Chapter Text
“Aden we have to go.”
Clarke yanked on Aden's hand. His body hung like dead weight, unable to look away from the scene in front of them.
“Dad.”
Aden croaked. He trembled as he looked at Clarke, his eyes shimmering with unshed tears.
“We have to leave him, Aden. It’s our only choice.”
Clarke said, voice shaking.
“No. No Clarke. We- We can’t leave him.” He sputtered, his free hand curling into a fist.
“We have to.”
She said hoarsely.
“Let’s use our powers. Let’s mind control them. We can do it. We can free him and then make everyone forget.
Please Clarke. Please. It’s Dad. They’ll kill him. We can get him back.”
He begged, his whole body writhing.
“They’ll find us. They’ll kill us if they know. Wherever we go. They’ll know. We have to leave him Aden. We have to do what Dad made us promise.”
Clarke said, her voice cracking in a gravelly broken tone.
Aden wrenched his hand out of Clarke’s grip and turned to sprint but Clarke was faster, grabbing his torso and tackling him to the ground.
“Clarke, we have to!”
Aden pleaded, fighting against her hold. “Please. We can’t leave him.”
A sob tore from Clarke’s chest as her vision blurred with tears. But she held on.
—————————
The watch ticked again.
Clarke’s boots crunched on the gravel path as the second hand on her watch shifted one tick to the east. When she narrowed her eyes, she could see the outskirts of Polis.
They gave way to a narrow road, winding between low, sandy hills that funneled directly into a single checkpoint. There were no back entrances, side alleys or fences to slip underneath, just one controlled entry into Polis’ town sector. The town had been built like a funnel: one way in, one way out.
A perfect location to find her.
The gates of Polis were all that stood between Clarke and answers.
Clarke felt them before she saw them. A low hum jolted through her body, then the guards appeared, stationed deep in the tunnel.
Three guards would be easy to get past with her forged ID, fake name, and a little confidence.
As Clarke approached them she could feel their powers, crackling, and popping, just itching to be used. They were not concealing them whatsoever, likely unafraid of the normal catalogue of citizens who exited and entered the city.
She squinted subtly, letting her power stretch outward. Instantly, the world shifted and colors began to show. The guard on the left glowed with sharp yellow edges, crackling with kinetic energy, electricity. The other pulsed blue-green, steady and slow, a metal conjurer.
She’d learned not to look too long. The longer she focused, the harder it was to keep her own aura contained.
The one at the back was harder to see but as she focused it was easier to make out a clearer varnish that accumulated like clouds.
Clarke immediately stiffened and walked forward trying not to give herself away.
A power limiter.
He would know immediately who she was. Any contact with him would give herself away.
Clarke exhaled, steadying herself. No turning back now. If she wanted in, she had to go through security.
She would have to use it.
“Hello!” She said chirpily. “How are you guys doing?”
“License please.” The agent grumbled.
Clarke passed it over to them.
“Claire Gaines?” He spoke.
“Yup that’s me.” Clarke said with a smile, the lie rolling easily off her tongue.
“What’s your reason for being in Polis? It says here that your permanent address is in Washington DC?”
“I’m here to meet family.” The only true answer these guards were getting.
The agent nodded.
“And it says here that you have animalpathy?”
“Yea. Can speak to animals. Pretty useless.”
Suddenly the power limiter who seemed more focused on the graffiti in the tunnel snapped his head towards her. His eyes pierced through her like twin blades, searching her the way she searched others.
It was now or never.
Lightning tore through her fingertips as metal shrieked and bent, snapping toward him like angry claws.
The guard on the left’s eyes widened. “Power Thief! She’s a power thief”
The power limiter was slammed to the ground but the kevlar absorbed enough to keep him alive. He was back up before she could blink.
Clarke's breath hitched. She could feel her powers diminishing.
She had to use it before she was powerless.
Focusing deep within her she brought it out, ready to use it on them. It took a moment to come alive, like rusty metal grinding through her veins. After all her practice to completely conceal the aura, it only
made it harder to access.
You will forget who I am. You-
Before the entire thought could embed into their minds, a gust of wind roared across the path. The limiter shrieked and hit the ground with a thud.
Both guards slammed back into the tunnel around them. One lost his helmet. The other groaned and crumpled. All the guards were easily out.
A figure landed between them with a graceful crunch of boots.
“A little aggressive for a small town,” the man said, brushing dust from his coat. His voice was calm and amused. “You alright?”
The air around Clarke gently raised her to stand.
She reacted instinctively, snatching at the threads of his power and hurling them back at him.
He deflected her attack easily, swatting it down with a wave of his own wind.
“I’m not gonna hurt you.” He said, much more serious now. “I know you aren’t dangerous.”
Clarke didn’t buy it for a second. She’d met his type before, suave, charismatic, “trusting” men who smiled just before selling you to the highest-bidding lab.
Clarke attacked with his wind powers once more to buy time. She felt the power come alive once again.
You will forg-
“My name is Marcus Kane. I’m a professor at Arkadia University. We help students like you.”
Clarke froze. She remembered his name. Marcus Kane. In the diaries.
Her diaries. It was scribbled in the last page of her entries. The page that was half burnt.
“Prove it.” She snarled.
He floated his ID towards her. It was exactly what he said. Marcus Kane of Arkadia.
She knows him. Is that why she’s here? Looking for him?
Clarke looked down at her watch, it was still one tick to the east of the 12. She wasn’t here. Clarke lowered her hands.
Clarke felt the sting of disappointment rise in her throat. For a second, Clarke believed this might be it, that she was close. But the tick pointed further still.
“You knocked them out,” she said, nodding to the guards.
He shrugged. “They’ll live.”
Clarke knew that her whisper of power hadn’t dissipated from their minds. Any trace of her presence had been erased. When they woke up they’d remember the wind. Just wind. Nothing else.
“What’s your name?” Marcus asked. The calm smile back on his face.
Clarke just eyed him, still wary of his presence. He was wearing a brown tweed suit and sported a beard, with closely cropped hair.
“You’re a power thief.” Marcus said. He didn’t take Clarke’s no answer much to heart considering the look of respect plastered on his face.
“You were doing pretty great without my help. I could tell before the guards outburst.”
Clarke was scowling. She took a step back.
“You don’t believe the things Titus says?”
“That belief,” Marcus says, “Is for people who’ve stopped thinking. So no, I don't believe you should be killed because of what you were born into.”
Was she looking for him? This couldn’t be a coincidence. Marcus and Arkadia University so close by? Both things that are closely connected to her. So why is she not here?
Her watch was now two ticks east of the 12. She was getting further away?
“And why should I believe you?” Clarke said.
Marcus sighed. “You don’t have to. But Arkadia University is a safe space. The university is protected, our own shield grid, no checkpoints, no government employees. You’ll be safe. You can stay there for as long as you want.”
Clarke examined his face as he spoke, face stone cold, waiting for Marcus to crack.
Almost frustratingly, all Clarke could read from his face was genuine conviction, not a hint of insincerity.
“You can choose to follow me or not. But I think Arkadia University would help. We could do with more students like you and you would be safe. I’ll be heading there soon.”
Clarke's eyes flicked back to her watch.
Still ticking east.
Arkadia University.
Marcus Kane.
Both words had surfaced before in her entries. Scrawled in half-burnt pages. It was a place she’d been. A place she’d vanished from.
Something was pulling strings.
And Clarke wasn’t one to ignore a pull.
Clarke slid the watch fully beneath her sleeve and stepped past the unconscious guards.
“Alright, Professor,” she said. “Show me the way.”