Chapter Twenty-Eight: Lexa

Chapter Twenty-eight
~ Lexa ~
“Harder!” Will called out as I moved to hit his gloves again.
“Better,” He called out again as I threw another punch.
The truth was, neither of us really needed to be training. We had been training our whole lives. And yes, we needed to get better, but both of us were going over the top with it. We spent hours and hours in our make-shift gym away from everyone. I had taken a run earlier around our perimeters with Will and Grace this morning. And we were going on hour 6 today of a grueling workout. Any second we weren’t on duty or supposed to be asleep, we were training.
I was grateful that Grey had decided to create a special area for more one-on-one training. There was just our core group, give or take a few people who we’d give private lessons to. This meant less eyes. Will and I did our training half in the public space, and half in this more isolated space. I think he built it so S wouldn’t feel so embarrassed as she started out at a level lower than most of our kids. Of course, when the time came, we had no intention of putting kids in the middle of a battle, but this was war, and they needed to be prepared to fight for their lives. Not being able to defend themselves in moments of danger would only hurt them more.
“Focus, Lex.” Will demanded.
I shook my head in an attempt to break out of my thoughts.
“Grab a sword,” Will threw off the boxing gloves. “Suicides, don’t lose your grip on it, don’t let it slow you down.”
He said these things aloud, but they weren’t necessarily for me. This had been a part of our training for as long as I could remember. We used to make lines in the dirt and run them with our weapons. It was to maintain control even when we were tired. I used to throw my knives at a dummy we had made of dirt bags after 14 suicides. Then I would do it again. And again. And again.
This time, the only differences were this was a real looking dummy, and today, I was practicing with a sword.

“Jesus,” I heard S exclaim when she walked in the training room. “Don’t you people ever stop?”
“Nope,” I smiled as I ran. “We don’t know how to.”
I couldn’t see her as I ran because my back was to her, but I knew she was shaking her head at us.
“To be the best, you gotta train like the best.” I told her.
She rolled her eyes as I stabbed my dummy right in the throat.
“Very nice,” Will commented breathlessly.
“I never miss,” I bragged as Will was slightly off and I started up my run again.
“Go, do something else you two!” S laughed as she tied her shoes. “Your weird death chemistry is freaking me out.”
“What’s going on?” Grey asked as he walked in the room.
I saw S blush before saying, “The lovebirds over there have been here all day, and I was just making fun of them.”
I saw Grey whirl around so fast you would have thought someone was about to attack him.
“What the hell are you two still doing here?” Grey demanded.
Will stopped, but I didn’t.
“Working out,” I called out casually.
“Get out of here!” Grey yelled so loud I actually stopped running this time.
“Why?” I asked.
“Yea, why?” Will backed me up. “We’re just training.”
“Have you two left since the last time Aspen and I were here 6 hours ago?”
“Well… No.” I answered. “But we’re fine.”
Grey shook his head angrily. “Get out of my gym and if I catch either of you training again today, you’ll both be in trouble.”
In trouble with Grey could mean a lot of things. It could be like when I was 12 and I had accidentally thrown a knife at Jax, nearly missing him, so Grey tied my hands together for three days as a lesson to be careful with knives. There was also the time I got tied to our kitchen chair because I threatened to run away because I hated boys, so they forced me to stay in the chair so I wouldn’t leave. Or the time I broke Grey’s favorite short sword, and so he broke my favorite knife. Grey was like me, and he always had a plan. So, if I trained again, I knew something would definitely happen and it would not be in my favor.
I walked reluctantly out of the gym as S and Grey began their training together. It was important to rely on more than just our powers and that seemed to be Grey’s main focus. His goal right now was to help S master the physical aspect of herself and would then go on to master her powers.
“Hey, Lex, Will!” Jax called out as we entered the main hallway.
Jax was sitting at a desk full of technology that he could have only dreamed of before.
“What’s up?” I asked, wiping the sweat off my face.
“Look at this,” He zoomed in on the camera view and I could see a shimmer in the bubble protecting us. The illusion that was protecting us, made it hard for us to see out of the forest. I usually went out of our bounds every day, but you never knew how quickly things could turn on us.
“What is it?” I asked. I had an uneasy feeling in my stomach.
“It looks to me like it’s someone trying to get in.” Jax clarified, but he didn’t seem all that concerned. We had been hiding people with gifts in our sanctuary for longer than most of us had been alive. We were used to people showing up on our doorstep, begging for help. But things were different now. People knew we were in these woods. They were actively looking for us. How could we be sure if they were friend or foe?
“Okay,” I stated, taking in a deep breath. “Santana, go get Grey. Tell him it’s urgent. Will and I are going to go check it out. And Jax, keep those cameras on us. If we give the signal, send help immediately. Protocol is still the same.”
There was a round of nods, and Will and I took off through the building to get outside. We reached the divider in almost no time, and that made me feel confident in our ability to react if it was a dire situation.
“I can’t see anything.” I confided in Will.
“Me either,” Will confirmed.
“We need to go out there.”
Will nodded in agreement, and we moved to the exit we had set up. We had had weeks to update and improve the state of our sanctuary, and the moving door was by far the coolest thing we had come up with.
Will and I moved slowly as one through the shadows, our weapons out and ready. But when we finally got around to where there had been a shimmer, I was so astounded, I dropped my weapons.
“Gracie?” I don’t know what I had been expecting, but she was not it.
“Lexa! Will!” The small girl exclaimed, relief dripping from her voice. She ran over to me, and I hugged her tight. “I lost my friends.” She cried.
“Your friends?” I asked.
“Yes,” She sobbed. “Caleb and Carson. The twins. They just ran out the door and I followed them to tell them we aren’t supposed to be out here, but then I couldn’t find them or my way back in.”
“Okay,” I soothed. “Okay, let’s get back to safety and we’ll figure out how to find your friends.”
It did little to console her, and I knew Grey would have all of our heads as soon as we walked back inside our sanctuary, but my gut churned knowing two little kids were out there in harms’ way, and there was little any of us could do about it.