It Starts With a Chip Lone survivor Lexa attempts to fix a broken android she found several months ago in the hopes of gaining a companion.
Read chapter 1 here. Chapter 2 preview under the cut:
They make their way down the tree without any trouble. Clarke climbs down to the ground as if she’s done it hundreds of times before. Lexa forages some food and refills her flasks for the journey ahead while her eyes never stray from Clarke for long, watching as the android takes in the dewy forest bathed in the morning sun with wide-eyed wonder.
When she goes silent, Lexa looks up to see why and finds Clarke eye to eye with the young deer she rescued from a hole in the ground she was still a fawn.
Lexa’s heart flutters against her ribs when Clarke shoots a look full of awe at her over her shoulder. She walks over to where Clarke and the deer are regarding each other carefully. After Lexa rescued her, bandaged her injured leg and gave her some of her rations, the fawn visited her frequently to be fed and watered and even let herself be pet.
She holds out her hand with some nuts for the deer like she usually does, and they watch the animal eat her snack together.
“Do you want to feed her the rest?” She asks Clarke, who looks at her like she just offered her the entire world.
Clarke nods eagerly and takes the handful of nuts from her. Lexa looks on as Clarke feeds and gently pets the deer while telling the animal how beautiful she is. Lexa thinks to herself how beautiful Clarke is like this, so painfully human. She feels the need to look away while simultaneously hoping the vision will stay with her forever.
When the deer has had her fill and wanders off into the forest Clarke looks forlorn.
“I’ve never seen an animal before,” Clarke confesses quietly.
Lexa gapes at her. The small revelation raises even more questions about Clarke than she had before. Where did Clarke come from, what is Clarke’s ‘age’, and a myriad of questions bubble up in her brain. But she bites her tongue and only asks, “Never?”
Clarke shakes her head, her blonde hair catching the sunlight like a halo around her head. “There were no animals where I come from.”
Lexa files away the new nugget of information about Clarke with the rest of the things she’s learned about her so far, hoping that maybe one day Clarke will tell her the whole story.
/
The sun has reached its highest point by the time they reach the ruins of Polis city. They find a power core and the nano-controllers Clarke wants to use for upgrades and repairs in an abandoned warehouse. It appeared to be picked clean as far as Lexa could see, but Clarke took off to a back room right away and forced the door open by heating the lock with her hand and pulling it open with a surprising amount of strength that Lexa didn’t know Clarke possessed. Inside, the room was littered with components and several broken androids. Clarke swiftly grabbed what she needed while Lexa took some tools and batteries scattered on top of the workbenches.
When they hear a gunshot and angry voices in the distance, they quickly get out and make their way back to the cover of the trees.
Back in the cover of the forest, Lexa thinks they’re safe until a bullet whizzes past her head and hits the tree in front of her. She steps in front of Clarke to shield her with her body while frantically scanning their surroundings for the threat.
A bald man with a scar running down his left cheek and a menacing look on his face steps out from behind a tree with a handgun aimed at them.
“Drop the gun,” he says.
“We don’t have a gun,” Lexa says, putting up her empty hands. “We heard the gunshot as well and are trying to get away from it.”
His eyes narrow in mistrust. “If it’s not you who is shooting, why is someone shooting at you?”
“They weren’t shooting at us, we never saw them, we just heard voices and gunfire and decided to flee the area.”
The man doesn’t look like he believes anything she’s saying, but he shifts his attention to Clarke. “Who is your friend? Why is she so quiet? You got anything to say sweet—“
Lexa feels Clarke step out from behind her, and the man’s eyes widen as he trails off mid-sentence. He must have spotted the blue light on Clarke’s temple, because he aims his gun at Lexa’s head.
“How the hell did you get a droid? Never mind that, I’ll take it off your hands for you.”
Dread fills the pit of Lexa’s stomach and sweat sprouts on her skin. She turns to look at Clarke, eyes wide and struggling for something to say, desperate to think of a way to keep Clarke safe.
“Step away from the droid,” the man says as he walks toward Clarke.
Lexa doesn’t move. She’s rooted to the ground, cursing her brain for failing her. She’s been threatened, chased, shot at, robbed and beaten, and not once has she felt as helpless as she does now. She’s not ready to lose her new companion, even though she knows it’s not rational to get attached to a droid she’s been living with for as many days as she has fingers. The truth she now realizes is that she wants to learn everything about Clarke, thinks she will never get enough of her or stop being surprised by Clarke. The thought that she will never get the chance to get to know Clarke better if this man captures her makes her heart ache. She might never understand everything about the enigma that is her synthetic companion, but that’s what makes her who she is. The one thing Lexa knows to be true is that Clarke is special.
“Move!” He yells, snapping her out of her spiraling panic.
“It’s okay,” Clarke whispers to her.
Lexa shakes her head because it’s not okay. She’s not okay. There has to be a way to gain the upper hand and stop this man, she just has to think of something quick.
“Do as he says, Lex.”
Clarke’s voice is steady and she looks calm. Lexa doesn’t understand how she can be so calm, but she listens to Clarke and takes a few steps back.
“Get over here droid, you’ve got a new owner.” The man leers at Clarke now that he’s just a few meters away. “Look at you, you must’ve cost a fortune. I’ll definitely put you to good use.”
He keeps his gun aimed at Lexa while she walks backward with her hands in the air. Once he deems her far enough away to not be a threat he lowers his gun and slings an arm around Clarke’s chest, pulling her back to his front. He lets his eyes travel over her body up to her face from where he’s peering over her shoulder with a lecherous grin on his face.
“I must be the luckiest man in the world right now.”
Clarke’s eyes flick up to Lexa’s with a piercing intensity right when a rustling sound can be heard in the distance, drawing the attention of the man who immediately points his gun toward the bushes. Clarke uses the distraction to break away from her assailant by elbowing him in the face. Lexa hears a sickening crunch and watches as his head snaps back and blood gushes from his nose. He screams in pain when Clarke turns around and knees him in the groin.
“No one owns me, asshole,” she says to the man as he falls to the ground, curling up into a ball.
Clarke kicks his gun away from him and turns to walk over to Lexa, but Lexa’s legs are already in motion, running to Clarke and flinging her arms around Clarke’s neck. Relief floods through her body when Clarke wraps her arms around her waist. Clarke is still with her and she’s safe, for now, because another threat is charging toward them with pounding fists snapping trees as it rushes through the undergrowth.
“Clarke, we have to run and find a place to hide. This animal is nothing like the one we saw this morning.”
