A/N: One shot. Written because I've totally butchered chaos' character in Enter the Encephalon, and because I love the Jr.-MOMO-Sakura interaction. Spoilers from Ep.II abound. Don't say I didn't warn ya… Timeline: Ep. II, beginning of disc 2.

Beloved daughter

It was a little white house amidst the corn field.

I saw it once in my dream, and thought it seemed perfectly too suited for my taste. There was a small pink bed, complete with several stuffed toys at the bed's corner, and the Bunny mascot stood guarding at the bed's side.

Every time the sun sinks, the owner will sit at the white bench in front of her house, hum in tune to the melody of her favorite music box, and swing her pink shoes from side to side beneath the bench. And she will admire the orange orb, painting her secret hideaway in red orange blush. She will enjoy the wind blowing from the corn field, and live there eternally.

For that place is perfect.

It was a dream; there fore the place is perfect. I sat on the bench once, inhaled the scent of fresh corns budding from the stalks, and thought about it. I could stay here forever.

The owner is always in a fair colored dress, and she adored that place, like a favorite dream house. I saw her once in my dream, holding a gray furred feline in her arms, and she raised her eyebrows at me before running back in to the house, with the cat's bell ringing at the end of her hurried footsteps. When I got in, I found Rubedo. He's still shy and gentle, at the tender age of twelve summers, untainted by the war, deaths of his siblings and conflicts of life, and he would smile gently. I have never seen him smile like that at me.

Rubedo. It's such a beautiful name. When I asked for permission to greet him by that name, I half regretted my observation abilities, as I saw the dismissal in his eyes even before he shook his head and muttered the word 'No'. He backed away from the request, half-joking about the nickname I gave Ziggy, and let out a laugh that's so strained it almost made me wince. Later, the real reason occurred to me. I, agonizingly, have reminded him too much of one of his most important person, and it pained him to hear me utter the word 'Rubedo'. Though there are countless of 100 series realians on board the Durandal, I resembled her more than anyone else, more than the Kirschwassers, more than the 100 series, or any of Daddy's creations.

'You can become my Sakura...'

I can't, daddy. No matter how much I try, I can never be her. Much like it, Mommy's rejection of me has been occurred because of this.

'You little Realians weren't even born from a woman's womb.'

Your brother could be a psychotic murderer and guilty of every statutory rape, Jr. He can be anything but there's one thing he's not. He's not a liar, and he never will. My Cherry Brandy sisters adored him because of that, and I adored you, just like my older sister Sakura had.

I could have cried, denied the fact that I wasn't, yelling at him to stop filling me with the horrid details of my birth. But I wasn't programmed to express any of my anger, jealousy or loathing. Though I could smile and laugh from my heart, cried with all my soul, I was unable to perform any acts of loathing and hurting. Forever I would be the sweet, loving and doting daughter of the Mizrahis.

Mommy tried her best to like me, the second daughter to think about, and not the substitute daughter she wanted so much ever since my older sister's life perished. Mommy would stare at the copy of her late daughter's chin and mouth, ignored my yellow realian eyes and unnatural pink hair, and took me in her arms. I had wished for more natural green eyes and likely chocolate dyed hair, as I will resemble mommy that way, be similar to Sakura, so she could love me like she loved her. But the part of being a realian is to serve a purpose, and I returned her embrace like the devoted daughter I was planned to be.

Every time I think about it I felt like my head is going to explode, my throat's been rubbed down with sandpaper, and if I was not too hot it's too cold.

"MOMO?"

I didn't look up, keeping my stare at the floor. The speaker was already obvious, nobody could ever have that soothing and concerned tone at the same time.

"I'm… all right." I think. Not.

I was down at the floor on my knees and palms, and from my limited eye sight, I could see him down on one knee, levering his eyes to mine. "Are you sure?" he said, brushing gloved fingers on my cheek.

"…No." I couldn't lie, though I wanted to.

"You should rest. You look really pale."

I finally raised my head to look at him from the rim of my beret, and there he was, with the most soothing smile I've never seen during 14 years of my activation. Our eyes met in silent communication, and I blinked, feeling my tears well up.

"Who am I, chaos?"

The reply was a minute of his tensed knuckles on my shoulder. "Shouldn't the answer lie in there?" He pointed lightly to my chest, where my artificial heart was pumping synthetic blood through my man-made aorta and fake veins.

I shook my head forcefully, feeling my head spinning at the same time. "This… can't respond to my questions. Whenever I ask something to it, it never replies. Nor can I tell it to stop pumping."

I couldn't ask this to Ziggy, not with his long unforgotten memories of his departed wife and son, and remind him of the cruel details of his metal limbs and synthetic heart. Remind him that he once had the real heart to support him through life with a real family that he once belonged to - and lost now. It will only tell Ziggy again how he seeks the need to replace the last remaining human part of him with contraption pieces, and I will lose the big brother I learned to adore and rely so much.

Shion could run her fingers across my hair, disentangle it despite how it never got into a mess, and give me the warm hug like she used to. But she wasn't here now, and I couldn't bare the thought of burdening her with my trivial troubles.

chaos was silent instead, much to my dismay, and he supported me to stand, holding my shoulders on his arms' length. "You should get some rest."

He tucked me in to bed once we got into the cabin, just like Shion usually would, and sat next to my cot. His eyes fell on the Bunny mascot at the cabin's corner, and a thin smile prodded his lips.

"Jr. gave it to me," I answered before the question shot mid-air, "He said that… I will like it."

"And you like it, don't you?"

"I do. Until I saw the exact replica inside Sakura's room."

Replica. Sakura.

"Jr. knew Sakura long before he knew me, and he knew Sakura likes the Bunny mascot as well… he must have thought that I will like the mascot just as Sakura did."

"MOMO…" chaos sighed, gripping one of my outstretched hands lightly, while the other hand was stroking my hair with much patience. "Why would you think yourself as Sakura?"

"Daddy wanted me to become her."

"You're not her. You can have her face, her smile, her voice, even her personality, but you're not her. Don't think yourself as a replacement, MOMO, but consider you as yourself."

"Daddy said-"

"It's good that your daddy hoped that," He patiently explained, "but I believe he wished that you can become that second daughter to him, as Sakura's sister, not as Sakura's replacement. You're named MOMO, not Sakura, and be proud of that." His hand still patiently ran through my hair, whispering words that would buoy my life up from that moment on.

"Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love doesn't demand its own way. It's not irritable or touchy. It doesn't hold grudges and will not notice when others do it wrong. It's never glad about injustice, but rejoices in truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."

I went to hibernation not long before he finished the phrase, and I could feel the slight movement of his gloved fingers on my eyelashes, brushing away the remains of tears.

"Love never ends."

Thank you very much, chaos, I can never thank you enough.

I longed to say these words to him, like the lost lamb to its shepherd. But the sentence is caught in the middle of my illusionary universe and budding corn stalks, and echoed all over its corner. And in my dream, he smiled and said you're welcome.