Author's notes: Yes. Dark. Daaaaaark. Beware. And since I forgot it last time, I don't own Metropolis.
It took a long time to collect myself, after that. For nearly two days I spoke to no one while turning it over and over in my mind.
Why was she created? I fear- I deeply fear- that she is my replacement. But surely my father cannot have stopped loving me so completely?
Or did he ever love me at all?
I watched and waited, and again he went to that mad scientist's lair. Again and again I followed, and every time the creature was a little more complete and my dead sister stared at me with accusing eyes from her fluid stasis.
I had gotten over my fear- I now sat in front of her for hours on end, watching her gentle swaying and the way her hair swirled. I found myself crying, sometimes, but didn't know why. It was on one of these nighttime visits that I was interrupted- The ugly man creating monsters here walked in, and I hid behind the wires and debris.
He talked to himself, pulling dials and levers into place, pushing buttons. He did something and the armlike machine extended outwards, grasping my sister's dingy tank behind which I was hidden. It pulled up and the tank came with it, sliding loose. It was slipped into a receptacle by the central tank with a pop and a hiss of steam. I crouched lower, watching.
Wires and cables snaked from the ceiling, slipping into recessed ports. Electricity, strangely black, crackled over both tanks and my sister's body arced back, shivering.
I thought for a moment that she'd come alive again.
But no. Her body falls limp, and the snapping electricity moves on to the creation. With a final blinding flash, the glass encasing Tima shatters, sending fluid spilling across the floor. Her dead weight sprawls on the grated surface.
I looked up at the man in the strange clothes, the scientist, though he still didn't see me. He ignored the dead girl by his feet and the thin fluid on his shoes, only to concentrate on the thing that wore her face.
Something inside me clenched at the sight of my sister flopped on the floor like a broken doll, her eyes watching me with a slightly stunned expression, limbs askew. I could clearly see the torn hole above her heart from this angle, and the summer dress she wore puddled around her legs.
The scientist looked down. Twiddling a dial, he brought his arm-like construct over and scooped up Tima's limp body before I could react. It moved carelessly to a chute in the wall, dropping her. I caught a glimpse of golden hair-
And she was gone.
I stifled a cry, throwing myself back against the wall. I stayed there in a nest of metal, shivering, until the man left.
I picked my way out, skidding and blind through shock and numbness. I wanted to cry, I wanted to scream, I wanted to hurt someone.
Instead, I stumbled home. The Ziggurat. I dragged myself to the elevators, too tired for the stairs, only having the presence of mind to put on mirrored glasses and complete my emotionless facade.
Afterwards, I sat on my bed and stared at the dark.