Chosen Fate

Friday, August 16, 11:10 A.M.

Mewtwo was polite enough to knock before entering the morgue. The fact that the morgue door was nearly two inches thick and solid steel didn't matter to a psychic. Ben heard a knock and that was all that mattered. Mewtwo eased the door open and quickly scanned the room for active autopsies. There were several bodies out on tables, but no one was cutting anything open at the moment.

"A moment of your time, doctor?" he asked.

Ben looked away from his chart, startled. "That door was locked," he said confidently. "It was closed, and locks automatically--but yes, I have a moment."

"Was it locked?" Mewtwo asked, amused. "I'm telekinetic. Maybe two moments, if you have any questions. I thought you'd want to know that we've made arrests, and there will be no more clones on your tables."

"The last girl was found, as well?"

Mewtwo hesitated, then shook his head. "I'm not sure what the Detective will decide about Four," he admitted. "She has been speaking to her Clan leader, apparently. They are adopted as Islanders."

"I understand bodies. I don't understand Islander politics. What happened?"

"I'm not entirely sure myself. I think if I did ask the Detective, she would kill me, and the other Islander's I've met are about the same. From what I understand there is a treaty, but what's involved... I honestly don't know. They may have policies against autopsies."

"It wouldn't hurt their case, if one of the many girls just disappeared. I never said that on record, of course, but it may even add to the current prosecutor's efforts if the last sister isn't a list of medical symptoms and deviations."

Mewtwo shook his head. "Honestly, I'm not sure what's going to happen. I'm not even sure when the funeral will be. If you want to go, I'll find out for you."

Ben considered for a moment. "Not the funeral, but the cemetery. That's the part that she cared about most."

"Very well." Mewtwo crossed the room and glanced at the body on the table. An older man, overweight, covered to the shoulders with a sheet. "Time to work on other cases, I see."

"I'm finally back on the schedule for the area, now that the main analysis is finished. While it was in progress, most of my usual work was diverted to other departments."

Mewtwo nodded. "So, your interns have been a big help? The Detective will be pleased."

"They've taken care of a lot of the detail-work that used to waste hours of my day, and actually think the mundane tasks are fascinating. One was a bit more sensitive about bodies, to start, but it becomes surreal or practical very quickly."

"Sounds like police work," Mewtwo admitted. One did grow used to all manner of things. He blinked, and looked around. "Yet your interns are not here."

"They're getting lunch. They were working in the anatomy lab with the rest of their classmates this morning, and all the formaldehyde tends to make the students ravenous. They'll be a little longer than usual."

Mewtwo stared at Ben for a long moment. "I really wish I knew if you were joking. Formaldehyde just makes me ill."

"The best thing to do with bad smells like that is usually to just take a couple deep breaths and go on with business as usual. Fresh smells are a lot different, because you can't get used to those half so easily," Ben said. "You're all done with arrests, then, and the business of clones is over. Any special reason you wanted to brave the morgue to tell me?"

"Four nearly killed you. If she does end up on your table, will you be alright?"

"That's certainly getting to the point." He looked over his morgue thoughtfully. "I would be fine here, because this room is the only place in the world where I know exactly what should happen when, and where I have the authority to ban people who cannot understand my line of work. This is my room. It would be unsettling later, but through the procedure itself I would be fine."

Mewtwo nodded. He supposed he understood. "And she is only a little girl. Insane, but still a little girl." His lips tightened, and his eyes gleamed purple for a second. "I think you at least would understand that."

"I do, actually. My youngest sister is eight. My parents were extremely surprised, as the next-youngest is nineteen."

"Ah. One of life's little surprises?" Mewtwo studied one of the ambiguous blown up lab charts on the wall. For the life of him, he couldn't figure out what it was. He was more of an engineer, anyways, he supposed.

"One of the less pleasant ones for my younger brother, who had been happily living under the delusions that my parents never had sex." Ben couldn't quite pull off a smirk, but his smile was slightly vindictive.

That surprised a laugh out of Mewtwo, and he curled his tail around his feet. "Probably a fantasy most children entertain. It is a disturbing thought, after all."

"Hazards of the medically minded, I suppose--people don't just pop into existence. Something happened."

"So you were 'medically minded' before you decided to become a doctor?"

"I have a very strange way of seeing the world, and could name every bone in the body in sixth grade. I think I'd decided before I knew quite how my brain worked, if that makes any sense."

Mewtwo blinked several times. When he was young, he'd been a murderer. That wasn't something he wanted to think about, so he did his best to ignore it. "I can't say that I've always wanted to be a cop, but injustice has always angered me. Obviously." He gestured at a familiar, bent scalpel, and sighed. "I need to work on my temper."

"I wouldn't worry much about it. Scalpels are really quite easy to bend, and I've only kept it around to scare the interns. They think I got angry enough to stab a table.

"Well, you didn't, but I suppose an intimidating reputation can only help, and not hurt." He looked around the room, a veritable shrine to the dead, and sighed. "And it's believable, too."

"Would you prefer to talk in my office? I'm not in the middle of anything." Ben gestured towards the door.

"Only if you want to. I honestly don't mind it here."

"Most people feel a little uncomfortable here, especially when I plan to be back at work in half an hour."

Mewtwo shook his head and snorted. Not hardly. "Most people should work with the Detective on a normal week," he said. "They would not be uncomfortable in a sterile room, then."

"You've probably seen worse with crime scenes," Ben agreed. "I think we're all glad this case is over."

"Well, apart from the theatrics to come..." Mewtwo snarled, and shook his head. "Are cops glory hogs?" he asked, doing his best to sound polite. "Just as a random question."

"Depends on the cop, just like it depends on the lawyer."

"I find I begin to understand why cops hate Feds," Mewtwo admitted. "If- sorry, when- Agents Edwards and Highmore appear, could you ignore Edwards? Or make him uncomfortable? As a favor to me?"

"Does he seem like the squeamish type? If he's not, there isn't much I can do without shooting for a complete lack of manners."

"I wouldn't say he's squeamish, but when I attempted to explain my particular methods of research to Highmore, Edwards told me to go to the very end. Highmore wanted to know what they would be able to plausibly produce as evidence." Mewtwo clenched his fists, and shook his head. "At least Highmore is sensible, and likes details."

"I'll see what I can do."

"The more intricate, the better, I would imagine." At least Edwards had been good for something. He'd been more than willing to talk, while Highmore and Mewtwo had mutually decided they preferred appearing as mute, walking muscles.

Mewtwo was about to add something else, probably another complaint about Edwards- now he understood why Brenda was in a perpetual bad mood- when the phone rang. He arched his eyebrows and turned to look at it. "Were you expecting a call?" he asked politely. "Would you like me to leave?"

"I wasn't expecting anyone," Ben said, glancing at the number. "Perhaps you should stay," he said as he picked up the phone. "Detective Johnson, I'll put you on speaker. Officer Smith is in the room with me."

"You do that." Brenda kept her voice low. Mewtwo wondered why. "This'll have to be quick. Four's here at the grave. She's currently paying her respects. She'll be in to the morgue tonight, and then we'll have to get her cremated quick. Hades, she's got a headache, her eyes are more red then anything, her pupils are pinpricks and her pulse is... Way too fast. She looks like shit and said she drank floor cleaner."

Mewtwo took a breath, and glanced at the coroner. "I guess you will have to write a report on Four," he murmured.

"I don't suppose you could get her into the hospital." Ben knew it was wishful thinking even as he said it. "She's preternaturally strong, hates doctors, and wants to be with her sisters."

"I don't think she's got much longer. Her heart's going to go if it keeps this up," Brenda groused. "Just... She looks worse than any of the others. I don't think she's been eating."

"She wants to sleep with her sisters." Ben was sure.

Mewtwo nodded, and wished his voice would carry over the phone. "Do you want me to stay here, Doctor? At least until your interns have returned?"

"I will be fine, I just need a few things from my office... I won't bother explaining that I have forewarning, but I can at least have Miss Four's papers ready."

Mewtwo nodded, and looked back at the phone, then hissed. "The Detective hung up," he said, and sighed. "Well. I suppose I'd best go do some final paperwork on the case, then. May the Feds have fun with it."

Friday, August 16, 11:51 A.M.

Brenda tucked her cell phone back into her pocket, and wondered when she'd break it. Fifth one she'd had that year. She just didn't have the knack of flipping it open without snapping the top part right off the bottom. Not that the cell phone was important, but thinking about it helped keep her calm with Four staring at her.

"You were talking to someone," Four said, and frowned. "Who?"

"A friend of mine," Brenda said. She kept her hands in sight as she shifted in her seat, just to get comfortable. Leaning forward was stupid, but it brought her eyes on level with Four. "He's a clone too, you know."

"My sisters met him, didn't they?" Four moved closer, and even those few steps left her gasping for breath. "With the doctors, and the white rooms. You were there."

"Yes, that was Mewtwo. We've been working to stop the people who created you." Brenda took a risk and patted the bench seat beside her. "You look like you could use a rest."

"Sleep." Four's eyes closed, and she looked like she was savoring something especially tasty. "My sisters sleep and I shall follow them."

"In the meantime, why don't you sit down?"

Four opened her eyes and stared at Brenda. "You're different," she murmured. "You're afraid, but not of me. Not of what I could do to you. Why? I don't understand. Three isn't here to tell me."

"Chatty, aren't you?" Brenda shrugged one shoulder. "Sit down and I'll tell you, how's that?"

The clone was a young child- smart, but still a child. She sat down. Brenda brushed Four's arm with her own, and frowned. The child was freezing. A side effect of the encroachment of death, no doubt. Or just an utter lack of flesh on the child's bones.

"You burnt my sisters up," Four said, and pointed at the grave still waiting to be filled in. "I should kill you for that."

"Why would you do that?" Brenda asked. "Don't you think your sisters deserve to sleep in peace?"

The clone hesitated. "Yes."

"Well, now they can. No one can wake them up again."

"Don't you dare!" Four howled, and grabbed Brenda's arm. Before Brenda could react, Four was twisting and something sharp and hot and painful was jabbing into her shoulder. After a moment she figured it out. Four was trying to rip her arm out of it's socket.

The image of the homeless man, limbs ripped off, flashed through her mind. She ignored it.

"That's why I had them burned," she said, doing her best to keep her voice level. "So people couldn't wake them up again. They'll sleep forever now, and I'll do the same for you. You deserve sleep too."

Four let go of Brenda's arm. Brenda hissed and rubbed at her shoulder, all the while eyeing the clone.

"You promise?" Four asked.

"My Clan's honor on it."

"I don't know what that means."

Brenda shrugged her uninjured shoulder. "Haukea- non-Islanders- never do. Don't worry about it. But yes, I promise."

"There's writing on the stone above their heads," Four said.

"Yes. A name for each and every one of you. All ten, isn't it?"

"I am the last of ten, yes. My sisters are all dead." Four grabbed Brenda's hand with both of her own, so very gentle when moments before she had been violent.

Brenda reminded herself not to jerk away. "So there are no more clones. No more of you."

"I have no more sisters."

"That doesn't exactly answer my question," Brenda said gently. "Are there any more clones?"

"There is your friend," Four said, and glanced up through her bangs. She was sweating now, Brenda noticed. Just a little bit. "He is a clone."

"I don't mean Mewtwo. I mean any more clones like you."

"There were others, but they weren't my sisters. They went away forever, before Three went to sleep and burned." Four let go of Brenda's hand, and hugged herself. "I don't feel good."

"No," Brenda said, and risked wrapping her injured arm around Four's shoulders. The girl didn't seem to notice, except she leant against Brenda's side. "So the other clones, they're all dead?"

"They went away forever. They never came back."

Probably dead, Brenda decided. Four was shaking, and sweating, and it wouldn't be too long now. Without even thinking about it, Brenda began to hum an old lullaby.

Several hours later, the paramedics moved slowly down the hill, balancing the stretcher and the tiny body on it with exquisite care. Brenda watched, until the stretcher was loaded into the ambulance and it began the long drive to the morgue. She sat down on the bench again, and closed her eyes.

End Notes

Well, ladies and gents, that's it. Or, well, not quite. I have a few more threads to tie off in the Epilogue, and then the story will truely be finished. It's taken me most of a year, with far too many breaks for my peace of mind, and this paticular story's shown me exactly what I need to work on, for further stories. Thanks for reading, I hope you guys like the Epilogue once it's posted.