"Faux"
Her first memory was the sound of water. A gentle, murmuring white noise while she dreamt of a life that wasn't hers. She lived a weightless existence suspended in translucent green, cradled and surrounded in the embrace of soft fluid.
The day she was born, she woke up frightened by loud noises. Metal things clanged and groaned. There was a hiss. She felt the rush of escaping liquid pull her with it and her glass womb deposited her roughly onto hard ground.
She was a creature of thought and water violently forced into a world of solids. The sensation of touch was at once familiar but alien. She braced her hands on cold metal and vomited ectoplasm until she could only cough and choke. Harsh air invaded her lungs where gentle fluid once was.
The spasms of her stomach reminded her she had insides. The raw tang of acrid chemicals retaught her smell and taste. Her unused muscles ached with weakness. Naked, she curled herself into a ball and shivered.
"Structural cohesion stable at eighty-three percent, dear-heart. Confirmed viability outside amniotic environment." The voice was distant but surrounded her, echoing like sounds against her glass enclosure.
The light glaring overhead hurt. She kept her eyes squeezed shut, not seeing her breath come out like a fog but still felt the cold presence settle over her.
"Analysis," It spoke, real and near and inexplicably terrifying.
"Genetic deviation within acceptable test parameters, sweet-pea. Catalyst Batch-23 appears to have stabilized the maturation process, but caused an unexpected allosomal mutation."
She risked opening her eyes a sliver and saw a pair of boots, black but intangible, flickering like static. She slowly followed the boots up to a woman's face. Recognition dangled at the edge of her brain.
"'Unexpected mutation,' indeed. Still, a promising step in the right direction."
She reached for her with a slimy hand; watched it phase in and out of transparency like it was trying to mimic her.
She coughed again and whispered a word she knew from her dreams but didn't understand.
"…Mom?"