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For as long as Anya could remember, she was always the outcast among her peers.
It didn't matter if she was just another one in the lab, or in the orphanage, or at school. She'd always be the most different and for that, she had to endure things alone. She hated it.
Anya was a mistake, that's what she always heard growing up in the government facilities. Her powers weren't supposed to be like that. They made her for simple things, like teleportation or high speed. "Simple" sounded like a joke.
Now, she knew the scientists raising her could spend literal hours explaining relativity and the implications of a rift in the spacetime fabric. It was something adults found it very hard to understand, apparently. Anya found it kinda easy, once she started to take that life.
Let's say the universe is a toilet paper roll that God used to do lots of drawings, like planets, stars, peanuts and people. The roll keeps rolling forever and it never stops. This is time. The paper itself we can call space. What the scientists wanted of Anya was that she, a peanut drawing, rised from the paper to land slightly to the side. This means teleporting and would be a lot quicker than cars or airplanes. Turns out, she can do that. But instead of going slightly to the side, Anya can go behind on the toilet paper that always rolls forward. This means she can time travel, something far more complex than teleporting.
But Anya can't control that.
They call it "skipping", but Anya thinks "stumbling" is more appropriate. Skipping is when you look at a set of stones in the ground and choose to jump. Stumbling means you fall having no idea if you'll get hurt in the way. This is what she felt whenever her mind and body were transported completely randomly to the past. While trying to make it possible for other people to go with her, the experiments made it almost a norm for her to be transported to a time and place her companion also lived. They were not conscious of the travel, so she only met their past selves. She couldn't change anything in the past either. She couldn't even consciously travel whenever or for how long she wanted.
Which meant Anya was completely useless.
One of the greatest human achievements was made in that very own lab, under the Ostanian government, and they couldn't even take advantage of that. They tried, multiple times; but in the end it was more worthy to invest in other more controlled experiments. Something that wouldn't disappoint them, in the end.
Anya was useless, a failure and a disappointment. That's how she ended up alone. Just her and that weird power that brought her to all kinds of places and times, with no one to reach out and no chance of changing something for the best. And she tried, she really did. She stopped when she realized it would only sadden her further, to watch people she cared about make the same mistakes that took them away from her.
So, this is how Anya spent her first five years of life, which could actually be a tad more in months considering her skips and how it didn't affect her present body. The longest she spent in a skip was three weeks. It wasn't pleasant.
When she was adopted by the cold, but gentle looking man named Loid Forger, she wondered when he would reveal more about himself through her skips. Loid was... strange, in the sense that he gave the airs of someone always hiding things. They also moved a couple of times before they settled in their apartment so she could attend Eden Academy. She secretly feared he was a thief of some kind, because criminals always had the worst past and she wasn't prepared to be dragged to the middle of a gun fight. Yet, as the weeks passed, she found herself caring less and less about her Papa's true intentions. He could be bad for others, but he wouldn't be bad for her. Yep. That would work. It had to.
One afternoon, they received a letter and Papa was asleep and too tired to open it. She slept by his side and hugged him, because she knew it would be a missed opportunity considering he was always working and away from home.
This would be her first skip, since she met Loid Forger.
- ° -
Anya opened her eyes to the cold and the sound of rain. The arm she was grabbing wasn't her Papa's, but a young boy's like her that was crouched by her side. She blinked taking in the situation, quickly concluding that she must have skipped while asleep. So the boy was... Papa?
He had blonde hair and was sleeping hugging his knees tightly. She couldn't even guess if he was older or the same age as her. They were both under a wooden box in the middle of a stormy night. It was very cold. She hated it already.
Young Papa woke up a few moments later than her with a loud thunder, blinking sleepily until he noticed her presence, making him jump in place.
"Oy, weirdo, how did you get here?!" The blonde boy said annoyed but mostly frightened. How could he just not listen to a invasor creeping up on him. "Get out! I got this box first!"
Anya blinked atonished by the choice of words. Papa used to live in the streets? But they have a pretty home in the future!
"...Why are you sleeping here?" She asked tilting her head. "Where is your home? Your Mama and Papa?"
That made the boy bitter, more than angry or anything else. He tsked and turned his face away from the stranger.
"Fancy you saying that. If you're here pestering me it means you also don't have a home, dumbass. No father or mother, either." He eyed the girl with a side glance. Her dress was mostly clean and she looked well-fed, too. Maybe her loss was very recent. She was probably just a baby that still didn't understand that Mom and Dad aren't going to come back. "Go away. I don't like sharing my stuff."
Anya also didn't like the idea of staying there in the cold, but it was simply pouring outside their little box and she had no idea when she would go back. She also didn't want to be apart from the only person she knew, which meant her Papa. Even if he was annoyed by her presence.
"But... it's cold." She complained looking at the rain. "I'm not leaving."
The boy tsked as he rolled over to his side, giving up on the weirdo.
"Whatever, just let me sleep. But I'm not letting you around tomorrow again!" He warned. "The streets aren't for weaklings. You need to tough it up by yourself."
The young girl still didn't understand how that boy became her Papa, but something in those words felt like something her father would actually say. She pressed against him for warmth and held his arm again, which he allowed grumpily. He didn't like strangers invading his personal space, but he had to admit it was more comfortable to fight the cold.
Father and daughter slept quickly and sound, both wishing for a morning of warmth and no rain.
- ° -
Because Papa needed a wife so Anya could attend Eden, Anya now had a mother named Yor Briar living with them. Mama was just as weird as Papa, but she was nice. She was also very strong and stopped two bad guys from kidnapping Anya when they were picking her uniform. Anya liked her very much and could never think a clumsy Mama like hers could be seen as scary.
That was, until Anya found herself skipping to a dark, stuffy place that smelled of mothballs and cigar smoke.
After patting around, she realized she was in a wardrobe of some kind. It was the luckiest and most convenient location she ever had, as it wasn't in the open and she wouldn't have a dozen of people pointing at her and screaming about the demonic girl materializing from thin air.
Anya was about to push the wardrobe's door to leave, when she heard noise outside that made her stop abruptly. Through the crack, she saw the dim light of what seemed a bathroom's door being opened and from there an old fat man in a towel showed up. She closed her eyes out of embarrassment and begged that he wouldn't pick any clothes in the wardrobe she was hiding. And if he did, then she would have to dart and run away quickly through the front door.
A phone rang and the man answered gruffly. She couldn't understand what he said. After what felt like an eternity, there was a knock at the door, which he opened.
"So you're the massage girl, huh?" The man asked in a mocking tone. Anya couldn't hear the answer.
She tried to peek through the door's crack to see who had arrived, but the man's big frame covered everything. As soon as the main door clicked in lock, there was the scream.
Anya could see the red of blood, but the action was missed completely. She shivered as the man's corpse fell down with a thud, revealing the glimpse of a black dress and hands holding long needles.
Anya was frightened.
She covered her mouth so her breaths would become more silent. She needed to leave this room as soon as possible, but if she did right now that person would surely kill her. It'd be better to wait for her leave. Anya just needed to calm down, she has been through worse, she...
The wardrobe's door flew open and Anya screamed in fear, covering her head.
That was it, she was screwed. Her skipping would only bring her back when one of those needles pierced her insides like they just did with the fat old man, if they did it all. Maybe she'd just die here, without never seeing Papa or Mama again...
"I'm not hurting you." The voice spoke softly. It sounded a lot like... Mama?
Anya peeked through her fingers to find her smiling, slightly younger Mama looking down on her as she'd do when trying to help her with homework. Mama was the one that just cold-blooded murdered a guy before her eyes.
Now the door was opened, the stench of blood was much stronger and it made Anya nauseous. Yor picked her up and covered her with an old coat from the wardrobe.
"Close your eyes." She said quietly as they began to walk. "You don't need to see any of this."
Anya didn't move, still in shock at what happened. The only thing she understood was that Mama just killed a man but didn't kill a child that could incriminate her later. She didn't even question what was Anya doing there, she just picked her took her to safety, to the doors of a police station in the middle of the night.
"Tell them whatever you need to." She said patting Anya's hair with the same kind smile. "I won't be mad, don't worry. Now go, I can't wait here outside for too long."
The girl followed her instructions, always looking behind as she walked towards the police station. Yor was still there, encouraging her, letting her take her time. It was all Anya wanted to know, in the end.
That was the same Mama she loved.
- ° -
"Are you a thief?" Anya asked in the back of the car, when Twilight had stopped at a red light.
Twilight screamed as he jumped in his seat, looking behind as if seeing a ghost. Considering that wasn't there two minutes ago, he didn't see any other plausible explanation besides paranormal activity.
"What the actual fuck?!" He screamed looking at the traffic lights and considering getting a fine over panic. "Get off the car!"
"You're not supposed to swear!" Anya frowned crossing her arms. "I'm asking if you're a thief or not. This car is not yours."
Anya had been on skips with her father several times right now, but she couldn't find out what the hell was Papa's secret job. A burglar? A waiter? A clown? He always found himself in the oddest situations and it didn't look like it had a pattern. Now that she ended up at a car with him (which she knew it wasn't his because it was all dirty and Papa didn't like dirt on cars), she wanted to know what the hell was he doing.
"I'm not a thief!" Twilight hissed as he sped up at the green light, looking for an empty street where he could drop off that kid without witnesses. How could he not notice a child in a car as he was stealing it in the running? He was fucking stupid. Of course it had to happen right after his graduation. "I'm just borrowing it. And how the hell I didn't see you back there?!"
"It's because you're dumb." She said with a shrug. "Now, what are you, if not a thief? Please, tell me, I promise I won't tell anyone."
"No." He answered grumpily. "This is a secret and children like you shouldn't..."
"Are you a secret agent?" Anya connected the dots easily now. "A spy?"
Twilight's face burned in embarrassment.
"HOW THE...?!" He yelled again, then shut up immediately. This was a test. This girl didn't know shit and he wouldn't be the one to give her intel. "I'm not telling you anything."
"A spy, huh? This makes the most sense." Anya kept babbling, making Twilight cry inside. They didn't teach about that at WISE. "Your mask thing is on the seat, and you left your spy bag here in the back..."
"Don't, touch, anything." He spoke with gritted teeth, already tired of kids and their sticky hands poking his precious spy gear. "If anything in this bag breaks I'll beat your ass."
Anya puffed her cheeks.
"You can't boss me around!" Well, technically he could because he was her Papa, but he wasn't her Papa right now.
"I can and I will if I need to." He spoke simply, right before parking at an empty corner with very few people around. "Get out. You can ask for help at one of the stores."
Anya opened the car's door and jumped off to the sidewalk.
"Thank you, Mr. Spy!" She said with a bright smile, waving at the passenger's seat window. "I think you're a very cool spy!"
"I'm not a spy." He shot back. "Be more careful when walking around."
"I'll be, Mr. Spy!" At this point Anya just wanted to be petty.
Twilight left that place before the girl could piss him off for real. Still, he found himself driving in circles around the block to see if she really went to ask for help at one of the stores, which seemed to be the case as she wasn't there minutes later.
He scoffed as he drove back to his main way and mission, trying to forget the odd events of the day.
A little girl just found out he was a spy, this was surely a bluff. No way that Twilight, the top student at the Academy, could've been figured out that easily.
Right?
- ° -
One moment Mama was holding her hand as they crossed the street, the other she stepped into soft grass in the blink of an eye.
Anya looked around alarmed, realizing that she must have skipped, but having no idea where she was. She saw nothing but trees around her, so she assumed she was in a forest of some kind.
The girl disliked being alone the most in these situations. She closed her eyes tightly, hoping that this time her voluntary travel would work. After what felt like an eternity (it was three minutes), she gave up after seeing no results. Without seeing anyone and being in the middle of nowhere, Anya feared this would take more than a few hours.
She started to walk through the woods looking for any kind of civilization. She saw mushrooms, a squirrel and lots of moss covered rocks, but no people. After some time, she felt like she was walking in circles.
Anya began to cry and her sobs were the only sound in the whole place.
She sat down hugging her knees, wishing with all her heart for her power to take her back to Mama, or at least somewhere with a person. At times like that she even wished to return to a time in the lab, because at least there she wouldn't be alone. It was still on the bottom list of her priorities, though.
"Hey, are you okay?" A chirpy voice called as a hand touched her shoulder. "Are you lost, little one? It's not safe to wander alone in the woods, you know."
Anya looked up blinking away the tears to see better. The girl was taller than her and looked down with a soft smile. Her dark hair was held by a headscarf and she used a traditional-looking dress of the same pattern.
It was the red eyes that gave her away.
"Mama!" Anya was so relieved that she hugged Yor's legs in a hurry, completely forgetting about the skipping rules. Fortunately, young Yor didn't seem to mind it much, as she just giggled patting her head.
"I'm not your Mama, but we can find her together!" Yor said cheerfully. "Where is she? Can you point out where you came from?"
"...No." Anya said sheepishly, still holding tight onto Yor's dress. Mama always smelled like flowers as an adult, but now it felt more like flowers and hay and grass.
"That's fine, too, we can ask my Mama for help." Yor said holding her hand. Even as a child, Mama's hands were bigger than hers. "What's your name?"
"Anya." The younger one said quietly as they walked a certain path in the forest.
"That's a pretty name! My name is Yor!" Yor continued joyful as always. "You're very small and cute, I feel like a big sister. Oh, I will actually be a big sister in a couple of months!"
"Big sister?" Anya echoed the new information. She didn't know about her mother having siblings.
"Yep, my mother is expecting a baby, so I'll have a little brother or sister when they're born." She explained excitedly. She still looked very much like Mama when she talked like that. "I can't wait until they're here, I'll be the best big sister and I'll take very good care of them!"
Anya nodded, not having much to talk. She knew her Mama must have been a very good big sister, because she was already an awesome mother.
- ° -
"You're making me look stupid." The young man mumbled slightly annoyed.
"I'm not." Anya said simply. "You're doing this because you're nice."
"How could you know?" He questioned wanting to look at her face, which couldn't exactly be done in their position. "I could be a bad guy. You're not supposed to listen to me. You don't know me."
That was a lie, but he didn't need to know that.
"I know you're nice." She said convicted. "Because your jacket is cool."
He just rolled eyes at that, already accepting that a child's logic couldn't be reasoned with.
The blonde was just going with the agreement of carrying the unknown little girl on his shoulders because she accidentally (?) helped him with his mission of finding the gang leaders hideout. How she managed that was a long story and even himself had a headache to understand the events unfolding, so he just tagged along and now was used as cheap transportation.
"Can you really go back on your own?" He asked as they waited for the pedestrians ' green light to turn on. "You look too young to ride a train by yourself."
"My address is a secret." She said seriously, with a tinge of pride in being a responsible kid. "I don't even know your name."
The man snorted.
"I guess you're right." He said and then added after some time. "I'm actually getting a new name tomorrow."
"Really?" That picked the younger's interest. "How?"
"It's for my job. I get to pick a very special name, that reflects who I am as a person and how I want people to remember me." He explained absentmindedly. "What would you suggest?"
Anya from the bottom of her heart wanted to say "Papa", because there was no other word to better describe that man for her. But this only would make things awkward, so she opted for the more appropriate response.
"... Twilight." She said softly, hugging him a little tighter. "Because it sounds cool."
"Twilight..." Her future father echoed the word. "I think it does, too."
The rest of their walk was silent, but Anya appreciated the quietness. After all, what it mattered was that she wasn't alone this time.
Hopefully, she wouldn't be alone in any other time for the rest of her traveler life.