GEMINI
Everyone knows about the Ark Twins, Lily and Alice. The Doctor and the Mechanic. The girl they didn't float for breaking the law and the girl who saved the Ark. Now separated between the Ark and the Ground, can the girls survive without one another to rely on?
CHAPTER ONE - Moonlight.
Lily
The cold floor of my cell had numbed my butt several hours ago, but still I rested my head back on my bunk and stared out at the window that formed a section of the ceiling. I'd been watching the moon rise every night since I'd been put in here. My cell mate, Octavia had fallen asleep several hours ago, her head rested in my lap and the covers from her bunk arranged lopsidedly over her. I straightened them out and brushed a piece of hair from her face. She loved watching the moon; Octavia grew up hidden under the floor of her family's quarters, so the moon was pure magic to her. On the Ark, there was a very strict one child law and her mother had broken it. For sixteen years, her older brother had kept her safe until that disastrous Unity Day party. Before I was arrested, Bellamy had me check on her a few times, when I had my Skybox rotation. My heart broke for their family, every time he had me ferry letters or trinkets to Octavia. His sister had been forced into hiding, while mine could happily live on the Ark. He'd hated me when he found out about Alice. We were a genetic anomaly. Or a "genetic malfunction" as my charmingly sarcastic sister often put it. For almost 70 years on the Ark, no one had given birth to twins. It had supposedly been bred out of our gene pool two generations ago. Then my mother got pregnant and by some bizarre, twisted fluke of biology, nine months later, my sister and I were born. Lily and Alice Kane. Despite the Ark's one child law, Alice and I were both allowed to live. Apparently the Ark Council had a small shred of humanity amidst all of the capital punishment for some of the most ridiculous of crime, for one of which I was currently residing in the Skybox. As I grew older, I realised that my sister and I had been allowed to live simply because my father was on the council and it is for that reason that I suspect I was not floated six months ago when I was arrested. My medical skills had made me valuable to the Ark; Abby Griffin had explained to the Council. It would be a waste of resources and talent to execute me, but it was my medical skills and 'talent' that had landed me in this cell. Every time the door to our cell opened, I nearly jumped out of my skin, fearing that my execution had been decided. After all, I had been 19 for six months; I was living on borrowed time.
I slipped my finger into the metal ring that hung around my neck, running it back and forth along the chain. It wasn't anything important, just a discarded piece of something mechanical that my sister had given me when we were little, the day we both decided what we wanted to be when we grew up. She had a similar ring around her neck, except hers was a something medical.
"So that my super doctor sister is always there to save me," She'd whispered, when I found it. I think we were 9 at the time. How things change in 10 years. Alice was always the rebellious one, getting into trouble for skipping Earth Skills to go watch a mechanic on a spacewalk. Funny how I was the one now in the Skybox.
Alice
I couldn't sleep and I suspected that it was because somewhere in the Skybox, Lily was staring up at the moon worrying about when she was going to be floated. It was one of those 'Twin things', some sort of telepathic link or so we liked to think. We both knew that the reason she was still alive was because our father was Marcus Kane and held a seat on the Ark council. That was the reason we were both alive and why our mother's pregnancy hadn't been terminated. However, giving birth to both of us had killed her and I don't think our father ever forgave us for that.
He was stupidly protective of us, holding onto every last shred of our mother that was alive in us. We'd inherited her cornflower blue eyes, her chestnut hair and her stubborn personality. Lily got our mother's caring and selfless nature; the reason she was a doctor, and why she was now in the Skybox. I always maintained that Lily was slightly prettier than I was, she insisted that we were completely and utterly identical. But my sister had a heart of gold and wouldn't even let me kick Bellamy Blake's arse when she was arrested because of him.
"He didn't force me to do anything, Ali." She had said, squeezing my hand tightly when I first visited her, "I chose to help him."
I didn't believe her and I knew that she was just protecting him because she had a stupid crush on him or something. I told her as much.
"Ali," She said in her soft, twinkling voice that she'd also inherited from our mother, "I don't have a crush on Bellamy, don't be ridiculous. He was trying to protect his sister, just like we protect each other. I thought you of all people would understand why I did what I did. Please try and forgive him."
I didn't understand and I sure as hell wasn't going to forgive Bellamy Blake for the danger he put my sister in. Our father had almost lost his position on the council trying to save Lily from being floated, but in the end Abby Griffin managed to convince the council that the Ark still needed my beautiful sister. I looked out the window at the moon, imagining my sister staring up at it from her cell, and wrapped my hand around my ring necklace. The door to our quarters opened and our father walked in, running his hand through his greying curly hair.
"Hey Daddy." I whispered, sitting up. He was frowning, like his council meeting had not gone well.
"Alice?" My dad asked, "What are you still doing up? I didn't wake you, did I?"
I shook my head, "Couldn't sleep. I was thinking about Lily;I'm going to go try see her tomorrow."
He took a deep breath, "I'm afraid that isn't going to be possible, sweetheart."
"Why the hell not?!" I dropped the necklace and stood up.
Lily
I frowned as the necklace slipped off my finger. Something is wrong. I heard a couple of shouts in the corridor outside my cell and gently shook Octavia.
"Octavia, wake up..." I whispered, as she stirred, "Something is happening."
The cell door flew open, crashing against the wall and rebounding slightly.
"Ladies, against the wall please. Hold out your arms."
We scrambled to our feet and Octavia grabbed my arm in terror.
"What is going on?" I asked, backing away from the guard.
In the cell next to ours, I heard Charlotte scream, "Let go of me!"
"What are you doing?!" I shouted, as they wrestled Octavia away from me. "You can't take her! She's not eighteen yet."
Hot tears started flowing down my cheeks as Octavia struggled with the two men holding her, crying out in pain as they slapped a metal cuff around her wrist.
"Prisoner 659, hold out your arm." They barked at me.
"What are you doing with us?"
"Prisoner 659, hold out your arm or you will be restrained."
"What are you doing with us?!" I repeated, louder. They didn't miss a beat and grabbed me around the arms, holding tightly.
"Lily?!" Octavia cried, looking up at me with wide eyes. She'd stopped struggling and had a tear rolling down her cheek, catching the moonlight.
I elbowed the nervous guard who was trying to put the metal cuff around my wrist and twisted out of the grip of the slightly larger guy, holding onto me. I grabbed the baton from his waist band and hit him over the head with it before rounding on the guards that had Octavia.
"Let. Go. Of. Her." I said, slowly advancing on them.
"Lily! Enough!" A familiar voice called from the doorway. I dropped the baton as Abby Griffin ran into our cell.
"Abby?! What is going on?" I whimpered, running into the arms of my former mentor.
She hugged me tightly, whispering, "They're sending you to the ground..."
"... They're doing what?" I whispered back, my terror escaping into my voice, "They're executing us?"
"No, they need you to see if the ground is habitable." She explained, pushing my hair behind my ears and cupping my face. "You need to take care of them, okay? Watch out for Clarke." Abby had tears in her eyes.
"What are the metal things for?" I asked, as they lead Octavia out of the cell.
"We're going to monitor your vitals on the ground." She held my hand and slid the band onto my wrist. I winced as the needles embedded themselves in my skin. "We need to see how your bodies react to the radiation."
"But why?" Abby was very subtly leading me towards the corridor, taking my jacket as she did. She helped me into it before kissing my forehead.
"Look after them, Lily." We heard a shout behind us and she squeezed my hand as she hurried away.
"Abby! Wait!" I tried to follow her but a guard caught my arm and led me away.
My heart was pounding as I was pushed toward a crowd of prisoners. The younger ones were crying and I tried pulling away from my guard to find Octavia.
"Lily!" The guard hissed, "Stop struggling!
I knew that voice.
A.N
I recently started watching The 100 and wondered about what happened to Twins, so created Alice and Lily. I liked the idea of them interacting with Bellamy and Octavia and the dynamic there. And of course there has to be one of them on the ground... I'm slowly going to reveal the reason that Lily is in the Skybox as the chapters go on. For reference, the girls are 19 years old and the daughters of Marcus Kane, which is why Lily wasn't floated.
Please review :)
~ CI xoxox
