Hi, everyone! I present to you my first Beyond: Two Souls fanfic ever. Also, this is just my second English fanfic, and English is not my first language, so please be patient if you find any mistakes and kindly point them out to me so I can improve my writing and my English speaking skills.
I felt compelled to write this for two reasons: there aren't enough BTS fanfics out there yet, and the ending when you choose Beyond totally lets out Jodie's interactions with other death friends, incluiding Aiden. So as you can guess, this fanfic is placed in that ending, and features my favorite character, dear Aiden.
Disclaimer: I don't own Beyond: Two Souls or any of it's characters, and though I wish, I'm not making money out of this.
It was all blue around her, blue and beautiful. Almost like being floating in the sky, but there was no need to be floating either, because there could be a transparent road under her feet for all she knew. There was something about the freedom reigning in that place that was never to be copied by the living realm, something that the human soul, raised under boundaries and limitations, could hardly understand. Yet there she was, surrounded by human and non-human souls, all of them either seeking companionship or wandering alone with their thoughts and regrets.
Through rifts she could see the living, she could walk amongst them and whisper words into their ears, though most of them couldn't hear them, and the ones who could hear couldn't really understand. Sound seemed to work differently for entities like her, so she couldn't tell if she was actually speaking in a human language or not. Not having a mouth per se was part of the reason why she suspected her ability to talk was gone forever. What was talking without a mouth? What was listening without ears? What was appearance without a body?
She could still see herself in her human form, though. Part of the freedom the afterlife offered was that you could be anything you wanted to be: even just your boring old self. She tried becoming a majestic bird, and she succeeded slightly. It was hard, since you had to build the shape you wanted to have, sculpt your foggy and transparent self into what you perceived was the form you wanted. But sculpting air wasn't easy, especially if you don't have memorized every detail. And she was so used to her human body, the shape of her face and her hair; she simply decided to stay that way. It was almost automatic, when she was not too lazy for even that and just floated around like a shapeless mass of air.
But what she liked best about the infraworld she now belonged to was that you had the right to see it how you liked best. Whenever she grew bored of the peaceful sky blue tone and the bubbles of neighboring souls, she could choose to be in a green hill, with a lake beside her, some lush trees nearby, under the bright sky. And she could choose to see the other souls as funny white clouds, some shapeless and some drawing beautiful beings into the blue ceiling of the world. In life, there were no more than two times in which she could be in a place like that, because she was always surrounded by cities, desert or jungle, never a beautiful, peaceful hill. And what life wouldn't give to her, the afterlife was more than willing to give.
One time, Jodie Holmes had visited little Zoey, the baby she had helped deliver to life, and her pretty mother, Tuesday. They lived together with Walter, Jimmy and Stan, all of them sharing everything and helping each other get by. Zoey was no longer a baby; instead she was a little kid that reminded Jodie of her own self, and not only because their names rhymed nicely. There was something about her eyes that was different than other people's eyes: they were open, not only under the lids, also under her mind and brain, though not literally. They were eyes that were willing to see the supernatural, eyes that worked a lot like rifts, but not entirely. Little Zoey seemed destined to have a fate similar to Jodie's, and the woman couldn't help being curious about her. That's why she visited so often, other than for seeing her friends, other than evading the sense of guilt for not visiting Ryan or letting him know of her presence for his own good.
Jodie was wandering back to the infraworld after visiting Zoey, painting it all like her beautiful hill with her mind. Just as she came close to the lake, she felt a tug on her heart. Turning around, she saw Aiden standing behind her. Now that they were both entities, and they were still bounded together, they could be separate by miles and still find each other back, without pain at all. It was easier for two souls on the same realm to keep a bond strong while being apart than for souls in different worlds. Now they could even touch the tether uniting them, tug on it on purpose and tickle each other through it. It wasn't like actual tickles, since they didn't have nerves anymore, but it felt really alike.
Now Aiden, he was a peculiar entity. After finding out they were twin siblings, he tried shaping himself like a human man, unsuccessfully. He couldn't grasp the concept of how clothing was supposed to feel and look like in a body, and couldn't imagine how to be similar to Jodie and manly at the same time. She was just too pretty and feminine to have a male twin. So he never built a face for himself, neither wore clothes. He wandered around the infraworld looking like a male human shape, without hair or face. Like a makeshift mannequin. Jodie considered it to be a funny form for him to have, since she had always imagined him like a ball of darkness that grew arms like branches when he wanted to knock something down.
Aiden walked closer to her, stopping by her side in front of the lake.
"Of all the ways you could see the infraworld as, I never thought a pretty landscape was one of them" He commented. After crossing the entrance to the afterlife, Jodie had gained the ability to understand what her brother said. He had even more language impediments than her, maybe because it was the first time he ever had to try to pronounce words ethereally. However, the more he got to talk with her, or with another wandering soul nearby, the better he learned to speak.
"The term 'infraworld' makes you think of a horrible place, like Hell, like a land covered in fire" The girl said, chuckling slightly ". But I never thought there was a Hell waiting to receive me with open arms. How did you imagine this place was going to be?"
Aiden stayed silent for a few seconds, considering his answer. "I didn't even know who or what I was. If I was human or not, if the rules applying to humans would apply to me" He started to explain, ". First, I thought the infraworld would be like home to me, thinking I had come from here. I imagined a place like me, chaotic but familiar. But when I had the chance to go away from you and your world, back at the first condenser facility, I didn't want to do it. Ever since then, your world became my world, and this place turned into a nightmare in my mind, full of evil entities and being apart from you."
"It's hard to let go of what you've grown close to" Jodie agreed, feeling that way herself. She remembered how she had panicked when she thought her dear ghost-like friend had disappeared at that time.
"That reminds me, there's something I've been meaning to ask you" Aiden started, turning his faceless head to look at her. ". Why did you choose the afterlife, when so many people were awaiting your return?"
It was Jodie's turn to remain silent. She hadn't really paused to consider things on a logical approach before taking her decision.
"It seemed like the right decision" She answered. ". It seemed like this was the place I belonged to. And I knew choosing life would mean losing you."
Aiden couldn't decide if he liked what he heard or not. "It's flattering that you'd rather die than lose me, but honestly, I wouldn't have remained here without you for long. I would have escaped through a rift and gone looking for you."
Jodie smiled, feeling her twin brother was saying the true. "I guess what you're trying to tell me with all this is that I shouldn't have died." She said, sensing it was also true.
Aiden shrugged. "All humans die. But I have a feeling you were meant to do a lot more, and still carry the responsibility now that you have almost no means to do what you were supposed to do." He responded. When Aiden started sounding like the wise sibling, he usually was right. For example, when he advised to not go to Kristen's party, and not trying to go to the bar.
Jodie sighed. "I don't wanna regret my decisions. If there's one thing that saved me from going mad in life, it was never regretting them." She said.
"Some of the best decisions you made in life were a consequence of regretting what you did, like quitting the CIA." Aiden argued back.
"I'm going to forgive you for bringing that up just once, Aiden." Jodie said angrily. If there was anything about her life that would make her go on a rage rampage, was remembering the CIA. "Besides, what would I gain from regretting my death? There's no turning back."
"The visions you have at night" Aiden answered, in a really serious tone. ". They are telling you something important, and most likely true. You have to do something about them, about that apocalypse you see."
The girl stayed silent for a while, and sighed again. "There's no rest for Jodie Holmes, not even after death, right?" She asked sarcastically.
Aiden smiled, though his lack of face didn't show it. It was a smile that could be perceived through the tether than joined their souls together. "For none of us, Jo-jo." He said.
"Stop the nicknames, Aiden, or I'll start calling you mean things." She replied laughing.
"I know your most embarrassing secrets, dumbass" Aiden countered ". And I can make them spread through both realms. You really shouldn't cross me".
"Ugh, sometimes I wish your mom wasn't mine too so I could insult you more colorfully." Jodie said, before she turned around and started walking back the way she had come with long and loud steps. Aiden grabbed the tether between them and pulled on it, almost making Jodie fall on her behind.
"Where do you think you're going?" He asked, and he would have raised an eyebrow had he had one.
"To fix the mess, damn, let me be." She retorted, recovering her balance and starting to walk again, pulling on her end of the tether to drag Aiden behind. "You'll have to come with me though" She added.
"Hah, you know I wouldn't let you save the ungrateful humanity again all by your own." The brother said, chuckling slightly. "Besides, all this peace around here gets boring after a while."
Suddenly, Aiden's reluctant steps broke into a run, and he whispered a "Race you to the living world" on his sister's ear as he passed by her. She answered with a "That's cheating, you idiot!" and ran behind him into the closest rift, absentmindedly running to Tuesday's apartment in search for the kid whose destiny was about to change completely.
And that's the end. I hope you enjoyed this little contribution to the Beyond fanfic section here, and please, if you found any mistake, please leave a review and point it out. I would also like it a lot (like, a freaking lot) if you review to tell me if you liked it or not, though I really hope you did like it.
Farewell, dears~