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Dottore’s hands shook as he looked at the creature in the bassinet. Such a small thing. So fragile and breakable. Yet she was the only one to live.
She was the only one of the subjects to live longer than 24 hours.
The sight almost surprised him, she was the runt of the batch he’d created, with soft green hair and small triangle ears covered in the same shade of green. She slept peacefully in the bassinet as if nothing in the world could hurt her. Bundled up in soft pastel blankets, swaddled until only her face and hair were out, the little ears wiggling every so often as she squirmed.
His long fingers traced over the soft chubby cheek. A part of him still didn’t believe it. While he’d created subordinates of himself, they’d never been children. This one was a mere infant, so vulnerable.
He swallowed a lump in his throat, something inside him didn’t want to hurt her. While the lives of others had never been important to him, not even the clones of himself were worth much, something stopped him from drawing his sharp claws across her skin.
He’d expected her to be the first to die, her size wasn’t giving her any favours. The runt. She wasn’t supposed to be the one to survive. Yet she did.
A soft noise drew him from his thoughts; her amber eyes were staring up at him. Beholding his bare face, scars and red eyes. She blinked at him before letting out a soft sound, one he couldn’t decipher as anything other than happiness.
She wiggled free from the bundle, wrapping her tiny hand around his pinky finger, before bringing it to her eyes- studying the finger with acute fascination.
A smile unwittingly crept onto his face.
She grew faster than regular children. While he was expecting that, considering he genetically modified and created her , she was crawling around the lab just four months into her existence. Feeling small hands tug on his coat by the lab table, blinking to the sight of the baby by his feet, the baby he left across the room on a baby blanket.
He stared at her for a long time, only realizing what she wanted when she let out a small mewl of a sound and tilted back to sit on her bum.
Setting the highly poisonous liquid in his hand away, he reached down with the other hand, taking the girl by the scruff of her onesie. He held her to his face and stared; “What?” He asked. The baby giggled and reached for his face, patting his cheeks before pulling herself against his chest and resting her head next to his own.
Dottore was too stunned to speak.
She didn’t move from the newfound position. And Dottore couldn’t be bothered to move her. He set the alchemy aside, choosing to focus on a different matter instead; fiddling with more technology from the fallen Khaenri'ah.
He’d never realized he’d be having such a lab partner. Even as the months passed, the girl found herself situated against his chest most of the time, bound by a sling.
Amber eyes were glued to the table in front of them, staring at the items Dottore deemed fit enough to put together.
After the first time, upon realizing he needed both his hands, he turned with a grunt; about to put the baby back onto the blanket on the floor when a whine escaped her. When he looked down he was met with the biggest puppy eyes he’d ever seen, staring up with tears brimming in the corners. His resistance was thrown out the window he looked down to see her.
“You don’t want to go on the blanket?” He asked, not really expecting her to answer. But she shook her head, burying her head into his neck. He’d only sighed and taken the blanket with him to work as the makeshift sling.
Her personality became brighter and brighter with every day. She was sweet. Rarely fussed or cried. Only stating her protest with short sounds. He’d learned rather quickly that while she understood easily, she didn’t develop well within speaking abilities.
Perhaps it was due to the animalistic traits he’d infused with her DNA, or technically his DNA and a random person he’d stolen the egg cell from. She was almost bunny-like, he’d written in his notes. Sweet but skittish, shy but curious, and sometimes even a little silly.
She was still young, at what he would consider toddler age, but she was developing faster than average kids for sure; while hesitant to talk, she’d started talking in small periods of time- sometimes to ask questions or when she read out loud, but mostly she remained silent. She was four when she started to read, he was surprised at how horrendous she tried to pronounce certain letters before sitting down to teach her.
Undoubtedly she was a smart child, something he most definitely contributed to himself.
He gazed up from his papers, in one hand holding reports from various Fatui members, and the other the girl’s file. It had been years and he’d actually forgotten to name her.
“Hey,” He called, drawing the girl’s attention from where she was reading a book in a plush chair. “Come here for a second,”
She did, walking with her book in her hand. She was simply dressed in a pale dress reaching her knees with long sleeves, and stocking to keep the cold from her. The part of him that had reluctantly grown a fatherly instinct towards the girl wanted to find her some better-fitting clothes soon- the dress was also starting to grow too small. He would’ve asked Columbina or La Signora or even Pantalone- but the girl was a secret.
“What are you reading?” He asked, tilting his head to the girl as she stood beside his chair, clutching the book in her arms.
“Chem-istry,” she said low.
“Found something interesting?” He asked.
The girl took the book and dropped it on the table with a thud that was too loud for the room- her ears twitched at the sudden sound before she opened it in the place of her bookmark. “Sugar,” She said.
“Sucrose, a disaccharide, is a sugar composed of glucose and fructose subunits. It is produced naturally in plants and is the main constituent of white sugar.” He read out loud, before laughing. “Sugar is sweet-” His fingers moved her bangs from her face, “Just like you.”
The girl made a face, nose scrunching up, “Nooo…” She whined.
“Sucrose,” He said, tasting the name on his tongue, it suited her. His little sweet flour. “Would you like that as your name?” He asked.
“Huh?”
“It came to my attention, that I have neglected to give you a proper name,” He paused, taking the girl under the arms and lifting her into his lap, “Sucrose suits you,”
She pondered on it. He could see the gears turning in her little head, before she smiled, “Okay,” Such a sweet little smile.
He would kill anyone who dared disrupt it.
Sucrose was seven when she did her first experiment, and he immediately knew that no one in the world would approve of the experiment she did. She picked a dead mouse from her pocket, one he was curious about where she got. He stayed in the shadows of the dimly lit laboratory, watching her put out various tools he knew she’d seen him use.
And while she thought she was alone in the laboratory, something she wasn’t supposed to be, he watched her take a curious amount of items from the shelves.
A crystal core, two electro crystals, and a handful of bones.
What this combination entailed he had absolutely no idea.
Sucrose sat on her knees on the stool beside the table, curiously picking at the mouse. While he wouldn’t approve of the scalpels she carefully cut into the mouse, keeping her fingers away from the blade.
Minutes later she jumped, almost falling off the stool.
He took silent steps towards her then, walking up beside her to look at what she’d done.
She jumped again as she noticed him behind her.
But his eyes were focused on the mouse. It was… moving. And not in the corpse-like form, it was moving like a mouse, perhaps a mouse with an electrical current running through it, but still more alive than dead.
The crystal core was embedded into the skin on the mouse’s chest, the electro crystals laying to the side now as their purpose was fulfilled. The bones were structured to create an outside skeleton, holding the mouse’s body stable.
He raised an eyebrow, while most parents would be disturbed at the desecrating of the mouse- while he could only find himself impressed and proud.
Sucrose muttered soft apologies as he took her back to bed, where she was supposed to be, only speaking his mind when the girl was settled back in her bed. “While one would not approve of such experiments, and I wish you’d come to me first, I will not punish you this time for your experiment was successful.”
He caged the mouse in the lab, studying it far into the night. The crystal core seemed to be glowing with the purple flashes of electro energy. The mouse twitched in the container.
“How did she come about this idea?” He pondered, pride blooming in his chest. She’d undoubtedly grow to become a great mind.
Sucrose was eight when she met Pierro. The girl huddled in his arms, refusing to meet the new stranger’s gaze. The two spoke above her, Pierro’s hand suddenly combed through her hair making her jump and glance at the man.
Despite his dark and gloomy appearance, with a glance up to the man she’d deemed her father, finding reassurance in his gaze and a small nod, she accepted the man as non-dangerous.
She shook Pierro’s hand, introducing herself softly.
Pierro almost broke into a small smile at the sight of the shy girl.
“One can barely believe she’s your spawn,” He said, and Dottore rolled his eyes.
Sometimes he wondered how she was his too.
None of the other harbingers knew about her.
Pierro was the only one, and even Dottore knew the man wouldn’t steep as low as kidnapping the nine-year-old. So when Dottore entered his laboratory that day, he knew immediately that something was wrong.
Sweet Sucrose wasn’t by her little study table, her books and devices left untouched from yesterday’s experimenting. Her notebooks, filled more with doodles of creatures than alchemist knowledge were on the floor- exactly where she’d left them.
The laboratory was ice cold, a spider of ice creeping up his spine with every step he took inside. Their home quarters were just beyond, Sucrose’s bedroom door closed, something he rarely allowed. Specifically after an unauthorised midnight sugar rush.
Walking through the small apartment he felt the spider claw into him. Sucrose was usually at the door to meet him when he got back, and while a reasonable adult wouldn’t leave a nine-year-old alone, Dottore knew she wasn’t about to cause fires or starve to death.
His steps became more frantic as each room turned up empty. Not any signs of his little girl. A growl escaped him, “Sucrose,” he said low, partially not wanting to believe the alternative.
No answer.
All the windows were locked.
She knew not to go out alone.
Dottore bit his lip until it hurt, the taste of iron filling his mouth. Oh, how long it had been since he tasted blood.
Stepping back into the laboratory he searched the ground, quickly finding what he wanted- or rather what he didn’t want.
Footprints.
Footprints that did not belong to him nor Sucrose. Dirty shoes, wide apart, suggesting running. The lock on the door seemed untouched by any physical instrument to pick it open. “Magic,” Dottore hissed, wiping a finger across the metal plate where the key went.
He wiped the finger on a glass slab before putting it under a microscope; Anemo elemental traces. His eyes narrowed, before swiping the instrument off the table.
The items crashed into the ground, shattering glass and vials and metal. His fists shook and his jaw locked.
Someone had stolen Sucrose.
Stolen her from right under his nose.
It took two minutes for two of his clones to show up, others being fairly far away wreaking havoc in other nations, “Find her!” He snarled, “Find my daughter and bring her home, spread the message. Find her.”
The two clones bowed and took their leave.
His breath heaved as he looked down at the shorter study table he’d made for her. He picked up the notebook, wiping away the shattered glass from the open page.
A simple drawing; himself and Sucrose, arrows pointing to each “me” and “papa”, and a half masked figure next to him “Piro”
His fist tightened around the book.
“I’ll find you, Sugar,”
“She was good, from her first breath- she was nothing like me, how could I make something so kind and sweet…” His breath was ragged, eyes bloodshot, hands shaking as he paced the room. Pierro could only stand there and watch, not saying anything before the man in front of him had calmed to a reasonable state.
Pierro had never seen the doctor in such a state, pacing and uncoordinated.
“The Fatui will find her-” He started, the only comfort he could offer, “And bring her home, and the head of who dared to take her.”
Dottore looked up from the floor, masked face meeting Pierro’s.
“That’s a promise.”
Sucrose cried. She’d never been much of a crier- but now she could do nothing but cry. The stranger cradling her against their chest, she couldn’t see their face. But they kept shushing her as she cried.
“You’re free from that monster now,” They said.
What monster? Her father was no monster.
The two were boarded onto a ship, setting sail away, and when she was finally able to escape the grasp of her captor, the ship was already far away from the shore. Her eyes watered at the sight of the snowy lands of snezhnaya.
Her home.
The only thing she’d known.
The little girl fell to her knees, sobbing against the wooden rail of the ship.