Disclaimer: I do not own MGLN

A Counterfeit Daughter

By bissek

All Fate had ever wanted was for her mother to smile at her. No matter what she did, her mother never had time for her. She couldn't even take the time to have dinner with her child once, even when doing so was Linith's dying request. That was why she had thrown herself into her mission to retrieve the Jewel Seeds. Maybe, just maybe, if she succeeded in bringing enough back, her mother would be happy for the first time in years.

The universe conspired against Fate's hopes. A second girl seeking the same Lost Logia prevented her from gathering anywhere near as many of them as her mother needed. And this caused her not to be rewarded with love and approval, but scorn and pain. But she persevered. The seeds she had failed to retrieve at first could be taken from her rival later. There was still a chance for her to complete the task set before her.

Then as she fought for the Jewel Seeds she had failed to secure earlier for the last time, she remembered that every time she remembered her mother smiling at her, she had called her by a different name. Who was Alicia? Why was her mother calling her that? And how could she face her mother now that she had been defeated and captured instead of being able to return in triumph with the remaining Jewel Seeds?

As she watched the strike team attempt to arrest her mother, Fate found the answers to her questions in a clear tube holding a girl that looked like a younger version of herself. Alicia was the girl in the tube. Her mother called her that in those memories because that was who she had been talking to then. And ultimately, the fact that she had failed didn't matter to her hopes of winning her mother's approval one bit.

Her mother only had love in her heart for one daughter - Alicia, her actual child. Fate was nothing more than a forgery, a flawed copy made in Alicia's image. It didn't matter that her mother had made her herself, the mere fact that Fate was not the genuine article made it impossible for her to love her. Precia had no use for a counterfeit daughter except as a possible means to retrieve the original.

Tears fell from Fate's eyes as her world fell apart.

Iron Fic 4-1: Counterfeit

Start Time: 3:20 MST

Finish Time: 3:40 MST