Chapter Text
Abby sat in the trunk of the Rover, contemplating on her life so far while taking a sip of the tea she had made this morning.
It had been a little over five years since Praimfaya. Five long years without her beloved daughter, without Marcus, without Jackson and the kids, and all her other friends. She missed them all terribly, but she could in all honesty say that she was happy. Those five years hadn't been easy, but she had been more than lucky. After managing to help the kids launch their rocket in space, her survival instinct had kicked in and she had made it, barely, back to Becca's lab. She owed it to Marcus and to Clarke to try her best to survive. They both thought she was dead, and it broke her heart just to think about it. She had stayed there for two months alone, surviving on MRE rations, before going out for the first time. The sight that greeted her almost broke her – burnt nothingness for as far as her eyes could see. How was she going to survive for five years like this?
She had taken the Rover, first to Arkadia. The desolate, smoking remains of what used to be their home for their first months on Earth brought her to her knees, weeping for what seemed to be a while before she managed to compose herself to tour the place. She took a few things that she thought would be useful: some medicine that had been left behind in the haste of evacuation, blankets, torches, a knife that Marcus had left behind and a radio. She had tried the radio right away, not even knowing if it was working or if it was on the right canal, to try and hear her daughter or Marcus' voice, but it had remained silent. It had never answered back. She still talked to it everyday, in the hopes that someone could hear her. Even if they couldn't answer back, it was therapeutic.
She had stayed in Arkadia for a night, then made her way to Polis. The city laid in ruins before her, totally empty. She had made her way toward the bunker and had knocked on the door. But either they didn't hear her, or they chose not to answer. They were at full capacity after all.
She was reminiscing on those first days alone outside, so deep in her thoughts that she jumped when an arm suddenly appeared on her shoulders. A second form snuggled on her knees, still half asleep. Abby smiled warmly at the two, and hugged them.
Zora had been fifteen when the death wave hit. She and others had found shelter during the fire storm that erased all life from the surface of the earth, and survived, only for the others to succumb to the radiation. But Zora was a Nightblood, and while she had been horribly sick in the first days, surrounded by her dying family, she had survived. She and Abby had met by chance in the first year. Their relationship hadn't been easy, but they made it work and were close now. Zora even considered Eden her legitimate sister. Eden was Abby's daughter. She had never considered she might get pregnant again, and here she was, with a four and a half year old little girl. The shock of understanding she was pregnant again, and with Marcus' child, had been enough to make her pass out at the time.
They were the reason for her happiness, her salvation, in the uncertainty of the survival of the man she loved in the bunker, or her daughter in space. They stayed like that for a few more minutes, before getting ready for their day. They would go back to Polis, like they did everyday for the past week. The people in the bunker would get out any day now, and Abby did not want to miss it.
Abby approached the bunker in Polis alone, and could immediately hear voices. They were finally out! She unconsciously walked a little faster, she couldn’t wait to see them all again. She couldn’t wait to see him again. She made her way toward the voices, quickening her pace, and her breath caught in her throat. He was there! Eyes closed, face upturned toward the sun taking deep breaths. His hair was longer and had a little more white in it than she remembered, and his skin was paler, but apart from that, he looked almost the same. She opened her mouth to call him, ready to give him the shock of his life when suddenly, two arms wrapped around his midsection. The arms belonged to a pretty blond grounder woman who leaned toward Marcus to kiss him. Abby felt like her heart was breaking in a million pieces, mind almost going numb from shock. How could have she been so stupid? He thought she was dead, of course he would move on! She stood there, feeling like the ground was crumbling under her feet when a voice saved her from collapsing.
“Abby?!” it said unbelievingly.
“Jackson!” exclaimed Abby, turning around with a bright teary smile.
“Is it really you? How?”
He ran to her and scooped her in a crushing hug. She was hugging him back just as hard, crying in happiness in seeing the man she loved like her own son. His smile was as warm as it ever was, he was still the tall, lean young man she knew, but he had matured, and there were lines on his forehead, a sign that he had worried a lot in those five years. He pulled back, holding her face in his hands, looking at her still not believing she was really there.
“I can’t believe it’s you. How is that possible? We thought you were dead!” cried Jackson, before crushing her in his arms again.
“Abby?” asked a new, broken voice.
“Marcus.” Abby could not help another wave of tears at seeing the man she still loved with all her heart.
She didn’t know if it would be okay to hug him, but he took the initiative and enveloped her in his arms, sobbing. He held her a long time as if to reassure himself she was indeed here, before pulling back and holding her face like Jackson did earlier. He just looked at her as she smiled a teary smile at him, not saying anything, just revelling in each other's presence. He let her go slowly, staring at her as if she would suddenly disappear if he went too fast. A few other people came to greet her, Nathan Miller, who she was happy to note was now with Jackson. She squeezed his hand in appreciation and he squeezed back, happy to have the approval of the woman he considered like his adoptive mother. Octavia ran to her yelling her name at the top of her lungs and hugged her hard, prompting another wave of happy tears from the older woman who hadn't been expecting such an expressive response from the young woman. Sinclair came too, and even Indra gave her a short – but firm – hug! Abby was feeling a bit overwhelmed at the affection all these people, her people were showing her and could not stop smiling and crying at the same time.
“Hello,” said another voice, curiously.
“Hi,” said Abby, whipping her tears with her sleeve, eyeing her a bit uncertainly, not knowing how to act around the woman who kissed Marcus earlier.
“Er, Kyra meet Abby, we were, er, friends on the Ark. Abby, meet Kyra, my,” he paused “girlfriend.” said Marcus, a bit awkwardly.
Friends on the Ark, what the hell? Abby threw a wounded look at Marcus, before choosing to play nice to Kyra, who she decided hadn’t done anything wrong to her.
“Nice to meet you,” said Abby with a small, albeit a bit insincere, smile, extending her hand, which Kyra shook.
The situation was quickly becoming awkward, but thankfully, rescue came in an unexpected way, which is to say, a small missile launched from nowhere and attached itself to Abby’s legs, almost knocking her on the ground in the process, surprising them all so much that Indra and Octavia drew their swords. A voice raised from further away:
“What the hell Squirt! I thought I said not to move? Sorry Abby, I have no idea how she escaped.”
Everyone watched as a young woman, around Octavia’s age jogged toward them, rolling her eyes at Abby. She was small, barely taller than Abby but very muscular, she had long, black braided her, and blue eyes. She had the typical grounder tattoos on her arms, and a small adorning piece on her forehead. A sword was on her back, and a small knife on her hip, but she made no movement to get them, and kept her posture relaxed, which helped Indra and Octavia relax as well, even though they didn’t put their weapons away quite yet. She was heading toward Abby and “Squirt” who was none other than a small child whom Abby was painstakingly peeling from her legs to take in her arms. Abby hugged the child to her, and whispered something in her ear which made her squeal in delight and give a sloppy kiss on Abby's cheek.
“Be nice to your sister Eden!” said Abby, putting the child back on the ground.
“Ai na nomi (I will mommy)!” promised the child, prompting a wave of startled gasps in the group.
“Everyone, this is Zora,” said Abby pointing to the older girl, “and the little missile here is Eden”, she said pointing to the little one, who was now hiding behind Zora's legs, pretending not to see the question in their eyes. “Girls, these are Jackson, Nathan, Sinclair, Octavia, Indra, Marcus and, ah, Kyra”. They each gave a small nod in acknowledgement to the girls as Abby introduced them.
“I've heard so much about you, it's nice to finally put a face on the name!” said Zora with enthusiasm. She had a shy but warm smile on her lips. Her English was excellent, but there were traces of an accent that told the others it wasn't her native language.
“All good things I hope?” said Jackson jokingly.
Zora's only answer was a teasing smile and a raise of her eyebrow, like she knew something the others didn't, prompting Jackson to fidget under her playful stare, wondering exactly what sort of embarrassing story Abby could have shared with the young girl. Abby rolled her eyes, huffed and gave a light head-slap at Zora, telling her to “stop it!”, while laughing at the same time. This prompted a round of laughter in the group, the playful relationship the two women seemed to share diffusing the small tension.
Marcus could not stop starring at Abby, still not believing his eyes weren't playing a cruel trick on him, his thoughts all over the place. When he had heard Jackson calling her name earlier, he had felt a wave of incredible sadness and guilt at the thought of the woman he had loved all his life. But then when she had called Jackson's name back, he swore his heart actually stopped in his chest for a few seconds before making its way in his mouth. He couldn't help himself and took her in his arms for a long time, for the first time in five long years of thinking her dead. The emotion bottled up in him for those years had started to surface when he smelled her, until he became a sobbing mess. She had held him back, crying as well. She looked almost the same, her hair, styled in small grounder braids, had more white in it, and some wrinkles had appeared around her eyes, but she was still strikingly beautiful. He'd had to regretfully let her go to let others greet her, and had almost guiltily jumped when Kyra wound her arm around him to be introduced. He had almost forgotten her for a moment, and did not know how to introduce the two women to each other. Abby and him were together when he went in the bunker, leaving her to die outside. And he had never really talked about her with anyone since. He just couldn't, the pain had been – and if he was honest with himself still was – too raw. So he clumsily introduced her as a friend, but the hurt look she sent him cut deeply, and he felt ashamed of himself. And then the little girl, Eden, appeared and called her “nomi”, mommy, in Trigedasleng, sending his thoughts in a frenzy. But Abby had told her to play nice to her sister, who obviously was not Abby's daughter, and he didn't know what to think. Could it be possible that Abby was pregnant when he let her outside the bunker? She wasn't old, but she certainly wasn't young either, and every woman on the Ark got a contraceptive implant before puberty even hit. Every couple wanting a child had to petition to get the implant removed. It would be put back as soon as the child was born. Of course it could malfunction, Aurora Blake had been a prime example of that. Marcus didn't think he could handle it if he learnt that he had left her as well as their unborn child to die back then. Eden looked to be about the right age, but she had acted shy and had kept her face hidden the whole time so he had not been able to get a good look at her, except for the mop on black hair on her head. His mind was a jumble of feelings and thoughts right now.
Abby had asked right away if they had had any contact or any news of the kids in space, but as she expected, apart from the conversation Octavia had had with Bellamy before the rocket launch, they regretfully hadn't heard anything since. She still had hope, those kids were damn resourceful, but she couldn't help worry that she would never see Clarke again, hold her in her arms and tell her how much she loved her.
She was explaining to them how she had survived the radiation thanks to the Nightblood treatment, and how she had in turn used it to save the two girls, when Zora seemed to suddenly freeze and focus on something in the distance.
“Is that Athos?” she asked.
“What would he be doing here?” asked Abby turning to look as well, with barely hidden contempt, causing the others to be wary of the men they could see approaching in the distance. It was rare for Abby to speak like that. “He's not alone.”
“He better have a damn good reason to be here, or I'll end him myself!” growled Zora before marching toward the man at an angry pace, taking her sword from her back with a swift move.
Abby picked Eden from the ground an watched the exchange from afar. She knew Athos wouldn't try anything while being surrounded by so many Skaikru, and Zora was more than skilled enough to handle him if needed, but for him to come here at all, something must be really wrong. He raised his hands in peace while Zora approached and invaded his personal space to talk to him right in his face. The sight was almost comical, for Athos had more in common with an ox than a man, and towered more than a foot over her. Zora looked like a fly on his jacket next to him. They exchanged a few words, and Athos turned around, letting them see a man that looked severely injured being held up by the others. The girl immediately dropped to her knees to examine him, in a fashion so reminiscent of Abby that Marcus wondered for a second if she wasn't the one who had come the meet the man.
“Can you hold her for me? I need to see what happened.” asked Abby to Marcus.
“Sure!” agreed Marcus without thinking. He soon found himself with his arms full a squirmy little girl, and held her close to him.
“Thank you!” said Abby grateful, ”I'd rather avoid her seeing the mess. Stay with Marcus, okay honey?” she added for the child, caressing her hair and kissing her face, before jogging toward the group of visitors, Jackson in her footsteps. Marcus hugged the girl to him and anxiously watched Abby go to the group of burly men. That's when he noticed for the first time, and with no small amount of surprise, the sword hanging from Abby's back. He wondered if she even knew how to use it, but the fact that she had it at all somehow helped calm his nerves.
Athos nodded to Abby in recognition, and made to stop Jackson from approaching, but Abby put a calming hand on his forearm, telling him something, and he nodded again before moving to the left to let them work. Abby took one glance at the injuries and shared a startled look with Zora. Jackson, catching the look said:
“You've seen these kinds of injuries before.”
“We have. But how? There haven't been any sightings in months now, everyone agreed to say that we had finally got the last one!” said Zora in a low, tense voice. “Chit dom kom au (what happened)?” she asked Athos.
He answered in Trig, which Jackson still didn't speak very well, but he got the gist of it. Delta, the mangled man, was on a scouting mission with his team. He came back, alone, three days late, his injuries so bad that they had no choice but take him to Polis knowing that the bunker would be open any day now and hoping that Abby would show up and save him. They didn't know what happened to the other members of Delta's team, or what caused this much damage.
“Ba, gada bilaik yu get klin (but it looks like you know)” he said to them.
“Hef-leda choj opa (man-flesh eaters)” answered Abby nodding in a resigned tone, working on a huge gash on the man's side. Her declaration prompted a confused look from Jackson who didn't understand what she had said, and a burst of shocked whispers in the group.
“Nou na kom au (not possible)!” exclaimed one of the men, “yu tromp raun (you lie)!”
“Chomouda (why)?” said Abby, before saying something else Jackson could not quite grasp. They were still working quickly on Delta to try and save him.
“Em pleni (enough)!” said Athos to the angry guy who had opened his mouth again to retort, “kom nau nou ste taim (now is not the time). Yu na fis em op (can you heal him)?” he asked them.
“Osir na ste trana (we will try),” said Abby.
Jackson took a few seconds to ponder how much better Abby's Trig was before focusing his whole energy into healing the poor man in front of him. It took a while, but between the three of them, they managed to stabilize him enough to take a small break before moving him.
Abby left Zora with Athos so she could explain what was happening to him, while she checked on Marcus and Eden. It made her nervous to leave the two together, she feared Marcus would guess Eden was his before she had the time to tell him. She will tell him, but she'd rather do it in private. She looked up with a smile, Eden was playing with Octavia, using the small wooden sword Zora had made her while Marcus was plopped on the ground, cheering them on, Kyra at his side. Indra, who had been joined by her daughter, Gaia, was watching them, a small smile on her lips. Abby was a little nervous at seeing Gaia watch her daughter. She was after all the Flame Keeper, and Eden was born a Nightblood, even if her mother was an “artificial” one.
Octavia mock-fell on the ground after she let Eden hit her in the leg, making exaggerated noises of distress to the little girl's glee.
“I see someone's having fun!” said Abby approaching the group.
“Nomi (mommy)! Cheered Eden, “I won four times already!”
“That's great Honibi (honey)! But I think you should kiss Octavia better, she looks quite put out.” said Abby to her daughter, who promptly turned back to give Octavia a big wet kiss on the cheek. Even Indra could not repress a smile at the child's cuteness.
“How's the guy?” asked Marcus.
“Alive, and stable for now, but he is not out of the woods yet. He'll need more intensive care. Jackson's looking into transferring him into the bunker's infirmary.”
“You seemed to know them, who are they?” asked Indra.
Abby explained to them that she, Zora and Eden weren't the only survivors of Praimfaya. They had met Athos and his group into their third year after the death wave. Their relationship was tense at best, they barely tolerated each other but since they seemed to be the only survivors at the time, they had not seen the use of killing each other off, figuring there was enough room for them all. They knew of another small group of people up north, where Azgeda used to be, and suspected another one west of Polis in the former Ouskejon Kru (Blue Cliff) territory. Abby didn't know how they had survived the radiation, but she had her suspicions, and she'd rather not think about it. Thankfully, no one thought to ask.
“That guy's wounds looked nasty even from here, what happened to him? Was he attacked by another group of survivors?” asked Octavia.
Abby let out a sigh, and shook her head in the negative. That was another question she'd rather not answer right now. She had thought this nightmare was over, but it seemed now they had been wrong. And she needed to tell them everything in case they encountered the things. Jackson was coming back from the bunker followed by Nathan, signalling to her that he was ready to move Delta.
“I need to help Jackson move Delta to the infirmary. I'll explain everything to you, can you find a place where we won't be interrupted? I guess all the clans will need to hear it.”
“Tell Jackson to bring you to the Council room when you're finished, we'll wait for you there with Eden” said Marcus, now looking worried. It was not in Abby's habits to evade a question like that, so whatever it was that had maimed this guy must be bad. He wasn't sure he wanted to know. She put a hand on his forearm and gave him a thankful smile for keeping Eden for her.
After making sure Delta was settled in the infirmary, she and Jackson left for the Council room with Athos. His people stayed with Delta, who was under Niylah's care, with strict orders to fetch them if his condition seemed to change. There were two guards posted at the door.
Well, thought grimly Marcus, trouble did seem to follow them everywhere. Athos had explained to them what it was that attacked his men, being the unfortunate one with the most experience with the beasts. And if Abby hadn't been there to corroborate the tale, he probably wouldn't have believed it. From the look of the others, many seemed to share his sentiment. Fortunately, most of the clan representatives present knew Abby from before Praimfaya and grudgingly respected her and seemed to trust her opinion on the matter.
To be fair, the story came right from a nightmare. Man-eating beasts, that moved faster than a galloping horse at full speed, with claws the side of his forearm, and teeth as long as his hand? No way. And yet, Abby's haunted look and pale face as she nodded along Athos' tale told him that she had seen them with her own eyes. A chill went down Marcus' spine at the realization. How close had she got to being eaten by those beasts herself?
“They sound very hard to kill,” said Indra, always calm and practical, “any weaknesses we can exploit?”
Abby nodded, “they have a terrible sense of smell and can't see very well unless you move. Actually if you see one, the best way to survive if to stay as still as possible, breathing calmly,” she paused and made a noncommittal movement of her head in agreement at Miller's unbelieving snort, “they have okay hearing, on par with ours I'd say, and are extremely sensitive to ground vibration. As soon as you move, you're dead. But they are not agile at all, if there's something in their way, they'll be slowed down. Which is why so far they've only attacked in places with flat ground. If you can climb somewhere relatively high, you should be good. Their skin isn't thick, and they don't have any exoskeleton so if you're fast enough, an arrow or a sword through the head is all it takes.”
“If you're fast enough,” repeated Octavia, to which Abby, Zora and Athos nodded grimly, clearly picturing in their heads people who had not been fast enough.
“It's not easy, but it is possible to kill them,” said Zora, “actually up until today, we were sure we had gotten the last one a few months ago, but it would seem we were wrong.”
“They have never been anywhere near Polis,” said Abby, “but you should still inform everyone, just in case.”
Abby was back in the infirmary, checking on Delta's wound with Jackson and Zora was watching Eden in a corner while the others informed the bunker's population of the new threat. It would not go down well. They never seemed to catch a break, it seemed that a good news could never go without a bad one.
The people would use the bunker's dormitory at night for the time being, until they had reconstructed enough to move permanently back to the surface. They would try to reconstruct Polis first, while Skaikru would do their best to make Arkadia livable again. Abby had given them the places that had escaped the fires of Praimfaya, so a few krus that used to have territories there would probably move back at some point. The main priority right now was food. Abby and Zora had shown a good place to start growing things not far from the city, and a big team was already starting on it. The infirmary would stay in the bunker for the time being.
Delta would recover, but he will live with a bad limp and his face will be badly scarred for the rest of his life. Jackson was looking back and forth between Abby and the two girls in the corner while tending to him, a question burning the tip of his tongue.
“Spit it out Jackson, I promise I won't hit you too hard,” teased Abby not raising her eyes.
Jackson gave a small laugh, and took the plunge, “it's just that... Earlier Eden called you nomi, that means mommy right?” at Abby's nod he went on, “then... how? Don't get me wrong, I am happy that you found a family during these times, and I know you said you saved the girls by donating your bone marrow, and you called Zora Eden's sister, but,” he rambled, “but –“ his voice dropped to a whisper, “is Eden really yours?” He looked torn, as if he didn't know whether to be happy for her, or sad that she possibly had to go through a pregnancy alone.
Abby sighed, and opened her mouth to answer. She would not lie to Jackson, whom she considered a son. But as she was about to answer, they were interrupted by Sinclair, coming in holding a bloody hand. She smiled apologetically to Jackson, putting a soothing hand on his forearm, and rolled her eyes at Sinclair. Some things decidedly never changed. The engineering teams had always been regular visitors of Medbay in the Ark, they somehow hurt themselves almost as often as did the mechanics. Sinclair just needed a couple stitches, and Abby actually had Zora do the diagnosis and treatment under her guidance, so she could train on a real patient for once.
“It is too late to go back home now, we should find a place to stay,” said Zora to Abby once she was finished bandaging Sinclair's wound.
“Don't you usually stay in Polis?” asked Jackson, curious.
“No, we live a couple hour drive away, in a forest east from here. We'll need to go back tomorrow, to check that everything is fine, it's been a few days.”
“Mind if I join you? With Nathan? I'd love to see it!” said Jackson.
In the end it was agreed they would leave the next day after helping out people settle a bit. To Abby's joy, Marcus joined the party, but that unfortunately also meant that Kyra would be there. Hopefully she would be able to get him alone to thank him for respecting her wish of not staying in the bunker five years ago, and more importantly to tell him about Eden. She couldn't help but fear a little what his reaction will be now he is with someone else.