Title: Identity

Author: Girlfearless AKA Christy

Don't own it, never will, don't even really wish I did right now.

Authors Note: Anyone who has read any of my other stories knows that I am, primarily, a writer of Emily fanfiction. This story is going to be a little different—sort of. It is not going to be about Emily, it is going to be about her twin sister Alyssa (and Jason).

The premise: Emily and Alyssa's biological mother was not Paige Bowen. Paige Bowen was the sister of the girls' biological father (Dean Rudolph "Rudy" Mitchell) and when they were born Emily was sent to live with Paige and Alyssa was allowed to stay with their father. The girl's biological mother was Gabriella Zacharra, Anthony Zacharra's younger sister. When Dean and Gabriella realized that she was pregnant they knew that they would have to hide the pregnancy from Anthony or he would kill Dean and probably demand that Gabriella have an abortion, especially after it was found out that the babies were twin girls. While Gabriella was pregnant with the girls, Dean's sister, Paige, was also pregnant. Paige had a miscarriage so she offered to take one of the children—she and her husband really couldn't afford to take care of twins and they only wanted one child. So Dean and Gabriella agreed to let Paige raise one of the children…but they didn't know what do with the other child. Eventually they decided that they would tell Anthony that Paige died in childbirth, and send her away along with the baby and her husband, and Dean raised Alyssa as his 'dead' sister's daughter. So after the babies were born Emily was sent to live with Paige and Paige's husband in Arizona and Alyssa stayed with her father as his niece.

Years after the girls were born, Gabriella could no longer handle the stress of lying to her brother about her children and living under his oppression and she committed suicide. The girls, at that time, would have been about five or six years old—Johnny would have just been born, and the stress of seeing another woman have a child also contributed to her suicide. When Alyssa was around ten years old her father told her the truth about who she was to him and her twin sister, but he also warned her that Anthony was never to know the truth. A little while after that (and I am not sure how well this matches up with what's happened on GH because I haven't watched regularly since Emily and Georgie were killed) Claudia was sent away from her home to live with Dean (aka Uncle Rudy) and Alyssa; Claudia was fifteen and Alyssa was ten. Seven years later Dean died of cancer and Anthony admitted that he had known all along that Alyssa was Dean and Gabriella's child; however, he didn't know about Emily and so no one told him.

I think that pretty much brings you all up to speed. As usual, any question or comments and I will try to clear them up. I am trying not to make this too complicated because I don't want this story to have the twists and turns that TRLT does.

As far as when this story is taking place in GH time: Diego has been killed by Nikolas, Jason did hurt his hands though not as badly as he did on the show—he's pretty much okay at this point, Sonny still has Johnny and Michael is still missing. I am honestly not sure how much of the rest of the show will be integrated into this story, as I said I want this one to be simpler than TRLT, but obviously some things will need to be handled so I'll try my best to wrap up those things in the first few chapters so I can get on to the meat of the story which is essentially that this is going to be a ALYSSA/JASON story with Claudia, Johnny, Spinelli, Maxie, probably Sonny and some others playing supporting roles. This will have its angsty (Jason will be falling for a girl who looks like his dead sister, that's going to shake a guy especially a guy who just became a father and is in a relationship with another woman) moments, but I am going to try to cut those up with the bubbly repartee of Claudia and some others.

As always, questions are welcomed.

Now on with the story…

No one, if anyone else had been standing near the Welcome to Port Charles, New York sign at that time of night, would have mistaken the two women for best friends, let alone cousins. Claudia Zacharra looked like femme fetal personified with her tight black dress, black leather jacket, and stilettos with a heel like a knife. Alyssa Mitchell-Zacharra was neither ugly, nor boring looking, but standing next to her dressed to the nines cousin while she wore only jeans, a black t-shirt, and tennis shoes, was not going to win her any beauty pageants. Not that she cared.

"This had better be good," Alyssa said as she leaned back against the black car and ran her hands through her hair, which, annoyingly enough, her cousin had yet to comment on. In a moment of pure impulsiveness the week before she had walked into a beauty salon and told the hair stylist that she wanted her long brown locks chopped off and turned into a bob that fell just below her ears.

"Would I have called you if it wasn't?"

"Hmm. Let me think. Yes!"

Claudia rolled her eyes and fidgeted with the bottom of her jacket. "It is. I swear."

"Well spill it already. It's cold out here. I don't know why we had to meet on the edge of this god forsaken town anyway. Don't they have like hotels, restaurants, apartments, something with you know doors and ceilings, around here?" Alyssa complained. She'd been driven from a small airport in a town she'd never heard of to the Welcome sign in that same town, all without having any clue of what was going on. And all of that was topped off with her finding her cousin standing on the side of the road with no guards. After she'd gotten out of the car she'd been driven in Claudia had instructed the driver to take the car to the Zacharra compound, which Alyssa had never heard of, in Port Charles and drop her stuff off there. So here she was, on the side of the road, with no guards and only her cousin and her cousin's car to protect her from sharp shooters, hit men, and things that might come out of the woods.

"It's not that far away from the city." Claudia glossed over the fact that she didn't want to meet in town because she was afraid that one of the residents of Port Charles would freak and spill the beans before she had a chance to explain to her cousin exactly what was going on.

Alyssa groaned and kicked the ground in front of her before shouting, "Claudia. Seriously, it's fucking cold out here. What do you want? Need help hiding a dead body or something?"

"No, and you wouldn't help me if I did."

"You're right. What's up?"

"I found her."

"Found who?"

Claudia stared pointedly at her cousin and took a step towards her. "Her. Alyssa. Your sister."

"You…she…"

"She's dead."

"I'm sorry, say that again." Alyssa shook her head, sure that she'd heard wrong. She couldn't possibly be hearing that she'd finally found her long-lost sister only to discover out that she was dead.

"I…God…I am so sorry. She's dead Ally."

"I don't…I don't understand." She turned around and pressed her suddenly very warm face against the cool window of the car door. "Explain this to me like I'm an idiot Claudia. What's happening here?"

"Okay," Claudia Zacharra stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her cousin's waist. She hadn't expected it to be this hard, but she need to do this…had too. Her brother's life depended on it. She steeled herself against her best friend's pain and said, "She was killed before I came to town. I wouldn't even have known it was her if they guy who did it hadn't been caught a few days ago. They showed her picture on the news and, God Ally, I felt like my heart was in my stomach, I had to watch three different stations to convince myself that it wasn't you. She was adopted by the Quartermaine family here in Port Charles. She looks—looked so much like you. Gorgeous brown eyes and silky brown hair, though hers was as long as yours used to be."

"I thought maybe you hadn't noticed," Alyssa smiled self-consciously as she leaned her head back against her cousin's shoulder. "I was a little pissed."

"Nah, I noticed," Claudia pulled her right hand from around her cousin's waist and mussed up that back of the other woman's hair. "It's cute. Edgy. Like you."

"Yeah," Alyssa nodded and braced herself against the pain, anger, and disbelief radiating through her body. "What else do you know?"

"No much. She was killed by Diego Alcazar the night of her engagement party. She was a doctor. Ummm, I guess the kid had killed a few other people, a girl named Georgie and Sonny Corinthos'…"

"Sonny Corinthos. The guy you slept with?" Alyssa pulled away from her cousin and paced toward the front of the car. "What does he have to do with this?"

"I…"

"Why did you call me here Claudia?"

"To tell you about…"

"Fuck you." Alyssa spat the words out and turned to stare at her cousin. "Just fucking say it. God, how could I have forgotten? You don't do anything without calculating how it will benefit you, but if you screw with me right now I swear to God I will never speak to you again."

"She was Jason Morgan's adopted sister."

"Dammit," Alyssa kicked the tires on the car and the ground her teeth against the pain, "I cannot believe…I know you, I know you will do whatever you have to do to get what you want, but I swear Claudia I never thought, ever, that you would pull this shit on me. Ever. Is this even for real? Do you even know if this girl was my sister or did you see a resemblance and just decide to milk it for all it was worth?"

"Is that really what you think about me? Is it?"

"No…I don't know," she shook her head and shoved her hands through her hair. "I'm sorry. I can't get my bearings here."

"They have Johnny…" Claudia trailed off and stared down the road and off into the distance.

"Who has Johnny?"

"Jason Morgan and Sonny Corinthos."

Alyssa nodded as she began putting the pieces of the puzzle together, "And you think since I look so much like my sister, like Jason Morgan's sister, I could help with that? God, Claudia. Really?"

"Emily Quartermaine was your sister," Claudia reached inside her pocket and pulled out a picture of Emily from the Port Charles Harold. "I also have a file…her mother, before she was adopted, was Paige Bowen. It's her, I'm sure of it. I wouldn't have called you otherwise."

"How'd you find this so quickly, I haven't been able to find anything for years."

"It's easier doing it backwards," Claudia grinned a little. "There was nothing online. I had to trek down to the Port Charles courthouse and search through a bunch of boxes for her damn adoption records. I got dusty Ally, dusty. If that's not love I don't know what is."

"Yeah," Alyssa laughed, her brown eyes shining with laughter and tears as she stared into her cousins eyes, trying to see if there was some lie she could find hiding behind them. She couldn't. "Okay, break this all down for me. Make me understand what's happened."

"Okay," Claudia straightened, all business now. "Apparently Diego Alcazar killed Emily Quartermaine as revenge for Jason Morgan killing his father and I thought since you're here and you look so much like her that maybe you could, I don't know, convince them to let Johnny go."

"Why do they have Johnny?"

"Because they think I took Sonny Corinthos' son and shot his boring, naïve girlfriend Kate Howard."

Alyssa raised her eyebrows, "Did you?"

"No," Claudia noticed the look her cousin was giving her and rolled her eyes. "I swear I didn't kidnap his spawn or shoot his precious Kate Howard. Geez."

"So who did? Trevor?"

"Are you kidding me? That man is too busy trying to steal my brother's business to worry about children and bitchy wannabe fashionistas."

Alyssa laughed to herself and said, "So you want me to, what, pretend to be my own dead sister to get them to give you back your brother?"

"Exactly."

Alyssa scrubbed her hands down her face. "I don't think I can do that Claude. I just…we don't even know anything about her anyway."

"Just go with me to see them then. Please."

"Fine," Alyssa wrenched to door to the car open and started to get into the driver seat. "But that's it."

Claudia reached out to grab her cousin's arm before she could sit down, "Thank you. Really, I know how hard this has to be for you and after we get Johnny back I'll do whatever I have to do to help you find out about your sister. I swear it."

"I know. Get your ass in the car."

"Wait, wait, wait, you can't…"

Sonny and Jason heard Max's warning cut off as Claudia Zacharra came walking into Sonny's office like she not only owned that building, but also all of Port Charles and the rest of the world. Neither Sonny nor Jason noticed the woman standing behind Max until she moved around him and stood next to her cousin.

"Em…" Sonny's voice trailed off and his breath caught in his throat. The last time he had seen the woman standing before his she was lying peacefully on a bench, dead, though he could have sworn she was only sleeping. He remembered in that moment, and this one, that he'd left her, walked out of her life to keep her safe and she'd ended up dead anyway and still it was his fault.

Her hair was shorter, that was the first thing that came into Jason Morgan's mind. Her hair was shorter and cut so that it framed her face. The bone structure of her face was a little sharper than his sisters and there were more angles in her cheeks, though they were enhanced by what he assumed was the nearly twenty pounds of weight that his sister did not have. She had a scar above her deep brown eyes that slashed through her right eyebrow.

She didn't necessarily have Emily Quartermaine's graceful stance, but she took up just as much space in the room as his sister had.

"No." That was all Jason said. One simple word. No. Alyssa wasn't sure if it had been directed at her for being there or at his boss for confusing her with his little sister. Either way it was final.

Sonny shook his head and looked up at both women, "What…"

"This is my little cousin," Claudia interrupted, wrapping her arm around the other woman's shoulder. "She's Emily Quartermaine's twin sister and I just thought I would come by here and let you all know that if you don't let my brother free then I will introduce her to everyone in this town that her sister and yours," she inclined her head to Jason, "cared about."

"Where is my son?"

Jason shot Sonny a look and shook his head. Of course that would be the first question he asked. Not where did this woman come from. Not what proof did they have that she was Emily's sister, but where was Michael. Never mind that he was almost sure neither woman had the answer to the question.

"I don't know!"

Jason turned and stared at the woman who looked exactly like his sister, his blue eyes were shinning with what some may have mistaken for unshed tears, but what anyone who knew him would have realized was a dangerous mixture of anger and confusion.

"Claudia," Alyssa shrugged her cousins arm off her shoulder and stepped forward. She tried not to look at the man she knew to be Jason Morgan, Emily Quartermaine's brother. "I believe her, she doesn't have your son and she didn't shoot Kate Howard and if Trevor did then there is nothing she can do to help you, but if you keep my cousin locked up then she is right, I will to my best to cause as much damage to the people in this town as possible until my cousin is returned. I'm sorry."

Before Sonny could speak Jason nodded his head, walked to the desk, picked up the phone and called Milo. "Let Johnny Zacharra go."

"What are you…?"

"Thank you," Alyssa interrupted and stared into Jason's bright blue eyes. She was shocked at how much emotion she felt pulsing out at her, from her cousins description she expected Jason Morgan to be stone cold with no emotional affect at all, what she was seeing was the exact opposite. She could see the fear, anger, sadness, and interest all shining out at her.

"Leave." Jason looked into her deep brown eyes and had to physically hold himself back from stepping forward and grabbing her beautiful face in his hands. "Just leave and don't come back."

"You know I can't do that. I really will try not to hurt anyone and I'll give you a few days to warn the people you need to but she was my sister too and there are things I need…I have to know."

"Then ask me." To her ears it almost sounded as if he was begging, but for what? For her to leave? For her not to hurt anyone? For her to not be there at all? What did he want from her?

"You won't be able to answer all my questions. Aren't there things you want to know…don't you have any questions for me?"

Sonny and Claudia both stood back and watched the verbal tennis match that was going on in front of them. Sonny hadn't expected to have Johnny Zacharra freed despite his wishes and Claudia hadn't expected her cousin to be so honest with Jason Morgan, but apparently neither of them were really going to get their way.

"No. You can't tell me anything about her I don't already know." Jason took a physical step back to keep himself from stepping forward and forward and right up to her. He need to examine her, needed to be sure that his eyes weren't fooling him. He could see the differences clear as day, but what did that mean? Who was he looking at?

"I guess not," Alyssa shook her head and turned to leave, before she got out the door she turned back and said one last time, "Really. Thank you. I'll try my best to be kind to the people she loved." With that she was gone.

Claudia, for the first time either Jason or Sonny had seen, was speechless and she quietly followed her cousin out the door without saying another word.

"What the hell was that?"

"She doesn't know where Michael is," Jason scrubbed his hands down his face and refused to look at Sonny, if he did he'd see all the times he'd yelled at Emily for being with him, all the moments he'd missed being angry at her for simply loving someone he didn't want her to. Worst of all though, he'd see the reason for her death. As much as he hated to say it, and wouldn't admit it, he knew that the reason his sister was dead was because she had loved him and trusted him no matter what and now here he was faced with her twin and it took every inch of his self-control not to follow behind her, making sure that he didn't make the same mistake twice. That he didn't have to see that face, that beautiful face, frozen in death.

"You don't know that. You let your emotional response to that girl get in the way of business and my son's safety."

"That girl looks exactly like my sister who is dead because I work for you. Don't tell me about my emotions getting in the way of business. She was telling the truth, they don't know where Michael is and keeping Johnny Zacharra would only cause more problems. I'll find Michael."

Sonny shook his head and stared down at the desk, he wasn't sure when it started happening but more and more he noticed Jason pulling away from him and he wasn't sure if he could really blame him. He knew what Jason saw when he looked at him, knew because it was the same thing he saw when he looked at Jason—the blood of those they loved covering each other's soiled hands.

"Alright. What do you want to do about this?"

Jason turned to stare at his boss and shook his head, "I don't know."

"What the hell was that?"

"He let Johnny go didn't he?"

"Maybe, maybe not. He hasn't called yet."

"Jesus Claudia, give it a little time."

"Fine," Claudia stepped in front of her cousin before she could open the driver seat door. "What about that other stuff?"

"What other stuff?"

Claudia rolled her eyes, "Come on. Staring into his baby blues, being all nice and sweet, what was that shit?"

"The truth?" Claudia nodded in response. "I don't want to hurt her friends or her family. That's not the reason I wanted to find her."

"But come on, we could really use this. I mean…"

"No," Alyssa interrupted and grabbed her cousin's shoulders. "Promise me Claudia. Promise me you won't take my relationship, or lack thereof, with my sister and turn it into something bad or wrong. Please. I couldn't stand it if you did."

Claudia leaned her forehead against her cousins and then kissed her on the tip of her nose. "Okay. Promise. But if they come after me or Johnny again, all bets are off. I won't let them hurt him."

"Of course you won't. Your right, if we have to we get dirty we will, but only if we have to. Now let's go home, I wanna see our boy."

Both women laughed and pulled apart. Alyssa opened the car door and slid in while Claudia walked around the back to get into the passenger's seat. As she crossed the back of the car she noticed a glare out of her right eye and turned around just as her cousin turned the key in the ignition. She heard the vehicle almost turn over three times before she realized what was happening. She whipped around and started back towards the driver's seat, but before she could get the words out of her mouth she felt a flash of heat touch her face and she was thrown back against the window of the coffee house with more force than she could have imagined.

Alyssa saw the shocked look on her cousin's face, in the rear view mirror, just in time to realize that something was terribly wrong. She immediately yanked the keys out of the ignition and shoved the car door open just as she was pushed outward by the force of the blast. She felt her stomach slam into the door and her body yank back, but then her head hit the ground behind her as she fell backward and the last thing she saw was the flames shoot out over her head.

Sonny, Jason, and Max heard the explosion and ran out of the coffee house. The first sight that met their eyes was Claudia carefully coming to her feat and wiping the blood off her forehead and Alyssa knocked out on the ground behind the back driver-side tire. Sonny moved to help Claudia stand, or lean really, against the cracked window behind her while Max dialed nine-one-one and Jason pulled the woman who looked like Emily, his Emily, away from the flames of the car.

He brushed his fingers over her face in feather-light touches and checked her body for any deep cuts or bruises that could be a problem. He lifted her head lightly and checked the palm of his hand to make sure there was no blood. From what he could see she was pretty lucky, there were no obvious wounds other than many cuts and bruises, but he wasn't sure how hard she'd hit her head or if there was any internal bleeding. He lightly lifted her eyelids and said, "Come on sweetheart, you need to wake up for me. Just look up at me."

He could hear Claudia yelling behind him, but he figured since she hadn't shoved him out of the way or tried to kick the crap out of him that Sonny had a good hold on her and was keeping her back. He watched Alyssa's eyelids quickly flutter, but the woman still didn't open her eyes. The next thing he knew the paramedics were struggling to lift her out of his arms and onto a stretcher and Claudia was being loaded into a second ambulance yelling and screaming about wanting to see her cousin.

"Sir, sir," the paramedic tried to get his attention. "We need to get her to the hospital right now. Can you call the family?"

"No…I don't," he looked up shocked. "Where are you taking her?"

"General Hospital is closest."

Monica. Liz. Robin. Any number of Emily's friends or family could be there. "I'm going…"

"We can't really allow you to…"

"I'm going." Jason stepped up into the ambulance and affectively ended the conversation. He reached out and grabbed Alyssa Zacharra's hand as the ambulance pulled away from the site of the bombing and started on its way to General Hospital. He wanted to be worried about what would happen if someone who knew Emily saw this woman, but mostly all he could think was that he might have to watch this woman who looked exactly like his sister, this woman who had just walked into his life, die. Again.