Previously on Life Is Strange: The Lost Daughter…
"Bad idea. El Eterno, they hurt people."
"Listen, I need to help my friend, okay? Tell you what. When I get back, pizza's on me. Deal?"
"What the hell was that?" Cayce asked. "I thought you were ready?"
"Oh, you should relax," I said with a sigh. "You'll live longer."
"So...these are the two rats in Copacabana sent by Chrysalis themselves," said Alvarez. "What a pleasant surprise."
"At first, I mistook you for just...an average...rebel.
"Oh."
"But you have managed to find the Inca Empire. That's not bad."
I immediately kick the desk over. Causing the lantern to shatter and spread fire in front of Alvarez in his insurgent thugs. It was time to bail.
"What the hell was that back there?" Cayce asked.
"Messy, but effective," I said.
"Were you trying to sell us out to those maniacs?"
"It's called improvisation. God, who's unready now."
"Sometimes the enemies of our enemies become our friends. And sometimes in order to keep our friends close, you must keep your enemies closer. It's not as if you turned your friends into your enemies as well."
"It's a sacred Inca shrine is what it is and this puzzle you see here is some kind of sigil that opens an altar. We sent you down here hoping you might have something to help us with it."
"According to Alvarez's notes," I begin. "There are sigils marked on this disc that represent the three Incan emperors who took on the great conquest in search of the Elysium forge."
"Our influence will stop Alvarez! In the battle today, we will go there and back again!"
As soon as I walk closer to the target, he holds his pistol against his chin and pulls the trigger. Shooting himself dead across the head and committing suicide.
"No!" Mendoza cries.
"We're at war. El Eterno is dominating Bolivia by the dozens and every minute we waste is one more we give the enemy to prepare. And every minute you waste is another you make yourself a ghost in the eyes of everyone you love back home."
"You know," continued Alvarez. "An Inca poet once wrote of a young emperor. Who showed mercy…and thus, ended our rituals. But the old emperors, they understood that progress demands…sacrifice."
"Captain Cage," I say in shock. "He's being held captive by Alvarez!"
"The Elysium Forge wasn't the only objective to the mission. Rescuing cage was another task as well."
"You knew Cage was captured and you kept this from me?! And so did Crosby?! And everyone else?!"
"I would love to kill you myself, but we must not anger the gods for you have brought me great fortune."
"Just shoot us and get it over with," said Cayce.
"As we bring you to our summit in La Paz," said Alvarez. "You will have time to reflect on the choices that brought you here. The new world order is nigh. And with it, the old Incan blood and our rise to power at hand."
Chapter 1 Mothers
May 14th, 2010
4:55 PM
Arcadia Bay, Oregon
Amber Residence
Four years earlier…
I'm asleep in my bedroom after a long day at school. Principal Wells busted me for taking the pot from Justin's stash, Nathan got suspended for hurting Samantha, Steph was out with Mike, Drew, and their dad on a trip to Portland for Drew's college orientation, and Chloe was grounded from picking me up today. Had to take the bus home. A pretty dull day at Blackwell. Even for Rachel Amber.
While I was out on my bed, my mom; or should I call her my step-mom, walked into my room to wake me up for an important conversation with my dead-to-me dad. Not that gave a crap what it was, but wouldn't be surprised what it'd be about.
"Rachel," said Mom. Holding her hand on my arm to wake me. "Rachel, wake up. Wake up."
I open my eyes and turn my body around to see my adoptive mother waking me. Nice to wake up to family who isn't dead to me for a change.
"Mom?" I said waking up. "What is it?"
"Your father wants you downstairs for talk," said Mom. "Pronto. You should talk to him."
I scratched my head and scoffed.
"Oh, god," I whined. "Don't ever call him that. Seriously."
"Rachel," mom hissed. "I don't care what's up your alley or how you feel about what your father has done, I will call him who I will. And you will come downstairs with him this instant! You've put yourself in enough trouble as you already have. Seriously."
"Fine."
I follow my step-mom downstairs to where dad, or should I say James, is waiting for me in the living room. The same room he had spoken the truth about my biological parent named Sera just a week earlier. Seeing him again with a look of sorrow, regret, and guilt on his face makes me sick. Whatever bullshit speech he has to offer about making it up to me, it won't change my mind about him. Not after what he tried to do to my real mom.
When my step-mom and I are in the living room with James, I sit down on the couch and mom stands next to James who sits down on his rocker. With a nervous frown of how he'll be seeing me face to face again since the hospital. I fold my arms with a firm face staring at him in the eye. Ready to hear what excuses he has to make. This should be ecstatic. James sighs.
"Rachel," he begins. "I know it's been less than easy for you to accept my actions against-"
"Skip the excuses and get on with it," I interrupted.
"Your mom and I have talked, argued, and fought over what I did all week up to the point where we've come to a final consensus of the situation at hand. Rose and I have decided we would be parting ways. We've decided that we won't be seeing each other for a while."
I scoffed and bit my lip.
"Wow," I said. "This is what you wanted me to hear, huh? Like this is anywhere near surprising at all. I'm out of here."
"Rachel, stop!" James snapped. "Just-"
"No, you stop!" I snapped back. "I don't even know you anymore. I don't even know what to say to you anymore. And I'm not even sure who or what you are anymore."
"And who or what is that you think I am? I am your father who wants what's best for you."
"You are a liar and a coward is what you are! A hypocritical ego-bastard who only cares about what he thinks is right and nobody else. You tell me Sera is a broken woman who indulges herself with drug dealing and corruption and all those letters, postcards, and custody papers you hid from me all those years proved otherwise. Get the fuck out of here."
"Rachel, language!" Mom scolded.
"Do you really think letters and everything else I hid from you would change my perspective on who Sera really was?" James asked. "When I got those letters, she was only saying what she wanted you to hear."
"Bullshit. It's not what Chloe told me in that hospital room that night. That's enough evidence to me to prove those letters weren't just to say what would only appeal to me. Its how she really feels. How she's really changed since you took her from me. All that needed to happen was for you tell me the truth, let me see my mom, and everything would've gone fine. Instead, you had to play the dirty politician. Hiring an asshole who stabbed me in the arm to kidnap Sera and murder her! And for what?! Because you were too chickenshit of what might've happened if I ever saw her?!"
"What 'would've' happened if you ever saw her is that she would bring you into a life worse than it is now. You made yourself an example out of that after what Damon had done to you in that junkyard."
"Damon's actions against Sera weren't as bad yours. Maybe you didn't want a job as District Attorney. Maybe you wanted an excuse to coerce yourself into making Sera come here just to do away with her."
"And why on Earth do you think I would do that?"
"Because it can't be a coincidence Sera just shows up here after fifteen years back in your life. It makes me wonder if you sent her here to be murdered. I might've learned that the day Chloe and I saw the two of you under that tree."
"I think you've got it all wrong, Rachel. It was Sera who wanted to come to me. Not me who wanted to come to Sera."
"Do I got it wrong now? You know what? It doesn't matter. You are dead to me. Whatever father I knew before died the night Chloe disgraced you to my face. And if you think the two of you getting a divorce and splitting up is the right thing to do?! Fine! No skin off my ass!"
"Rachel, you are walking on a really icy road with that tongue of yours!"
"Fuck you, James! We're through!"
"Rachel Dawn Amber!" Mom muttered. "You apologize to your father and call him your father this instant!"
"He is not my father! So stop calling him that!"
I get off the couch and charge my way over to the stairs in frustration, anger, and hatred. Before I get up the stairs, James stops my own feet with more to stay. And this time, it wasn't another excuse nor another lecture about truth and consequences.
"I know who you and Chloe saw up by that lighthouse," he began. I pause to hear him out a bit more. "I know you've seen her already. Even though I never wanted you to."
I paused by the stairs and turned back to James. He knew Sera was there? How?'
"You knew?" I asked.
"The thing is, Rachel," he continued. "Sera contacted me about what I did and said she didn't want to see my face again for that. She also asked where you and Chloe might be. I told her where and that's you ended up seeing each other. And you know what, I'm glad that you did before she left town. I believe it proved me wrong about her just a little."
"Is that supposed to make me feel better? Make me forgive and forget?"
"I'm not asking for your forgiveness. Much less to forget and make you feel better. It's not that your step-mother and I are getting a divorce. We just need some away from each other to keep our marriage at bay. Rose will be staying with relatives in San Francisco. I'll be staying in here in my own home."
"Oh, goodie. So why do you get to stay here and she goes?"
"Because this is home that is paid for in my name. No can kick me out. But knowing how you'd feel about it, I spoke to Principal Wells on the phone this morning before that pot thing of yours and requested a dorm for you where you can stay and live there."
A dorm for Rachel Amber, huh? Sounds like I'll be living next people like Victoria, Steph, and Samantha. I guess that's a good thing living away from my disgraced dad.
"And before you go up those stairs," continued James. "Just know that your mom and I that have been around you for fifteen years of your life still love you. And that'll we'll still and always be family even when we're distant from each other. I only want what's right for my daughter. So does your mom. So does Sera. And that all comes from a man that may have just ruined his career and marriage over my ego."
I turn my head forward and walk back upstairs to my bedroom as the discussion closes. Where I can pout, rant, rave, mope, dope, and feel sorry for myself for what's happening to my broken family. For what it's worth, I'm proud I met Sera as well.
Note: Welcome back again to Life Is Strange: The Lost Daughter followers! Would you believe I'm beginning to write this final episode at the same time I did last year when I began writing episode 2?! And yes, I've started this episode with a flashback set a week or so after the events of Before the Storm. Just my interpretation of how I believe Rachel dealt with the family trauma after the Tell Rachel Everything ending. Now I kinda regret not doing flashbacks for episode 2 or the episode before. Not sure if I wanted any flashbacks in episode 1, but in episode 2 I think I would've wanted to write a backstory between Rachel and James when they had gone to Mount Hood. And chapters of that backstory would be written between present-day chapters like always. But perhaps to make up for those regrets, maybe I'll write those backstory segments via one-shots for more chapters in my Arcadian One Shots stories that I haven't written for quite some time due to writing Eternity War and The Lost Daughter.
Without further or do, enjoy the finale of my Rachel prequel mini-series, everyone. I understand the last episode was kind of a dreadful one, but this one you all might enjoy more. Until next time, stay tuned and golden!