to download some files, right?”
Lexa nods hesitantly.
“We’ll be in and out in like 10 minutes and still make it back in time to see the new recruits.”
Lexa wanted to say no. This was not the plan. Damn Phillip just had to get held up on another mission. Phillip was an idiot and it would have made Lexa’s escape plan so much easier. But now that Jake was on the mission – it was a different. Jake was someone Lexa respected, someone who has taught her how to keep her humanity despite what she’s become. She didn’t want him in the mess that was going to follow.
But it’s not like she could say no. Jake was her superior and one of the top agents within the organisation. Dubbed “Operation Blue Box”, the mission was to infiltrate a house in the woods and download some files from the laptop in the main office. On this mission it was going to be Jake, Anya, Indra and herself.
Two hours later they arrive at the house and Lexa starts to have second thoughts about her escape plan. She had hired a third party to come and “disrupt” their mission which would ultimately lead to Lexa’s “death.” They park in the driveway. Anya and Indra remain outside to keep guard whilst Jake and Lexa make their way through the house.
Ten minutes later Lexa has the files downloaded and they’re just about the leave. That’s when the gun fire starts. Instantly, Lexa does not have a good feeling about this. She takes out her gun, as does Jake, and they both carefully make their way back towards the front of the house.
The gunfire continues and it only becomes more rapid. Lexa and Jake stand by the front window, trying to make out who was firing upon them. Lexa recognises the third party she hired – but it’s not just them. Theirs another group. A group she doesn’t recognise.
Bullets shatter the glass and Jake and Lexa fall towards the floor. They don’t know where Anya and Indra are, but they have to move. So they crawl across the floor until they reach the back door and they make a run for it. They run across the uneven surface, dodging between trees to avoid the bullets that where being shot at them.
But then Lexa trips. “Go!” she yells as Jake turns back to help her up.
Jake doesn’t listen though, quickly running back to help Lexa up.
“Shit,” Lexa mutters once she’s on her feet. Her ankle is twisted but she knows she has to move if she didn’t want to actually die. “I’m fine, let’s go.”
Jake supports Lexa as they semi jog through the woods and towards the river. It’s no use though, the people who are chasing them are gaining ground and bullets are getting closer every single time. Jake stops behind one of the bigger trees, “Wait here,” he says.
At that moment Jake leaves Lexa to lean against the tree. “Wait!”
But Jake is already off and taking out his gun again. He aims towards the oncoming attackers and fires.
One shot.
Two shots.
Three shots.
Lexa hears a few grunts and moans in the distance, but then there’s another couple of shots and its Jake who lets out a loud groan. Without another second passing, Lexa draws out her gun and moves out from behind the tree. She spots the remaining two shooters and fires two shots and they fire some back. That’s all it takes for the woods to then go completely silent.
“Jake!” Lexa limps over the Jake, whose trying his best to cover the bullet wounds in his stomach.
“L- L- Lexa,” he breathes. “You’re not hit are you?”
“No,” Lexa answers. That was a lie, one of the bullets had hit her shoulder but it was a clean shot. She’s been through worse. Lexa grabs Jake’s arms and slings it over her shoulder, “Come on, we need to get you some help.” But helping Jake up proves to be an impossible task, as they both fall back towards the ground.
“I’m not going to make it,” Jake whispers in between his heavy breaths.
“No, don’t say that.”
“Come on Lexa,” he pants. “Look at me.” Jake lifts his hand off his stomach and the blood just starts to gush out.
Lexa grabs Jake’s hands and places them back over his stomach. “No. We’re going to get you help.” She pats her pocket for her phone, but it must have fallen out when she was running through the woods.
Jake lets out another strangled moan. With whatever strength he had left, he manages to take off his watch and hands it over to Lexa. “Give this to Clarke, tell her I love her and that I’m so proud of her.”
Lexa shakes her head and she doesn’t even realise she’s beginning to cry. She takes the watch.
Jake manages a small smile, which is followed by some more heavy breaths. “Tell Abby that I’m sorry. Tell her I love her too.”
“Okay,” Lexa breathes. She knows very well that Jake was not going to make it. The amount of blood that he’s already lost and where he’s been shot did not paint a hopeful picture. “I’ll tell them, I promise.”
“Thank you,” Jake whispers. He moves his hand to grab Lexa’s. “I’m proud of you too, kid.”
And with that, Lexa completely breaks. She falls forward and gives Jake a hug the best she can, she sobs and she cries. “Thank you for all you’ve done for me.” She stays like this for a few moments until she hears Jake let out one final breath.
Lexa sits herself up again and gives her head a good shake. She wipes her eyes and tries to figure out a plan from here. She knew she didn’t have a lot of time, and who knows when another opportunity to escape would come up again.
She needed The Ark to think she was dead. Instantly, her mind goes back to the lifeless body that laid besides her and she cries again. She thinks about Abby and Clarke and she chokes and she finds it hard to breathe. This has gone so horribly wrong.
After a few more moments of trying to settle herself, she comes up with a plan. It’s not a good one and she prays and apologises to anyone who is listening for what she’s going to do next. Lexa puts on Jake’s watch and stands up. She then starts to drag Jake’s body towards the river which was no more than 20 metres away. She knew that the rivers took a wild turn in about 100 metres, breaking off into various other streams.
“I’m so sorry,” Lexa whispers as she drags Jake’s body into the water. If Jake’s body was in the water, it would have looked like the attackers had thrown Jake and herself into the river after they had killed them. Lexa knew that Ark agents would be all over this scene – and with her blood and Jake’s almost everywhere, no one would question if they were really dead.
Lexa stood in the water and let go of Jake’s body. She watched as it travelled down the river, her heart breaking into a million pieces as she apologises over and over again, this time to Abby and Clarke.
Present Day
“He loved you both so much,” Lexa whispers. She forces herself to hold back the tears, she wasn’t going to cry in front of Abby.
Abby places the watch back down on the coffee table. “Go and be free, Lexa. You know that I care about you and if I could I would have pulled Clarke out of The Ark ages ago.”
“Jaha can’t get away with this anymore.”
Abby shakes her head. “You do this Lexa, there’s no saying how catastrophic this could be. Jaha could easily upload the information on the black boxes and that could tear this country a part.”
“That’s why I destroy the box first, then go after Jaha.”
“Box?” Abby breathes. “Lexa, there’s boxes. Six of them!”
“What?”
The room goes silent.
“Six black boxes, Lexa,” Abby repeats. “Guarded by agents Jaha calls Reapers. They’re all over the world.”
Lexa’s mind runs a million miles a minute. This was not something she was ready for. For the last four years she’s only just found information on the one black box. “Six?” she asks.
Abby nods. “There was an incident after you “died” and Jaha wanted to protect himself a little more.”
Lexa’s chest starts to rise and fall, her breathing becomes unsteady.
“Get out while you still can, Lexa,” Abby whispers.
“I can’t,” Lexa replies. She stands up from the couch, taking out the knife in her boot and moving towards Abby.
Abby falls back against the couch, scared for what Lexa was going to do next.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Lexa reassures. She takes the knife and cuts the zip tie from Abby’s hands. “Get my message to Jaha. I’m coming after him.”
“Lexa…”
But Lexa doesn’t stick around after that. She grabs her bag and exits the back door without turning back.
Clarke makes her way through The Ark dorm rooms. Three new recruits were brought in overnight and it was her job to give them their orientation into The Ark. Along with being a field agent, she was also Head of Recruits – which meant that she was in charge of the training and well being of these future agents. She had just finished talking to the two new male recruits – John Murphy and Jasper Jordan and now was going to meet the female recruit.
Higher ups are always telling her to make the orientation process more time efficient, but she always refused that request. She knew that the first few hours in The Ark were the most crucial. It was beyond overwhelming and Clarke found it easier to coax the naïve recruits into the organisation one at a time.
“Hey Finn,” Clarke smiles as she reaches room. “Got the new recruit’s file for me?”
Finn hands over the file. “Don’t I always?”
“That you do, Dr Collins,” Clarke laughs. “Thanks.” She knocks on the door and opens it a few seconds later. What she sees next causes her blood to boil, the young woman is handcuffed to the bed. “Why is she in handcuffs?!” Clarke yells at the two agents in the room.
Finn steps closer to Clarke, “Did you not hear about what happened to Atom when they brought her in last night?”
“I don’t care,” Clarke replies. She turns her attention back to the two agents, “She’s like half your size! If you can’t control her than we better look at whether or not you’re fit to be an agent. So whoever has the key better use it within the next three seconds.”
And just like that one of the agents steps forward and uncuffs the woman on the bed.
“Leave us,” Clarke instructs.
Finn steps closer again, “Clarke–”
“I’ll be fine.”
Finn and the two agents leave the room, closing the door behind them. Clarke pulls up a chair closer to the bed and smiles as the young woman sits up. “Sorry about the handcuffs.”
“Where am I?” the woman asks, rubbing her wrists.
“Safe,” she smiles. She opens the file in her hands, “I’m Clarke. And you are… Octavia Blake.”
Blake.
Clarke’s breath visibly hitches as she reads the last name. There was no way… No… It couldn’t be. It must have been a big coincidence that Octavia just so happened to share the last name of one of the other agents here – well former agent.
“Is that all it says in my file?” Octavia asks.
Clarke snaps out of her haze and skims the rest of the file. “You’ve got quite the record.”
“What’s new?”
Clarke looks up from the file to see Octavia looking around the room. There’s an odd feeling in her stomach that she can’t seem to place.
“Are you going to tell me where I am yet?” Octavia asks.
“You are at The Ark,” Clarke answers.
“The Ark? That’s a pretty lame name.”
Clarke quirks an eyebrow, surprised at how seemingly calm Octavia was. “You’re here because you have a special… set of skills… one that shouldn’t be wasted away in a prison for the next 10 years.”
“You mean like the fact that I almost escaped custody in a moving van?”
Clarke nods slightly, “Something like that.” She pauses as she continues to gauge Octavia’s reaction. “We’re here to give you a second chance.”
Octavia scoffs. “I think I’m long past second chances.”
“Not with us,” Clarke replies.
“So what is it exactly that you need me for?”
For the next ten minutes Clarke goes on to explain the history of The Ark and what they did. Over the past few years she has managed to perfect the introductory speech – glossing up the organisation to make it seem like they were the good guys. But when in reality, they were hired assassins.
“It doesn’t seem like I really have a choice,” Octavia states after Clarke finishes her speech. “Comply or die, right?”
Clarke hesitates for a moment because that was true. Recruits who wanted no part of the organisation were “floated” (killed) since they were told everything about The Ark already. So Clarke nods.
Octavia lets out a small sigh, “Where do I sign up?”
After some more formalities, Clarke guides Octavia to the cafeteria for some breakfast. “Grab some food, Octavia. Someone will be around in forty minutes to take you to your first training class.”
Octavia nods and starts to walk towards the food table. “Just like high school…” she mutters.
Clarke watches as Octavia grabs a tray and starts to fill it with food. She’s trying to see if there’s any resemblance between the young woman and Bellamy but she just doesn’t know.
“Where’s your mind at, Griffin?”
Clarke turns around to see Raven coming up to stand next to her, followed closely by Anya. Clarke points down to Raven’s shirt, “You should tuck your shirt in.”
Raven quickly looks down to her shirt and grunts when she sees that Clarke was lying. “Oh fuck you, Clarke.”
“Every single time,” Clarke grins.
Anya places her hand on Raven’s shoulder and laughs. “Literally every single time, Raven. You really think I would let you walk out without making sure you weren’t dressed properly?”
“Well there was that one time when we–”
“–That was one time,” Anya cuts in.
Clarke laughs. “One time too many.” She pauses and then speaks up again. “Do you know when Bellamy is coming back?”
Anya shakes her head first. “Can you believe they’re letting him back after what he did?”
“He’s been demoted to guard though,” Raven adds.
“Still,” Anya tuts. “Stripping his agent position is nothing. If it was anyone else – they would have been floated in an instant.”
Clarke sighs a little. “It was Pike’s influence.”
“You’re defending him? He’s a grown ass man who should be accountable for his own actions.”
Raven lifts her hand up between the two women. “Let’s not fight over this again. Bellamy is coming back whether we agree with it or not. It’s not our place to question what higher ups have decided.”
Clarke turns back to where Octavia is sitting. “See the new recruit over there?” she asks Raven and Anya. “The one sitting at the table with Harper and Monroe.”
“Yeah,” Raven replies.
“I think that she might be Bellamy’s sister.”
“What?!” both Raven and Anya yell.
Clarke nods. “Her file says that her name is Octavia Blake. I think someone has placed her in here to keep Bell in line.”
“What makes you say that?” Anya asks.
Clarke shrugs a little. “I don’t know, it’s just a feeling. She was really calm during orientation.”
“I was calm during orientation,” Anya points out.
“Yeah,” Clarke nods. “But you’re always calm. It’s kind of scary sometimes.”
Anya lets out a small chuckle. “Good.”
“I don’t know… it’s just too big of a coincidence to ignore.”
“Are you going to say anything?” Raven asks.
Clarke is just about to reply when Maya joins their little group. “Hey Maya, what’s up?”
“You need to come with me, Clarke,” Maya says.
“Why?” Clarke asks.
Maya looks between Clarke, Raven and Anya, seeming a little nervous and scared to say what she needed to say. “It’s about your mum,” she whispers.
Within the hour, Clarke arrives at her mother’s house with Jaha and Kane. All her mum said over the phone was that someone broke into the house with a message for Jaha. Clarke honestly didn’t care about the message; she was more hell-bent on the fact that someone had the audacity to break into her mother’s house.
Clarke knocks on the door and it’s being opened just the second later. She lets out a sigh of relief when her mum answers, looking as if she wasn’t hurt. “Oh my god,” she whispers as she pulls her mum into a hug. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, sweetie,” Abby smiles.
Clarke pulls back from the hug, “You sure? Do you need a medic or anything?”
Abby shakes her head and steps aside to let Jaha and Kane through. “No, I’m fine.” She pauses and closes the door, “You all need to take a seat before I tell you what happen.”
So Clarke, Jaha, Kane and Abby move into the living room and take a seat on the couches. Clarke sits next to her mum while Jaha and Kane sit across on the other couch.
“What happened, Abby?” Kane asks.
Abby lets out a small sigh. “I was coming back from morning yoga when suddenly someone comes up behind me and chloroforms me.”
“Are you sure you don’t need a medic?” Clarke asks again.
“I’m sure,” Abby nods. She takes a deep breath, “I think I was out for maybe ten minutes and when I came to… Lexa was sitting across from me.”
An eerie silence travels through the room.
Jaha is the first to speak up. “Lexa?” he laughs. “Lexa is dead.”
“She’s not,” Abby replies. She turns to her daughter, “She’s not dead, Clarke.”
“Mum,” Clarke sighs, “Lexa died with dad.”
Abby shakes her head and reaches into her pocket, pulling out the watch. She hands it over to Clarke, “Your dad gave this to her, to give to you.”
Clarke takes the watch and her heart beat picks up. She had brought her dad this watch maybe eight years ago, and she remembers her dad wearing the watch the day he died. “No… it can’t be,” she whispers. Clarke toys with the watch, her mind racing at the thought that Lexa was holding this exact item probably only hours before.
She wasn’t really processing what her mother has just told her. There was no way. Lexa is dead and has been dead for the last four years. Clarke went to Lexa’s funeral. The woman Clarke once loved, was dead.
Jaha and Kane stare in disbelief as they realise Abby wasn’t lying.
“She’s alive,” Abby repeats. “And she’s back with a message.”
“What’s the message?” Jaha asks.
“She’s coming after you, your black boxes and The Ark.”
“Six?!”
Lexa nods, despite being on the phone. She has her Bluetooth earpiece in and was back in her loft. “Yeah, six black boxes.” She assembles her gun again after disassembling it for the fourth time. It was something she did when she needed to clear her mind.
“Are you sure Abby wasn’t lying?”
“She has no reason to lie, B,” Lexa replies. “She told me to run.”
“That’s not a surprise. She cared about you a lot.” There’s a pause. “And obviously she still does.”
Lexa shakes her head as she disassembles her gun. “Why does it sound like you’re trying to convince me that this is a bad idea again?”
“I’m not.”
“We didn’t plan for six boxes,” Lexa whispers. “It took us almost two years to just find Lincoln.”
“We keep going. Continue on with the plan. Maybe if we get Lincoln’s box–”
“–When we get Lincoln’s box,” Lexa corrects.
“Sorry. Yes, when we get Lincoln’s box, it might flush out the other boxes for us. If I was Jaha I would want to increase the security around the them asap.”
Lexa is halfway assembling her gun again. “And with Octavia on the inside, it’ll be easier to get the information we need.”
“Has the shell box been activated yet?”
“Give me a second.” Lexa puts her gun aside and opens up her laptop. She works her way through her network system.
[command] open connection 55.122.09.390
[connection not found]
“Not yet,” Lexa sighs. “But if she only just got in she wouldn’t have had a chance to get on the computers yet.” She then opens up her tracking agent.
[command] find tracker ID 319
[location found]
Lexa watches the screen as the little red dot blinks over and over again. “Good news though, the tracker is working.”
“Are you sure it’s safe to have the tracker in place?”
“It’ll come in handy.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I know,” Lexa replies. “But it’s all I got.”
“Okay. Look, I have to go but what’s your play?”
Lexa grabs her gun again. “We follow through with what we know first; Lincoln.”
“Alright. I’ll talk to you soon.”
Lexa hangs up the call, it takes her less than a minute to disassemble and assemble her gun again. Once she goes through that, she packs her bag and heads out. Lincoln’s place is a four-hour drive from where she is, meaning that she’ll get there just past 7pm.
Lincoln was already an agent by the time Lexa was recruited into the Ark. They were friends – if you could it that. Lexa got to work alongside him briefly when she was promoted to field agent. They were both on the Alpha team and they worked well together. But one day Lincoln got promoted to a new position and Lexa didn’t hear from him again.
The traffic is worse than Lexa expected, so it takes her nearly five hours to get to Lincoln’s apartment. Thankfully, he isn’t home yet so Lexa manages to convince the landlord that she was his long distance girlfriend who wanted to surprise him. All it took was a little smile and little flirting and she was inside.
The apartment is plain – but that isn’t a surprise. From what Lexa has learnt over the past four years, Lincoln’s sole job was to protect the black box. Not exactly exciting, but it’s not like they had a choice in the matter.
When she hears keys rattling outside the door, she moves to stand just by the door. Her heart pounds, trying to remember how Lincoln fought so she could use that against him. When Lincoln steps into the apartment, Lexa makes her move. She pounces on him – trying to get him into a headlock.
But Lincoln is much faster that she remembers. He quickly gains the upper hand, flipping Lexa over his own body so that she hits the floor. He draws his gun but Lexa quickly jumps back up on her feet, knocking the gun out of his hands in the process.
“Lexa?!” Lincoln calls out.
Lexa jumps back, raising both hands slightly. “I’m not here to fight, Lincoln.”
“Then why did you break into my apartment?!” Lincoln jumps forward, swinging his fists. He gets a few hits in but Lexa is quick to defend herself.
Lexa gets backed against the wall, with Lincoln’s forearm pressing right against her neck. She tries to push him off but her strength is no match on his.
“You’re meant to be dead,” Lincoln growls.
“Clearly not,” Lexa chokes out.
Lincoln pushes his arm forward more, “What are you doing here?”
Lexa taps on Lincoln’s arm a couple of times. She stares right back into his eyes, pleading. When she feels his hold loosening, she brings her own hand to rub her neck. “You’ve gotten stronger.”
Lincoln pulls out his gun and points it to Lexa, “I’m not playing around. What are you doing here?”
She sighs, there was no beating around the bush with this. “I’m going to bring down The Ark, Lincoln.”
Lincoln laughs. He actually laughs. “You’re going to die before you even can even get within 500ft of The Ark. Like actually die.”
“I’ve got a plan,” Lexa says.
“So did we when we were doing Operation Gas Strike and you remember how that one turned out.”
Lexa steps forward. But when Lincoln pulls back the barrel of his glock she stops.
“Don’t,” he warns. “You can stay right there.”
She lifts up both hands in surrender. “I’ve got a plan,” Lexa repeats. “You can join me.”
Lincoln scoffs. “That’s not happening.”
Lexa shakes her head slightly, “What happened to you Lincoln?” She could tell that the Lincoln standing before her today, was not the same Lincoln she used to know. A lot has changed since he was promoted to a Reaper and it hits harder Lexa had expected it to. They use to be friends, they use to entrust each other with their lives, and now here they were, two people on the opposite sides of an impending war.
“What happened to you?” Lincoln bites back. “No Ark agent has ever escaped and yet here you are. You could be living a life, Lexa. The Ark is not looking for you; they think you’re dead. You can live a life without having to worry every damn second of the day.”
“Funny, that’s exactly what Abby said.”
“She’s a smart woman.”
“It has to stop,” Lexa breathes.
Lincoln flicks his gun towards the kitchen, gesturing for Lexa to head in that direction. “And you really think you can stop them?” Once they’re in the kitchen, Lincoln keeps his gun pointed at Lexa whilst he rummages through one of the draws.
“I can.”
“Do you know what I protect?” Lincoln asks.
Lexa nods. “A black box.”
“So you know what type of information Jaha could release to the world, right? Forget about Trump – because the end will be closer if that information ever gets out.”
“We destroy the box,” Lexa replies. “Destroy all of them and then bring him down.”
“That’s some pipe dream, Lex.” Lincoln grabs a pair of handcuffs and throws them towards Lexa. “Handcuff yourself to the fridge.”
Lexa does as she’s told. “Come on Lincoln, I know you. When we worked together you talked about having a life outside of The Ark more than anyone. You had hope.”
“Wasted hope,” Lincoln comments. “I’m not that guy anymore.”
Lexa watches as Lincoln moves about his apartment, gathering a few items here and there. What catches her eye though, is a particular type of key he pulls out from a safe under the TV. Bingo.
Lincoln slings is backpack over his shoulders and grabs his car keys. He’s just about to leave his apartment before he walks back towards Lexa. “Should have stayed away, Lexa.”
Lexa shakes her head. “Not after the things we’ve done.”
“This is not a fight you’re going to win.” He pauses. “If you were anyone else I would have killed you. But if I see you again Lexa–”
“–You will see me again,” Lexa cuts in.
“Then you better be prepared for bigger fight.”
And with that Lincoln leaves, slamming the door on his way out. Lexa is left in the kitchen still handcuffed to the fridge. But she lets out a small smile because she knew exactly where he was going to be next.