Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

  The air is cold, wet, and dark. When I inhale, I take in a thick fluid that tastes absolutely disgusting, but I don’t choke. I attempt to open my eyes, but it’s futile. They stay shut. 

  Something soft rests at my hips and back, something I don’t quite recall the word for. It’s pleasant, fluffy almost. 

  Whatever the liquid around me is, it slowly begins to recede. This time, I can open my eyes and see. 

  It’s disorienting. The room is much too bright, and it stabs my eyes and makes me want to cry. Through my blurry gaze, I realize that I’m trapped by a large glass tube. 

  I take a deep breath in, the cool air stings my throat. I blink and repeat until it stops hurting. That’s when I see….her. 

  She has fair skin and warm brown hair pulled back by something. Her simple black dress is contrasted by the stark white lab coat, but she’s not a scientist. There’s some peach coloration in her cheeks, knees, finger-tips, and wrists, giving her the signs of life. 

  I raise my own hand and see that I don’t have that coloration. 

  The girl is joined by a pair of twins, both blonde and blue-eyed. A girl with short green hair steps over, examines me, nods, and leaves. The blonde girl squeals and hugs her brother. 

  With a hiss, the front of my glass cage opens, and the girl in the lab coat says, “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Nemesis.” 

  Nemesis. 

  That’s not my name, and it never has been. 

  My name is…….

  My name is…….

  What’s my name? 

  Screams fill the room. Blood splatters on the wall. Feathers fly through the air. Fabric gets torn. 

  I approach the twins, who are huddled together at the wall. The boy shields the girl, eyes burning with fear and the barest hint of rage. She closes hers and ducks her head against his back. 

  Raising my hand carelessly, I watch as white light gathers there. Tendrils lift away and reform into it. 

  “NEMESIS, STOP!” 

  My hand freezes, and so does my body. 

  The brunette is behind me, and I can hear her panting. Somehow, I can turn my head and see her. 

  She’s on the ground, propping herself up, one hand outstretched. Her hair is disheveled, and a ruined ribbon falls over her head. Her irises are contrasting her skin, so bright where it’s pale. Her dress is torn, but she don’t stop looking into my eyes. 

  “Nemesis, stop. You can’t kill us. Don’t do this. You’re the first project that’s worked. Don’t give them anything to make them kill you.” 

  Her words are frantic but useless. No one can kill me. 

  They’re all welcome to try. They’ll all fail. 

Chapter Text

  The girl in the mirror isn’t one I recognize. 

  I’m still as pale as I was earlier, so I suppose that’s how it’s going to be. My hair reaches to my knees, something I don’t remember ever happening before. I have the faint memory of it being a deep cherry-red and only sitting to the middle of my arms. My eyes are a brighter red, though I swear they had once been a different color. 

  The clothes that girl gave me is a small white top with a tiny bit of gray lace at the hem, and it doesn’t even have sleeves. When I wear it, it shows more of my breasts than I prefer. The shorts aren’t much better, similar gray lace at the bottom. To accompany the two pieces, I’ve been given a gray and red muzzle, but I don’t put it on. 

  Last but not least, there are two sets of wings. Two large ones, and two smallest ones. I definitely didn’t have those last time I checked. 

  What have they done to me? 

  Who was I? 

  “Knock, knock,” that girl says as she enters the room. She looks at me and sighs. “I tried to petition for a better outfit, but that clearly didn’t happen. I’m sorry. Oh, I’m Mira de Lune. I’m your handler.” 

  I don’t want to speak, to say anything and let her hear my voice, but her eyes are earnest. I don’t trust her in the slightest. 

  “What happened to me?” I finally ask. “Who did this?” 

  She sighs again and leads me out of the bathroom to sit on the bed. “I’m so sorry. You were an orphan Kito Hiya found, and White Rabbit Labs took you in. You came at the worst possible timing, though.” Her voice cracks, and she glances away. “I don’t feel comfortable saying any mo-“

  I grip her wrist. “Tell me.” 

  Mira’s gaze flicks up and down, and she winces. “The Pale Horseman died, and her siblings wanted her soul back. They demanded we do something, so you were born.” 

  Born. 

  The word echoes in my mind, puffing up and taking up too much space. 
 
  Born. 

  I hate it, hate that word. It stings and hurts. 

  “If there’s anything I can do, anything at all, you can always ask. I’m your handler now.” She smiled weakly at me, eyes mournful. 

  I have no request to ask of her, but she’s acting so sweetly and polite. I feel like I have to say something. 

  “Can you do my hair? I think….I think I liked that.” I don’t know what I’m saying at this point. I might as well have tripped and fallen down a rabbit hole. 

  Mira nods. “Any particular style?” 

  “Uh, no. I don’t know what I like with stuff like that.” I can’t keep my attention on the mirror, not with her doing this for me. But I do see her go into the bathroom and return within a few seconds. 

  Mira’s touch is gentle, and she combs my hair out. She lingers on my neck for longer than she needs to, but I’m not about to tell her off. Gathering up the strands, she weaves them together in a braid crown. 

  My emotions cloud my mind, something that begins to frighten me. I’m no longer human, so I shouldn’t have these strange emotions. This isn’t normal. Maybe she’s understand what this means. 

  When she’s done, she leaves the room again and comes back with some fake freesia blossoms. She winks at me and tucks them in carefully. Then, she wraps her arms around me and whispers, “Welcome home, Nemesis.”

Chapter Text

  I’ve been given a device to monitor my vitals or something like that. I wasn’t paying much attention to the words that one girl was saying. All I caught was her name, Genesis Dally. She had been distracted the entire time, slipping up and calling me by the wrong name. 

  Marion. 

  The device is a large red gem-like thing embedded into my chest, close to my collarbones. It has “vessels” that branch out and burrow into my skin. It hurts ever so much. 

  The T-shirt I’ve been given today keeps getting caught on it, a fact Nolan has acknowledged several times already. 

  Nolan and Rinne are the blonde twins I saw when I first awakened. He’s the older one, and he’s pretty protective of her. 

  I don’t particularly like them, but they’re apparently not much younger than me. They’re twelve, and Genesis says that I’m fifteen. 

  Speaking of Genesis, I saw her doing something weird last night after Mira left my room. She was wearing an outfit similar to mine, only in black and red and much more revealing. There was a choker around her throat, and she had really tall boots on. She didn’t see me, and she returned to the dorms really late. 

  This device hurts a lot. I hate it. I really hate it. I want to rip it out. 

  I have to meet “Miss Lili” later today. She’s the scientist who runs the labs, and she’s the one who took me in when I was a child. From what I’ve been told, she’s very nice. I don’t want to like her, nor do I want to meet her. I’d rather not leave my room at all and suffer the consequences. 

  Maybe Rinne will have another puzzle for me to do. I like her puzzles.