Work Text:
“So th-this is a chance to… meet Clementine?” Claire asks. “R-really?”
Kelna nods.
“I can try,” she says.
And Claire… so much had happened, but still, all she has is stories.
She nods her head.
“Do it.”
Claire opens her eyes to find herself in the grotto.
“It’s w-w-w-where I was h-h-h-huh-happiest, y-you know,” a voice says. “I w-w-was away f-f-f-from everything f-for a m-m-moment.”
And, despite how Claire got here, she’s still surprised when she turns around to see her.
Clementine looks… different than expected. Slightly dirty clothes, with a cast made of vines around one of her arms. Young, younger than Claire, small scars all over her body.
Long, curly red hair.
Sea green eyes.
Large horns atop her head.
It’s not that she hasn’t seen pictures, of course. There’s one in this very room, and yet…
Seeing her is different.
“Clementine.”
Clementine smiles. Again, different from photographs. Not fake, not joyful, just…
The smile of someone much older than a teenage girl.
“H-hello, C-c-cuh-Claire,” Clementine says. “it’s n-n-nice t-to finally m-m-m-meet y-you.”
“H-hi,” Claire manages to say. “I wanted to talk to y-you, I…”
She trails off. What does she want to say.
There’s the big questions, how to do things and what to do and if she’s really helping.
And there’s the small questions that still nag, who she is and who they are to each other.
And the biggest of all.
What will nobody else tell her?
Clementine just smiles.
“F-f-follow m-m-m-me,” she says. They walk to the study. Clementine turns around, and she looks as if she’s studying Claire herself.
“I w-wanted to h-h-h-help everyone,” Clementine begins. “I… f-f-failed.”
That Claire knows. That, everyone knows.
But Claire understands it. She wants to, too. That’s why she’s here.
“S-so do I,” she says. “How do I do it?”
Clementine sighs.
“I d-d-don’t know,” she says. “I t-tried, so… you t-t-try, too.”
“But I d-don’t know what to do!” Claire cries. “There’s too much.”
Clementine laughs.
“I un-d-d-derstand,” she says. “B-b-but t-try. H-h-how many th-th-th-thuh-things work on the first t-t-t-t-try? Bright N-Night was y-y-your b-beginning. Y-you h-h-have their h-h-h-h-h-hope n-now.”
“But w-where do I go from here?” Claire asks. “They’ve given me s-so much to fix, but I don’t…”
Suddenly, the world shifts around them, and they’re at the top of the tree in Eden, which Claire recognizes from flashes of memories.
Clementine gestures to the window.
“L-l-l-looks,” she says, and Claire does just that, looking out, and…
“It’s empty,” she says. “There’s n-no one.”
Clementine walks to stand next to her.
“In l-life,” she says, “it w-was n-never e-empty. A-always alive… n-n-n-not anymore.”
Claire looks down.
“What happened?” She asks, “what happened w-when Eden fell?”
Clementine reaches out, almost leaning out the window. Looking. Watching.
“I c-c-can’t tell you,” she says. “N-n-not y-yet… b-b-but I will w-warn y-y-y-yuh-you. don’t t-t-t-take on too m-much…”
Clementine’s looking her right in the eyes, now, and Claire is listening.
“L-l-l-look Out f-for f-f-friends who will b-b-b-buh-b-become enemies… and know th-th-that I am n-n-not y-y-y-yuh-yuh-you.”
Clementine smiles for real, now.
“I am p-p-proud of y-you and so h- happy for you,” she says. “B-b-but y-you are n-n-not me, e-even if I m-m-m-made you. Y-you are C-Claire . Claire. B-be y-y-you, and f-f-f-f-fix th-things, if you c-can.”
Clementine sighs.
“B-b-but y-you have t-t-to wake up n-now,” she says. “And f-f-face y-your w-w-words. Y-you w-w-will f-find a clue in the r-r-remains.”
The world changes again. Cobbled streets.
“T-tell C-Catharine and Oscar th-that I d-don’t b-b-blame th-them,” Clementine says before turning away from Claire. “Goodbye Claire. I w-w-w-will stil b-b-b-Be with you.”
Clementine walks away, but Claire still has questions.
“Wait!” She calls, but Clementine doesn’t turn around, and Claire can’t seem to get her feet to leave the ground.
A moment later, she opens her eyes to Kelna’s place, instead.
But it feels more conclusive than she thought.
I am s-s-s-still here, Claire. You aw-w-w-woke m-m-m-me.