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Chapter 11 - Nothing Is True, Save For the Blood We've Shed 011

Clarke woke slowly and painfully, swimming up from the hazy oblivion of unconsciousness, eyes opening a crack. They widened as things came into focus, and she sat up with a gasp of surprise, one that rapidly became a soft squeal of pain as her injuries, aggravated by the sudden movement, made their presence agonizingly known. She slumped back down, making occasionally soft whining sounds as she gasped for breath, and focused on trying to think. She was alive, and the last thing she remembered was Costia pulling her off of the very dead (she gagged at the memory of the man's ruined, bloody body) Mountain Man. She was also either inside of the bunker that she had ridden out the storm with Niylah in, or one that looked very much the same. The most reasonable explanation was that Costia and Niylah had brought her back here after she had passed out from her injuries.

She could feel bandages, soft and fabric, wrapped around her injuries, and she could feel that she was wearing little else besides. She would be more offended or disturbed by that if it wasn't for the fact that she had more than enough medical training to know that leaving her in dirt-and-blood covered clothes would have risked her wounds getting infected, not to mention the need to make sure that the obvious wounds were not her only wounds.

She could feal the cool sheets and plump comfort of the bed she was lying in, softer than anything even Alpha Station had ever possessed, up on The Ark. She had never really grasped the phrase 'sleeping on a cloud', one she had seen in Old World literature on so many occasions when she was younger, until she had spent the night in this bunker.

She could feel the absence of her Focus and M.E.R.C.S, their weight (something she had already grown used too, despite the comparative brevity of their time in her possession) missing. Which meant no ALIE, no information, and virtually no control over what was going on.

She didn't like that very much.

She slowly started to sit up again, the hand of her uninjured arm grasping for leverage, gripping soft fabric over and over again as she pulled herself upright. It was a long process, and certainly a laborious one, requiring an embarrassing amount of effort and a (literally) painful amount of time, but she was finally upright, bare skin being caressed by the cool, filtered air. Looking around and spotting her Focus and M.E.R.C.S on the bedside table, and taking a moment to be grateful that Costia and Niylah hadn't taken them elsewhere, she settled herself more solidly on the bed before reaching out and reclaiming them one at a time.

 "Welcome back, Clarke. I was starting to wonder how long you would be asleep. How are you feeling?" ALIE's voice came through, soft and clear, the instant the two devices were properly placed and active once more, and Clarke couldn't help the somewhat relieved smile that swept across her face.

 "Shitty enough that I wish I was still asleep, ALIE, but it's good to hear your voice again." The blonde girl smiled brightly, feeling her level of comfort climb significantly with her invisible and seemingly-omnipresent helper with her once again. "How long has it been?"

 "Thirty-six hours since your fight with the Mountain Men. Costia and Niylah have been taking turns checking in on you and spending most of their free time in the library or exploring the bunker otherwise. They were clever enough to know that they might not have been able to get back inside if they left without you." The distant woman responded promptly, and Clarke nodded in understanding, before frowning slightly. As if reading her mind, ALIE continued. "I bypassed the door for them once they got close enough, though obviously I didn't say anything. Costia might have noticed something, she spent some time checking out your M.E.R.C.S after they got you into bed, but I'm not sure."

 "Thanks for the heads-up." Clarke said genuinely, somewhat concerned by the warning. She didn't know Costia well, but she was smart enough to recognize that the older(?) girl was observant, smart as a whip, and not easily distracted. For God's sake, the girl had practically figured out everything except the size of her tits after looking at some tracks in the dirt for less than a minute! She was silent for a long moment before speaking again. "Do you…do you think I can trust them, ALIE?"

 "Trust is something personal, Clarke. It's something earned, developed, between two individuals. I can't tell you whether Niylah and Costia are people you can trust on a personal level, what I can tell you is that the two of them saved your life and brought you to safety, at their own risk if more Mountain Men had shown up. They could have robbed you blind and abandoned you, raped you, turned you into a sex-slave, and any number of other horrible fates." ALIE pointed out, and Clarke grimaced at the words even as she nodded her understanding and acceptance of the point being made. ALIE was completely correct. Costia and Niylah didn't owe her much, certainly nothing that would inspire any sort of personal loyalty, and they had gone out of their way to save her after she had been injured. It would have been all too easy for them to write her off due to her injuries, but they hadn't. If that didn't deserve a smidgen of trust, or at least a little willingness to wait and see, she didn't know what did. After a moment of silence, the older woman continued. "There is a well-stocked infirmary just in the main section of the bunker. If you can get there, we should be able to halve the amount of time it will take you to heal from your gunshot wounds, if not better."

 "More things that the Ark ran out of a long time ago?" Clarke asked rhetorically, getting a wordless noise of agreement in response, and she gave a heavy sigh as she contemplated further, more

extensive movement with an air of profound resignation. Still, needs must, and halving the time required to recover from her injuries certainly qualified as 'needs'. Completing her mission already looked complicated enough as it was, there was no need to make things worse by trying to complete it while struggling to heal from a pair of bullet holes the old-fashioned way. She shifted slowly, turning until she was sitting on the side of the bed rather than within it and laying her working hand firmly on the bedside table before pushing herself upright. She stood there swaying for a long moment, legs unsteady and head swinging lightly from the move, hand trembling where it clutched the polished wood, before squaring her jaw. A deep, steadying breath settled her, and she set off. Her pace was slow, uneven and filled with pauses to brace against the wall or a piece of furniture as she made her way around the room, but it was a pace all the same. It was movement, progress, advancement. Putting one foot in front of the other, just like she had ever since her father had been killed.

She made her way through the door, looking back and forth for a moment with a slight frown as she tried to remember where, exactly, she was in the bunker, before ALIE helpfully overlaid a guideline with her Focus. A guideline with a distance readout of 125 feet. That was…daunting, if she was going to be honest, given how she felt, but daunting or not she would succeed. It would suck, likely as not, but all the same.

Squaring her shoulders with a grimly determined set to her mouth (which immediately resulted in her shoulders slouching again with a hiss of pain as the move pulled on her wounds), she set off towards her objective. It wouldn't be unfair to call her pace a trudge, the slow and weary yet utterly determined walk of a woman who's entire focus lay upon her impulse to simply soldier on. Yet, as it had been in the bedroom, slow and incremental progress was progress all the same.

 "What's the situation outside of the bunker, ALIE? Any information from the Mountain, and what's the status of the drop-pod?" she asked after several minutes of effort, and there was a moment of silence before ALIE responded.

 "Costia took your words to heart and immolated the inside of the drop pod, as well as setting up a long wick into the Mountain Men 4 x 4's gas can, which dealt with it quite nicely. I kept an ear on the radio traffic afterwards, and they have no proof of any kind that anyone was in the pod." ALIE confirmed, and Clarke was just about to heave a sigh of relief when the other woman continued. "Unfortunately, the man running The Mountain decided to send a message. He sent troops to Niylah's trading post to capture anyone there and burn it to the ground. Since Costia and Niylah were here with you, no one got hurt, but the trading post is totally gone."

 "Fuck." Clarke cursed savagely, leaning against the wall heavily and closing her eyes. Her fellow blonde would be gutted, she knew. Losing all of those horses had been bad enough, to lose her entire livelihood and her home might just kill her. Well, not if Clarke could help it. If she had to empty out the entire bunker to make sure Niylah recovered financially, she would. The girl had saved her life and been kind to her from the instant they met, and deserved better than what she had received in return for that selflessness and kindness. "ALIE, remind me to do a lot of very nice things for Niylah. Costia to, for helping save my life, but Niylah has lost literally everything she owns thanks to me."

 "Of course, Clarke. We owe both of them a great deal." came the immediate agreement, getting a grunt of approval from the displaced Arker, who lingered a moment longer before pushing herself upright once more and resuming her journey. Another weight, another responsibility, added to her shoulders, but it was a weight and responsibility that she was willing and able to have, perhaps even happy. If not for the circumstances, certainly, than for the fact that she had not only found other living people on Earth, but that two of them were decent enough people to do for her everything that Niylah and Costia had done. She could happily throw some Old World artifacts she didn't give a damn about at Niylah to pay her back, and she was even willing to admit the more mercenary side of her was encouraging her to keep Niylah happy and thinking fondly of her. Allies could only be helpful to her mission, and a trader like Niylah probably had all kinds of connections.

She didn't like thinking about things from that perspective, but she wasn't naïve enough to ignore those thoughts and the potential benefits they represented. She could afford to have a romanticized perspective of things after her people were safely on the ground and established.

She and ALIE alike were silent for several minutes, the distance between herself and the infirmary shrinking slowly and (relatively) steadily as she continued to make her way through the complex. In fact, she didn't hear from her distant helper until the older woman warned her that Costia and Niylah were approaching. To check in on her, no doubt, and she felt a flicker of amused anticipation as she imagined what their faces would look like when they saw her out of bed.

They rounded the corner, chatting softly with one another, only to grind to a halt, eyes widening, as they saw her leaning up against the wall, and Clarke gave them a wan smile.

 "Hey there, what brings two pretty girls like you around these parts?" she quipped dryly as they lurched into motion, darting towards her. Unsurprisingly, Niylah was the far more obviously anxious of the pair, but even through her stoic façade it was obvious that Costia was worried as well.

 "What are you doing out of bed, Klark? You were shot, twice, less than two days ago. You shouldn't be doing anything strenuous, or you could reopen the wounds despite my best efforts." the scout informed her bluntly, and Clarke huffed a soft laugh and nodded in agreement.

 "No, I probably shouldn't be out of bed, you're right about that, but I need to walk another," she paused, double checking the way point distance on her Focus, which helpfully flashed for her briefly. "fifty-five feet, open up the infirmary, and use some of the medication inside to speed my healing up a bit. After that, I'll be able to be out of bed as much as I damn well please with little in the way of negative side-effects."

 "More Old World stuff, huh?" Niylah asked tentatively, and Clarke huffed out a soft sound of confirmation and nodded.

 "Yes, a powerful medicine that was commonplace at the time. I don't know how much is left, but given my injuries I'm going to have to hope that there is enough to accelerate my healing sufficiently." She explained, keeping the finer details to herself. Not only because she wasn't sure how the pair of them would react to the aforementioned details, but (not to sound cruel or arrogant about it) also because she wasn't sure how much of any explanation she gave they would be able to understand. She felt kind of bad thinking it, but the fact of the matter was, they lacked a lot of the prerequisite knowledge needed to understand how Old World healing technology worked. Hell, she lacked a lot of the knowledge, with only a rudimentary understanding of nanomachines and accelerated biological processes. "You two can come along, if you like, or wait for me in the library."

Perhaps unsurprisingly, they didn't let Clarke go alone, Niylah slipping under her uninjured arm to help her walk while Costia ambled along behind, eyes watching carefully and (though she wouldn't admit it aloud under circumstances like this) enjoying the view of a 90% naked Klark shuffling along. As many suspicions as she had about this strange blonde girl, she couldn't den (nor would she try to deny) that Klark was incredibly beautiful. She had seen the other girl's entire body when she and Niylah had checked for further wounds and bathed her, and though they had both tried to be as respectful as possible, neither of them was blind enough to miss the supple breasts, smooth curves, or subtle muscles on display. If Klark really was the Sky Princess, Lexa's destined partner and the future unifier of mankind, Kostia had to admit that she could think of a much, much worse look for her future dommina to have than those looks that Klark possessed. And, for a wonder, she seemed a decent sort of person as well.

The remainder of the trip to the infirmary went quickly, thanks to Niylah supporting Clarke's efforts, and as the door hissed open to admit them Clarke couldn't help but gasp and grin at the sights within.

She had known that this bunker was entirely untouched, that the people who should have been inhabiting it never reached it, but the confirmation she now had before her eyes made her feel on top of the world. Racks of medical supplies lined the walls around the large, pristine hospital beds, a column of IV stands off to one side while a large, locked cabinet nearly as tall as her and twice as wide lay against the far wall. That, she reasoned, would be where the more dangerous and powerful medications and drugs were, but she didn't need morphine or anything like that. What she needed was…

Following ALIE's murmured instructions in her ear, Clarke shuffled over to one of the shelves, reaching out and taking down one labeled 'BioMedical Tissue Regeneration Foam' in crimson lettering. Yet another one of those products inspired by a pinnacle of 21st century gaming and developed as soon as the technology became available and cost-efficient, it would numb her wounds, keep them sealed, and encourage rapid tissue regeneration to shorten recovery time.

 "Costia, Niylah, help me get these bandages off so I can use the BioFoam, please." She voiced the request in such a tone that, though they exchanged nervous and unsure glances, the two girls deftly and carefully removed the stained white linen. Clarke grimaced as some of the looser threads pulled at the dried blood binding them to the injury, tugging at the skin. "Alright, now for…"

The Arker, with some minor effort, frustration, and helpful guidance from ALIE, managed to work her way through the steps required to activate the canister. Flipping the nozzle into position, she carefully aimed it at her wound and depressed the trigger. A steady stream of pale green foam flowed from the nozzle, and Clarke grimaced again with a soft hiss of discomfort from the sting as it started its work, a sting that quickly went away as the numbing agents went to work and deadened the nerve endings in and around the application site.

One by one, with some assistance by Costia and Niylah for the exit wounds, she treats the holes left by the Mountain Men's bullets. Soon enough, the canister is empty and her injuries are safely sealed and healing, leaving her somewhat giddy from the mingled painkiller effect and from the fact that she was no longer in pain.

 "That's…amazing. I have little love for much of the Old World, but I can think of countless lives that could have been saved if we had not lost such a thing to The Fire." Costia remarks, sounding almost shaken as she stared at Clarke as the younger girl tested out her range of motion, well aware that the majority of the movements and flexing that Clarke was performing should have been outside of her ability for weeks at best. To her surprise, Clarke grabbed a handful of canisters and thrust two each into her own and Niylah's hands.

 "I wouldn't recommend selling them, though you can if you want. Save them for yourselves or your loved ones." She warned sternly as they stared at the objects they now held. "Short of an instantly fatal wound or wide-spread septic shock or something equally horrific, those should be able to save anyone from just about anything. Recovery time will change pretty heavily based on how bad the wound is, and it obviously won't be able to do anything about internal bleeding or remove a bullet by itself, but…"

 "A generous gift." Was all Costia could say in response, Niylah entirely speechless beside her, and Clarke shrugged with a smile that was as genuine as the apparent lack of concern in her shrug.

 "Between the two of you, I've been made welcome, supported, saved from an unpleasant death or even more unpleasant imprisonment at the hands of the Mountain Men, and carefully cared for and treated when I was helpless and injured. I owe the two of you a lot. This is just a small effort towards paying you back." She responded, and Costia watched as Niylah blushed lightly, even as she felt approval for Clarke's words. Even if the two Trikru had done the right thing, even if doing the right thing shouldn't be something that is worth special attention or reward, the fact of the matter was that doing the right thing was not so commonplace that it could, or should, be allowed to pass without comment. Working her shoulder again, Clarke continued in a lighter tone. "So, you girls been enjoying the library?"

 "It's certainly impressive, but then again so is this entire complex." Costia agreed whole-heartedly, holding the canisters close as she silently contemplated the fact that she had been given two ways virtually guaranteed to preserve her Lexa's life, should it be required.

 "How big is it down here, anyway? Costia and I did some more exploring while you were asleep, way more than we did when it was just you and I, and the number of rooms down here is incredible." Niylah added, and Clarke nodded in agreement, even as she made an odd twisting motion with her wrist, which suddenly bloomed with color, displaying what looked to the two Trikru like a builder's layout into midair.

 "It actually spreads out beneath most of this neighborhood, although there are only two or three entrances in total, and I'm pretty sure that the others aren't accessible anymore. Not without a whole lot of effort and, more likely than not, some heavy equipment to move rubble." She explained, seemingly unaware of the way Costia was staring at the M.E.R.C.S on her wrist with a stricken expression on her face or the way Niylah was looking at Costia with concern. Not horror, not fear, not disappointment, not even anything negative necessarily, but the sight of the device clearly impacted Costia heavily, and her reaction in turn was clearly worrisome to the trades-woman.

 "Sizeable indeed." The Commander's Shadow managed to say aloud, forcing a smile onto her face and shooting Niylah a warning look as she opened her mouth, a question clear in her eyes. Niylah subsided, frown deepening, before giving a somewhat wooden smile of her own as Clarke asked her what was wrong.

 "It's nothing, just aggravated that this massive complex was here the entire time and I had no idea. My father and I were spending day after day picking through garbage for scrap metal and moth-eaten coats when beneath us, the entire time, was the biggest cache of pre-Fire artifacts I've ever heard of." Niylah responded, her annoyance entirely genuine, which helped the deflection nicely, and Clarke gave her a sympathetic hug whilst promising that she could have as much as she liked from the complex. An offer she promptly and earnestly reiterated to Costia. Feeling the weight in her pocket of the item she had already palmed and thinking of how it, alongside everything else she had seen and heard and guessed, could send Clarke's entire life (and that of everyone living amongst the ruins of the old world, ground or Sky alike) into upheaval, Costia didn't even try to restrain the urge to demure.

It didn't feel right to expect more, or accept more, than she already had from a girl whose life she was more likely than not going to send straight into chaos, stress, and risk of death.

Speaking of which, Clarke badly needed training if she was going to end up bringing down The Mountain. She wasn't the worst fighter Costia had ever seen, but getting shot twice just to take down two men, when you had all of the advantages possible on your side, wasn't exactly something that was sustainable in the long-term, miracle medical foam or not.

She briefly considered confronting Clarke, demanding to know who she was, her real story, but one thing held her back: a confrontation like that could bring conflict, and she was (for very obvious reasons) not remotely interested in souring their, for want of a better word, relationship. No, it was better to get her into Polis and secured from anyone who might want to hurt her…and from any chances of her disappearing before Lexa could figure out what was really going on. Underhanded, perhaps, and somehow she doubted Clarke would appreciate the 'trap' or the 'trick', maybe even see it as a betrayal, but Costia knew her duty and would carry it out, regardless of how she might feel about it on a personal level.

On the plus side, she mused thoughtfully as Clarke led them from the infirmary, the door hissing shut behind them, Clarke was now far more capable of travelling between their current location and Polis. She would have waited, of course, but getting home to Lexa was something she wanted to do as rapidly as possible. She missed her love, after all.

Besides, seeing Lexa's face when Costia explained everything to her would be a treasure. She loved breaking the implacable Commander's Façade the other girl was so practiced, so fond, at wearing, at times even when it was only the two of them. Yes, watching Lexa feel the world move was something Costia would never get tired of.

A small smirk of wicked amusement creasing her lips, Costia walked on with a spring in her step.

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