A/N: Hey guys, I wrote this quite a while ago, and abandoned it, thinking that I would never be able to finish the story. But I came upon it yesterday, read through it a little and found that I like the story and would like to know what might happen next. To be honest, I never know how my story turns out until it's written out. And this story was actually heading in a different direction before I picked it up again yesterday. I still would not be able to promise that I might finish this story, but I will try my best. I hope you guys would like it as much as I do.
Onto the story, this first chapter is more about backstory than the story itself.
I can read you like a book
Chapter 1: I can read you like a book, or not.
Hundreds of years ago, something happened and changed everything that we know.
It would have been considered a very insignificant occurrence in the history of Earth… except it wasn't. It was a tiny explosion, not very noticeable at all.
But nonetheless, it caused a significant change; the building that had caused the explosion was a laboratory. It was a state government secret, delving deep into biological alteration, splicing and several other unspeakable biological researches that would be better left unsaid.
That particular day, a stupid enough scientist caused an explosion while carrying out a top secret experiment. The whole lab exploded and burned down, no one in that building survived. All evidence and clue of what the building hid inside was destroyed.
And of course, that wasn't the worst of the problems that had arisen. Everything went on as usual for a short month or so after that.
And then, all of a sudden people started dying… A lot of people went to the hospital for various pains they were going through. Almost none of the victims survived and things got worse, the doctors and medical personnel also started getting the infection and ended up dead too.
Whatever disease was causing people to drop dead like flies; started from the point of explosion and slowly spread out, like a circle expanding from that point. The spread was unaffected by wind, pressure, or temperature – only by its surety to spread in all direction unimpeded.
One thing was clear, whatever disease that had affected the people didn't act on its first contact… The effect can only be seen after a month. So that's why, only a month after the explosion, the effects were starting to be seen on people.
The explosion was started in United States of America. News spread, faster than the spread of whatever biological disease was going on, countries after countries closed off their borders, not wanting to let anyone carrying this devastating "disease" into their border.
What they had not predicted was that, it spread anyway. Some other countries yet unaffected decided to make a run for it… into space, with whatever resources they could salvage and run. Nobody knew what happened to those in space, but they were probably safe. Others hide in special bases or shelters, hoping that it would bypass them. That didn't work at all, as they also started suffering or dying from it. Finally the world was covered with this disease, virus or whatever it is. It is now called, the A Revolutionary Clone, ARC for short.
ARC is unlike any disease anyone has ever seen, it comes in contact with you, buries into your skin. One ARC virus is enough to affect your whole body. It goes directly into your blood stream and implants itself into the nucleus of any of your living cells. Changing everything inside (that's what gave it the name as 'Revolutionary'), starting first with your DNA.
This is merely the start, after the complete alteration of one cell. It starts killing off your other "normal" living cells and replacing them with a clone of the altered cell. This goes on… until you die, unable to take the "revolution".
Some others, who could withstand such revolution however, started to experience extreme pain in only one certain part of their body. Such that one person could suffer from pain in both eyes while another person could suffer from pain in both legs. There are several different sort of pains that survivors experienced: it could be the head, the nose, eyes, mouth, teeth, hands, legs, or even the whole body.
Although there are survivors after ARC had been imbedded in them, many of them still die, from being unable to withstand the pain coursing through their body. Many of them died in horrible ways: some pulled their own skin off their bodies, others amputated themselves to rid them of painful limbs, some even took out their own eyes; there are also several less gory deaths, such as shooting themselves in the head or heart. Although there are ALSO survivors who after severing themselves of their most "affected" body parts, didn't die from blood loss or infections.
Finally after a long time, which we now call the end of the "revolution", people ended up with super powers. The powers were relevant to the pain experienced: such that one who experienced leg pains ended up with super speed, one with eyes pain has super sight, or laser eyes and so on. There were many weird new super powers.
Unluckily for the people who dismembered themselves of their painful body parts, they ended up being what we now call "Disabled", meaning they do not possess any super powers. And oddly enough, even though the Disabled's DNA had been altered, any offspring of the Disabled would produce a Disabled child even if the other parent had powers.
The most common powers that people possessed are super speed, extreme elasticity or flexibility, super strength, laser eyes, shapeshifting, cloning, super hearing, super sight and super whatever and so on.
The more uncommon abilities would be any sorts of elements manipulation such as fire breathing, freezer (the ability to freeze anything with the look of an eye), electric whip etc., mind reading, animation (to move the undead and inanimate objects) and many more under that catergory.
The rare abilities are those who possess two abilities, or those who can manipulate others' abilities such as power negation (cancel another person's power for a period of time), power thief (mimic another's ability for a set amount of time, but unable to mimic ALL abilities such as the rarest kinds, power control kind or mind control stuffs).
The rarest of all abilities are mostly the scariest, such as time stopping (but time stopping always has a limit of ten minutes, so be not so afraid), immortality (shoot them in the heart, throw them in lava or whatever will never kill them, unless by old age), resurrection (to bring back the dead, but only if they have died less than 5 minutes ago), power neutralizer (no one within a certain radius of them can use any abilities at all), environment control (manipulation of multiple elements), mind control (they can control anyone – even one's partner of a hundred years would not be able to fight it, and would kill their partners on command) and maybe a few more. Lucky for us, people with such abilities HARDLY EVER exist.
There is also a strange rumour which I would like to address about people with three abilities, that is not physically possible in our world.
And that should conclude our history lecture as of today, next week we will exploring into the wars that happened after the "revolution". As most of you should know… unless you know nothing about history. The war was between every single survivor, the Disabled and the ARCs. The ARCs had no control of their own powers when they had first obtained them, The Disableds' were fearful of the ARCs. And by the end of all wars, our Supreme Commander was the one who ended it all, saved us all. That's why we are all here, happy, safe and in a school. The first of the wars was called The Sur-
"Professor, wasn't that supposed to be next lecture?" Shouted Octavia, she is a nice student, except that she loves lunch and would hate to spend lunch time in a lecture.
"Right, thank you for the reminder," said Professor Kane.
"As of now, have a great week, students. And remember, do not simply play with your abilities around in public, it is not ALWAYS good to reveal too much to people. And do not fight with your abilities in public."
With that, all the students started packing their stuffs and getting ready for lunch.
The fastest one out of the classroom was Jasper, with his super speed, followed by his friend, Monty, a superhuman mentality, meaning he is a genius.
Clarke knows all about this and she ALWAYS knows. She is REALLY special and nobody knows about it, not even her parents or her friends. Mind readers thought her to be a mind reader, since a mind reader could not read another mind reader's mind; everyone else (except for a selected few) knows her as a Disabled. Even though both of her parents are ARCs, people still thought she is a Disabled. It happens from time to time, a Disabled would be born from two ARCs, not often though.
When Professor Kane mentioned the rumour about people with three abilities, Clarke almost flinched at that. Key word: ALMOST. She has three abilities, three combined together to make her a very formidable and probably the scariest person alive.
Clarke is a mind reader, but she also has mind control and power thief. That PRETTY much means she has all kinds of abilities. And she can just KNOW anyone's ability because she can read their minds.
Octavia, her best friend, is a fire breather and a metal materializer (ability to materialize any form or shape or kind of metal out of thin air), packed her bag quickly and came to Clarke's side. She knew only that Clarke is a mind reader and nothing else.
Raven followed shortly after Octavia, she is a technopathy (ability to manipulate technology) and a damn genius without that mentality power. Raven also has the privy knowledge of Clarke's mind reading ability... only.
"Are you ready yet? I can't wait to get to the cafeteria," Octavia exclaimed. Today was Wednesday, it was technically known as dessert day, as there would be various desserts to select from. And it was definitely one of Octavia's favorite days.
Clarke swiftly packed her stuffs and led her friends to the cafeteria.
They picked up whatever they wanted for lunch and met with their group, or precisely it was known in school as Clarke's group. Only the people in Clarke's group and her parents knew about her mind reading ability.
Clarke's group consists of Octavia, Raven, Bellamy (Super strength and super speed) and Wells (Teleport and Cloning). Clarke's group is one of the most popular groups in the school, due to the presence of Octavia, Bellamy and Wells, since all of them possessed two abilities. Although Raven probably contributed to the popularity too, for she is a genius, plus she is also hot.
Some people just do not understand though, how Clarke is the leader of the group when she is pretty much a nobody (Disabled), except for being a pretty face.
Clarke is the leader of the group, pretty much because she is the one who holds them together. Raven is Clarke's sister (adopted), Wells is Clarke's childhood friend, Octavia is Clarke's childhood best friend and Bellamy came along after, he is really protective of his younger sister.
Since Clarke was young, as a mind reader, she learnt not to show any emotion other than happy. Smile, laugh and poker face contributes all of Clarke's facial expressions. The only ones who have ever seen Clarke break down in tears were Raven and Octavia, and that was the day her father died.
Half way through lunch time, loud murmurs started going off in every direction. Slightly curious, Clarke zoned in on people's thoughts to try to comprehend what was going on. That was when Jasper jumped to the table to announce the big news, which Clarke already knew.
"Guys, the Supreme Commander's daughter will be enrolling into our school!" Jasper pretty much shouted. He is always the one who bring news to their table.
And then Monty with his boyfriend, Miller, walked over; followed by Maya and Harper. He shyly greeted them all. Monty and Clarke shared several classes together, they are considered good friends.
"You're joking! The Supreme Commander's daughter? Wouldn't she like a total badass? Lashing with her family's environment control?" Octavia fired questions after questions in her excitement, "Wouldn't she take away the first place from our group? Do you think we could make friends with her? Do you think she would wanna hang with us?"
The first place referred to competitions they join as a group, a fighting competition. Mostly with the use of one's powers.
Clarke chuckled and asked Octavia to calm down. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll be fine. Clarke will know what to do if it comes down to that," Bellamy answered, referring to the competitions. Clarke always knows what to do and makes plans and predictions for a fight before it even begins.
Raven then supplied her thoughts, "We wouldn't even know if the rumour is true anyways, The SC lives so far away, our city is not as grand as others, why would he send her here?"
Jasper and his group decided to seat themselves at Clarke's table as he motioned for everyone to circle around as he whispered another news, "I heard the Supreme Commander is sending his daughter here, not just for school, I heard it was for a test. I think something is happening."
"Like what?" Clarke asked, genuinely curious. Although Clarke could read minds, she prefers not to do it most of the time.
"I'm not sure, that is all the information I have, but I know! Something is happening, where we cannot see," Jasper still whispered with the same low voice.
Even if Jasper is quiet, the news would soon spread anyways, since people with super hearing could probably hear him.
"Sounds interesting, I wonder if His daughter is hot," Raven said with a smirk.
There is never much news about the Supreme Commander's family, they are very secretive. Rightfully so too; throughout history, a lot of people have tried to assassinate any Supreme Commander's children when they are still young and unable to grasp the use of their ability properly. Abilities are commonly passed down through the generations although many times, the children's ability could be different from their parents. Although it's also been said that the Supreme Commander's ability is usually always passed down; that ability being environment control – the ability to manipulate wood, water, earth, fire, wind, electricity at will.
"He has two daughters, I heard. The older one is Anya and the younger one being Lexa. I heard Lexa would be the next Supreme Commander as she holds the power," Jasper whispered conspiratorially.
"I always wondered how you know all of these information," Wells asked suspiciously.
"I never reveal my sources!" Jasper beamed proudly as Maya giggled at her boyfriend's cocky look. Wells just stared suspiciously. Clarke knows of Jasper's so-called "sources" but she doesn't say anything, Jasper's group doesn't know of Clarke's ability. Jasper's "sources" being that his mother worked for the Supreme Commander as a cleaner; Jasper talks to his mother often through online messengers. You know how in a big mansion/castle sort of place, the knights would sometimes gossip among themselves and other occupants of the place somehow got hold of these news. That was how, but Clarke kept her mouth shut and just smile.
Wells was going to say something else just as the warning bell rang.
"Oops, gotta run, see ya guys," Jasper picked up Maya and ran off with his super speed. Monty, Harper and Miller just slowly excused themselves. After the group exchanged their goodbye's, they all went to their own classes.
The day went by quickly and classes were over, Clarke, Raven, Octavia, Bellamy and Wells walked back home together as they live in the same neighborhood.
When Clarke and Raven got back home, it was empty like always. Abby is usually busy working at the hospital, she is good at what she does. She is a healer, which makes her even more valuable in her field. Although she always blamed herself that she wasn't able to save her own husband. After the death of Jake, she usually tried to busy herself with work to redeem herself.
Clarke never blamed her for anything, because she knows that life is just the way it is, you can't save everyone when their time is up. So she chose to just remember the happy times she used to spend with her father. She wanted to talk to Abby about how she should stop blaming herself, but she never had the chance to do so.
"Abby said she prepared dinner and it's in the microwave. And we can just heat it up when we are hungry," Raven's voice broke through Clarke's heavy train of thoughts.
"Ok," was Clarke's curt reply.
Seeing Clarke's solemn response, Raven quickly spoke up to dissolve the mood, "Remember, the TV's mine from 7 to 8. I need to watch that obviously lesbian bachelorette dump all those straight guys." It worked as it got a laugh off of Clarke, "Okay, although I'm still not convinced that she's a lesbian."
"Keep watching and we'll see," Raven winked before she rushed off upstairs to do her assignments. Clarke just shook her head before she went to her own room and started on her own assignments.
The next day, an assembly was called forth in the morning and every teachers and students were gathered in the auditorium. Although Clarke noticed there appeared to be hidden guards lurking in the shadows. There was loud chattering everywhere, all the students trying to predict what was happening today.
Principal Jaha got onto the stage and silence fell instantly. He greeted everyone in his customary speech with his booming voice, made a few announcements.
After it seemed as though that was all the announcements for the day, Principal Jaha still stood at the pedestal unmoving. A deafening silence was throbbing with tension in the whole auditorium.
Finally broken when he spoke up again, "Students, I know there have been rumour regarding the Supreme Commander's daughter. And today, I would like to confirm the rumour going around. Everyone, welcome…"
Loud footsteps were heard before a girl similar to Clarke's age appeared from behind the backstage. She was followed by three other girls and one boy.
"… Alexandria, The Supreme Commander's youngest and her sister, Anya."
With that, he bowed to the girls and stepped down from the pedestal, allowing her to take over.
Normally, Clarke doesn't read others' mind, but she does when she is assessing her opponent's strengths and weaknesses. Which means that she always read minds during a competition. And if Clarke's group would ever have to fight the Supreme Commander's daughters' group, she would need this knowledge now.
Clarke watched and analyzed the newcomers, using her mind reading powers. The boy, whose name is Lincoln, is Anya's personal guard and childhood friend of the sisters. He looked imposing with his large built. His power is golem transformation – his ability to be able to transform into a stone golem made out of huge boulders, providing immunity to most attacks and giving him super strength but slow and cumbersome; or into a wind golem, mostly transparent and easily hidden, giving him super speed but decreased strength. "Interesting power. I guess it's one or the other."
The two girls behind Lexa, Echo and Monroe, they are both Lexa's personal guards and close friends to the sisters. Echo has super hearing and supersonic scream – which, do not underestimate this power, it could cause serious damage, both to targeted person and the affected area around the target. "I wonder if she was named after her power was discovered." Monroe is a griffin shifter – a half lion, half eagle, after the shift, she would possess the ability of flight and strength and agility of a griffin. "Why am I not a griffin shifter? I am a Griffin, granddad was a griffin shifter too. I wonder if she and I are related."
As she was about to check Anya, a voice that commands attention and respect rings out from the girl on the pedestal, Lexa, thought Clarke.
"Thank you for welcoming us to your lovely school, Principal Jaha," Lexa first addressed the principal before she addressed the students. But the speech was lost to Clarke as she tried to analyze Lexa but somehow couldn't. The next thing she knows, Lexa was staring right into Clarke's eyes.
It was the greenest and most expressive eyes Clarke had ever seen. Even though her whole body was rigid and controlled, her face void of emotion, her eyes are so expressive and so beautiful. But what the eyes are showing Clarke now is not good, they are showing displeasure. Since Clarke couldn't read Lexa, she observed her. Lexa has beautiful brown wavy locks, cute little nose, plump lips, strong arms and legs and a body to die for. Clarke looked up into those beautiful green eyes again, and this time she sees amusement and a slight almost nonexistent smile tugging at a corner of her lips. Clarke quickly looked down with a small show of bowing her head in embarrassment for being caught trying to read Lexa and staring.
Although to say the least, Clarke was surprised. She couldn't read Lexa's mind, could it be that she is also a mind reader? But then again, a mind reader would not know if you tried to read their mind and failed. There is something different about Lexa, but what is it?
A/N: And in the end, I would like to apologize if I made a lot of typos in the story. Enjoy, review and favorites would be most welcome. Thanks, with love.