IQ
Well-Known Member
- RP Date
- YE 41
- RP Location
- Sirris VI, Wilderness
There were several rules to hiking and rock-climbing. Let people know where you were headed and try not to go alone. Though these were rules Lynn simply didn't care for. The Jane clone wanted out - away from all the breath-impairing business of the city, away from the fake smiles and the I'm-alright's. Away from the people she was too scared of speaking up to - to get help for what actually ailed her, what caused her to wake up in cold sweat or have her constantly cry in the shower, what drove her as far as to harm herself.
She was too scared to ask for help. And she wanted out, not forever. But just a moment to gather her thoughts and see where she was at. Though sadly enough, where exactly she was at wasn't a good place. While she took her shotgun with for safety - the thing seemed to call her name. The barrel seemed more and more appealing each day she camped out.
With a soft huff, she glanced at the weapon, before shaking her head. "'No-... Not today," she murmured, engaging the safety again and strapping it around her waist, crawling out of her tent to be met with a rather impressive sight of the sunrise. A faint smile curling on her lips. Going to kick out the ashes of her fire, she felt a shock wave through the ground. Another soon following, repeating itself to form something large, in full sprint and growing closer. An ear-splitting screech cut through the treetops and Lynn stood eye to eye with one of Sirris VI's feared predators. Able to gobble her up in one go. The clone felt a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead as she swiftly unsung her shotgun - a loud explosion resounding as she squeezed a round off, before the massive predator razed a scythe across her stomach and sent her flying. Tumbling down the rocky hill and headed for the cliff she had climbed not a day before.
As the creature advanced seeing whether it's prey was down for good, or only stunned. It ignored the sudden rustling of one of the nearby trees as something moved along a branch unseen. There was no heat, and too small to pose a threat in the predator's mind. Who was there to fear in the jungle when you were one of the biggest and baddest. This was far more true given this stretch of jungle was supposed to be empty of such fauna.
Lynn seemed to tumble down the hill like a ragdoll, flacid and lifeless - and that was the truth, she had indeed passed out momentarily. Only recovering halfway as she was falling, bruising and scraping. Though with a smack that knocked all air from her, she finally came to a halt against a large boulder. weakly trying to get up as the predator offered another loud shriek as it turned on it's talons, scuttling over to Lynn rapidly.
The charge was interrupted as the crack of a high caliber rifle rapidly resounded. It stumbled as ten rounds were fired of into it's alien body, causing the being to pay attention to the tree finally.
Dirt puffed from the ground as the unseen figure landed, uncloaking to reveal a female figure in a bodysuit, cloak, and mask worn over their body. A 50cal Black Rose AMR was held in their hands, the magazine being dropped as another was slapped in. As the woman racked the bolt, a yellow stripe could be seen around the magazine's bottom if one looked close enough.
"Tsk tsk tsk, now that's not nice. Didn't the park ranger say to stay away from the people Bogi?" they said mockingly with a modulated voice from under the mask. The predator only roared in anger from it's wounds, and began to charge again. The woman raised the rifle and held the trigger once more, this time firing a magazine of starfire 50s.
Lynn had slowly pushed herself up against the rock. Raising a hand to rest on the gash on her stomach. Watching as a mysterious figure decided to do the fighting for her. Though Lynn wasn't about that, she struggled to regain her balance - but she managed. Limping back up the hill. Her left arm seemed to be twisted in a rather unnatural way, however.
Though when she reached the top again - the battle was already over. Her mysterious saviour had blasted the poor thing to shreds with almost surgical precision. Leaving the clone to cast both a confused and weakened glance over at the figure. "W-..Who?" She managed to murmur out, before keeling over backwards.
The now empty magazine was spent, dropped at her feet, the creature now crumpled and sizzling before her. Slinging the rifle, she didn't answer at first, quickly gathering up her discarded mags and dropping them in a medium butt-pack. The rifle was slung as she approached, "Someone who cares, needed to say hi, and noticed you doing something very foolish. I was hoping to observe until the moment was right, but.....well...biggie over here forced my hand. Lucky for you I was out here, otherwise we would not be having this conversation."
She stopped infront of Lynn, head tilting and leaning to either side to assess the damage, "You're left arm is dislocated, and we need to treat that gash. You can save your question for as I treat those." Hands sought to get a hold to support Lynn, so the figure could move her to what was left of the camp.
Lynn had passed out - though caught by her mysterious saviour with a gentle embrace. The sole reason she was conscious up until now was the adrenaline. Which had slowly seeped away. It did make her easier to move, having no way to protest the way she would.
The Fenrir clone was out another hour or so, before her purple eyes slowly fluttered open, moving to examine her surroundings with a pained hiss.
The sun had shifted across the sky above the lush orange jungle, the elevated place one of the few breaks in the impenetrable double canopy found above ground level. The camp had been straightened up as much as it could be, still considerably a mess from the now corpse of a creature mere yards away. Lynn would find her arm reset and bound in a makeshift sling, her gash having been filled with medical sealant and bandages wrapped around it. It was clear her shirt would have been lifted for the second of the treated injuries, but the figure sat near, unworried it seemed. With her shotgun next to the mysterious woman, the figure sat there leaned against another log as if waiting. "You're awake, and only for an hour, very resilient you are. I've treated your wounds and was about to get up to prepare a meal."
Lynn swallowed thickly as she woke. Raising a hand to briefly touch the bandages on her stomach - before deciding that was way too painful and resting back down. "Water-..." She croaked with a faint cough, before scraping her throat.
A canteen was unhooked from the woman's belt and offered over to the clone gently, "I figured that would be the case after you woke. You must be sore so forgive the idiotic sounding question, but how are you doing? Is there any injuries you can feel that I missed?"
"Nah- I... Apart from the obvious bruises and-..." Lynn whinced faintly as she accepted the canteen. "And probably-... Broken ribs," she added, before taking a deep drink from the canteen. Exhaling a soft - yet pained breath. "Who-..." She croaked again, frowning momentarily as she scraped her throat. "Who are you?" She finally managed to ask. Biting her lip momentarily as she stared at her mysterious saviour. "Not to sound... Ungrateful or anything, y'know."
"That.....is not a easy question to answer. Nor is it one that will be comfortable to do so either. Let's just say I used to work very close to your mother, when.....she worked a very different line of work. A much more darker profession. I know that isn't exactly revealing, but baby steps here." she answered as she rubbed a suited hand to the back of her hooded head. Her suit was clearly a derivitive of the revnant undersuit, the rifle a NDC particular item. It sat just on the other side of the shotgun, having spent all the rounds for it. "I was actually the one to pull your brother Hati from the crashed shuttle he returned in. Seems to be a theme around here."
Lynn arched an eyebrow, before huffing out a soft breath. "You knew mom?" She asked, before grimacing. "There's-... There's uhm-... Some painkillers in my bag," she added with a faint breath. "If you would?" She asked with a soft arch of her eyebrow, leaning back and heaving a soft sigh as she glanced over to the shotgun. "Then-... Why are you here?" She questioned, glancing back at the mysterious individual. Making sure her back was turned. Lynn propped herself up, pulling the shotgun in her arms, cocking it once and pointing it at her. "Now-..." She grunted out in pain, though making sure to keep the more than certainly loaded weapon pointed at the figure. "Who-..." She asked again. "I'm sure answering is far more comfortable than getting a face full of shrapnel."
Their movement froze, having heard the clack, "Question for you first. Doesn't a biometric safety prevent friendly fire? I'm registered, so you can't shoot me. You want that answer, come take the mask off, otherwise you're waiting."
Lynn only offered a dry, unamused chuckle in retort. "I know my way around guns," she murmured, still holding the shotgun up. "S6-KAS2, codenamed Executioner - twelve gauge galactic horizon, design based on the earlier hailstorm. Eight shells in each barrel, a total loading capacity of sixteen. Individual barrel firing, can be loaded with, but not limited to; scatter-shot, sub-sonic scatter, magnum scatter, magnum slug and the one I'm holding pointed between your-... Hnggh~... Eyes, ^you can pick - slug or scatter?" She grinned faintly. Leaning up against a nearby rock. "And, best of all. No biometric-... Safety. You really want to risk a leg to find out?"
"......oh, well fuck. Gonna have to talk to Rose and Jack about that later." she mumbled to herself at first, "I'm your aunt, Amanda, came here after I heard of my sister's death. I worked with her back when she did less positively viewed hired gun work. I'm more or less serving as a member of WRAITH now, and Kessler sent me to find you out of worry, especially with your brother still missing."
"Mhm, thought so," Lynn answered as she lowered the shotgun, letting out a huffed breath. Tucking the weapon against her hip. Still holding it pointed at Amanda. "Mom never told me about an Amanda - no one ever did. You mind removing the mask?" She answered with a faint breath and a gentle smile. "Y'know - I'd rather see the faces of new people. Makes it easier to remember names."
"Your mother thought Jack was her brother when they first met, and was under a false name. She also probably never mentioned the fact she was an assassin for 20 years. Also.....you're kinda bitch, why can't you play nice with people?"
"She didn't mention any of that - nor do I care about all that," Lynn answered, exhaling a soft hiss between her teeth. Before resting her head against the rock momentarily. "Because I'm fucking sick and tired of everything," she retorted simply, lowering her gaze to meet Amanda's eyes. "Mask;" she stated once more. "This isn't about me - this is about you. And I don't take kindly to somone hiding behind a mask calling me a bitch - safe toassume my patience's running real fuckin' thin."
A irritated grumble left the woman behind the mask, her hands slowly pulling back her hood to let long raven black locks to fall over her shoulders. "See, it's coming off now, just.....steel yourself for this." she stated as they then took ahold of the mask, beginning to slide it off, the veil attached pulled away to reveal more raven hair. Once removed, it was moved left to slide out of view of her face.
"Oh... Fuck," Lynn murmured as she lowered her weapon. Before engaging the safety and tossing it to the side. She bit her lip momentarily before sighing. "Sorry-... You ehrm... You look exactly like her," she admitted with a soft breath. Feeling tears well up - though she fought those off and shook her head. Playing it off with a faint chuckle, before whincing in pain once more. "That's some weird stuff. You a clone as well?"
"No, I'm human. Now thank you for moving the gun out of my face. Gurrrll, you need to be more friendly, then again, you're her kid. She was pretty touchy and a smartass at one point.....You remind me of her a lot actually." Amanda offered with a shake of the head before slowly standing, "Jacklynn, why are you out here alone and without telling anyone? People are worried that you disappeared, and with them looking for Talos, just why?"
"I'll put it this way," she started. "I don't like charades nor guessing games - if I ask someone something, I expect them to answer. Not dance around the," another pained whince resounded from Lynn as she slumped ever so slightly. The adrenaline she got from pulling the gun had by now fading." Ehrm... Shitty question maybe, but you got those painkillers?" She tried with a faint grin. "I know it's... Fu-... Nnnh-ot as believable, but I swear I'm not gonna do it a second time." She added with a faint breath. It always weirded her out when people used her full name - though she presumed it was because they'd never met before. Amanda would've seen only her full name in personell files. "Just Lynn is fine," the Jane clone repocricated. "And-... Yeah, get me that injector and I'll answer your question."
The woman was quick to turn back to the case and pull the injector from where she had found it before having a 12gauge leveled at her. With it in hand, she offered it over to the clone, with a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, how about you hurry and get that in ya. You must still be in quite a bit of pain, so let's get that taking care of okay."
Lynn expected more distrust, with having pulled a shotgun on Amanda and all. But it seemed this woman trusted her, so she'd do the same. Accepting the injector with a faint nod before pulling the cap off. A moment of hesitance before she plunged it into her thigh with a soft groan - though a shudder of relief followed as she felt the numbing warmth spread through her body. "Why I'm here," she murmured, exhaling a soft breath. "I wanted out - away from the city, away from all the business, just... Wanted to be alone. Think, consider and... Y'know, mourn."
"That was extremely foolish of you, and a tad selfish. Don't get me wrong, I understand, it's just not good logic. You're family needs you now more then ever, and you decided to isolate yourself when an enemy is cleary out to end you. You're brothers both lost someone else they both cared about greatly, so don't you think they need their sister?"
The Jane clone let out a shake breath, before slowly closing her eyes. "Believe my word on it - I'm better out here than back there. It's anything but selfish," Lynn answered as she opened her eyes to gaze into Amanda's eyes again. "I'd cause so much more pain than I already have.",
Amanda shook her head, "Really? Because everything says the exact opposite, unless there is something you're not sharing. So, what are you not telling me?"
Lynn exhaled a soft breath. Maybe it were the strong painkillers, maybe it was the fact this woman looked so much like Sarah, but she felt uninhibited for some reason. Shaking her head with a grimace, she started off with; "I want to die," Lynn bit her lip momentarily, before continuing, her gaze dropping to her bandaged tummy. "Even before mom-... I always felt bad, out of place. Like I didn't belong, I cached myself repeatedly wondering whether I was meant to be jailbroken," the Fenrir clone admitted, grasping at her forearm, squeezing down against the scars. "When mom passed-... When those fucks attacked-... When Talos went," she swallowed thickly - several drops reflecting in the sun as they ran down her cheeks. "It's been-... I wanted to hurt people, make them suffer... Just to see what they'd do - whether they'd-... How they would react to," her face contorted momentarily. "It just got worse... I'm scared I'll act on it. I'm-... I don't want to hurt anyone I love but~" she cut herself off, looking back up to Amanda. "I came here to think, get away and mourn... If things didn't improve-... Or if it seems the most logical conclusion, I'd... I'd-..." she bit her lip again, glancing over to the shotgun.
"That way-... I won't risk her finding me. I'd just... It'd be less painful."
A glint of concern, shock, hurt, and surprise flashed within her ocean blue eyes, the clarity like crystal ocean water. She couldn't help herself, but she had to hug Lynn. The clone would find arms wrapped around her in a caring and protective embrace. "No, I won't let you do that. I don't care if you see yourself as a danger, I will not let you kill yourself like this. You are hurting, suffering, and questioning your own sanity. But you don't have to face that alone, and you aren't alone. Sarah would blame herself-.......no I blame myself for this. I sh-should have never left, should have fought harder."
"I-..." Lynn huffed out a pained breath as Amanda hugged her. Surrendering to the woman's warm embrace as tears streamed down her cheeks. Her words - whatever she wanted to say was lost to soft hiccups and uncontrolled sobbing. Even when Amanda slipped up in her words, Lynn was too far past to pick up on the hint, only shivering in the warm and motherly embrace. Brought to tears for a variety of reasons - one of which was just how much she missed Sarah.
"Your mother suffered through the same thing when she was your age. She had thought she had lost her parents when they went to ground to work on the fenrir project. She was so full of hurt and suffering. She thought the military would save her, let her get the revenge she thought she wanted. In the end, the war was over and she was left with a self taught hate." Amanda said as she held the clone tight, wiping away tears on the cheek she could reach. "She moved on to become an assassin, killing for a paycheck, when really it was to satisfy the urges she had. For 20 years, she did that to herself, living a kind of life that left her with no happiness. And she had to live through that alone, but you don't have to, we all want to help you."
"I-... I don't want help," Lynn answered with a soft sobbing. "I'll look weak when I just-..." She swallowed thickly, before biting her lip and nuzzling closer to Amanda's shoulder. Much like a babe nuzzling for warmth. "There's so much people that depend on me," she continued, swallowing thickly. "If I'm this shit at-... Y'know. How can those people possibly-... Depend on me?"
Amanda looked her in the eyes for a minute, "NO. Weakness is giving up and giving in, which gets you nothing in the end but a funeral full of broken hearts. Hiding is not the answer, because family is strength. We don't survive just to die alone, we survive to live together. Lynn, this is not how you show strenght, this is not how you solve it. You're running from the solution, from the people who can help you, and it will hurt them more to find you were hiding this in the end. Listen to me. Go home, go to your family, let them be there to walk you through this."
Lynn shook her head, before exhaling a soft breath. Eyes sliding shut as her sobbing subsided - falling more in tune to the dull ache she felt in her heart. And the nauseating, constricting fear that made her stomach turn. "Who... Who can help me? Everyone is recovering from those damn mimics or reapers or whatever-..." She bit her lip, letting out another shakey breath. "Talos is gone-... Hati has his own issues-... Who of my family can take me being like this, huh?"
"Your sisters Jacky and Armora, and......me.....My name isn't really Amanda.....Lynn...your mother isn't dead."
"Jacky-... Relies on me... 'Mora is struggling with her programming," she retorted with a faint breath, before looking up to Sarah. Her eyes widened for just a moment, before the clone caved. Shattered at the relevation Sarah, formerly known to her as Amanda, explained. Pressing her forehead against Sarah's shoulder with an uncontrollable and pained sobbing.
"I wanted to reveal under better circumstances, but the situation seems to have forced my hand. If I had known things were this bad for you.....my poor baby girl, I'm so sorry. I couldn't help as everything since that day has taken a turn, or as you all have continued to struggle. I should have come sooner, should have known to begin with." Sarah whispered as she held Lynn close, supporting the back of Lynn's head with a gentle hand. "It pains me to see how much you and Hati have been tore down. Please forgive me."
Lynn's sobs had moved on to a full on crying as she held the woman - her mother long believed dead, close. Tears fully streaming from her cheeks as she cried out both frustration and joy." You-... I-... I mourned-... " Came between loud and ugly sobs." Mom-... Mommy~" she muttered under her breath as she held on to Sarah for dear life. Too scared to let go, fearing that she'd dispel the possible hallucination.
"Shhhh sshhhhh, I'm not going anywhere this time." her words softly continued as she sought to comfort the woman, a gentle kiss being placed on Lynn's head. "Everyone mourned, and all over something Rose made a mistake over. I left things get to me, and I grew weak, instead of doing what I should have done.......make things right. But that's all over now, and I've made things better. It's time to pick the pieces up though, and that starts with my children."
Lynn didn't seem to really listen - or at least, respond to Sarah, she kept crying uncontrollably, a moment of a deep breath before she continued. Rubbing her face against Sarah's shoulder as she clung on for desperate life - sheer confusion now pushing the contradicting feelings to their fullest.
Sarah sat there holding the distraught and confused clone, letting her cry it out, because what more could she do. The embrace was never broken, and the gentleness never left as she waited for Lynn to release all she had been holding in.
"H-... How, W... Why-..." Lynn questioned between heavy sobs. Before biting her lip. "Mom-... I-... I'm so sorry-... Fuck, for not telling you this stuff sooner-... For-... For just taking you for granted. I'm so sorry," the Jane clone hiccupped.
"It's a long story honey, and wasn't something easily gone through. But momma is here now, momma's got ya, and I'm not letting you go. We'll get you through this together. And don't, I should have known, seen the signs."
It didn't make sense - none of this did. She saw the body, she was at the funeral. She mourned for Sarah. The woman that was holding her was dead. "This isn't real, huh," Lynn murmured, choking down another faint sob. Softly shaking her head against Sarah's shoulder. "This-... It isn't, we don't have-..." The Jane clone bit her lip as another smothered sob came from her. "Please-... Just let me wake up..."
A shiver was felt from Sarah's body, the idea being one even she feared, having had a hard time in the beginning to understand herself. But she knew she was alive, the tears she had cried, and those she had felt and wiped away of those she had already visited. Were too real to even still believe it was a dream.
"Lynn.....this is not a dream, I am real. Let me show you the truth, let me share my memories with you. Show you the life I've struggled to live, and the life I was given a second chance with. Everything.....everything you need to see you are not alone."
With a gentle sniffle, she glanced up to Sarah, before letting out a soft, pained whince. Holding a hand on her stomach before exhaling a shakey breath in order to steady herself. "I-... Alright," she admitted with another gentle sob. "How?"
Sarah's eyes began to glow a deep almost ethereal blue like that of the flourescent lakes of Sirris's wilderness, "Simply reach out to my Geist as I do the same to yours to establish a connection. Then take my hand and prepare yourself for the parts of my life you're about to see." Lynn would feel a warm tingle as she started the neural handshake, her motherly mind looking to reach out to the mind of her daughter.
Lynn frowned, before nodding slowly. Misfingered digits wrapping around Sarah's hand before she closed her swollen, red eyes. Letting out a soft shiver as she did so, before the warmth seeped in. Her Geist connecting with Sarah's as she waited for the woman to show her - making sure all those nasty memories from her own were hidden away for the time being.
Their minds dived to the depths of Sarah's mind, down to some of her earliest memories, the ones that mattered of course. But that didn't spare a few flashes of a all but forgotten childhood, the memories of then stained with a hurt that sprung from later on. A ravened haired little girl with brilliant blue eyes in a sundress skipping amongst the sakura trees of a park. The call of two adults brought them forward to Sarah at the age of sixteen.
It was a small micro apartment, the teenage girl far younger in appearance, brushing that still black as night raven hair. She was home with a man and woman who shared a deep likeness, as the woman, having brown hair and blue eyes served breakfast. The man with raven hair and green eyes looked over some sort of science related reports, relaying their contents to the mother. They seemed to be a happy family at least in outward appearance as young sarah left in a school uniform. Walking away down the building's hall soon followed along by a woman with silver eyes and hair, chatted on their way to school.
Time passed once more, still seeming to be within the same year at least. Sarah sat alone with a plate, chopsticks in hand as blue eyes widened at a news report on a display. A ship exploding, as Elysian ships advanced on a conquest that would fail. The sticks dropped from her hand as it went to cover her mouth which emitted a mournful wail. Time sped along as day in and day out continued without the two adults, each night spent in lonely silence as Sarah curled in the floor after school every day. Every so often friends from school would visit, but each was only given a soft and faked smile.
With those four years, the teenage girl grew to a woman, the same who Lynn had before her. But she was no longer in the apartment, but in a recruitment center with a blank stare as a yamatai officer with a very different uniform droned at her. Beside her sat the very much taller Casdan, who all the while gave her a concerned look.
The scene changed again, as the two ran through obstacle course and performed military excersises. Finally it stopped as it showed her in uniform of the Grand Star Army, a GP-12 in her hands as she finished graduation. But something felt wrong as the next scene came up, a very angered looking Sarah standing before a neko officer, "The war is over Pine. Psych evals warned me we would be having this conversation. Get over it, and get back to duty is all I can tell you."
"Fuck you."
"Excuse me Santo Hei, I don't believe I heard you correclty." the feline woman bristled.
"You heard me, I'm buying out my contract. If you all are going to let those winged bastards live....then this is a coward's army. I will look to fight my own war then ma'am." Sarah said before dropping the form and transferring the KS needed. She walked out without further word as the neko only sat back in the chair with a scowl.
The next 20 years came as a blurr, the kick of a rifle in her hand as Sarah murdered target, after target, after target. With a growing bank account, and a always loaded rifle, Sarah cut a swath of dead marks. Assassination becoming her life as she sought to fill the gap with revenge she couldn't quite thirst, as voices called for more bodies. Then something happened one day....
The contact spoke to her over the phone, even as she examined the picture in her hand of a youngman with white hair and red eyes. Uniforms and locations changed as she sought out the man, eventually finding her way to a world of endless sand. She remembered the first day she saw Jack Pine, a spark of small hope in her mind as she watched him fight a neko on a stage. Even as he was repeatedly beaten down, he got back up until finally pinned to the floor in submission, and how she carried him to medbay afterwards.
Skipping ahead, Section 6 had grown, and done many things even in the confines of their desert home. A war raged on with a company called PsychoPomp LLC. One such raid brought a startling truth, rows and rows of tubes, the frozen fenrir clones within. The adults from earlier in Sarah's life before her and Jack as they stood there in power armor, looks of shocked disbelief. Not only at the clones, but the man and woman before them who had faked their deaths.
Both only looked at her with disapproval, angered to have their research interrupted.
"You always were a disappointment, looking to grand idealistic dreams such as music or sports. We taught you to study hard to be a scientist, but you threw it all away like a brat. These clones, made from your own DNA, are the most use you have ever been!" the woman barked with a sharp tone of irritation, Sarah having no reply as she was tossed aside from her parent's lives. The lie had been broken, and she knew the truth.
The man looking bored with the encounter simply looked at a report as before, "They're failures as well. Disposal is in progress, and will begin once you and your thugs have been removed."
Neither could believe what they were hearing, neither Jack nor Sarah, and both knew they should raise a rifle. But neither had the strenght or the will. But a hand removed the pistol from Sarah's hip, her gaze turning to a clone who arrived from somewhere else it seemed.
"Disposal was halted as the base was breached, I was first to be removed from cryo, I came to ask for orders. However, you have admitted to initiating the tank purge, and therefore.....by parameters, this makes you hostiles. Hostiles are to be eliminated." A clone with white hair and red eyes much like the rest, the designation M-22 upon his cryo suit's shoulder. Without hesitation he raised the pistol and put one in the woman's chest, a look of shock and pain in her expression before the next one went through her right eye.
The man cried out in grief as she toppled to the floor dead, two going into his chest immediately after before he could rush to his now deceased wife. His life ebbing away he stumbled to fall to his knees beside her, a moment before Talos granted the mercy of one last bullet to the head.
With that scar of a memory concluded, life moved on, and it sped through all the memories that Lynn already knew. Until.....that fateful day, when Sarah laid in her hospital, her life fading. Her view scanned around the room at all the faces of her family, a deep saddness and many regrets felt, but of the overwhelming joy of having a family she could be proud of to watch over her as she faded away. With cries of mourning, and a sad goodbye, her eyes closed for the last time. At first there was only darkness, but....nothing had changed it felt.
She felt no body, no bed, only weightlessness, but yes she still felt there. Opening her eyes, she was in a white room, alabaster in stark brightness. Furniture, a bed, and a mirror, but no door. With nothing but confusion, she sat on the bed and cried. Was this some purgatory, hell, or twisted concept of heaven? She was sure she was dead, until the walls faded to show a room beyond what she perceived to be glass. It was spacious and round, terminals and machines here and there. Seraphina stood beyond at a computer just on the other side of the wall.
The angel told her what had happened, how her body died, how her mind had been saved. The geshrin knew not what to feel anymore, or if she should even cry. One thing was for certain, she was not gone from this world yet, and therefore a shakey hope she could come back to it. Because she was in a computer, the room a false projection, the outside world the reality beyond the hologram......just like her.
The days passed as she watched trapped, as the life of her children mournfully continued, and as the reapers came. Eventually Thorn arrived and was invited in, where she set things right in the morning her new human body was complete.
She met Hati on his return. Pulling him from the wreckage to where he was admitted to the hospital, she waited at the crash site. There on his returned, she eased him into the truth, ending with a close encounter in the night where he found the truth. Into the night she held him, explaining all Lynn now witnessed.
When the night was over and they parted after breakfast, she then set out to make amends else where. Having reclaimed her prized and treasured rifle from her wolven son, she had murder on her mind for those who was a threat to her new wife. Taking a list of named from thorn, she went back to her ways of the assassin, but doing so out of love and not hate. When there were no more notches to carve, she returned to Sirris VI, where her amends continued.
Jacky was next, Sarah having picked her way in. Fixing the shy clone breakfast, they talked about all the things Sarah had missed, both before and after. With time spent together, the next stop was Rose.
Meeting her wife in the dark of their apartment, Sarah questioned the woman on all her choices and the consequences they had brought about. And with a satisfied verdict that the grieving widow knew she had wronged some of those closest to her. Sarah removed the veil, and returned the ring upon her finger, joyed to return to their bed together as their children slept soundly.
The memories finally caught up, followed from a tree top view as Sarah had stalked Lynn through her solitary trek. And then it ended just as the predator had charged, and the rifle was raised.
"You see now Lynn, I am real. You are not dreaming this, because I am alive, momma is here." Sarah said quietly.
Lynn was lost to her tears as she took everything in - watching the key moments of Sarah's life like a spectator. She wanted to reach out - she wanted to scream and embrace Sarah each memory that passed. Forgetting it was much akin a movie being played to her. She could scream and cry all she want, it just went on. The emotional duress, the pain and angar Sarah felt so vividly didn't do much to calm the clone down - the anguish was infectious and much like a robin's egg - the human mind was fragile. It lead to so much more Sarah most likely didn't bargain for.
There was cold - darkness. A certain sense of weightlessness. Warmth flooded fingertips - before spreading to limbs and body. The weightlessness dropped - making place for a sense of falling. Eyes shot wide open, revealing the hazey sight of a sterile lab. Scientists with faces hidden behind hazmat, words that only met Lynn with a blurry tone. She couldn't possibly understand. Though the horror was real, Lynn wanted to scream out in pure dread as she saw other bodies like her own - in stasis in a tank. Though the tube in her throat made her unable to do so - leaving only a smothered and muffled grunt. Bodies dragged away, tanks hosed out. This wasn't birth - this was a factory. "Shit - she's awake," she could barely make out the words, but knew her awakening wasn't planned. Hands gripped her arms and pulled her from the tank, though the Fenrir clone was too panicked to just comply. A fist smacked into the glass plate of a hazmat mask, shattering it in one go, before hse trashed against the other scientists that rushed to keep her down. A myriad of shouts and cries as she fought like an absolute maddened woman. Though a needle pierced her juggular, slumping over and causing the entire scene to freeze and defragment.
The orange jungle of Sirris VI became visible. Both herself, Jacky and Talos present. Lynn seemed twitchy - something moving in her peripherals before disappearing all of a sudden. The rustling of leaves adding to how on edge she was just for a hiking trip with her batch siblings. Though it suddenly cracked - literally so. As if watching a TV with the screen cracked down the middle. On the right side - Jacky and Talos were, chatting and having fun - Lynn was trailing behind on the left side. Darkness growing around her - the birds stopped humming, the leaves began to decay and the entire scene was losing colour. All of a sudden - she raised her shotgun in the scene, aimed at the two clones infront of her. The sound of it being primed before a shot rung out. Everything went black - before splitting apart like shattered glass.
The next key moment took place. Both Lynn and Jacky in her appartement. The taller of the two clones settled in, laughing and smiling at eachother as Lynn softly carded through Jacky's hair with rubber gloves. A solution next to her that would bleach the taller Fenrir clone's hairs. The traditional music Lynn was such a fan off played in the background. Though Sarah could hear how it slowly synched out of tune. Lynn caught her own gaze in the mirror and seemed to grow more pale. The off-key music hauntingly wrong in the background as she grabbed the bowl - before splashing it in Jacky's face, causing the taller of the two clones to screech out in pain and agony - before Lynn grasped the back of her head and began slamming it in the mirror. The warm sensation of blood on her face - the struggling of a now blinded Jacky slowly dying down between the crunching of flesh and glass. It was too real to just play off as psychosis. And much like the shattered mirror - once again, the memory shattered.
An odd horse-anthro had entered her workplace. Someone she'd called up to ask about the weirdly shaped helmet. They had made conversation, exchanged pleasantries. Though it seemed to halt for a moment, glitching as the entire screen froze - the next sight was Aztec, with both his hands bolted to her workbench, throat slit and innards dangling against the floor, Lynn just walking out - leaving bloody footprints on the floor. The door closed - everything faded to black.
"I-... I can't-... Feel, please," Lynn pleaded to no one in particular. Her hand shivering as a stream of blood ran down her arm, forming small droplets on the floor. "Someone-... Something-... I can't-..." She pleaded again, before slowly dragging the knife across her arm again. Ripping open flesh - the pain singing and ringing in her ears, but she seemed to welcome it - even relish in it. A glance darted over her shoulder as she looked at the noose she had tied to the ceiling - with a quick contraption tied to her door. That if anyone would open it, the sliding doors would yank her up further and possibly break her neck due to the shock. She shook her head and focussed on her wrists again. Tears staining her eyes as she made another pass. Just to feel alive.
More recently - during the attack of the reapers, Jacky and Lynn, both hurt and wounded. Dashing through the hallways and hiding in a cleaning cupboard. Lynn fashioned a pipe bomb as Jacky held the door. Though as she called for Jacky to open up to toss it out - she drove a makeshift shank in her sibling's ribs, before kicking her for the reapers - slamming the door shut again. A vivid screaming before and explosion rung out. Lynn slammed the door open, holding up her carbine to see the bloody mess that was left of Jacky's corpse crawling away. Legs off to the side somewhere. She raised her rifle, before a faint smirk formed on her lips. Lowering it again and turning the corner to walk off to her appartement. Once again - it merely faded to black.
She just got back from the gym - tired and exhausted. Though there was a certain someone in the elevator with her. A rather confusingly gendered person. She was unable to tell whether they were male or female - though Lynn forced herself to smile once more. It was measured practice and offered help with the luggage of this individual. Who introduced themselves as Lexi. She offered more help, getting their appartement in order, fixing stuff here and there. Before inviting them over in her own. Her footsteps were mismatched - sound delayed or too soon as she walked to her own appartement. Heavier breathing and a pounding heart as her eyes twitched. The questionably gendered elf took note of the bullet holes in the wall and asked whether the turrets had misfired - Lynn offered a gentle smile and shook her head, before two well-placed bullets ripped through Lexi's skull. The turret following his body as it fell and emptying the entire clip on his corpse. The last bullet ripped through reality - making place for a new memory.
Once again - driven into madness, Lynn's eyes were empty and vacant as she dragged a stool over to the noose that had been dangling in her appartement for a few days now. She placed the chair down and glanced at the scribbled note on her countertop. She wasn't one for much words - could barely come up with something. There was something, something invisible taunting and mocking her. Telling her she couldn't do it, that she wouldn't. Heaving a short breath, the clone stepped up to the chair, and forced her head through the rope. Closing her eyes - she was determined to take the step into nothingness, before a call from Hati came in. He needed pick-up. She was quick to hide the noose and toss the note in the trash.
These were just few of many memories, real or imagined, they seemed too vivid to not believe. And more than often, Lynn believed these. Unable to discern between truth and lies - unable to restrain herself or finally give in to the affliction.
Sarah wanted to vomit, her breath catching dangerously from what she was seeing, her body freezing. A almost pained wheeze left her lips as she silently sobbed, a scar forming in her mind. She had seen some pretty fucked things in her years, worse in some cases, but to see them from the distorted reality within her daughter's head.....it was an indescribable hell. One that caused her to recoil instinctively as she saw the woman before her in a new light, and why she had come out here in the first place. She only slumped, shock causing the world to blurr as she questioned what to do, "Goddess preserve..." her lips faintly breathed.
Lynn scowled slightly as she finally managed to recover from the whole influx of emotions caused by Sarah's memories - and the deep dread hers wrenched. She couldn't offer but the faintest sighs before she spoke; "It's hard to remember... The right things," she hiccuped. Using a thick swallow to steady herself. "The longer I go without-... Seeing someone the more-... I believe I did that to them."
Despite her aversion to what she saw and the impulses that were clearly present in her daughter, something that had cropped up in a select few of the clones, something stronger pushed forward. She may fear what was in that mind, but damnit she was Lynn's mother. The shock subsided as Sarah desperately brought Lynn close, "You are not leaving my side, you hear me? We'll get through this, and I will make sure we find a way."
"I-..." Lynn bit her lip as she was brought close again, into Sarah's warm embrace. Measured to stifle another sob. "I don't... Wanna hurt 'em-..." She answered, before dipping her head lower with a silent and pained sobbing once more
"I know baby, I know....Momma knows."
She was too scared to ask for help. And she wanted out, not forever. But just a moment to gather her thoughts and see where she was at. Though sadly enough, where exactly she was at wasn't a good place. While she took her shotgun with for safety - the thing seemed to call her name. The barrel seemed more and more appealing each day she camped out.
With a soft huff, she glanced at the weapon, before shaking her head. "'No-... Not today," she murmured, engaging the safety again and strapping it around her waist, crawling out of her tent to be met with a rather impressive sight of the sunrise. A faint smile curling on her lips. Going to kick out the ashes of her fire, she felt a shock wave through the ground. Another soon following, repeating itself to form something large, in full sprint and growing closer. An ear-splitting screech cut through the treetops and Lynn stood eye to eye with one of Sirris VI's feared predators. Able to gobble her up in one go. The clone felt a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead as she swiftly unsung her shotgun - a loud explosion resounding as she squeezed a round off, before the massive predator razed a scythe across her stomach and sent her flying. Tumbling down the rocky hill and headed for the cliff she had climbed not a day before.
As the creature advanced seeing whether it's prey was down for good, or only stunned. It ignored the sudden rustling of one of the nearby trees as something moved along a branch unseen. There was no heat, and too small to pose a threat in the predator's mind. Who was there to fear in the jungle when you were one of the biggest and baddest. This was far more true given this stretch of jungle was supposed to be empty of such fauna.
Lynn seemed to tumble down the hill like a ragdoll, flacid and lifeless - and that was the truth, she had indeed passed out momentarily. Only recovering halfway as she was falling, bruising and scraping. Though with a smack that knocked all air from her, she finally came to a halt against a large boulder. weakly trying to get up as the predator offered another loud shriek as it turned on it's talons, scuttling over to Lynn rapidly.
The charge was interrupted as the crack of a high caliber rifle rapidly resounded. It stumbled as ten rounds were fired of into it's alien body, causing the being to pay attention to the tree finally.
Dirt puffed from the ground as the unseen figure landed, uncloaking to reveal a female figure in a bodysuit, cloak, and mask worn over their body. A 50cal Black Rose AMR was held in their hands, the magazine being dropped as another was slapped in. As the woman racked the bolt, a yellow stripe could be seen around the magazine's bottom if one looked close enough.
"Tsk tsk tsk, now that's not nice. Didn't the park ranger say to stay away from the people Bogi?" they said mockingly with a modulated voice from under the mask. The predator only roared in anger from it's wounds, and began to charge again. The woman raised the rifle and held the trigger once more, this time firing a magazine of starfire 50s.
Lynn had slowly pushed herself up against the rock. Raising a hand to rest on the gash on her stomach. Watching as a mysterious figure decided to do the fighting for her. Though Lynn wasn't about that, she struggled to regain her balance - but she managed. Limping back up the hill. Her left arm seemed to be twisted in a rather unnatural way, however.
Though when she reached the top again - the battle was already over. Her mysterious saviour had blasted the poor thing to shreds with almost surgical precision. Leaving the clone to cast both a confused and weakened glance over at the figure. "W-..Who?" She managed to murmur out, before keeling over backwards.
The now empty magazine was spent, dropped at her feet, the creature now crumpled and sizzling before her. Slinging the rifle, she didn't answer at first, quickly gathering up her discarded mags and dropping them in a medium butt-pack. The rifle was slung as she approached, "Someone who cares, needed to say hi, and noticed you doing something very foolish. I was hoping to observe until the moment was right, but.....well...biggie over here forced my hand. Lucky for you I was out here, otherwise we would not be having this conversation."
She stopped infront of Lynn, head tilting and leaning to either side to assess the damage, "You're left arm is dislocated, and we need to treat that gash. You can save your question for as I treat those." Hands sought to get a hold to support Lynn, so the figure could move her to what was left of the camp.
Lynn had passed out - though caught by her mysterious saviour with a gentle embrace. The sole reason she was conscious up until now was the adrenaline. Which had slowly seeped away. It did make her easier to move, having no way to protest the way she would.
The Fenrir clone was out another hour or so, before her purple eyes slowly fluttered open, moving to examine her surroundings with a pained hiss.
The sun had shifted across the sky above the lush orange jungle, the elevated place one of the few breaks in the impenetrable double canopy found above ground level. The camp had been straightened up as much as it could be, still considerably a mess from the now corpse of a creature mere yards away. Lynn would find her arm reset and bound in a makeshift sling, her gash having been filled with medical sealant and bandages wrapped around it. It was clear her shirt would have been lifted for the second of the treated injuries, but the figure sat near, unworried it seemed. With her shotgun next to the mysterious woman, the figure sat there leaned against another log as if waiting. "You're awake, and only for an hour, very resilient you are. I've treated your wounds and was about to get up to prepare a meal."
Lynn swallowed thickly as she woke. Raising a hand to briefly touch the bandages on her stomach - before deciding that was way too painful and resting back down. "Water-..." She croaked with a faint cough, before scraping her throat.
A canteen was unhooked from the woman's belt and offered over to the clone gently, "I figured that would be the case after you woke. You must be sore so forgive the idiotic sounding question, but how are you doing? Is there any injuries you can feel that I missed?"
"Nah- I... Apart from the obvious bruises and-..." Lynn whinced faintly as she accepted the canteen. "And probably-... Broken ribs," she added, before taking a deep drink from the canteen. Exhaling a soft - yet pained breath. "Who-..." She croaked again, frowning momentarily as she scraped her throat. "Who are you?" She finally managed to ask. Biting her lip momentarily as she stared at her mysterious saviour. "Not to sound... Ungrateful or anything, y'know."
"That.....is not a easy question to answer. Nor is it one that will be comfortable to do so either. Let's just say I used to work very close to your mother, when.....she worked a very different line of work. A much more darker profession. I know that isn't exactly revealing, but baby steps here." she answered as she rubbed a suited hand to the back of her hooded head. Her suit was clearly a derivitive of the revnant undersuit, the rifle a NDC particular item. It sat just on the other side of the shotgun, having spent all the rounds for it. "I was actually the one to pull your brother Hati from the crashed shuttle he returned in. Seems to be a theme around here."
Lynn arched an eyebrow, before huffing out a soft breath. "You knew mom?" She asked, before grimacing. "There's-... There's uhm-... Some painkillers in my bag," she added with a faint breath. "If you would?" She asked with a soft arch of her eyebrow, leaning back and heaving a soft sigh as she glanced over to the shotgun. "Then-... Why are you here?" She questioned, glancing back at the mysterious individual. Making sure her back was turned. Lynn propped herself up, pulling the shotgun in her arms, cocking it once and pointing it at her. "Now-..." She grunted out in pain, though making sure to keep the more than certainly loaded weapon pointed at the figure. "Who-..." She asked again. "I'm sure answering is far more comfortable than getting a face full of shrapnel."
Their movement froze, having heard the clack, "Question for you first. Doesn't a biometric safety prevent friendly fire? I'm registered, so you can't shoot me. You want that answer, come take the mask off, otherwise you're waiting."
Lynn only offered a dry, unamused chuckle in retort. "I know my way around guns," she murmured, still holding the shotgun up. "S6-KAS2, codenamed Executioner - twelve gauge galactic horizon, design based on the earlier hailstorm. Eight shells in each barrel, a total loading capacity of sixteen. Individual barrel firing, can be loaded with, but not limited to; scatter-shot, sub-sonic scatter, magnum scatter, magnum slug and the one I'm holding pointed between your-... Hnggh~... Eyes, ^you can pick - slug or scatter?" She grinned faintly. Leaning up against a nearby rock. "And, best of all. No biometric-... Safety. You really want to risk a leg to find out?"
"......oh, well fuck. Gonna have to talk to Rose and Jack about that later." she mumbled to herself at first, "I'm your aunt, Amanda, came here after I heard of my sister's death. I worked with her back when she did less positively viewed hired gun work. I'm more or less serving as a member of WRAITH now, and Kessler sent me to find you out of worry, especially with your brother still missing."
"Mhm, thought so," Lynn answered as she lowered the shotgun, letting out a huffed breath. Tucking the weapon against her hip. Still holding it pointed at Amanda. "Mom never told me about an Amanda - no one ever did. You mind removing the mask?" She answered with a faint breath and a gentle smile. "Y'know - I'd rather see the faces of new people. Makes it easier to remember names."
"Your mother thought Jack was her brother when they first met, and was under a false name. She also probably never mentioned the fact she was an assassin for 20 years. Also.....you're kinda bitch, why can't you play nice with people?"
"She didn't mention any of that - nor do I care about all that," Lynn answered, exhaling a soft hiss between her teeth. Before resting her head against the rock momentarily. "Because I'm fucking sick and tired of everything," she retorted simply, lowering her gaze to meet Amanda's eyes. "Mask;" she stated once more. "This isn't about me - this is about you. And I don't take kindly to somone hiding behind a mask calling me a bitch - safe toassume my patience's running real fuckin' thin."
A irritated grumble left the woman behind the mask, her hands slowly pulling back her hood to let long raven black locks to fall over her shoulders. "See, it's coming off now, just.....steel yourself for this." she stated as they then took ahold of the mask, beginning to slide it off, the veil attached pulled away to reveal more raven hair. Once removed, it was moved left to slide out of view of her face.
"Oh... Fuck," Lynn murmured as she lowered her weapon. Before engaging the safety and tossing it to the side. She bit her lip momentarily before sighing. "Sorry-... You ehrm... You look exactly like her," she admitted with a soft breath. Feeling tears well up - though she fought those off and shook her head. Playing it off with a faint chuckle, before whincing in pain once more. "That's some weird stuff. You a clone as well?"
"No, I'm human. Now thank you for moving the gun out of my face. Gurrrll, you need to be more friendly, then again, you're her kid. She was pretty touchy and a smartass at one point.....You remind me of her a lot actually." Amanda offered with a shake of the head before slowly standing, "Jacklynn, why are you out here alone and without telling anyone? People are worried that you disappeared, and with them looking for Talos, just why?"
"I'll put it this way," she started. "I don't like charades nor guessing games - if I ask someone something, I expect them to answer. Not dance around the," another pained whince resounded from Lynn as she slumped ever so slightly. The adrenaline she got from pulling the gun had by now fading." Ehrm... Shitty question maybe, but you got those painkillers?" She tried with a faint grin. "I know it's... Fu-... Nnnh-ot as believable, but I swear I'm not gonna do it a second time." She added with a faint breath. It always weirded her out when people used her full name - though she presumed it was because they'd never met before. Amanda would've seen only her full name in personell files. "Just Lynn is fine," the Jane clone repocricated. "And-... Yeah, get me that injector and I'll answer your question."
The woman was quick to turn back to the case and pull the injector from where she had found it before having a 12gauge leveled at her. With it in hand, she offered it over to the clone, with a sympathetic smile. "Yeah, how about you hurry and get that in ya. You must still be in quite a bit of pain, so let's get that taking care of okay."
Lynn expected more distrust, with having pulled a shotgun on Amanda and all. But it seemed this woman trusted her, so she'd do the same. Accepting the injector with a faint nod before pulling the cap off. A moment of hesitance before she plunged it into her thigh with a soft groan - though a shudder of relief followed as she felt the numbing warmth spread through her body. "Why I'm here," she murmured, exhaling a soft breath. "I wanted out - away from the city, away from all the business, just... Wanted to be alone. Think, consider and... Y'know, mourn."
"That was extremely foolish of you, and a tad selfish. Don't get me wrong, I understand, it's just not good logic. You're family needs you now more then ever, and you decided to isolate yourself when an enemy is cleary out to end you. You're brothers both lost someone else they both cared about greatly, so don't you think they need their sister?"
The Jane clone let out a shake breath, before slowly closing her eyes. "Believe my word on it - I'm better out here than back there. It's anything but selfish," Lynn answered as she opened her eyes to gaze into Amanda's eyes again. "I'd cause so much more pain than I already have.",
Amanda shook her head, "Really? Because everything says the exact opposite, unless there is something you're not sharing. So, what are you not telling me?"
Lynn exhaled a soft breath. Maybe it were the strong painkillers, maybe it was the fact this woman looked so much like Sarah, but she felt uninhibited for some reason. Shaking her head with a grimace, she started off with; "I want to die," Lynn bit her lip momentarily, before continuing, her gaze dropping to her bandaged tummy. "Even before mom-... I always felt bad, out of place. Like I didn't belong, I cached myself repeatedly wondering whether I was meant to be jailbroken," the Fenrir clone admitted, grasping at her forearm, squeezing down against the scars. "When mom passed-... When those fucks attacked-... When Talos went," she swallowed thickly - several drops reflecting in the sun as they ran down her cheeks. "It's been-... I wanted to hurt people, make them suffer... Just to see what they'd do - whether they'd-... How they would react to," her face contorted momentarily. "It just got worse... I'm scared I'll act on it. I'm-... I don't want to hurt anyone I love but~" she cut herself off, looking back up to Amanda. "I came here to think, get away and mourn... If things didn't improve-... Or if it seems the most logical conclusion, I'd... I'd-..." she bit her lip again, glancing over to the shotgun.
"That way-... I won't risk her finding me. I'd just... It'd be less painful."
A glint of concern, shock, hurt, and surprise flashed within her ocean blue eyes, the clarity like crystal ocean water. She couldn't help herself, but she had to hug Lynn. The clone would find arms wrapped around her in a caring and protective embrace. "No, I won't let you do that. I don't care if you see yourself as a danger, I will not let you kill yourself like this. You are hurting, suffering, and questioning your own sanity. But you don't have to face that alone, and you aren't alone. Sarah would blame herself-.......no I blame myself for this. I sh-should have never left, should have fought harder."
"I-..." Lynn huffed out a pained breath as Amanda hugged her. Surrendering to the woman's warm embrace as tears streamed down her cheeks. Her words - whatever she wanted to say was lost to soft hiccups and uncontrolled sobbing. Even when Amanda slipped up in her words, Lynn was too far past to pick up on the hint, only shivering in the warm and motherly embrace. Brought to tears for a variety of reasons - one of which was just how much she missed Sarah.
"Your mother suffered through the same thing when she was your age. She had thought she had lost her parents when they went to ground to work on the fenrir project. She was so full of hurt and suffering. She thought the military would save her, let her get the revenge she thought she wanted. In the end, the war was over and she was left with a self taught hate." Amanda said as she held the clone tight, wiping away tears on the cheek she could reach. "She moved on to become an assassin, killing for a paycheck, when really it was to satisfy the urges she had. For 20 years, she did that to herself, living a kind of life that left her with no happiness. And she had to live through that alone, but you don't have to, we all want to help you."
"I-... I don't want help," Lynn answered with a soft sobbing. "I'll look weak when I just-..." She swallowed thickly, before biting her lip and nuzzling closer to Amanda's shoulder. Much like a babe nuzzling for warmth. "There's so much people that depend on me," she continued, swallowing thickly. "If I'm this shit at-... Y'know. How can those people possibly-... Depend on me?"
Amanda looked her in the eyes for a minute, "NO. Weakness is giving up and giving in, which gets you nothing in the end but a funeral full of broken hearts. Hiding is not the answer, because family is strength. We don't survive just to die alone, we survive to live together. Lynn, this is not how you show strenght, this is not how you solve it. You're running from the solution, from the people who can help you, and it will hurt them more to find you were hiding this in the end. Listen to me. Go home, go to your family, let them be there to walk you through this."
Lynn shook her head, before exhaling a soft breath. Eyes sliding shut as her sobbing subsided - falling more in tune to the dull ache she felt in her heart. And the nauseating, constricting fear that made her stomach turn. "Who... Who can help me? Everyone is recovering from those damn mimics or reapers or whatever-..." She bit her lip, letting out another shakey breath. "Talos is gone-... Hati has his own issues-... Who of my family can take me being like this, huh?"
"Your sisters Jacky and Armora, and......me.....My name isn't really Amanda.....Lynn...your mother isn't dead."
"Jacky-... Relies on me... 'Mora is struggling with her programming," she retorted with a faint breath, before looking up to Sarah. Her eyes widened for just a moment, before the clone caved. Shattered at the relevation Sarah, formerly known to her as Amanda, explained. Pressing her forehead against Sarah's shoulder with an uncontrollable and pained sobbing.
"I wanted to reveal under better circumstances, but the situation seems to have forced my hand. If I had known things were this bad for you.....my poor baby girl, I'm so sorry. I couldn't help as everything since that day has taken a turn, or as you all have continued to struggle. I should have come sooner, should have known to begin with." Sarah whispered as she held Lynn close, supporting the back of Lynn's head with a gentle hand. "It pains me to see how much you and Hati have been tore down. Please forgive me."
Lynn's sobs had moved on to a full on crying as she held the woman - her mother long believed dead, close. Tears fully streaming from her cheeks as she cried out both frustration and joy." You-... I-... I mourned-... " Came between loud and ugly sobs." Mom-... Mommy~" she muttered under her breath as she held on to Sarah for dear life. Too scared to let go, fearing that she'd dispel the possible hallucination.
"Shhhh sshhhhh, I'm not going anywhere this time." her words softly continued as she sought to comfort the woman, a gentle kiss being placed on Lynn's head. "Everyone mourned, and all over something Rose made a mistake over. I left things get to me, and I grew weak, instead of doing what I should have done.......make things right. But that's all over now, and I've made things better. It's time to pick the pieces up though, and that starts with my children."
Lynn didn't seem to really listen - or at least, respond to Sarah, she kept crying uncontrollably, a moment of a deep breath before she continued. Rubbing her face against Sarah's shoulder as she clung on for desperate life - sheer confusion now pushing the contradicting feelings to their fullest.
Sarah sat there holding the distraught and confused clone, letting her cry it out, because what more could she do. The embrace was never broken, and the gentleness never left as she waited for Lynn to release all she had been holding in.
"H-... How, W... Why-..." Lynn questioned between heavy sobs. Before biting her lip. "Mom-... I-... I'm so sorry-... Fuck, for not telling you this stuff sooner-... For-... For just taking you for granted. I'm so sorry," the Jane clone hiccupped.
"It's a long story honey, and wasn't something easily gone through. But momma is here now, momma's got ya, and I'm not letting you go. We'll get you through this together. And don't, I should have known, seen the signs."
It didn't make sense - none of this did. She saw the body, she was at the funeral. She mourned for Sarah. The woman that was holding her was dead. "This isn't real, huh," Lynn murmured, choking down another faint sob. Softly shaking her head against Sarah's shoulder. "This-... It isn't, we don't have-..." The Jane clone bit her lip as another smothered sob came from her. "Please-... Just let me wake up..."
A shiver was felt from Sarah's body, the idea being one even she feared, having had a hard time in the beginning to understand herself. But she knew she was alive, the tears she had cried, and those she had felt and wiped away of those she had already visited. Were too real to even still believe it was a dream.
"Lynn.....this is not a dream, I am real. Let me show you the truth, let me share my memories with you. Show you the life I've struggled to live, and the life I was given a second chance with. Everything.....everything you need to see you are not alone."
With a gentle sniffle, she glanced up to Sarah, before letting out a soft, pained whince. Holding a hand on her stomach before exhaling a shakey breath in order to steady herself. "I-... Alright," she admitted with another gentle sob. "How?"
Sarah's eyes began to glow a deep almost ethereal blue like that of the flourescent lakes of Sirris's wilderness, "Simply reach out to my Geist as I do the same to yours to establish a connection. Then take my hand and prepare yourself for the parts of my life you're about to see." Lynn would feel a warm tingle as she started the neural handshake, her motherly mind looking to reach out to the mind of her daughter.
Lynn frowned, before nodding slowly. Misfingered digits wrapping around Sarah's hand before she closed her swollen, red eyes. Letting out a soft shiver as she did so, before the warmth seeped in. Her Geist connecting with Sarah's as she waited for the woman to show her - making sure all those nasty memories from her own were hidden away for the time being.
Their minds dived to the depths of Sarah's mind, down to some of her earliest memories, the ones that mattered of course. But that didn't spare a few flashes of a all but forgotten childhood, the memories of then stained with a hurt that sprung from later on. A ravened haired little girl with brilliant blue eyes in a sundress skipping amongst the sakura trees of a park. The call of two adults brought them forward to Sarah at the age of sixteen.
It was a small micro apartment, the teenage girl far younger in appearance, brushing that still black as night raven hair. She was home with a man and woman who shared a deep likeness, as the woman, having brown hair and blue eyes served breakfast. The man with raven hair and green eyes looked over some sort of science related reports, relaying their contents to the mother. They seemed to be a happy family at least in outward appearance as young sarah left in a school uniform. Walking away down the building's hall soon followed along by a woman with silver eyes and hair, chatted on their way to school.
Time passed once more, still seeming to be within the same year at least. Sarah sat alone with a plate, chopsticks in hand as blue eyes widened at a news report on a display. A ship exploding, as Elysian ships advanced on a conquest that would fail. The sticks dropped from her hand as it went to cover her mouth which emitted a mournful wail. Time sped along as day in and day out continued without the two adults, each night spent in lonely silence as Sarah curled in the floor after school every day. Every so often friends from school would visit, but each was only given a soft and faked smile.
With those four years, the teenage girl grew to a woman, the same who Lynn had before her. But she was no longer in the apartment, but in a recruitment center with a blank stare as a yamatai officer with a very different uniform droned at her. Beside her sat the very much taller Casdan, who all the while gave her a concerned look.
The scene changed again, as the two ran through obstacle course and performed military excersises. Finally it stopped as it showed her in uniform of the Grand Star Army, a GP-12 in her hands as she finished graduation. But something felt wrong as the next scene came up, a very angered looking Sarah standing before a neko officer, "The war is over Pine. Psych evals warned me we would be having this conversation. Get over it, and get back to duty is all I can tell you."
"Fuck you."
"Excuse me Santo Hei, I don't believe I heard you correclty." the feline woman bristled.
"You heard me, I'm buying out my contract. If you all are going to let those winged bastards live....then this is a coward's army. I will look to fight my own war then ma'am." Sarah said before dropping the form and transferring the KS needed. She walked out without further word as the neko only sat back in the chair with a scowl.
The next 20 years came as a blurr, the kick of a rifle in her hand as Sarah murdered target, after target, after target. With a growing bank account, and a always loaded rifle, Sarah cut a swath of dead marks. Assassination becoming her life as she sought to fill the gap with revenge she couldn't quite thirst, as voices called for more bodies. Then something happened one day....
The contact spoke to her over the phone, even as she examined the picture in her hand of a youngman with white hair and red eyes. Uniforms and locations changed as she sought out the man, eventually finding her way to a world of endless sand. She remembered the first day she saw Jack Pine, a spark of small hope in her mind as she watched him fight a neko on a stage. Even as he was repeatedly beaten down, he got back up until finally pinned to the floor in submission, and how she carried him to medbay afterwards.
Skipping ahead, Section 6 had grown, and done many things even in the confines of their desert home. A war raged on with a company called PsychoPomp LLC. One such raid brought a startling truth, rows and rows of tubes, the frozen fenrir clones within. The adults from earlier in Sarah's life before her and Jack as they stood there in power armor, looks of shocked disbelief. Not only at the clones, but the man and woman before them who had faked their deaths.
Both only looked at her with disapproval, angered to have their research interrupted.
"You always were a disappointment, looking to grand idealistic dreams such as music or sports. We taught you to study hard to be a scientist, but you threw it all away like a brat. These clones, made from your own DNA, are the most use you have ever been!" the woman barked with a sharp tone of irritation, Sarah having no reply as she was tossed aside from her parent's lives. The lie had been broken, and she knew the truth.
The man looking bored with the encounter simply looked at a report as before, "They're failures as well. Disposal is in progress, and will begin once you and your thugs have been removed."
Neither could believe what they were hearing, neither Jack nor Sarah, and both knew they should raise a rifle. But neither had the strenght or the will. But a hand removed the pistol from Sarah's hip, her gaze turning to a clone who arrived from somewhere else it seemed.
"Disposal was halted as the base was breached, I was first to be removed from cryo, I came to ask for orders. However, you have admitted to initiating the tank purge, and therefore.....by parameters, this makes you hostiles. Hostiles are to be eliminated." A clone with white hair and red eyes much like the rest, the designation M-22 upon his cryo suit's shoulder. Without hesitation he raised the pistol and put one in the woman's chest, a look of shock and pain in her expression before the next one went through her right eye.
The man cried out in grief as she toppled to the floor dead, two going into his chest immediately after before he could rush to his now deceased wife. His life ebbing away he stumbled to fall to his knees beside her, a moment before Talos granted the mercy of one last bullet to the head.
With that scar of a memory concluded, life moved on, and it sped through all the memories that Lynn already knew. Until.....that fateful day, when Sarah laid in her hospital, her life fading. Her view scanned around the room at all the faces of her family, a deep saddness and many regrets felt, but of the overwhelming joy of having a family she could be proud of to watch over her as she faded away. With cries of mourning, and a sad goodbye, her eyes closed for the last time. At first there was only darkness, but....nothing had changed it felt.
She felt no body, no bed, only weightlessness, but yes she still felt there. Opening her eyes, she was in a white room, alabaster in stark brightness. Furniture, a bed, and a mirror, but no door. With nothing but confusion, she sat on the bed and cried. Was this some purgatory, hell, or twisted concept of heaven? She was sure she was dead, until the walls faded to show a room beyond what she perceived to be glass. It was spacious and round, terminals and machines here and there. Seraphina stood beyond at a computer just on the other side of the wall.
The angel told her what had happened, how her body died, how her mind had been saved. The geshrin knew not what to feel anymore, or if she should even cry. One thing was for certain, she was not gone from this world yet, and therefore a shakey hope she could come back to it. Because she was in a computer, the room a false projection, the outside world the reality beyond the hologram......just like her.
The days passed as she watched trapped, as the life of her children mournfully continued, and as the reapers came. Eventually Thorn arrived and was invited in, where she set things right in the morning her new human body was complete.
She met Hati on his return. Pulling him from the wreckage to where he was admitted to the hospital, she waited at the crash site. There on his returned, she eased him into the truth, ending with a close encounter in the night where he found the truth. Into the night she held him, explaining all Lynn now witnessed.
When the night was over and they parted after breakfast, she then set out to make amends else where. Having reclaimed her prized and treasured rifle from her wolven son, she had murder on her mind for those who was a threat to her new wife. Taking a list of named from thorn, she went back to her ways of the assassin, but doing so out of love and not hate. When there were no more notches to carve, she returned to Sirris VI, where her amends continued.
Jacky was next, Sarah having picked her way in. Fixing the shy clone breakfast, they talked about all the things Sarah had missed, both before and after. With time spent together, the next stop was Rose.
Meeting her wife in the dark of their apartment, Sarah questioned the woman on all her choices and the consequences they had brought about. And with a satisfied verdict that the grieving widow knew she had wronged some of those closest to her. Sarah removed the veil, and returned the ring upon her finger, joyed to return to their bed together as their children slept soundly.
The memories finally caught up, followed from a tree top view as Sarah had stalked Lynn through her solitary trek. And then it ended just as the predator had charged, and the rifle was raised.
"You see now Lynn, I am real. You are not dreaming this, because I am alive, momma is here." Sarah said quietly.
Lynn was lost to her tears as she took everything in - watching the key moments of Sarah's life like a spectator. She wanted to reach out - she wanted to scream and embrace Sarah each memory that passed. Forgetting it was much akin a movie being played to her. She could scream and cry all she want, it just went on. The emotional duress, the pain and angar Sarah felt so vividly didn't do much to calm the clone down - the anguish was infectious and much like a robin's egg - the human mind was fragile. It lead to so much more Sarah most likely didn't bargain for.
There was cold - darkness. A certain sense of weightlessness. Warmth flooded fingertips - before spreading to limbs and body. The weightlessness dropped - making place for a sense of falling. Eyes shot wide open, revealing the hazey sight of a sterile lab. Scientists with faces hidden behind hazmat, words that only met Lynn with a blurry tone. She couldn't possibly understand. Though the horror was real, Lynn wanted to scream out in pure dread as she saw other bodies like her own - in stasis in a tank. Though the tube in her throat made her unable to do so - leaving only a smothered and muffled grunt. Bodies dragged away, tanks hosed out. This wasn't birth - this was a factory. "Shit - she's awake," she could barely make out the words, but knew her awakening wasn't planned. Hands gripped her arms and pulled her from the tank, though the Fenrir clone was too panicked to just comply. A fist smacked into the glass plate of a hazmat mask, shattering it in one go, before hse trashed against the other scientists that rushed to keep her down. A myriad of shouts and cries as she fought like an absolute maddened woman. Though a needle pierced her juggular, slumping over and causing the entire scene to freeze and defragment.
The orange jungle of Sirris VI became visible. Both herself, Jacky and Talos present. Lynn seemed twitchy - something moving in her peripherals before disappearing all of a sudden. The rustling of leaves adding to how on edge she was just for a hiking trip with her batch siblings. Though it suddenly cracked - literally so. As if watching a TV with the screen cracked down the middle. On the right side - Jacky and Talos were, chatting and having fun - Lynn was trailing behind on the left side. Darkness growing around her - the birds stopped humming, the leaves began to decay and the entire scene was losing colour. All of a sudden - she raised her shotgun in the scene, aimed at the two clones infront of her. The sound of it being primed before a shot rung out. Everything went black - before splitting apart like shattered glass.
The next key moment took place. Both Lynn and Jacky in her appartement. The taller of the two clones settled in, laughing and smiling at eachother as Lynn softly carded through Jacky's hair with rubber gloves. A solution next to her that would bleach the taller Fenrir clone's hairs. The traditional music Lynn was such a fan off played in the background. Though Sarah could hear how it slowly synched out of tune. Lynn caught her own gaze in the mirror and seemed to grow more pale. The off-key music hauntingly wrong in the background as she grabbed the bowl - before splashing it in Jacky's face, causing the taller of the two clones to screech out in pain and agony - before Lynn grasped the back of her head and began slamming it in the mirror. The warm sensation of blood on her face - the struggling of a now blinded Jacky slowly dying down between the crunching of flesh and glass. It was too real to just play off as psychosis. And much like the shattered mirror - once again, the memory shattered.
An odd horse-anthro had entered her workplace. Someone she'd called up to ask about the weirdly shaped helmet. They had made conversation, exchanged pleasantries. Though it seemed to halt for a moment, glitching as the entire screen froze - the next sight was Aztec, with both his hands bolted to her workbench, throat slit and innards dangling against the floor, Lynn just walking out - leaving bloody footprints on the floor. The door closed - everything faded to black.
"I-... I can't-... Feel, please," Lynn pleaded to no one in particular. Her hand shivering as a stream of blood ran down her arm, forming small droplets on the floor. "Someone-... Something-... I can't-..." She pleaded again, before slowly dragging the knife across her arm again. Ripping open flesh - the pain singing and ringing in her ears, but she seemed to welcome it - even relish in it. A glance darted over her shoulder as she looked at the noose she had tied to the ceiling - with a quick contraption tied to her door. That if anyone would open it, the sliding doors would yank her up further and possibly break her neck due to the shock. She shook her head and focussed on her wrists again. Tears staining her eyes as she made another pass. Just to feel alive.
More recently - during the attack of the reapers, Jacky and Lynn, both hurt and wounded. Dashing through the hallways and hiding in a cleaning cupboard. Lynn fashioned a pipe bomb as Jacky held the door. Though as she called for Jacky to open up to toss it out - she drove a makeshift shank in her sibling's ribs, before kicking her for the reapers - slamming the door shut again. A vivid screaming before and explosion rung out. Lynn slammed the door open, holding up her carbine to see the bloody mess that was left of Jacky's corpse crawling away. Legs off to the side somewhere. She raised her rifle, before a faint smirk formed on her lips. Lowering it again and turning the corner to walk off to her appartement. Once again - it merely faded to black.
She just got back from the gym - tired and exhausted. Though there was a certain someone in the elevator with her. A rather confusingly gendered person. She was unable to tell whether they were male or female - though Lynn forced herself to smile once more. It was measured practice and offered help with the luggage of this individual. Who introduced themselves as Lexi. She offered more help, getting their appartement in order, fixing stuff here and there. Before inviting them over in her own. Her footsteps were mismatched - sound delayed or too soon as she walked to her own appartement. Heavier breathing and a pounding heart as her eyes twitched. The questionably gendered elf took note of the bullet holes in the wall and asked whether the turrets had misfired - Lynn offered a gentle smile and shook her head, before two well-placed bullets ripped through Lexi's skull. The turret following his body as it fell and emptying the entire clip on his corpse. The last bullet ripped through reality - making place for a new memory.
Once again - driven into madness, Lynn's eyes were empty and vacant as she dragged a stool over to the noose that had been dangling in her appartement for a few days now. She placed the chair down and glanced at the scribbled note on her countertop. She wasn't one for much words - could barely come up with something. There was something, something invisible taunting and mocking her. Telling her she couldn't do it, that she wouldn't. Heaving a short breath, the clone stepped up to the chair, and forced her head through the rope. Closing her eyes - she was determined to take the step into nothingness, before a call from Hati came in. He needed pick-up. She was quick to hide the noose and toss the note in the trash.
These were just few of many memories, real or imagined, they seemed too vivid to not believe. And more than often, Lynn believed these. Unable to discern between truth and lies - unable to restrain herself or finally give in to the affliction.
Sarah wanted to vomit, her breath catching dangerously from what she was seeing, her body freezing. A almost pained wheeze left her lips as she silently sobbed, a scar forming in her mind. She had seen some pretty fucked things in her years, worse in some cases, but to see them from the distorted reality within her daughter's head.....it was an indescribable hell. One that caused her to recoil instinctively as she saw the woman before her in a new light, and why she had come out here in the first place. She only slumped, shock causing the world to blurr as she questioned what to do, "Goddess preserve..." her lips faintly breathed.
Lynn scowled slightly as she finally managed to recover from the whole influx of emotions caused by Sarah's memories - and the deep dread hers wrenched. She couldn't offer but the faintest sighs before she spoke; "It's hard to remember... The right things," she hiccuped. Using a thick swallow to steady herself. "The longer I go without-... Seeing someone the more-... I believe I did that to them."
Despite her aversion to what she saw and the impulses that were clearly present in her daughter, something that had cropped up in a select few of the clones, something stronger pushed forward. She may fear what was in that mind, but damnit she was Lynn's mother. The shock subsided as Sarah desperately brought Lynn close, "You are not leaving my side, you hear me? We'll get through this, and I will make sure we find a way."
"I-..." Lynn bit her lip as she was brought close again, into Sarah's warm embrace. Measured to stifle another sob. "I don't... Wanna hurt 'em-..." She answered, before dipping her head lower with a silent and pained sobbing once more
"I know baby, I know....Momma knows."
