Work Text:
The smell of antiseptics lingers in the soul shrink’s office. This isn’t right. It puts Vi on edge, and she taps her foot against the stark white floors. Powder, hunched over with pastel blue strands of hair falling over her eyes, glances up at Vi. Dark circles underline her eyes and she tugs on the dead skin of her chapped lips, just as tense as Vi.
“How are you holding up?” Vi asks in a whisper.
Powder makes a face, but doesn’t answer. She keeps casting furtive glances at Vi’s foot, the one she can’t help tapping and Vi forcefully locks her knee and ankle into place to stop. She barely lasts a minute before she’s fidgeting again and Powder can’t stand it anymore. Vi’s sister stands up abruptly, blowing blue strands out of her face to reveal red-rimmed, vacant eyes.
Vi swears, scrambling to her feet as Powder turns to her slowly, almost robotically, like she isn’t really there and can’t feel her limbs. Despite her best instincts, Vi reaches out, deliberately slowly, to brush her sister’s cheek. The scent of their detergent, fresh cotton, drifts to her, soft and familiar, and Vi finds herself smiling.
“Powder?” she calls out gently.
No answer yet again, except this time, Powder bites her hand. Vi doubles over with a sharp cry of pain, cradling her hand to her chest as white hot, searing pain throbs through her palm where Powder’s teeth left deep, near red indentations. She takes in the full brunt of the smell of antiseptics once again, all the more unsettling with the fire starting in her hand and Vi breathes out an ugly curse.
The commotion alerted the receptionist, who stands up to reveal her bulky frame, but Powder doesn’t lash out again, just staring in the distance. Vi inches closer to the front desk, not for cover but rather, to put herself between Powder and Sevika, or so the name tag reads. Sevika doesn’t make a move to tackle Powder to the ground, to Vi’s relief, but watches them warily as she writes something down in a notepad.
Eventually, Powder comes back to her senses and sits back on the chair, completely clueless as to what occurred just a moment ago. Vi shakes her hand out, hiding the bite mark from view, and takes a seat next to her sister once again, smiling tightly when Powder glances curiously at Vi.
“Do you think he’s running late?” she asks, nodding at the soul shrink’s door.
“Probably, doctors are always running late,” Vi replies evenly, shrugging.
As if to prove her wrong, the door slides open to reveal a slender man in a three piece suit. He greets them, but Sevika must beckon him over because he walks hastily across the waiting room to retrieve the note she hands him, before turning to Vi and Powder and clapping his hands together.
“Shall we?”
He holds the door to his office open for them and Powder shuffles in with a shadow of a smile. Vi follows, checking the diplomas and certifications hanging from the wall and awarding said Silco the right to practice as a soul physician. There aren’t that many soul shrinks around as soul afflictions only occur among a minority of the population, and Vi is grateful Silco happens to have an office in Zaun.
Silco reads over the note from Sevika as they settle on each side of his desk and Vi stares hole into the piece of paper, wishing she knew what’s written. Powder simply sways her feet as she doesn’t quite reach the floor yet and holds onto the edges of her seat as she watches Silco expectantly.
“So, when we made the appointment you said Powder here sometimes blacks out for a little while with no recollection of what happened in the meantime,” Silco recalls, lacing his fingers under his pointy chin. “Powder, would you say you disconnect from your thoughts and body within that lapse of time?”
“It’s like I wasn’t there,” Powder replies, biting her lower lip. “Like it wasn’t me. Like my soul left my body.”
Somehow, it soothes some of Vi’s nerves despite the terrifying prospect of Powder’s soul roaming freely instead of sticking to her body, safe and sound. Of course Powder wouldn’t bite her, or generally lash out in violence. Powder is the sweetest girl, Vi’s baby sister and the most important person in Vi’s life. She hides her throbbing hand under her thigh as Silco asks some more questions to Powder before nodding decisively.
“You made the right call, these are definitely symptoms of a doppelganger.”
Vi blinks owlishly at him, unfamiliar with the term, and reaches out with her good hand to intertwine her fingers with her sister’s and squeeze in reassurance. Powder leans into her warmth all too willingly and Vi scoots her chair closer to her sister’s while Silco gathers his thoughts.
“It generally manifests at the beginning of teenagehood. Doppelgangers occur between wishbabies, infants created through a blood ritual rather than natural procreation, and traditionally born babies. The soul splits between the two and they share it all throughout childhood. Then, the dissociation starts as the soul grows mature enough to realize that part of it is missing. Contrary to twin flames, which are usually complimentary, soulmates are two distinct parts of a whole and seek to reconstitute as one.”
“How do we make Powder’s soul whole again?” Vi asks eagerly, leaning forward.
“That’s the tricky part. Only one of them will survive into adulthood, typically the first born, and there is no way of knowing which one Powder is.”
The ground opens up beneath Vi’s feet and swallows her whole as the death sentence rings in her ears. She chokes on the unnerving smell of antiseptics, sour on her tongue and the back of her throat like a pill she can’t swallow. That can’t be. There ought to be something she can do, a cure, to save her baby sister. Vi shakes her head, holding onto Powder’s hand so tight it makes her cry out, and almost misses Silco’s next words.
“I am truly sorry, but there is nothing I can do.”
“Then what’s the point of you soul shrinks if you can’t help?” Vi thunders, jumping to her feet and dragging Powder with her.
Powder pulls back, but can’t break free of Vi’s vice-like grip on her, but Silco doesn’t falter, setting two wide hands on his desk. He holds Vi’s gaze, not fazed in the slightest by her raging ire as she breathes heavily through her nose in an attempt to contain herself and not flip the desk over. Perhaps she should.
“I am here to give you a diagnosis and help you come to terms with it.”
“Like hell. I’m not paying for that load of crap.”
“Fine. Sevika will escort you out of the building,” he replies evenly, pressing a button under the desk.
The receptionist comes in a moment later, a head taller than Vi with thick muscular arms straining under her white coat. It’s not like Vi intends to pick up a fight though, simply walking away with Powder in tow. The girl stumbles outside after Vi with another cry and upon glancing over her shoulder, Vi notices the shiny tears gathering in the corners of Powder’s eyes and the painful downturn of her mouth. She releases Powder immediately, falling to her knees in front of her sister.
“I’m sorry,” Vi whispers, gathering her sister in her arms.
“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” Powder asks, her lips wobbling.
“Not on my watch,” Vi promises. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.”
~
The dissociations become more frequent, and Vi grows frantic in her search for a cure. She throws herself head first into news reports of couples thought infertile and suddenly getting a child, as well as more gruesome articles on slaughter among herds or even people in preparation of the blood ritual.
She covers the walls of her bedroom in cut outs, draws red strings all over the place to link one article to another in some messy attempt at a murder board, and Powder stops coming in, instead waiting in the hallway. It’s up to Vi to come out and check on her sister, which of course she does, but lost in a daze of in depth research and hand wavy assumptions, Vi struggles to keep track of time.
“Vi,” Powder calls from outside the door most evenings. “You haven’t come out at all today, you should get something to eat.”
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Vi replies distractedly, charging further down the rabbit hole more often than not.
When she doesn’t compare anything suspicious with birth certificates of children born around the same time as Powder, she opens her laptop and finds online communities of people just like her, whose friends and family are doppelgangers and ineluctably coming of age. One member in particular, gives Vi one precious piece of information.
Caitlyn: You’ll know when you find your sister’s doppelganger. The dissociation gets less frequent the closest you are to them.
Vi: How do you know?
Caitlyn: We found my best friend’s doppelganger. It was already too late for him, my best friend was the first born.
Vi: I’m… sorry?
Caitlyn: I am too. Jayce was never the same after meeting his doppelganger.
Vi leans back in her chair, rubbing her eyes as she tries to process it all. This is a game changer, especially now that she came up with a list of people she’d like to pay a visit to, but it puts things into perspective too. Silco all but declared Powder condemned when they met, and Vi never considered the possibility that Powder could be the first born. She was so scared to lose Powder, she figured they’d find a cure and save her sister.
She can’t leave it up to chance and risk losing her sister. There is no way to know for sure which one was born first without Powder and the doppelganger meeting in person to confirm they’re soulmates. Even if they never met to spare Powder the heartache and the guilt, Vi’s sister could never live with the knowledge that someone else died so she could live on.
And now, Vi contemplates the possibility to save Powder and the doppelganger.
Caitlyn: Jayce kept researching wishbabies after.
The message stares back at Vi on the computer and she leans forward to read the rest of Caitlyn’s wild offer.
Caitlyn: He has a theory that neither of them has to die for the other to live.
Vi: How so?
Caitlyn: We don’t know for sure though, but Jayce thinks they need to meet in order to survive.
Vi blinks, glancing down at her list of suspects, then back up at the screen as one last message appears in the chat.
Caitlyn: We’d like to help you and your sister find the doppelganger. I’m sorry, this is very inconsiderate and selfish, but If Jayce’s right, this would change everything.
Vi makes up her mind in an instant, sending over the first address and telling Caitlyn when she’ll be paying them a visit. They agree to meet, all four of them and the suspected doppelganger, and for the first time in days, Vi comes out of her room on time for diner — that her sister made herself, with a smile to match as she sits down in front of Powder at the living room table.
~
The first visit is a bust. Vi and Powder get there first, and Vi doesn’t wait for the mysterious Caitlyn to show up before climbing the front steps to knock on the door. The sky won’t lighten up today, a pitiful shade of gray that dulls everything, including the wooden porch and the kind looking man that opens the front door.
Well, the first thing Vi sees is a beer belly pushing out of a white button up shirt, but the man soon steps to the side and with some more distance she meets deep brown eyes and eyebrows like caterpillars. He smiles, wide and welcoming, and waits expectantly for Vi to say something.
“Hi, we’re looking for Claggor?” she says, a squeak more than a question.
“Sure, I’ll call him over for you.”
The man turns around and hollers for his son to come meet the nice ladies at the front door. Vi makes a face behind his back but doesn’t comment, instead turning to her sister. Powder sways on her feet, looking in the distance, and if she isn’t already dissociating, it will happen soon enough.
“So what brings you here?” Claggor’s father asks, lacing his fingers under his belly.
Vi opens her mouth to reply but doesn’t come up with anything that wouldn’t sound utterly insane to most people, or put Claggor’s father on the defensive should he really have used a blood ritual to create a wishbaby. It doesn’t seem likely considering that Powder spaced out on the front porch, but still.
Fortunately, Claggor makes it to the front door as she racks her brain for a plausible answer. The boy doesn’t look much like his father, and it gives Vi an idea as he greets them. She smiles apologetically, wrapping an arm around Powder and pulling her against her side. Powder doesn’t lash out this time, simply nodding weakly, and Vi speaks through her teeth.
“I’m truly sorry, I think we must have found the wrong Claggor’s address. You’re not the one that goes to my sister’s school.”
Claggor’s father takes it at face value, especially considering Claggor confirms he’s never met Powder before, and Vi ushers her sister down the street with a heavy heart. They’re not closer to finding the doppelganger, and this is a lot more complicated than she initially imagined. The parents of the wishbaby could very well react badly should she show up unannounced to save Powder, and can Vi really blame them? She’d react the same way if strangers showed up at her door to figure out whether Powder is older or younger than their wishbaby.
“The boy that lives there, he exudes no sign of a soulbond with anyone,” a soft voice drifts around the corner. “He was adopted and his father owns a butcher shop, that’s why Vi found strange reports of bloodshed.”
A man and a woman nearly run into Vi and Powder a moment later. They wear pressed suits and an air of nobility that instantly puts Vi on edge, although it’s better than law enforcement uniforms or something along those lines. She meets the woman’s eyes with a frown, taking in a piercing gaze, long dark blue hair and the kind of skin that rarely labors the day away in the sun.
“Excuse us,” the man says evenly, but the woman reaches for his elbow with a tilt of her chin.
“Jayce, I reckon this is Vi and her sister, whom we’re meeting today,” she says in the same soft voice as earlier.
“My bad,” Jayce replies.
He brushes some brown hair out of his tawny forehead and reveals bright hazel eyes with a grin. Vi must admit that his smile makes him look a lot more charming and she wonders if the two are an item. It would be a shame, she muses.
“I’m Caitlyn,” the woman adds, holding her hand up for a handshake.
Vi does so as she introduces Powder. Caitlyn’s firm grip on her hand gives the blue haired woman a sense of undeniable seriousness that settles some of Vi’s nerves despite her initial misgivings. They don’t let go immediately, Caitlyn’s thumb brushing gently down the side of Vi’s wrist, who shivers as she finally pulls away.
“You’re right, Claggor isn’t her doppelganger, she dissociated when he was near,” she says.
“You would have sensed your doppelganger in the vicinity,” Jayce agrees, looking directly at Powder.
Powder looks at him with wide eyes, and Vi can tell she’s brimming with questions already. It might be good for Powder to have someone to talk to, someone like her. Vi turns to Caitlyn and Jayce with renewed determination, and checks the address for the next suspect, soon leading the way there.
~
Caitlyn and Jayce are only friends, much like Caitlyn said online, and Vi saves that knowledge in a corner of her mind, for later. When she’s not trying to save her sister’s life and more in the mood for romance.
The next attempt brings them to the darker corners of the city, among narrow alleys and flickering signs on the outside of shops.
“I don’t like it here,” Powder whispers.
“We won’t be long,” Vi promises.
They come up to The Last Drop, a dingy bar with odd hours. Powder sticks close to Vi, who runs a gentle hand down her sister’s hair before making her way in with more confidence than Jayce and Caitlyn combined.
“Come on, cupcake,” she calls over her shoulder. “You too, pretty boy.”
Powder chuckles against her side and Vi wraps an arm around her sister as she comes up to the counter with Caitlyn and Jayce in tow. The barman spares them a glance, stroking his gray beard, then does a double take upon noticing Powder, a deep frown settling over his pale brow. Vi tenses, holding Powder protectively, but still speaks up.
“We’re looking for Mylo.”
“What do you want with him?”
The barman straightens up to his full height, an impressive sight considering the man’s square shoulders and hands under his brown jacket. He could break Vi in two, yet she still holds his gaze. This must be Vander, Mylo’s father. Caitlyn steps up without warning and Vi glances at her as the woman displays a kind smile and takes over.
“We’re investigating a possible soulbond between Powder here and Mylo,” she says, business-like.
Vi suddenly reconsiders the whole law enforcement thing. Caitlyn might not wear the uniform, she carries herself like someone who does. Vander looks her up and down and seems to come to the same conclusion because he gestures for them to come sit in his office instead of having this conversation out in the open.
There aren’t many people inside at this time of the day, but Vi appreciates the discretion all the same. She hugs Powder close as they settle around the desk, and a boy slips in soon after. Mylo comes with a tan, big eyebrows and hair, and another dissociation on Powder’s part, thus excluding the possibility that he’s her doppelganger.
Vi holds her sister to her chest, rocking her back and forth as she waits it out. Hopefully, the vacant look in Powder’s eyes will be gone soon enough. Caitlyn wets her lips, seemingly holding herself back as though she could hug Vi too, and Jayce averts his eyes, a tortured grimace setting over his face for a moment. It must bring back bad memories, Vi assumes.
“What’s wrong with her?” Mylo asks, none the wiser.
“Do you remember Jinx?” Vander asks his son, waiting for his nod. “It’s pretty much the same. They’re doppelgangers, bodies without a fully fleshed out soul. They’re not always all there.”
“So you know why we’re here,” Jayce says with a steel gaze.
“Yes. Mylo isn’t the one you’re looking for, as you probably already know.”
“Could this Jinx be Powder’s doppelganger?” Vi asks, glancing from Vander to Jayce.
Vander asks what’s Powder’s birth date and does a quick calculation in his head, soon nodding gravely. Vi releases the breath she’s been holding, deflating at once, and holds Powder tighter as Caitlyn and Jayce ask about Jinx’s whereabouts. Vander gives them all the information they need and wishes them luck as he escorts them out of The Last Drop under his son’s awed gaze.
~
“So, is there some kind of legal action against wishbabies?” Vi asks offhandedly as they stake out the address Vander gave them.
“Not exactly,” Caitlyn replies slowly. “Slaughter is a crime, therefore the use of a blood ritual allows charges to be laid. The birth of the doppelganger in itself isn’t punishable by law.”
“And are you really investigating a case here?”
“No! I truly want to help, and well if my job can help…”
Caitlyn pushes dark blue strands of hair behind her ears as Vi watches, mesmerized. Jayce and Powder wait at a coffee shop a little further down the street, but there is little doubt in Vi’s mind. Ever since they left Vander’s bar, Powder didn’t dissociate again. Still, considering what she and Caitlyn are about to attempt — that is to say convince a doppelganger to meet their soulmate — Vi would rather make sure Powder stays away for the time being, where it’s safe.
Who knows how the doppelganger will react to the news, and should they believe they’re better off killing Powder themselves so they can live, it’s better if Powder isn’t in their vicinity to start with. Jayce’s theory has yet to be proven right, after all.
“What makes you think they need to meet each other?” Vi asks, staring at the front door rather than Caitlyn.
“Jayce and Viktor were getting better after meeting. but they were much older than Powder by then. It was already too late for Viktor.”
Vi shudders at the thought. Powder’s doppelganger should be about the same age, give or take a few minutes but a couple of minutes is all it takes for this Jinx to be the first born. They must find her now and figure out if she’s willing to meet Powder to test Jayce’s theory. With enough time, this might save both of their lives.
Caitlyn perks up as a shadow crosses the street and Vi leans closer to sneak a look, freezing as she recognizes exactly who created the wishbaby. Silco, the soul shrink, holds the door open for his daughter, a taller and slender version of Powder with long braids instead of Powder’s short blue bob.
“That asshole,” Vi growls, ready to pounce on Silco.
“Wait,” Caitlyn says, grabbing her hand to hold her back. “Let me handle this.”
She steps onto the street with the very same poise she displayed at The Last Drop and Vi follows after her to ring the doorbell of Silco and Jinx’s home. It’s in a sketchy part of town, even more so than Vander’s bar, and Vi hunches her shoulder as they wait for Silco to open the door. Caitlyn smiles brightly when he does so.
“Hello there, we’re truly sorry to bother you but Vi, I’m sure you remember her, recently brought your practice to my attention. You may have heard of my friend Jayce Talis, who first suggested that allowing wishbabies to meet their soulmate might be the cure to doppelganger related deaths. I don’t suppose you and your daughter Jinx might be willing to test it out? It can’t hurt.”
Caitlyn dangles her badge as she concludes and Silco blanches.
“Would my cooperation be taken into account in the event of legal action being taken against me later down the line?” he checks coldly, and Caitlyn’s smile doesn’t waver.
She doesn’t say anything though, and Silco eventually nods slowly. He glances over his shoulder, calling for Jinx. She takes a while to come down, dragging her feet like most teenagers, and he turns back to Caitlyn in the meantime, leaning forward.
“Jayce Talis, you said?”
“Yes, have you heard of him?”
“Never. I didn’t think that confronting the souls was even a possibility as far as cures go.”
“Well maybe you should have looked him up, considering you’re a soul shrink and all,” Vi spits. “Instead of dishing out death sentences to anyone who comes to see you.”
Silco holds her gaze despite the harsh words, and Vi sure hopes Caitlyn will investigate him and his practice. Who knows, she might find foul play to add to the charges, alongside manslaughter, just to settle the score.
~
Vi lingers in the doorway as Powder and Jinx catch sight of each other for the first time. Up close, they don’t look so alike anymore, Powder not so soft and innocent and Jinx, not so edgy. They stare at each other with wobbly lips and tear streaked cheeks as Jayce takes frantic notes of their first meeting in the dark, dingy coffee shop.
Later, he’ll write that confronted, the souls acknowledge their inchoate state, split in two like they are. This realization, although painful for the soulmates, allows the souls to rest in peace with the knowledge that they’re incomplete, and the doppelgangers stop dissociating to find their other half in this world. That way, their respective souls can reconstitute separately based on who the two individuals truly are so that they can both survive.
Vi sees nothing of it, except for her sister’s relieved smile and the part of her that sparks back to life in her eyes. She and Jinx embrace with a sob, and Vi sags down, finding comfort in Caitlyn’s firm stance behind her, one hand falling to the side of Vi’s arm in silent support.
“Thank you,” she whispers.
“It’s the least I could do,” Caitlyn replies just as low.
“You saved my sister, that’s a lot more than even a soul physician was willing to do,” Vi insists, turning to face her.
“Well, since I wasn’t selfish enough already, how about we grab a drink together once you and Powder settled down? I’d love to get to know you better, Vi.”
Vi blinks, taken aback, but Caitlyn’s earnest smile and the way she rubs soothing circles over her shoulder still reminds Vi of the flicker of attraction she noticed when they first met. Well, once Powder got a full check up and they’ve made sure there is no counter effect after meeting her doppelganger…
“I could go for a drink or two,” she replies, grinning, and leans in to peck Caitlyn on the cheek.
At the corner of her lips, really.