Resolutions of Mirrors
A/N: This was inspired by the scene in '6:02 AM EST' where Altlivia is in the same cell that Olivia was held in at the start of season 3 and speculation for 3.21 'The Last Sam Weiss'.
Any mistakes are mine, and seeing as it's *looks at clock* about 2:30 AM now I hope you'll excuse any :P Also for those of you reading my Fringe/Inception crossover 'Pale Glass' chapter 2 of that fic is up :) (If you haven't checked it out I would reccomend that you do ;).)
Disclaimer: I do not own Fringe, not here, over there or in universe 31422.
It was the sliver of light that struck the wall at an awkward angle that made her tilt her head and see it, a form wreathed in tangles of moonlight in an ivory cage. It was hunched slightly, a curtain of hair hung around the face in a colour horridly familiar to her.
There was something strikingly familiar about the formation of the hall as she walked down it, the neat corners and sharp angles that carved out the doorframes; and the dark, muted colour of the walls stirred something in her memories. The dark, charcoal reminded her of the dust that covered the ground like a snow over here. It was an after effect of the Blight, as if everything green had been incinerated with the flick of a wrist.
Where the hall ended there was a window, and Olivia wished that it was a window to nothing, a glass pane that lead to nowhere. But she knew better than to assume such luxuries.
She knew because she had seen that glass window before.
When she reached it, she pressed her finger against the small switch beside it and the room beyond the glass exploded in a wash of light.
It was exactly how she had remembered it, only from the other side of the window.
And there on the other side of that glass, hands folded against her forehead and elbows pressed against her thighs; was her alternate. She looked defeated, her resources gone and support ripped from underneath her.
So this is how it feels to see from Walternate's eyes, she thought as she imagined all the times that he had stood in the same place as her and stared at her through that exact pane of glass. She could still remember the dark, brooding anger that she saw in those eyes.
It was a moment later that her alternate looked up at her, at first surprised and then her face changed; shifting into an expression of pure confusion and then reforming into something that Olivia hoped was akin to understanding.
She wouldn't ask why her alternate was locked in that cell, even though she was curious. She suspected that it was probably due to some sort of contingency, one that didn't coincide with the Secretary's.
The other Olivia was the first to tear away the seals that kept a barrier of silence between them:
"So," she said, "You came back."
Olivia said nothing.
"You really didn't pick the greatest time."
"And I suppose a better one was when Walternate sent you over to my side and trapped me over here."
She frowned and leaned back against the wall: "I didn't ask to replace you, even though you had already replaced me" she said, recalling the time when Olivia had knocked out her alternate and briefly taken her place.
"I was asked to do a mission, and it's my job to do those missions."
"So what was the rest then?" Olivia said sharply, "You getting close to Peter, was that just a product of coincidence?"
She stood and walked towards the glass, her face shallow and sunken like deep ripples in sand.
"It was that," she said, "But more so the fact that we worked so closely together. I saw him every day that I was there, how can you not get close to someone who you see for hours at a time every day?"
"That may be, but you still slept with him," she said, anger growing in her voice, "You still weaseled your way into my life like it was your own and when I got back I had to...try and pick up the mess that you left."
"And you really think that me coming back here was any different?" she asked, "At least you're not in a cell."
"I was," Olivia answered, "One exactly like this, no light, no contact with anyone except a damn psychiatrist who tried to convince me that I was you."
Her alternate's face had melted into a shallow frown.
"How 'bout that, you and I actually have something in common," she said.
"Aside from our identities," Olivia quipped.
"I'd say somethin' more along the lines of outrage at what the Secretary is doing," her alternate said.
"Somewhat understandable when your universe is at risk, don't you think?"
"Hey my universe has been through more than your's has," she snapped.
"Well there won't be that much of a difference soon," Olivia said sharply.
"Both universes will be the same," she said with a hint of surprise.
Olivia nodded, "The Blight has already started on my side."
Her alternate paced behind the class, two fingers cupped beneath her chin, "And this is all because the Secretary activated that device."
"Yes," Olivia answered.
Her alternate stopped pacing, "You know why I'm in here?" she asked as she looked at Olivia, a hint of something that she could only discern as fear in them.
"I tried to cross over to your side."
Olivia's brow creased as she pursed her lips and shook her head, "Why?"
She paused for a minute before answering, seating herself back on the bleak cot in the cell, "The Secretary told me that the people on your side were monsters; just... creatures in human skin."
Olivia felt the hairs on her neck bristle as she swallowed thickly. She imagined Walternate's image on a bright red dartboard with a bull's eye in between his eyes. He should have been more worried about the monster in his skin.
"When I was on your side, I didn't see monsters or savage creatures," she said as she leaned forward in her seat in the cell, "I saw people."
"Then why didn't you do something to prove that," Olivia answered.
"Because I had to do my mission."
Olivia smacked her hand against the glass pane, she was sure that she saw her double flinch slightly.
"Enough about the goddamned mission!" She yelled, "If you really gave a damn you would have done something, but you were too afraid of Walternate to act."
Her alternate looked up at her; thick, icy anger filling the contours of her face, "You really have it in for me don't you?"
Olivia swallowed thickly but didn't answer.
"You know I did give a damn," she said sharply, "If I didn't, I wouldn't have saved Peter from being crushed by a speeding subway."
Olivia felt her face soften for an instant before she remembered the rest of the events that had transpired in her absence.
"You still slept with him," she said; the words thick and heavy like drops of mercury off her lips.
Her alternate leaned back against the wall, her posture conveyed far too much ease for Olivia's liking.
"So what if I did?" she answered, "Would you have done something different if you were ordered to get close to an enemy?"
"We are not the enemy," Olivia said through clenched teeth.
"Maybe not now, but then I believed otherwise," she answered, "And there really wasn't a much easier way to gain Peter's trust."
The muscles in Olivia's neck tightened as her hands curled into tight fists, she wanted to punch out that pane of glass.
"You said that you saw people when you were on my side, not monsters," she said, "I... am a person, and you didn't stop for one moment to consider what you were doing to me?"
Her alternate said nothing, only frowned slightly.
"You really are nothing like me at all," Olivia said as her mouth curved into a snarl, "I may have been in your place but I didn't try to take everything you had, you just waltzed into my life and took what you wanted as if it were yours."
Now it was her double that had the nasty snarl carved into her face, and when she spoke her voice was laced with molten anger:
"But you took from me the one thing that means the most to me," she paused and collected herself, "and my son."
Olivia felt like she had been broken in two, a straight line cleaving her in half down the centre of her form.
It couldn't be...
"It's Peter's," she said.
Olivia felt ten forms of rage at that moment and a dozen shades of agony; inside her it formed a bloody rainbow of destruction that took everything she had left to contain.
And the only sign of her shock was the single crystal tear that slipped down her face.
It was another thing that her double had taken from her, and the shock was so jarringly painful that she could make no response.
"If you're here to do anything," her alternate said, "think about my son, Peter's son. Don't let the Secretary take that from all of us."
She tried to process the thought; her son was an innocent child with no involvement in the debacle that currently consumed them.
He was only a reminder of the moments that Olivia hadn't witnessed and lost in the tangle of deception that Walternate had weaved so carefully.
She tried to swallow the thick sobs that choked her throat:
"What's," now she had to compose herself, "what's his name?"
"Henry," she answered.
Olivia looked up, "As in the cab driver Henry?"
The other Olivia nodded, "Yea... did you meet him?"
She gave a shallow nod once, "Yeah... I did."
The other Olivia stood and walked over to the glass pane again, and Olivia could see a tinge of red in her eyes.
"If you do anything over here," her alternate said, "do it for Henry."
Olivia looked at her double and then at her own reflection, she had always considered them to be two separate mirrors; one reflecting the other but still different. Now she considered the possibility of one mirror, broken and doubled over so that it reflected only itself.
From down the corridor, a voice interjected, "Olivia!"
She turned sharply, it was Sam. A moment later the details came back to her in the flood; the mission, the timeline, crossing over.
She turned back to her double, and she remembered her words: Do it for Henry...
"Olivia we have to go," Sam said urgently.
She realised all in one instant how the other Olivia's request opposed her mission; the timeline had to be mended.
She was caught between opposing poles; go to one and the other would fall.
She wasn't sure if the other Olivia saw it in her eyes, but she motioned towards Sam with a bounce of her red hair and said softly, "Go."
And she did.
Fin
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