Chapter Text
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An anguished echo was all that was audible in the sterile surroundings of her pod.
"GGGYAAH!"
The sound escaped the girl. Fighting another contraction, simulated days came and went, a false sun rising and setting in her artificial sky. Time moved at its own pace, and Clarke was left to endure alone. A beadwork of sweat blanketed her trembling body, growing heavy with fatigue. Her belly, swollen with the alien life within, quivered in rhythmic, torturous waves.
Changing positions Clarke leaned on her bed frame, rocking, trying to find some form of relief for her tortured pelvis. Pressure has mounted in her lower abdomen. Her gravid form quaked with each new contraction. Panting through the previous one that wracked her body, Clarke collapsed on her elbows.
" Ahhh erugh "
Clarke felt she had been laboring forever. Her alien captors had delivered food, but the thought of consuming anything in her state stirred an upheaval in her already distressed stomach.
" Oh- Oh"
Clarke's face pinched up in pain, straining with the oncoming contraction. But this one felt different when, suddenly, a gush of liquid burst from her vagina. Looking down, Clarke blubbered in pain. Her waters had broken. With a strangely light purple tint, it spread against the clinical tile leaving Clark's body shaking in the aftermath.
Instinct and an inexplicable feminine force guided her, pulling her onto all fours and steering her hands toward the makeshift rope she had crafted. The sight of blood slowly flowing from her body, however, made the color drain from her already pale face.
"Breathe,"
A voice in the back of her mind ordered she obeyed, drawing desperate gulps of air between each crippling contraction.
Screaming and wailing in agony, her alien captors did nothing to help.
"Plu-Please- mom anyone- I can't I can, GYYAAHHGH"
A scream interrupted her pleas for help as a strong contraction ripped through every cell of her body. Her alien captors were neither cruel nor compassionate; they simply observed in the stoic silence of their species.
The pool of perspiration that had formed on the ground mirrored her anguished reflection. Clarke was becoming a pitiful sight, pushing life into her captive world. Dissolving into more sobs between contractions, the ever-present whimpers of "mom" escaping her.
Monstrous pain housed itself within her, different from the pangs she had previously endured. Mustering strength from her depths, she found herself squatting, guided by the invisible hand of Mother Nature. Clarke bore down, her form shaking under the stress as the alien creature that had resided in her for who knows how long descended deeper into her birth canal, stretching her n ways she never hopes to feel again.
"Get out, get out, get out."
Clarke shrieks out, giving another triumphant push. The creature was crowning, stretching her body to its limits.
Milk dribbled slowly from her breasts through clenched teeth and trembling limbs, besieged by pain, longing, and love. With a final push, she bore down and roared with a cry from the abyss of her endurance. The alien babe slipped from her, bathing the cold tiles in a mess of blood and birth fluids.
Clarke collapsed, the monumental effort seemed to have siphoned her spirit from her body. She lay on the cold, hard floor, body still trembling from the aftershocks of birth. Feeling tension on the cord that still connected her and the creature, her ears blossomed with sound as the fragile little life echoed its first cry.
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Clarke was still reeling from the primal depths of childbirth, an ordeal unlike any she had ever experienced. Deep breaths racked her weakened body as she summoned the courage to gaze upon the life she had created. Here, on the other side of pain and fear, she wheezed as she clung desperately to this surreal postpartum moment. She heard its soft cries, like white noise cutting through her flustered consciousness. Knowing she had to look down at whatever alien creature had come out of her body, her eyes connected with the brand-new being.
The baby was visibly slippery, doused in fluids that baptized her entry into this life. Clarke's hesitant hands reached out, cradling her child. The months of abduction and her "sessions" left her anchored in the reality of the moment. The creature looked relatively human, with soft pink lips that pouted in an infant's bewilderment, a cute button-like nose, five fingers, and five toes. Startlingly human-like. Even the umbilical cord, still throbbing rhythmically with lifeblood, was a poetic reminder of terrestrial origins.
The child's eyes though, were nothing short of extraordinary, a heavenly concoction of lavender dancing impatiently within its irises. The hair was a stark, stunning platinum, looking almost ghostly white, with a tuft of it on her head. Clarke gingerly guided the alien-human hybrid to her breast. The sensation was strange, the tiny pink mouth clamoring in desperation, and yet, in this singled-out corner of the galaxy, her heart throbbed with an intimate connection she'd never experienced before. Each suckle seemed to strengthen the bond that had been forged between them in her womb. Clarke murmured, her voice raw exhaustion dancing on its edges.
"Hey, I'm your mama."
The tiny, purple-eyed observer continued to suckle, staring up at her as if the universe were contained within.
"You're so beautiful."
Clarke's words slipped away on a tide of unshed joyous tears. All her torments, fears, and longing seemed minuscule, obscured by the soulful purple eyes that stared at her, arousing a fierce determination in Clarke.
"I can't believe you're mine."
The surreal odyssey of alien pregnancy had reached its destination here in the arms of Clarke. She wiped down the baby with tender strokes, delicately severing the umbilical cord. Comforting the infant once it had its fill, she swaddled it closely, her eyes tracing the delicate eyelids that battled with impending sleep. Thinking of all the people she wished were here and loved, her mind settled on a name.
"Lexa."
She whispered the name out. The baby made a soft cooing sound as if knowing the weight of the name.
"Hey Lexa"
Clarke kissed her soft forehead.
"I can't promise I'll be the perfect mom, but I'll do my best considering our circumstances." "I love you and I will never leave you."
A promise Clarke intended to keep as long as there was breath in her body. As Lexa, her little alien-hybrid, fell asleep in the comforting crook of her elbow, exhaustion finally caught up with the brave new mother. The pod silenced under the harmonious symphony of their synchronized breaths while Clarke's fingers curled around Lexa's tiny one. A promise of protection and a silent vow of motherhood wrapped around the room as she succumbed to the allure of sleep.
The infiniteness of space seemed less threatening, and loneliness seemed less painful, for in her arms, Clarke held a tiny piece of the cosmos that was her own.