Title: The Choices We Make

Fandom: Repo! The Genetic Opera

Genre: Drama/ Romance/ Alternate Universe

Rating: Teen (may be subject to change)

Pairing: Shilo/Graverobber

Spoilers: General knowledge of the movie is advised, though this is an AU fic.

Summary: Shilo is the youngest of GeneCo founder Rotti Largo's four kids, and lives a fairly good life. Until she overhears an argument between her father and Blind Mag. Shilo begins to wonder exactly how much of her life is a lie?

Author's Notes: This is an AU fic that has been wriggling around in the back of my brain for a while. Let me know if you would like me to continue. Unbetaed, so all mistakes are mine.

Luigi, Pavi and Amber's ages at Shilo's birth I've set at 22, 17, and 12 respectively for the purpose of this story.

….17 Years Ago….

Rotti Largo stared down at the crying infant in the Gentern's arms. Had Marni never fled this child would have been his--not Nathan Wallace's. He glanced at the police hauling the distraught man way in handcuffs then at the dead body of the woman on the floor. No. This child would be his. Luigi and Pavi were already proving themselves as disappointments and he feared it was already too late to correct the mistakes he'd made with Amber. He took the baby from the Gentern. Yes, he'd raise Shilo as his. Penance, he thought to Marni. You left me and forced my hand, but I'll raise her for you. It was fitting, he decided.

"Clean this up," he ordered tersely and left with the infant cradled in his arms, the Gentern hurrying to keep up.

Chapter 1

Shilo turned the page of the book she was reading, not really seeing the words. She felt restless, edgy, and she couldn't seem to put her finger on why. Her siblings had been summoned to their father's office and Shilo had been politely told to wait downstairs. No surprise there. She didn't know what they had done this time to warrant Rotti Largo's ire, and she was quite certain she didn't want to know. It was always something, though, lately--either separately or together. It was the one time she was grateful that they always left her out.

It wasn't that they went out of their way to leave her out--well, Pavi and Luigi anyway--it was just that they were all so much older then her that they had nothing in common. She was closest in age to Amber, and even then it was twelve years apart, but unlike her brothers who mostly just ignored her existence, Amber had made it very clear that Shilo was unwelcome. Amber had tolerated her when she was younger, but as soon as Shilo figured out how to walk and talk--and escape Amber's persistent desire to turn her into a dress-up doll--tolerance had turned to jealousy. Before Shilo, Amber had been the baby of the family, then Shilo had come along and taken away all of Daddy's attention.

Shilo didn't think Amber would ever forgive her for it.

"Shilo?"

Shilo looked up from pretending to read to see Blind Mag making her way across the lobby of GeneCo's headquarters. Shilo abandoned her book immediately and raced to meet the opera singer.

"Mag! What are you doing here so late?"

Mag smiled, giving Shilo a brief hug in greeting. "I could ask you the same thing."

Shilo shrugged. "Waiting for Dad. He's yelling at them again." No need to elaborate on them; Mag knew more about her siblings latest scandals then she did, most likely.

"Well, at least you have the sense to stay away from those things," Mag replied.

Shilo snorted, tucking a long strand of straight black hair behind her ear. "It's not like I'd have the opportunity in the first place. I swear Dad get's more paranoid every year. I'm going to have to have and armed escort to the bathroom soon," she grumbled.

Mag's smile turn sympathetic. "I'm sure he means well," she said quietly.

Shilo frowned. That was Mag's trying-not-to-say-something tone of voice. Did Mag know something about the added security that she didn't?

"Mag? What's wrong? Has there been another attempt that…"

"No, nothing like that, Shilo, don't you fret. It's nothing you need to worry about." Mag shook her head, trying to reassure her. The kidnapping attempt two years ago had been mostly forgotten, though Shilo occasional still had nightmares about it.

It was, however, one of those non-conversational topics in the Largo family. There were a lot of those that applied to her, much to Shilo's constant annoyance. She was seventeen, she didn't need to be babied anymore. Still, she knew from experience she wouldn't get anything more from her friend.

She changed the subject. "So what are you doing here?"

Mag's eyes drifted half-closed, her face giving away nothing. It was an enigmatic look Shilo had tried several times to emulate but never came close. "I just need to discuss something with Rotti," she replied.

The elevator doors opened at that moment with a ding, catching their attention. Shilo's brothers stalked out together, paying her no attentionLuigi scowling ahead and Pavi too wrapped up in his own reflection. Amber followed them, pausing to glare at Shilo before moving on. Mag waited until the front door clanged shut behind them before turning back to Shilo. She placed a sympathetic hand on Shilo's shoulder before stepping into the elevator herself.

"Goodnight, Shilo," Mag said.

"Bye Mag!" Shilo returned as the elevator's doors slid closed.

Alone again. She glanced at the GeneCo guards hovering in the shadows and amended that to: Alone-ish. Shilo sighed, flopping back down on one of the many cushy couched that were strewn about the lobby and picking up her book. She hated being bored.

Shilo flicked idly though her book for another five minutes before giving up and carefully sidling over to the elevator. By the time her guards realized what she was doing and tried to follow the doors had already clicked shut in their faces. Shilo grinned, feeling smug as she pressed the button for the top floor. Hurray for small victories, she thought as the elevator began to rise.

When she reached the top, Shilo made sure to hit every button before stepping out. No need to make it easy for them to follow her. She was around the corner and halfway down the hall to her father's office before she registered the sound of raised voices. Cautiously she continued forward, trying to make out the garbled words coming through the walls. What could her father and Mag possibly be arguing about?

"…she deserves to know the truth!" Mag's rich soprano was beautiful even in the tones of anger.

"…better…not knowing…" her father's accent heavier under stress.

What was going on? Shilo took a few steps further down the hall.

"Marni wouldn't want…she loved Nathan…" Mag was saying.

Shilo frowned. Marni was her mother's name, but who was Nathan?

"What would…accomplish?" her father replied.

Shilo pressed against the door trying to make out the muffled words. Cold wood against her ear, and the sounds became more clear.

"Shilo was their child…" Mag began.

Shilo froze, shocked.

"Shilo is mine!" her father roared. "You will tell her nothing, or do I need to remind you who you work for?"

"I haven't forgotten," Mag said coldly. "but I am beginning to think it is time for a change. Goodnight, Rotti."

Shilo stumbled away from the door as she heard Mag's footsteps moving in her direction. She scrambled back down the hallway at bit and concealed herself in a shadowy alcove, half hidden my a faux tree. The darkness would probably keep her hidden from anyone but Mag, but there were no other options and she didn't feel like confronting anyone about what she had heard just yet. Luckily, the singer glided past without looking in her direction and turned the corner to wait for the elevator. Shilo slid to the floor, trembling and trying to process what had just happened.

'Shilo was their child…' as in not Rotti Largo's?

Her mother had died when she was born, that's what she'd always been told. It was another one of those non-conversational topics, she'd accepted that; she'd never even been allowed to visit her grave.

'Too dangerous,' her father had said firmly.

'Dead is dead,' Amber had sneered.

'She loved you very much, isn't that enough?' Mag had told her gently.

Shilo used to pretend when she was younger that her mother wasn't really dead. That she just had to pretend for some unknown reason--maybe to foil some plot against GeneCo--and that she'd be back someday. The reason she couldn't see the grave and the body was because there wasn't one. Once or twice she's even wondered if Mag was her mother and no could know because it would be a scandal, Marni just a fiction, but never once had it occurred to her that her father wasn't really her father.

'She loved Nathan,'

'She deserves to know the truth'

What was the truth? Shilo's head was spinning too fast to even get a handle on something. Maybe she'd heard wrong, or didn't understand what she'd heard. The words had been muffled and listening though heavy wooden doors was not the best way to guarantee accuracy.

"Shilo."

Shilo started, looking up from where she'd fixed her eyes on the floor. Mag had returned, Shilo's bodyguards waiting just out of earshot down the hall and looking annoyed, or at least what passed as annoyed, they didn't have much facial expression.

"How much did you hear, Shilo?" Mag asked quietly.

Shilo gave a falsely innocent smile. "hear what?"

Mag smiled faintly. "Shilo…" she paused, as if trying to find the words and failing. She closed her eyes briefly then opened them, her expression bittersweet. "I think perhaps you should visit your mother's grave."

"What?" Shilo began, "Mag, I don't…"

The singer held up her hand to forestall Shilo's words. She brushed Shilo's bangs back affectionately. "She's in a mausoleum in the graveyard on the western end of the city. Perhaps she can give you answers that I cannot." and with that Mag turned and walked away.

Shilo was prevented from following by her father exiting the office. He smiled warmly when he saw her.

"I though you were waiting downstairs," He said walking over to her.

"I saw Mag go up, I figured you were done yelling," Shilo said carefully, trying to give nothing away.

Rotti's face darkened briefly. "I am glad that at least one of my children isn't determined to embarrass me," he said, tucking her under one arm as they headed towards the elevator. It was a familiar embrace and Shilo was having trouble reconciling it with the overheard argument and Mag's cryptic advice.

"I don't think they're doing to purposely embarrass you. I just think they act without thinking sometimes," Shilo said absently. She didn't really understand her siblings' motivations either sometimes.

Siblings? Were they even that? If not, did they know? More questions piled up in her head.

"Maybe," Rotti replied blandly. "Let's go home."

Shilo nodded distractedly. Home, father, siblings, mother--how much of her life was simply a fabrication. People had been not-saying things around her for her entire life, it was time to find out why.