The chosen daughter
Inspirational Playlist :
The Four Seasons : Antonio Vivaldi
The sound of Silence : Simon and Garfunkel
I just need you love : Hyphen Hyphen
The Nutcracker : Coffe, Tchaikovsky
Special thanks: My dear Susannah, thank you so much for making this fanfiction real. You are a wonderful Beta Reader. To be completely honest, through our emails and discussions, more than a beta reader, you became a friend. Merci!
I. Réunion de famille
Rachel
The winter on the island is flat and monotone. The snow covers everything, radiant and cold,ruling over the entire landscape. Rachel sits on the wooden bench in the front garden. She is physically there, but her mind is dreaming. Lost in her thoughts, she is nevertheless focused on the condensation of her breath, melting with early sunbeams, her bionic eye allowing her to see with a magical precision the sunlight trapped in the tiniest droplets of water.
She loves this time of year. She is definitely a winter person. The first snow of the year always reminds her of Vivaldi's The Four Seasons. When she was a child, she fell in love with the " Winter " concerto the first time she heard it and decided right then to learn to play the violin. Four years later, she played the violin solo during a performance of the concerto, and was applauded by five hundred people, including Professor Leekie. However, to be more pragmatic, she prefers winter because she knows that cold weather can easily be neutralized by additional clothes and a good fireplace. Contrary to heat, for how can you fight heat once you are already completely naked ? And during this particular winter, the rudeness of the weather helps her sore body, acting like an anesthetic.
A small noise makes her turn her head to focus on the edge of the forest. There is nothing to be seen and yet, she is certain somebody, or something, is there, cowering in the shadows. She sits completely still for five long minutes, holding her breath, and is finally rewarded for her patience : Silently, a young wolf appears from under the trees, obviously looking for something to eat. The long winter is starving him and he is thin under his silver fur. Rachel smiles: it is like meeting a virtual friend in real life for the first time. She has heard the wolf every night for the last two weeks, when the lights of the house were off. He could smell the food from beyond the stone walls and he howled then with frustration and need.
Now, as the wolf raises his muzzle, Rachel slowly grasps her cane to stand up. Their eyes meet. He approaches slowly, his tail whipping the frozen air. Rachel walks toward him, fearless, her eyes glued to his. The woman feels a thrill, traveling from the back of her spine to the base of her neck. She is both impressed and strangely moved by the light in the wolf's eyes. He is hungry and determined, and despite his obvious leanness, his look is fierce and merciless. Yet, when only ten meters separate them, they stop in a simultaneous self-preservation instinct. A sudden, cold gust lifts fresh snowflakes and makes the clear fur and the blond hair glitter brightly. Rachel feels like she is looking at a wild version of herself in a mirror, and she is fairly the wolf feels the same. They remain like this for a long moment, not moving, barely breathing, looking at each other with respect and curiosity. Forgetting about pain and hunger. Both predator and prey, weak but powerful.
A sudden noise makes them both jump at the same time. The wolf growls and steps back quickly, his eyes watching Rachel's face until he disappears into the dark forest. Rachel then turns her face to the house. Ira is standing at the door, watching her with his eternal puppy eyes. A bubble of melted frustration and anger explodes inside her as she approaches him, making her shiver : She and Ira have been living in the same house for too long now. However, she almost falls into his arms when the warmth of the house hit her frozen body. The intensity of the moment shared with the wolf had made her forget about the polar temperature.
"You stayed outside for too long, you're freezing."
He takes her by the shoulders, leads her to the fireplace and forces her to sit on the cozy armchair.
"I'm going to get you a cup of tea."
She does not answer. She is in pain. Her whole body is coming back to life via the power of the fire, and with life comes the soreness of every little part of her. She stays there, trembling with pain, cold, and anger. When Ira comes back she is in the exact position in which he left her. He puts the cup of tea on the table near her, and removes her wet coat and gloves. She does not even notice; she is too tired.
"Here, drink this."
She takes the cup in her hands and drinks slowly. She feels the warm beverage entering her body and waking her from the inside out, forcing her to leave the dreamy moment to come back to real life. She turns her head to face Ira's worried expression.
"Stop looking at me as if I am dying Ira, please."
The man changes from his "worried look" to his "offended look". Again, she does not notice and asks abruptly :
"How is she doing? "
"She woke up 5 minutes ago. Delphine is with her. She said she's doing very well-"
Without paying attention to him anymore, she stands up and goes downstairs, stopping in front of a closed door. Her breath is heavy. Every time she has to open this door, she can feel her strength leave her. Unlike the wolf, she does not desperately need food, but rather courage. She eventually rises above her fears for the moment and enters the room.
The room is silent apart from the regular beeping of the medical devices. It is both monotonous and reassuring. Rachel slowly draws near to Delphine, who is leaning above a little bed. She hasn't heard the blond clone enter the room and Rachel can hear her speaking soft French words :
"Petit Poussin, you are doing very well-"
Rachel's cane hits the ground louder and Delphine jumps and turns to face her.
"Sorry, I didn't hear you coming."
"Is everything ok with her?"
Delphine clears her throat, and takes a step back. She is afraid of Rachel and Rachel likes that. The way she has won back her superiority over Delphine always makes her laugh inwardly.
"She is safe now, in a week she will be able to eat by herself. You can be reassured, Rachel. But-"
"But what?" she snaps.
"But, I need to observe you. You do not look fine, and you've been through something big-"
"Don't worry about me. I survived a pen inside my brain, remember?"
Rachel's look is fierce and Delphine steps back again, looking like weak prey. The clone leans above the small bed and smiles. There is a little baby lying there, two big amber eyes opened wide. Rachel put her cane against the bed and carefully takes the baby against her, slowly slipping away the multiple drip pipes and gastric probe. She turns to Delphine and says :
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I can also survive a C-section. Leave us now."
She turns her attention to the baby, who is watching her intently. Rachel smiles again. A smile she has never given to anyone before. She sits down on a rocking chair near a large window and starts to slowly rock. The baby is warm against her. She whispers in the tiny ear :
"Good morning Swan, Mother is here."
Sarah
The first time she wakes up - enough to remember it - she's lying in a large bed, in a room bathed in artificial light. She doesn't know how long she has been there, but clearly a few weeks, taking into account her inability to sit up on the bed. She is so weak that she feels like all her muscles have been removed from her body. It is as if she is nailed to the mattress, trying for almost 15 minutes to raise her arm to touch her face. Her hair seems longer. She feels a panic attack coming from the depths of her stomach and slowly reaching her throat. She tries to scream, but realizes she does not have the strength for any sound to leave her mouth. She closes her eyes and tries to focus on her breathing.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Eyes closed, she feels strange memories floating back to her consciousness :
She is sitting in the snow, there is blood all around her. An excruciating pain in her leg keeps her awake. Her head hurts. Her red blood everywhere makes her smile incongruously when she should be afraid. Bit by bit, the cold wraps her pain and consciousness in its frozen embrace and she passes out...
{...}
She partially reemerges from a dreamless sleep to feel again. She is hurt, the pain in her leg is severe. There is someone above her. Someone that looks like her. Maybe it's her, Sarah, and it means she is dead... she cannot tell, she is blinded by the pain. And then it is black again...
{...}
All the lights are off, but she can hear fragments of conversations :
"It has been two months, we can't wait more or we will lose her. Her leg is too damaged, we need to remove it."
From her cotton dream she can almost recognize the voice, the accent...
{...}
The stabbing, lightning pain decreases every time she wakes up now. There is something new with her hurt leg. She cannot feel it anymore, and yet she is sure it is still there. She, the other her, is above her again, as always. She knows now it is not actually herself, but she knows it is not a friend either. The name is somewhere in her brain with other memories, but she cannot reach them. She is here every time Sarah wakes up, staring at her without speaking.
{...}
She is sure she has heard Kira cry! She can hear herself screaming, "Save her!" Or maybe it is the other her, she can almost remember her name now. Then somebody puts a needle in her arm and she feels so tired that she sinks in darkness for days, for weeks...
{...}
Two words : "thank you", and the ghost of a soft kiss on her forehead. She must be dreaming. She needs to wake up now, she has been away for too long.
When she opens her eyes again, her breathing is slower but she is not really sure that all the memories were good things to remember. She grabs the blanket and raises it with all the strength left in her arm. She looks down at her leg and immediately feels sick: It's not her leg, it's a prosthesis, made with metal alloys and what seems like real human flesh. Her whole body trembles with fear and disgust. She feels nauseated and about to pass out. She drops the blanket back over her legs and an almost comforting black-out takes her away for awhile, a ghost of a scream trapped in her mouth.
A minute later, Ira carefully enters the room. He know she will not wake up for a few hours or so, but he does not like being there. There are too many clones in this house, in his opinion. With a wry sigh, he takes a tissue and gently cleans Sarah's face of tears, then replaces the IV with dexterity. He knows he is being watched right now, it makes him nervous. He grabs ahold of a complex device behind Sarah's bed, takes a seat, and after five minutes of complicated connections with her new leg, he turns on the heavy apparatus. A soft, electronic purring fills the room, while the leg magically gets a new skin. He can tell the treatment is painful, given Sarah's muscles contractions and her whimpers. He tries to focus on the prosthetic leg, too afraid to watch her face. He mutters under his breath :
"Same treatment, different clone. "
After 30 minutes, he stops the device and returns everything to its place. The leg looks almost real. In a month Sarah will be able to walk. Or maybe run, to escape this place?
With a last circular look at the bedroom, he leaves Sarah to her dreamless sleep. He cannot help thinking about when she will be able to speak and ask for some explanations. He shudders, imagining just how lucky he is not to be in Rachel's place.
{A few days later}
She does not understand everything she remembers from her hibernation, but she knows it will cost her more courage to learn the truth than it will to stand upright on her legs. Honestly, she does not want to wake up. She is more and more aware of the world around her, of her strength coming back. Something inside her head, looking like Jiminy Cricket and speaking with Felix's voice says wisely, "Wake up sis, it's time. "
She begs to herself "Please, one more day ! ", and Felix Cricket answers sarcastically "You've already had nine months ! ".
What? Nine months?
Her eyes open abruptly onto the wood and stone ceiling. There is a famous classical piece playing not far away. She recognizes it even if she cannot name it. Someone is sitting on the armchair next to her bed. It is the last person in the world she would like to see right now. Her dry lips form the lost but now recovered name with difficulty :
"Rachel. "
It sounds more like a hoarse meow than a spoken word, but the blond woman raises her head and their eyes meet. Rachel's smile is triumphant and yet a bit worried. She bites her lower lip and says :
"Hello Sarah, welcome back."
"What the fuck have you done to me ?"
Rachel is sitting very straight in the armchair, and if Sarah hadn't been so tired, she could have seen her hands lightly trembling. But if she could have seen her hands, she would have seen the third person in the room, sleeping quietly against her mother's belly.
"It's a long story. But we have plenty of time to explain what you have missed."
"My leg - what happened to my leg ?" Sarah moans with pain.
"When Ira found you in the forest, your leg was too damaged to be saved. Although we tried hard. You have a new one now, in a few weeks you will be able to walk normally."
Her voice sounds calm, and low, as if she doesn't want to wake someone's up.
"The skin treatment is almost over. No one will be able to see it is a prosthesis. "
"Rachel, you bitch ! What have you done to me? Last time we saw each other you tried to kill me ! "
"That was a long time ago Sarah. You have been...absent for almost nine months-"
Suddenly, something moves on Rachel's lap. Sarah focuses on the breathing form between Rachel's hands. There is a baby gently waking up. Sarah is too confused to understand the information.
"What the fuck is that ?"
She closes her eyes. Maybe she shouldn't have woken up.
"That is the reason you are alive Sarah. This is my daughter, Swan. It is a gift you made for me, even though you weren't really aware of it... One of your eggs was extracted and fertilized and...voilà! See, my eye and your leg are not the only organs that science has improved.
"What? " Sarah's heartbeat almost splits her head. She is nauseated again.
"Yes, long story. Delphine will surely explain to you."
Sarah tries to focus on the music, just not to lose ground again.
"Anyway, I sincerely hope you will be fine soon. I'll need you in a few weeks to take care of Swan while I will leave the island."
Rachel's red lips are the only thing Sarah can rely on in order to stay awake. This is too much.
This is too much.
"This is probably too much information. I'll let you get some rest."
She stands up, one hand carrying the baby, the other one pressed on her cane.
Rachel is heading to the door when Sarah's anger makes her come to life again. She screams with all the strengths she has :
"Rachel! Stop!"
The blonde turns around to face the her brunette clone. Sarah is trying to stand up, but her wrists are restrained by solid handcuffs. Her face is red with anger and effort, there are tears and sweat down her cheeks.
"Sorry about the bracelets, I thought it was necessary, just while you digest the information.
Sarah is dazed, blinded by the strongest fury she has ever felt. She spits in Rachel's direction:
"Fuck you, Rachel...you are a robot ! You think stealing an egg from me'll make you human? You're wrong, bitch! You will never be a human. Never !".
Rachel lets go of her cane violently. There is madness in her eyes, her whole body is trembling with anger. She walks slowly to Sarah's bed, barely limping. She puts the baby on Sarah's lap, freeing her other hand. Then she leans over Sarah, her left hand grabbing the brunette's neck. Her face comes closer to Sarah's ear while tightening her grip on her neck. She says in a low whisper, her voice shaking as much as her body:
"Never call me a robot again, Sarah." Her nails are deep in Sarah's skin. They will leave bruises. She only loosens her hand when the other clone is about to faint. "Never. Understand?"
She slowly takes the baby back in her arms and proceeds to go to the door. Before leaving the room she turns around and looks at Sarah, who is trembling, eyes closed on her bed.
"You should say I am improved. And get used to it. After all, your leg is steel and artificial skin now. You are as good as I am, Sister."
She smiles kindly and leaves the room.
She is still trembling when she arrives in the living room, exhausted from climbing the stairs. Delphine is there, pale in the morning light. Rachel barely looks at her, entirely dedicated to the baby's babbles. She says to the doctor :
" Sarah is back. I need her on her feet in two weeks."
She turns her attention back to the baby and leaves the room, saying in a gentle voice :
"Here Honey, listen: We're just in time to hear the best part of the concerto. It's 'Winter'."
She reaches the stereo system and turns up the volume. While the violin covers Sarah's screams under their feet, Rachel turns in circles with the baby in her arms.