History Fanfic / LightningOnlyStrikesOnce

* AscendedExtra: From Lexa's perspective, this applies to Wells; while he died before she even met Clarke in the original timeline, in the new history he lives to be appointed the Skaikru ambassador to the Coalition, using his political experience from the Ark to negotiate agreements with the other ambassadors (justifying this as Skaikru don't have the same negative history as the other twelve so nobody's angry at him for past acts), and even becomes a close personal friend to Lexa.

* ClosestThingWeGot: When planning to infiltrate [[spoiler:Diane Sydney's group with John (whose father is one of her followers)]], Raven notes that their Grounder guide would have to be Lexa, despite the risks of bringing the Commander into enemy territory, as every other available Grounder would never be accepted as a runaway from their people (Lincoln's too built for anyone in the enemy camp to relax, Zion is too old for anyone not to suspect he's using the escapees, and Anya just ''can't'' look non-threatening).

* DemotedToExtra: Bellamy isn't present in a majority of the important events of the show and instead stays in [=TonDC=] as a teacher for Grounder children. [[spoiler:This was deliberate on Lexa's part as she didn't want to risk a future where Bellamy betrays Clarke and starts another potential war like he did in the first timeline so she wanted him as far away from a position of fighting as possible.]]

* DiscOneFinalBoss: For the first 60 or so chapters of the story the main conflict that the heroes have to contend against is The Mountain Men especially since [[spoiler:Emerson is aware of the original timeline and has informed Cage Wallace about it]]. However at the end of chapter 61 [[spoiler:the alliance is able to knock out the majority of the mountain using jobi nuts and, by the end of chapter 64, the majority of the captured Maunon are executed and the few allowed to live are integrated into the Skaikru]]. The remainder of the story revolves around Lexa and co going after Nia and the Azgeda [[spoiler:for their part in helping the Mountain and for kidnapping Clarke and stealing a nuclear missile.]]

* EntertaininglyWrong: When Lexa first sees Wells, she assumes that she can disregard him as unimportant as she doesn't recognise him. As she and Clarke spend more time together in this new timeline, she comes to consider Wells a friend in her own right, and explicitly tells him later that the other world was poorer for not having him in it.

* FamilyOfChoice: In contrast to her isolation in canon, Lexa comes to realise that she has formed a new family that goes beyond herself and Clarke, with the Nightbloods as her children and others such as Wells, Raven, Octavia, Lincoln, Anya, Gustus, and Zion giving her a sense of family, to the extent that they make plans to allow her and Clarke to take a month off after their bonding to enjoy a honeymoon.
* GoingNative: As Clarke notes to herself her time with the Trikru has caused her to use their language more even in her own thoughts and she no longer views herself as a Sky Person.

* InternalReveal: When Clarke finds out that [[spoiler:Lexa also has memories of the timeline she came from.]]

* LighterAndSofter: As part of her efforts to reform Grounder civilisation, Lexa suggests an alternative system of choosing a new Commander where the new Commander will appoint an heir before their death or the ambassadors can vote on a heir if the Commander dies before one can be chosen. While Lexa's personal goal is to create a scenario where none of her current Naitblida will have to kill each other, she justifies it to the ambassadors by observing that this method ensures that there will always be more Nightbloods available to take the Flame if the new Commander dies too soon after their ascension rather than having to find more after the last crop have been killed.

* MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch: After resetting the timeline Clarke is now no longer under any illusions about the hypocrisy and bigotry that a lot of the Sky People possess towards the Grounders. After [[spoiler:she is proclaimed the Kongeda of the Coalition]] Clarke expresses relieve as this means she no longer has to defend actions her people take which are inexcusable.

* RulesLawyer: Lexa demonstrates this when coming with the new rules for choosing a new commander by preventing potential future obstacles, such as arguing that the ambassadors can vote on a new Commander if the previous one hasn't chosen an heir themselves before death to give the ambassadors at least the illusion of more power, or ruling out the idea of a Nightblood becoming the Flamekeeper as that creates a scenario where a future Nightblood might be able to make themselves Commander rather than making a more practical choice (she trusts that none of her current Nightbloods would do such a thing, but recognises that there is a risk of this happening in future).

* AscendedExtra: From Lexa's perspective, this applies to Wells; while he died before she even met Clarke in the original timeline, in the new history he lives to be appointed the Skaikru ambassador to the Coalition, using his political experience from the Ark to negotiate agreements with the other ambassadors (justifying this as Skaikru don't have the same negative history as the other twelve so nobody's angry at him for past acts), and even becomes a close personal friend to Lexa, to the point that she tells him that the other world was poorer for his absence.

* PrecrimeArrest: Basically the reason [[spoiler:Lexa kills Pike, as she has observed the way he reacted to learning that anyone was alive on the ground and recognised that he would never be willing to adapt to the situation]]; however, most of the time Clarke and Lexa are determined to avoid judging people for what they did in the first history, to the extent that Lexa acknowledges that Finn killing the villagers in the original timeline was an exceptional case for him and leaving him alive (even if she still takes care that he'll never get the chance to be in that situation again by preventing him becoming a soldier).

* RookieRedRanger: Technically not the most powerful, but [[spoiler:Wells essentially takes on a leadership role for the other twelve ambassadors when he’s appointed as Skaikru’s Ambassador to the Coalition while Clarke and Lexa are absent and even after they return, albeit through a process of explaining everything calmly and rationally until they go along with it; Wells argues that he only fell into the position of leader because Skaikru don’t have a history with the other clans so nobody resents him for some past slight and thus find it easier to follow his orders]].

* RealityEnsues: Explosives are treated with greater respect and apprehension in this world than they were in the original timeline, when the 100 used explosives impulsively in their initial conflicts with the Grounders and thus robbed them of much of their existing mystique; [[spoiler:Wells and Aden use this against the Ice Nation by planting bombs at the border to deter attacks]].

* AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: In chapter 64 [[spoiler:Clarke is publicly given the honour of being named Clarke kom Kongeda the second in command of the Coalition and second only to Lexa in power.]]

* ChekhovsArmoury: There are numerous examples of throwaway lines or events that later become significant. Perhaps the most memorable is when Clarke and Octavia [[spoiler:each briefly comfort a sick Grounder child, which lets them give Emerson, Cage and Tsing a double dose of the fast-acting plague in a gambit to make them think they are dying of radiation exposure.]]

* LighterAndSofter: As part of her efforts to reform Grounder civilisation, Lexa suggests an alternative system of choosing a new Commander where the new Commander will appoint an heir before their death or the ambassadors can vote on an heir if the Commander dies before one can be chosen. While Lexa's personal goal is to create a scenario where none of her current Naitblida will have to kill each other, she justifies it to the ambassadors by observing that this method ensures that there will always be more Nightbloods available to take the Flame if the new Commander dies too soon after their ascension rather than having to find more after the last crop have been killed.

** After the metric ton of [[ShipTease ship teasing]] the two had over the majority of the story [[spoiler:Raven and Anya become a couple at the end of chapter 117.]]

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Lexa is able to set herself up as one with Clarke’s help to mitigate and avoid the more negative effects of her actions the first time around. This is most prominent when she alters the rules for ‘Blood Must Have Blood’ in a manner that makes it clear that she won’t condemn an entire clan for the sins of their leaders without giving the impression that she’s become weak, such as sparing around eighty of the Maunon who hadn’t personally done anything to any of the captured members of the Coalition, and affirming that any of the Ice Nation who help them against Nia won’t be punished for their Queen’s actions.

* RulesLawyer: Lexa demonstrates this when coming with the new rules for choosing a new commander by preventing potential future obstacles, such as arguing that the ambassadors can vote on a new Commander if the previous one hasn't chosen an heir themselves before death, or ruling out the idea of a Nightblood becoming the Flamekeeper as that creates a scenario where a future Nightblood might be able to make themselves Commander rather than making a more practical choice (she trusts that none of her current Nightbloods would do such a thing, but recognises that there is a risk of this happening in future).

* CallingTheOldManOut: Clarke and Wells do this to Jaha once he arrives on Earth, with Clarke establishing her authority over him and Wells attempting to discreetly ‘control’ his father’s attempts to take charge by forcing him to acknowledge his cultural ignorance.

* CultureClash: Raven in particular attempts to use this theme when making a few jokes, such as [[spoiler:telling Abby that Trikru tradition would require her to attend Clarke and LexaÂ’s wedding wearing a bear-skin with a head-dress including boarÂ’s tusks to prove the strength of ClarkeÂ’s bloodline, and telling Anya that Skaikru traditions mean that they need to write a thirty-line poem in their role as bridesmaids for the wedding to be blessed by the Star-Lords. Lincoln turns this against her by claiming that RavenÂ’s advice that he tell Bellamy that he wants an open relationship with Octavia means that Lincoln and Bellamy must now engage in a fight to the death after Bellamy struck Lincoln in public]].

* DoUntoOthersBeforeTheyDoUntoUs: Clarke and Lexa explicitly speculate that [[spoiler:Emerson is encouraging Mount Weather to escalate their actions against the Coalition based on this premise, although Clarke was planning to at least try and find a more diplomatic solution before EmersonÂ’s actions forced them to fight back]].

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Clarke explicitly refers to Wells as the closest thing sheÂ’s ever had to a brother, and while Wells was initially hurt when he realised that Clarke was now involved with Lexa, he later assures Lexa that heÂ’s happy for them as he now retains his existing bond with Clarke rather than risk losing it by trying for something more and failing.

* MortonsFork: Invoked when Lexa observes that the Ice Nation forces who almost capture her and the others during their search for Clarke have a series of bad options once they realise that she is a Nightblood (Lexa not revealing that she is the Commander and claiming to just be one of the Nightbloods from Polis); they will starve if they keep serving Diane Sydney’s Skaikru forces in the village Nia has given them, the Skaikru will kill them if they don’t provide them with food, and Nia will kill them if they harm ‘Saska’ and she turns out to be Ontari, so the only scenario where the villagers live is the one where Lexa is telling the truth that she doesn’t serve Nia and her current captors choose to trust her.

* NotSoStoic: When Raven starts panicking at the idea that she may have provoked a situation where Bellamy and Lincoln have to fight to the death, even Anya and Lincoln canÂ’t resist smiling.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Lexa is able to set herself up as one with Clarke’s help to mitigate and avoid the more negative effects of her actions the first time around. This is most prominent when she alters the rules for ‘Blood Must Have Blood’ in a manner that makes it clear that she won’t condemn an entire clan for the sins of their leaders without giving the impression that she’s become weak, such as sparing around eighty of the Maunon who hadn’t personally done anything to any of the captured members of the Coalition, and affirming that any of the Ice Nation who help them against Nia won’t be punished for their Queen’s actions.
* RookieRedRanger: Technically not the most powerful, but [[spoiler:Wells essentially takes on a leadership role for the other twelve ambassadors when heÂ’s appointed as SkaikruÂ’s Ambassador to the Coalition while Clarke and Lexa are absent and even after they return, albeit through a process of explaining everything calmly and rationally until they go along with it; Wells argues that he only fell into the position of leader because Skaikru donÂ’t have a history with the other clans so nobody resents him for some past slight and thus find it easier to follow his orders]].

** Lexa reflects that this applies to her and ClarkeÂ’s choices to get their bonding tattoos done on LexaÂ’s left side and ClarkeÂ’s right, each reflecting their near-crippling injuries; LexaÂ’s left arm and ClarkeÂ’s right leg will never be as strong as they could be, but the other will always fight to protect their weakness and thus ensure that they will be stronger together than apart.

* StopWorshippingMe: Although Lexa and Clarke [[spoiler:dislike their near-deification after the war with the Azgeda, they decide that itÂ’s better to work on gradually dispelling these assumptions rather than denounce them completely as they recognise the advantages of being thought of as immortals]].

* UnwantedFalseFaith: To a degree, as [[spoiler:Clarke and Lexa are each uncomfortable at their near-deification after the war with the Azgeda, with Clarke as Wanheda (the Commander of Death) and Lexa as Newanen (the Undying); Lexa herself explicitly muses that, while her people now believe she can command where their souls will go after death, she is content to have ‘command’ of her own soul]].

* CallingTheOldManOut: Clarke and Wells do this to Jaha once he arrives on Earth, with Clarke establishing her authority over him and Wells attempting to discreetly ‘control’ his father’s attempts to take charge by forcing him to acknowledge his cultural ignorance.

* CultureClash: Raven in particular attempts to use this theme when making a few jokes, such as [[spoiler:telling Abby that Trikru tradition would require her to attend Clarke and Lexa’s wedding wearing a bear-skin with a head-dress including boar’s tusks to prove the strength of Clarke’s bloodline, and telling Anya that Skaikru traditions mean that they need to write a thirty-line poem in their role as bridesmaids for the wedding to be blessed by the Star-Lords. Lincoln turns this against her by claiming that Raven’s advice that he tell Bellamy that he wants an open relationship with Octavia means that Lincoln and Bellamy must now engage in a fight to the death after Bellamy struck Lincoln in public]].

* DoUntoOthersBeforeTheyDoUntoUs: Clarke and Lexa explicitly speculate that [[spoiler:Emerson is encouraging Mount Weather to escalate their actions against the Coalition based on this premise, although Clarke was planning to at least try and find a more diplomatic solution before Emerson’s actions forced them to fight back]].

* LikeBrotherAndSister: Clarke explicitly refers to Wells as the closest thing she’s ever had to a brother, and while Wells was initially hurt when he realised that Clarke was now involved with Lexa, he later assures Lexa that he’s happy for them as he now retains his existing bond with Clarke rather than risk losing it by trying for something more and failing.

* MortonsFork: Invoked when Lexa observes that the Ice Nation forces who almost capture her and the others during their search for Clarke have a series of bad options once they realise that she is a Nightblood (Lexa not revealing that she is the Commander and claiming to just be one of the Nightbloods from Polis); they will starve if they keep serving Diane Sydney’s Skaikru forces in the village Nia has given them, the Skaikru will kill them if they don’t provide them with food, and Nia will kill them if they harm ‘Saska’ and she turns out to be Ontari, so the only scenario where the villagers live is the one where Lexa is telling the truth that she doesn’t serve Nia and her current captors choose to trust her.

* NotSoStoic: When Raven starts panicking at the idea that she may have provoked a situation where Bellamy and Lincoln have to fight to the death, even Anya and Lincoln can’t resist smiling.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Lexa is able to set herself up as one with Clarke’s help to mitigate and avoid the more negative effects of her actions the first time around. This is most prominent when she alters the rules for ‘Blood Must Have Blood’ in a manner that makes it clear that she won’t condemn an entire clan for the sins of their leaders without giving the impression that she’s become weak, such as sparing around eighty of the Maunon who hadn’t personally done anything to any of the captured members of the Coalition, and affirming that any of the Ice Nation who help them against Nia won’t be punished for their Queen’s actions.
* RookieRedRanger: Technically not the most powerful, but [[spoiler:Wells essentially takes on a leadership role for the other twelve ambassadors when he’s appointed as Skaikru’s Ambassador to the Coalition while Clarke and Lexa are absent and even after they return, albeit through a process of explaining everything calmly and rationally until they go along with it; Wells argues that he only fell into the position of leader because Skaikru don’t have a history with the other clans so nobody resents him for some past slight and thus find it easier to follow his orders]].

** Lexa reflects that this applies to her and Clarke’s choices to get their bonding tattoos done on Lexa’s left side and Clarke’s right, each reflecting their near-crippling injuries; Lexa’s left arm and Clarke’s right leg will never be as strong as they could be, but the other will always fight to protect their weakness and thus ensure that they will be stronger together than apart.

* StopWorshippingMe: Although Lexa and Clarke [[spoiler:dislike their near-deification after the war with the Azgeda, they decide that it’s better to work on gradually dispelling these assumptions rather than denounce them completely as they recognise the advantages of being thought of as immortals]].

* UnwantedFalseFaith: To a degree, as [[spoiler:Clarke and Lexa are each uncomfortable at their near-deification after the war with the Azgeda, with Clarke as Wanheda (the Commander of Death) and Lexa as Newanen (the Undying); Lexa herself explicitly muses that, while her people now believe she can command where their souls will go after death, she is content to have ‘command’ of her own soul]].

* PrecrimeArrest: Basically the reason [[spoiler:Lexa kills Pike, as she has observed the way he reacted to learning that anyone was alive on the ground and recognised that he would never be willing to adapt to the situation]]; however, most of the time Clarke and Lexa are determined to avoid judging people for what they did in the first history, to the extent that Lexa acknowledges that Finn killing the villagers in the original timeline was an exceptional case for him (even if she still takes care that he'll never get the chance to be in that situation again).

* RulesLawyer: Lexa demonstrates this when coming with the new rules for choosing a new commander by preventing potential future obstacles, such as arguing that the ambassadors can vote on a new Commander if the previous one hasn't chosen an heir themselves before death, or ruling out the idea of a Nightblood becoming the Flamekeeper as that creates a scenario where a future Nightblood might be able to make themselves Commander rather than making a more practical choice.

* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: While Clarke briefly kicks around ideas of negotiating with Mount Weather to try and broker some kind of armistice, that option goes by the boards almost immediately in favor of vanquishing the Mountain as a threat.

* KneelBeforeFrodo: Much like in canon Lexa kneels to Clarke in order to solidify their alliance. [[spoiler:However unlike in canon she does so in front of the entire gathered Grounder army in order to show the respect she has for Clarke as the Mountain Slayer and to name her the second in command of the coalition]].

* PrecrimeArrest: Basically the reason [[spoiler:Lexa kills Pike, as she has observed the way he reacted to learning that anyone was alive on the ground and recognised that he would never be willing to adapt to the situation]]; however, most of the time Clarke and Lexa are determined to avoid judging people for what they did in the first history.

* RuleOfSymbolism: Lexa reflects that this applies to her and Clarke’s choices to get their bonding tattoos done on Lexa’s left side and Clarke’s right, each reflecting their near-crippling injuries; Lexa’s left arm and Clarke’s right leg will never be as strong as they could be, but the other will always fight to protect their weakness and thus ensure that they will be stronger together than apart.

* RealityEnsues: Explosives are treated with greater respect and apprehension in this world than they were in canon, when the 100 used explosives impulsively in their initial conflicts with the Grounders and thus robbed them of much of their existing mystique; [[spoiler:Wells and Aden use this against the Ice Nation by planting bombs at the border to deter attacks]].
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Lexa is able to set herself up as one with Clarke’s help to mitigate and avoid the more negative effects of her actions the first time around, altering the rules for ‘Blood Must Have Blood’ in a manner that makes it clear that she won’t condemn an entire clan for the sins of their leaders without giving the impression that she’s become weak, such as sparing around eighty of the Maunon who hadn’t personally done anything to any of the captured members of the Coalition and affirming that any of the Ice Nation who help them against Nia won’t be punished for their Queen’s actions.

* CultureClash: Raven in particular attempts to use this theme when making a few jokes, such as [[spoiler:telling Abby that Trikru tradition would require her to attend Clarke and Lexa’s wedding wearing a bear-skin with a head-dress including boar’s tusks to prove the strength of Clarke’s bloodline, and telling Anya that Skaikru traditions mean that they need to write a thirty-line poem in their role as bridesmaids for the wedding to be blessed by the Star-Lords, although Lincoln turns this against her by claiming that Raven’s advice that he tell Bellamy that he wants an open relationship with Octavia means that Lincoln and Bellamy must now engage in a fight to the death after Bellamy struck Lincoln in public]].

* RealityEnsues: Explosives are treated with greater respect and apprehension in this world than they were in canon, when the 100 used explosives impulsively in their initial conflicts with the Grounders and thus robbed them of much of their existing mystique.

* StarCrossedLovers: Gustus and Zion believe that this applies to them, as Gustus expresses concern that a relationship would distract them from their duties even if Zion becomes the new Flamekeeper, but Clarke assures him that Lexa would want them both to be happy.

''Lightning Only Strikes Once'' is a [[PeggySue time travel fic]] written by '''fiona_249''', involving Clarke being sent back in time (or rather, her mental essence is sent back) when she stands atop the tower in Polis and is struck by lightning.

** After the metric tonne of [[ShipTease ship teasing]] the two had over the majority of the story [[spoiler:Raven and Anya become a couple at the end of chapter 117.]]