DS was right, I'm evil. But writing this chapter, I felt bad. I rewrote it three times, but still... Hit the review button and just tell me I'm the worst person that ever lived, ok?
"Jane..."
Murmuring her fiancee's name, Liara is slowly drifting out of her unconsciousness. The first thing she notices is pain radiating through her whole body.
A direct hit against the sternum and a wound in my right shoulder. Of course I'm in pain...
Remembering the last seconds in the restaurant, she opens her eyes, but bright light forces her to close her lids immediately. After waiting a few seconds to give her aching temples time to calm down, Liara tries again and looks around. Noticing a few familiar things in her surroundings, her disorientation slowly vanishes.
I'm in our cabin onboard the Normandy... But how?
There is no doubt; she is lying flat on their bed, the sheets beneath her filled with the familiar scent of her bondmate. Her fiancee... There is something important, but her mind processes her thoughts painfully slow...
Goddess, the fishtank!
Her head bobs up, and she turns herself to her left side. Her body seems to be unnatural stiff and she troubles with the movement, but finally Liara is able to see the rest of the room. It doesn't seem to be quite right. Strangly all ceiling lights are turned to their maximum brightness, although the two of them prefer to keep them at a relaxing half-dim setting.
Maybe it was EDI, or the engineers overseeing the retrofits who...
Ripped from her thoughts by the sight of a familiar red mop of hair at the office-space, Liara exhales in relief. Her bondmate seems to inspect some of her model ships. Watching it is familiar and soothing the same time, and Liara feels her heart rate drop immediately. Her mouth seems incredibly dry. Clearing her throat, she tries to catch her fiancee's attention with a few words, but instead of calling for her bondmate loudly, she manages nothing but a croak. However, Liara seems to be successful: The red-haired head snaps up, and the shape of a human woman begins to walk slowy towards the living area, chuckling quietly in the cause.
"Ah, seems you're finally awake, little one."
Shepard's beautiful alto-voice fills the cabin, and Liara sighs softly. A thousand questions enter her mind, but she decides to whisper the most important one's first.
"Jane, are you allright? What happend?"
Her bondmate answers softly, while deliberatly ignoring her first question. There is a strange undertone in her voice. Amusement?
"Concussion round took you out for a few hours. I 'rescued' you and brought you home..."
"I think I remember. But... How? You fell through the floor and..."
Liara stops, as she suddenly notices the source of her stiffness. Her hands are bound behind her back. With handcuffs. She wrinkles her brow markings in confusion and tries to focus her vision back to her bondmate.
"Jane? Why am I constrained?"
The red-haired woman finally arrives at the bed and sits down at the averted side of her lying body. Wanting to look at her fiancee, Liara attempts to roll over, but a strong hand at her injured shoulder forces her to stay in her current position. Inhaling sharply as the ungentle touch causes a new sting of pain, she flinches back involuntarily.
"Easy there, little one... And to answer your question..."
Tickling her way down with feathery fingers, Jane follows a path around the curves of her spine. Liara feels a brief flash of arousal at her bondmate's teasing, but the craving vanishes quickly, as the wandering hand, instead of releasing her, is stopping to rest just above Liara's lower back. Growling in frustration, Liara tries to take an angry look back, only to feel Jane's warm breath at the side of her face the next moment. The throaty chuckle is sending shivers over her skin.
"...It's human custom to handcuff their prisoners. And I don't think it's that different amongst your people..."
Prisoner? What kind of game is this?
Feeling a surge of anxiety in her chest, Liara tries to turn around again, but she's held back by Jane's unyielding fingers at her shoulder easily.
"Jane, let go! Please..."
"Call me Jennifer."
Jennifer? What in the name of...
"Argh..."
Suddenly Jane's strong hands are pulling her up into a sitting position, and Liara has to grit her teeth to muffle a loud scream as a new wave of pain radiates through her sore shoulder-blade. Blinking in shock, she finds herself face to face with Jane, who seems to be frozen in place, as well. A strange feeling is growing inside Liara's stomach. It is her fiancee, without a question, but...
Taking a closer look, Liara's eyes are glancing over Jane's body, trying to catch the thing that troubles her. One thing are the strange clothes she wears. Last time she has seen her fiancee, she was wearing that stunning summer dress. Now she looks like some sort of... space pirate. Heavy, armored boots, brownish cargo pants and a black tank top. Liara has never seen her like this.
The other thing is her strange behaviour, of course, but there was something else...
She is just remembering the last moments before she lost consciousness, when Jane lifts her fingers hesitatingly to caress a blue cheek.
Her hair. Why does she have long hair?
"Sorry, I forgot about your shoulder... Did I hurt you, little one?"
Jane's voice is soothing and her touch soft. With a somewhat fascinated look on her face, she starts stroking Liara's right cheek and looks right into her eyes. The wonderful shining emeralds in her bondmate's face are filled with regret and curiousity. Of course, Jane would never hurt her willingly...
For a moment, Liara is closing her eyelids and purrs happily. Despite the discomfort in her still cuffed arms, the touch of her bondmate is enough to make her relax immediately. Shortly, she's even wondering if this is all part of her fiancee's proposal plan...
No, that makes no sense. It must be something different...
"Not much. What happened, Jane?"
"Jennifer, remember?"
"What happened,... J-Jennifer?"
Calling her with a different name is odd, but it seems to do something with her fiancee. Jane's fingers are hesitating for a second, then they move down her cheek to caress Liara's jawline until they are finally grabbing her chin gently.
"Look at me, little one."
Jane's voice is trembling, but her tone is demanding and tolerates no dissent. The moment Liara opens her lids and looks up into her bondmate's eyes, the fingers around her chin are twitching involuntarily and tighten their grip, a reaction that is somehow disturbing. Staring into her sapphires searchingly, the emeralds above her seem to get lost in the depths of her eyes.
After some time Jane must have found what she was looking for and a carousel of emotions is flickering over the red-haired woman's face. Comprehension, enviousness and yearning...
The red-haired woman bobs her head understandingly. Her declaration is merely a whisper, spoken to herself.
"It's the eyes. You can't help but fall for those eyes..."
Liara starts smiling lovingly. It is a compliment she hasn't heard from her bondmate yet, but it is a beautiful one. Jane, however, swallows heavily at the sight of her smile, stands up and uses her strong hands to pull Liara up to her feet gently, watching her with a strange look on her freckled face.
Somehow she expects to be set free now, but instead of turning her around to open the cuffs, the red-haired woman is closing the distance between them with a hungry look in her eyes. Of course. Leaning forward, Liara welcomes her fiancee's searching lips.
The following kiss is unusual and strange at the same time. In some way she is enjoying the ferocity and desperate voraciousness Jane is kissing her with. Without a doubt it is one of the most sensual kisses she ever received from her bondmate...
She is also growing uncomfortable with it quickly. The emotion she usually connects with Jane is being protected. But her fiancee's current kiss and the firm grip of her hands around her neck are making her feel... possessed. She doesn't like that feeling.
Jane normally wants to give and receive, but this kiss...
Flinching slightly as their lips meet in bruising force once again, Liara realises there is something else that is wrong. But what is it? She can't quite put her finger on the one thing that startles her more than anything else.
Suddenly the hands holding her are gone and without her own arms to keep balance, Liara stumbles involuntarily and falls to the ground. Another wave of pain radiates through her shoulder and arms, but this time, she barely recognizes the feeling. The irreality of the whole situation is stunning her. Jane let her fall to the ground. She let her fall!
Jane, however, seems to be lost in her thoughts. A blissful smile on her face, she touches her lips with the fingers of her right hand and looks down at Liara with unseeing eyes.
This is the moment she remembers the one thing that was missing.
The spark. Where was that spark that uses to ignite my soul everytime our lips meet? Where was the spark that is Jane?
It is the spark she felt the first time on Therum, when Jane was catching her body as she fell out of that prothean bubble. A sensation even more singular than a fingerprint. Liara always recogized that spark, even after her whole body was rebuild. It is the spark that convinced her back on Ilium. And now it was gone...
Getting collywobbles at the conclusion, Liara's face is blushing in embaressment.
Goddess, I kissed her...
Staring at the woman above her breathlessly, she is not sure what to say. The woman looks like Jane, smells like Jane and even tastes like her bondmate, but...
"You are not Jane."
Gasping for air, Liara finally manages to speak. Her trembling voice reveals the emotional chaos inside her and she is feeling that her biotics are seconds away from starting to flare. The woman who looks like Jane still seems to be frozen in place, but she answers with dreamily voice nevertheless.
"No. I'm Jennifer."
Enraged by the simple answer, Liara tries to summon dark energy in her hands to break her restraints. But she can't do it.
She tries again and again, with the same result, until she finally resignates. There were multiple options to prevent a biotic of using dark energy, but only few that could be used outside a specialized facility. Given the fact Liara wasn't electrocuted yet, the only explanation is that she has been drugged. A feeling of helplessness nearly overwhelms her. Without her biotics and handcuffed, there was nothing she could do to stop a physical superior enemy like the woman in front of her...
"Is it always like this?"
The curious question draws Liara's attention back to the woman called Jennifer, but confuses her the same time. What is like what? Her mind still processing the question, she watches the red-haired woman stepping closer, apparently with the intention of helping her up. Fear penetrates her mind and she is trying to crawl backwards.
"W-What?"
"The kiss. Is it always like this?"
The red-headed woman has reached her and is bending down, still smiling like a child tasting its first piece of candy. It is a silly thought, but...
"K-Kissing?"
Jennifer shakes her head and pulls her upwards. The strength in the womans arms is horribly familiar, but her captor is notably gentler than the last time and avoids causing her pain. Just like Jane would...
"No. Kissing you, little one. Did you kiss her the way you kissed me? Did she feel, what I felt?"
She has to talk about Jane, but why is her voice so full of hate? She looks like her, she sounds like her...
"W-What are you?"
From one moment to another, the voice of the foreign woman is filled with a hint of bitterness.
"A deposit box for spare parts. A tool, that was left behind after her resurrection. The twin sister she never had."
What does that... Oh!
The realisation is almost painful and Liara has the sudden wish to kick herself. It was that obvious. The hair, the behaviour, the kiss. The missing spark...
"You are a... clone."
"The one and only, little one."
Smiling sarcastically, Jane's clone leads her towards the bed and uses gentle force to push her down into a sitting position. Liara shakes her head in disbelief and stares at the familiar shape in front of her. Her thoughts are spinning, but there is only one thing important.
"Where is Jane?"
"Gone."
The answer's resolute tone turns her inner self into ice in an instant and Liara feels a surge of pure rage. That couldn't possibly be true, and so she whispers a single word.
"Liar!"
The clone reaches out and follows the line of her neck folds with a single finger. Liara flinches back immediately, and Jennifer sighs resignated. Sitting down besides her, the womans voice is soft and slow, speaking to her like she would explaining a simple fact to a child.
"I took her identity using my DNA. I took the Normandy using her control codes. I took her spectre rank. Her mission. Her reputation. Even you, little one. Everything she had. And after I was done, I buried her deep enough to no one ever find her!"
Jennifer's voice transports absolute certainity and suddenly the ice inside Liara is gone, replaced by a painful hollowness. The same feeling she had after Alchera in the moment she looked into the last, empty escape pod. Her eyes are stinging with the first tears, but a surge of stubborness makes her want to fight. It couldn't be true!
"I don't believe you. WHERE IS JANE?"
The clone doesn't even blink, but grabs something inside her pocket. Holding its chain with two fingers, she swings a small piece of jewelry in front of her eyes. Liara swallows heavily. It is a golden locket. The golden locket. The present she gave Jane just before the red-haired woman proposed to her.
Reaching down, Jennifer opens the small clasps and Jane's favorite piano song fills the air. Liara's lips start trembling. Jane would never give it away willingly... Noticing another detail, she feels the stream of tears breaking loose. Bloodstains. All over the picture of herself inside it.
The song seems to do something with Jennifer. After the last chords faded away, she closes the locket carefully and places it on the sheets besides her. Gathering her thoughts, Jennifer takes her time to start talking again. When she does, her voice is soft and soothing. The trace of hate seems to be gone.
"She put up a good fight, little one. Even after she was wounded. Half a dozend of my men had her at gunpoint when I took your trinket from her, but I... I underrestimated her and walked away...
She managed to escape and hunt me down, just to get it back. It was important to her. You were important to her. In the end, the last thing I heard her screaming was your name... I think I can comprehend why..."
The words are draining her of every energy she has left and she is almost collapsing as her body is shaken by the first sharp sobs. She feels Jennifer's hands holding her upright, pulling her into a horribly familiar hug.
A part of her wants to hurt the woman for what she has done, but the feeling of familiar strong arms closing around her is breaking her last spark of resolve quickly and she presses her body into the hug in an almost desperate manner. It couldn't be true...
Even Jennifer's scent is the same. But she is not Jane. Her fiancee dead... It couldn't be true. Strong hands start stroking her back and she feels a soft peck on top of her crest.
"Shhh, it's ok, little one, I'm here..."
It couldn't be true! Whimpering against the woman's shoulder she tries again, hoping to get another answer this time.
"W-Where is J-Jane? Where is t-the woman I l-love?"
The clone's hands are reaching out behind Liara's back. After a few seconds, she finally feels the handcuffs loosening their grip and pulls her hands forward quickly, only to curl up into a ball the next moment.
Jennifer seems to throw the handcuffs into a corner of the room, but Liara doesn't care. The red-haired woman's reassuring words however, are stinging right into her heart. The answer is the same as the answer she got to her previous questions. But the sheer simplicity of the brutal words is ripping her heart into shreds.
"Jane is dead, little one. I killed her one hour ago. It's ok..."
Liara starts to sob loudly and rocks her body back and forth. Touching the ring on her finger, she strangly has the sudden urge to laugh. Jane dying a few hours after their proposal... It was almost comical. So comical... Standing one step away from insanity, Jennifer's fingers caressing her crest with soothing strokes and the womans next soft words are almost enough to push her over the edge.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of you. And I'll love you just like she did, I promise. And you'll love me..."
Sniffling against the woman's chest and through the suffocating shroud of sorrow, Liara feels only determination.
Never...
"Never!"
Jennifers hand reaches the bottom of her crest extension and starts to tickle them softly.
"You will. There is no reason you shouldn't. I'm just like her. I'm her!"
"Your nothing but a copy..."
The tickling fingers stop and she feels the clone's body tensing up. Obviously she has touched a sore spot...
A part of Liara is hoping she enraged Jennifer enough to make the woman hit her. Maybe physical pain would be enough to dispel the sorrow, even if it would be just for one moment. But instead of feeling strong hands beating her, a gentle pull at her head is forcing her to look up, right into Jennifer's emerald eyes. The clone's voice is both filled with desperation and reassurance.
"You will! We'll be happy and we'll have just what you had with her!"
"N-No!"
"I took her place in every other way!"
Jennifer's desperation is growing even further and the expression of pain and loneliness in the clone's eyes is getting almost unbearable. Seeing these kind of feelings in those familiar emerald eyes is making Liara wish to reach out and comfort the red-haired woman. But her own sorrow is holding her back. Despite all their similarities, Jennifer would never be able to replace her bondmate. Jane was gone. Jane was gone...
Jennifer seems to expect an answer, but Liara rests her head back to the womans shoulder and continues crying silently. There was nothing to say. Sighing in defeat the woman Liara hates, finally closes the arms she loves tighter around her body. Minutes are passing until the clone breaks the silence again. Jennifer's voice is heavy with emotions.
"It had to be done, little one. I'm not sorry that I did it, but I'm sorry causing you pain. It will take time, but I can soothe the loss, if you let me..."
Liara's answer are even more forceful sobs. The clone swallows heavily and continues.
"Doesn't I deserve the same happiness she had? A place to come home? Peace?"
You didn't know her...
Stroking Liara's crest with trembling hands softly, Jennifer remains quiet for several minutes until she speaks again. Her whispered words are sending shivers over Liara's skin. They are filled with heart breaking desire.
"Kiss me, little one. Kiss me, like you would have kissed her."
Liara just opens her mouth to whimper in protest, when she starts hearing a familiar, soft voice in her head. Jane.
"It's ok, Bluebird, it's ok..."
"But..."
"I'm dead, Bluebird. It's ok..."
"I can't do it... She took you from me!"
"Use her. Take your farewell..."
"..."
"I love you, Bluebird. Always."
The feeling of hollowness inside her grows even further and Liara's sobs are replaced by a seemingly neverending stream of tears. Jane was right. Alchera robbed her of the opportunity to say goodbye the first time and it nearly destroyed her...
The wish to have one last moment with Jane, one last memory to keep her safe, is overwhelming her and she looks up, right into Jennifers bloodshot eyes. Straightening herself silently, Liara's eyes are glancing slowly over the clone's shape, noticing every little detail in the so familiar but yet so foreign womans face.
Caught in a dreamlike trance, Liara reaches out to caress Jennifer's red mop of hair with her left hand. Remembering all the times she felt the delightful texture of Jane's hair before, Liara feels her shattered heart calm down.
After some moments she uses her right hand to cup the red-haired woman's cheek. Tracing some of the freckles with the tip of her thumb, she notices Jennifer's face softening under her fond touch and the clone swallows heavily, but Liara doesn't pay attention to it. It is not important.
Exploring the familiar head with her fingers, she finally looks up into the wonderful shining emeralds that are just the same as Jane's and is getting lost in them immediately.
It is not Jennifer in front of her; it is Jane.
Leaning in closer, a single teardrop is rolling down her cheek and she opens her lips to whisper an answer to her bondmate's last affectionate words.
"I love you too, Jane."
The woman in front of her wants to say something, but she is silencing her with a long tender kiss.
Seeing every moment she has shared together with Jane in front of her, Liara is sending all her love and every feeling, every single emotion linked with these pictures through her kiss.
The first meeting on Therum. The time onboard the original Normandy. Their first night on the flight to Ilos. The three months together before Alchera. Their reunion on Ilium. The Shadow Broker base. The reunion on Mars and the months they spent together afterwards. The blissful moments on the Citadel and the proposal...
It takes a long time until she is finally breaking the kiss. Her face is glistening in tears, and Jennifer's is as well. The clone seems to be shocked, staring at her wide eyed and with a flicker of understanding in her emeralds, but Liara doesn't care. The red-haired woman has fullfilled her purpose. Pushing Jennifer away from her ungently, she crawls to the midst of the bed and curls herself up into a ball, inhaling her bondmate's scent originating from the sheets and blanket deeply. Suddenly Liara is getting incredibly tired.
Meanwhile the clone clears her throat and is beginning to stutter apologetically.
"I-I'm s-sorry, l-little one. I..."
"Leave!"
She interrupts her, coating the single word with all the disgust, hate and sorrow she is feeling. Jennifer remains silent for a few seconds, but finally Liara is listening to departing footsteps and the sound of the door opening and closing. Fresh tears are moistening her cheeks. She lifts her left hand to place a short kiss onto her ring, Jane's last present, and falls asleep.