Chapter Text
Goosebumps rose on Clarke’s arms as a chill breeze snuck through the open tent flap. She rubbed at them absentmindedly, her eyes fixed on the newcomer. The golden haired girl who had attacked her in the woods stood in the doorway, fixing the elder blonde with a pensive stare. Caroline, as Clarke now knew her name to be, was a puzzle. A monster and a person all in one. Not unlike yourself, she reminded herself wryly.
“Sorry about Klaus. He’s such a dick sometimes.” The other girl’s smile was genuine and apologetic, but all that Clarke could see was the memory of emerging fangs. “Are you hungry? I can get you some rabbit or something.”
“Why am I here?” Her brisk voice cut off the other’s. Clarke noted the slight tension in the girl’s jaw at the interruption.
“You’re here because Klaus Mikaelson decrees it.” Despite the forced cheeriness in the other’s voice, there was a heavy dose of sarcasm accompanied by an eyeroll. “He’s an egotistical ass.”
Despite herself, Clarke’s mouth twitched amusedly. If not for the dire situation, she might actually like this girl. “What does he want from me?”
“Dickish, Klaus things mostly.” Caroline’s gaze pointedly avoided her own, which told Clarke more than her words could. Clearly, ‘Klaus things’ didn’t mean anything good. Her mind drifted back to the previous night, to Caroline emerging from nowhere, scolding the man who held her pinned to him.
Caroline had ensured that Clarke had gotten food, drink and rest. The man who had grabbed her, Klaus, though seeming to be the man in charge, had acquiesced to the girl’s wishes fairly easily. Klaus’s eyes had followed Caroline wherever she went throughout the camp, until Caroline had told him to go make himself useful, and he had vanished for the night.
An awkward silence now fell over the pair, each looking in a direction opposite of the other. How did one carefully broach the subject of one biting the other in the neck and then saving the other from having it done again by someone else? However, Clarke now found herself in doubt of her own lucidity at the time, for she had since realized that she had no scar or wound to indicate that the experience had been real at all. Yet, the memory of it was all too vivid.
“So, what’s it like in space?” The transition from the silence was awkward, but Clarke was saved from having to answer by a commotion outside. Caroline stood and moved to the entrance of the shelter in a flash. An actual flash, Clarke realized with surprise. It was less than the span of a blink.
A dark crop of hair crowning a handsome face popped in through the flaps, eyes fixing on Caroline. “It’s for you, gorgeous.” She recognized his voice as the third speaker’s from the previous night. Enzo, or some such name. His eyes ran down Clarke’s body before he offered her a rakish grin. “Hello, lovely.”
“Not now, Enzo.” Carolien pushing him out of the tent, leaving Clarke alone inside. She rose slowly from the bed, before darting to the flaps where the two had disappeared. For some reason, she couldn’t force herself to exit. Her body wouldn’t move past the entrance, and she had tried several times before Caroline had come to see her. For now, she lingered behind the flap of the tent, surveying the scene beyond.
She was immediately struck by another handsome man, who was in the center of camp. Black hair lay windswept just above quick, bright blue eyes, and a strong jaw tightened in irritation. He was clearly visible across the entire camp from the back of his horse, and despite the confident smirk gracing his lips, there was a pinch of anxiety in the corner of each of his eyes.
“What do you want, Damon?” Caroline’s tone was brisk and to the point, carrying little of the friendliness she had just directed to Clarke, but mercifully carrying back to the tent Clarke found herself stuck inside.
“Well, hello to you too, Blondie.” His voice was smooth, as though every phrase was meant to either charm or irritate. Judging from Caroline’s crossed arms, Clarke suspected it was having the latter effect. “I was hoping for a bottle of bourbon, but we all know the Mikaelsons are notoriously stingy.” He dismounted with practiced motions, coming to a halt in front of Caroline.
“I don’t have time for this, Damon. If you’ve found something out, just tell me so we can all move on with our lives.”
The man, Damon, put a hand to his chest in mock hurt. “Why, Caroline, that hurts my feelings.”
“You don’t have feelings.”
“Let’s not get nasty, love.” Enzo stepped into the situation with the familiarity of an old friend, as though well accustomed to their bickering. “Damon, mate, if you found something, spit it out before his Royal Highness gets back.”
Damon made a face at the other man. “And here I was thinking you were on my side.”
“For God’s sake, Damon!” Caroline burst out, throwing her hands in the air. “Do you have any leads on Elena or not?”
“No, Caroline, I don’t!” The practiced, good-natured charm evaporated, leaving a towering anger in its place. “But I did find something interesting by Trikru territory.” His eyes lifted in the slightest, over Caroline’s shoulder, to catch on Clarke who felt her muscles stiffen at the sudden attention. “Who’s that?”
Caroline didn’t spare a backwards glance. “She says she’s with those people who came from space. We can’t reach a consensus on whether or not we believe her.”
Damon’s eyebrows lifted, his wicked smile back in place. “Then you’ll find what I found very interesting, Blondie. You wouldn’t believe what’s in Skaikru’s camp.”
~
“How is that even possible?” Clarke wasn’t sure what had compelled her captors to bring her with them into a tent across the camp. With Caroline’s permission, she had suddenly been able to leave and cross through the camp, trying to ignore the hungry looks being cast at her by everyone she ran into. Unnoticing, the two men and Caroline had holed themselves and Clarke up in a tent that Clarke highly suspected was Caroline’s. She herself sat on the edge of the bed while the other three leaned in towards each other across a nearby table.
“My guess is there was some witchy hoodoo involved,” Damon answered Caroline’s question. Despite his initial interest in her, Damon had hardly spared a glance towards her since their relocation.
“But don’t the doppelgangers have to be direct descendants of the other doppelgangers? Elena didn’t have any children before she died.” Caroline’s fingers were rubbing her temple, and she looked as though she had a very strong headache. Clarke had been racking her memory banks for the past ten minutes, trying to remember where she had heard the word “doppelganger” before.
“Didn’t you say she had a brother?” Enzo questioned, leaning forward.
“Sort of,” Caroline sighed, “I guess technically they were cousins…”
“We don’t have time to get into the Gilbert family history,” Damon interjected, splaying his hands out on the table. “The real question is, what are we going to do about her?”
“What do you mean?” Caroline and Enzo exchanged looks.
“Don’t you remember the hell Elena went through with Klaus while she was human? Klaus is going to use this girl the same way.”
Clarke’s interest suddenly peaked, and she found herself on her feet. Three pairs of eyes glanced up from their meeting and fixed on her. “I won’t let him hurt anyone from Camp Jaha.” Her mouth set in a firm life, hardening her eyes to those strange creatures staring up at her with surprise. “He’s not going to hurt any of my people.”
“They’re actually calling it Arkadia now.” Damon commented, standing. Clarke’s limbs were rigid as he circled around her. She could hear the inhale as he picked her scent out of the air. His fingers ruffled the back of her hair as they traced momentarily over it. “You’re their leader? Doesn’t really seem like it, considering you’re way out here with us.”
“She was running from Trikru,” Caroline stood as well, meeting Clarke’s eyes, and ignoring Damon’s predatory stalk Damon. “Do you know everyone who lives in Arkadia? Answer honestly.”
The simple command was more than Clarke could resist, and the answer was spilling out before she could control it. “I know almost everyone. I was their leader before Alpha Station crashed down.”
“Do you know Lydia Grayson?” Damon stopped abruptly before her.
“Answer him,” Caroline prompted.
“Yes.” She cursed herself internally for her inability to resist the girl’s commands.
“I think we have our ticket into Arkadia.” Damon smirked at Enzo, the only one who remained at the table, still examining Clarke.
“I won’t help you hurt Lydia.” Clarke glared at all three of them, trying to look her best to look imposing in mud soaked clothes with dirt smeared over her face.
“It’s not just us you have to worry about,” Enzo cocked his head. “It’s everyone. Once word gets out that another Petrova doppelganger exists, everyone on this continent will be gunning for her blood.”
Fed up with the confusion and the secrecy, Clarke finally burst out, “What the hell is a doppelganger?”
“Does she even know what we are?” Damon turned from Clarke completely, directing the annoyed comment towards Caroline.
Something clicked in Clarke’s mind. “You’re kripa.” All three turned towards her with eyebrows lifted.
“I don’t like that term,” Damon’s tone was somehow both light and warning, but Clarke didn’t shrink from it.
“When the grounders were chasing me, they kept saying kripa. Whatever that means, that’s what you are, right?”
“We prefer the term vampires, darling.” Enzo stood then too, clapping a restraining hand on Damon’s shoulder. The term vaguely triggered something in the back of Clarke’s head, something she may have heard mention of as a child. “As for doppelgangers, they’re one of nature’s most redundant features. They’re magical, from what I’m told, and they all look identical.”
“That’s sort of right,” Caroline interrupted. “He hasn’t been around for a lot of the doppelganger action, what with the apocalypse and all.”
“The Petrova doppelgangers all look exactly like your friend Lydia,” Damon interrupted, his eyes shining dangerously as he studied Clarke. “And one of them happens to be my off the rails girlfriend.”
“You seem powerful enough on your own,” Clarke observed, still unsure of where she had heard the word vampire before. “Why do you need a doppelganger?”
“Our leader would be very interested in getting his hands on her blood,” Enzo filled in, glancing almost nervously at the entrance to the tent. “You see, with her blood, Klaus can make werewolf and vampire hybrids, even more deadly than us vampires. We’d finally be back on top of the food chain, instead of starving out here in the middle of nowhere.”
Werewolves did trigger something for Clarke. “Werewolves as in mythical humans who can turn themselves into wolves?” She asked, narrowing her eyes.
“And vampires as in suck out your blood and live forever.” Damon grinned at her. “Guilty.”
The blood in Clarke’s veins turned to ice instantaneously, even as Caroline slapped Damon’s arm with a scowl. “Smooth,” the younger blonde reprimanded. She stepped forward, eyes boring into Clarke’s. “No one’s going to hurt you. Stay calm.” The young leader found herself relaxing almost instantly, despite knowing she should be angry, or at least upset over this discussion.
“So now we’re on board with Klaus making an army of hybrids again?” Damon turned on Caroline and Enzo, his grin melting into a frown. “Don’t you remember what happened last time?”
“This time will be different,” the blonde assured him. “There can’t be that many werewolves left anyways.”
“As much as I think he’s a stuck up prick, I don’t think we should start building hybrid armies without Elijah’s supervision.” Damon hissed this last bit through gritted teeth.
“We haven’t heard from Elijah in weeks,” Caroline planted her fists on her hips, staring up seriously at Damon. “Besides, Lexa has to know about doppelgangers. The minute she realizes that Lydia exists, she’s going to be nearly impossible for us to get to. We have to move fast.”
“Damon’s right, Caroline.” Enzo, slid between the two, diverting Caroline’s gaze to him instead. “Klaus is unstable at best. We need Elijah.”
“Elijah isn’t here!” Caroline exclaimed, surprising them both into silence. “But we are. And even if she’s not really Elena’s descendant, I’m going to treat her like she is. We’re going to get her. The humans have had the upper hand for way too long.” The blonde turned fierce eyes onto Clarke. “You’re going to help us get her.”