Together Again For The First Time [IC]

I was watching Matrona again. She was exploring over near the Chaukas Robotics Facility, drew the attention of a bunch of bots. She popped down a couple of turrets then took up a defensive position with her rifle. She held her own for a bit, but then one of the reconstructor bots cloned her. Ironic, huh? It must have freaked her out. She lost track of the flow of battle and started getting her ass kicked.

I responded automatically. I blurted out, "NO!" and then leaped into the fray from my perch on the rocks above. Between my photonic blade and Shrapnel ability, I made quick work of the bots and the clones. Soon I was standing there amidst the shattered bots face to face with Matrona. Her heads-up display revealed my name to her, and she knew right away what and who I am. Damn.

"Your a clone of Mabon, aren't you?" she asked. "The Brann hybrid he wanted. Caeruleum. That's the name he wanted for you."

I thought about cloaking and running away, but I stayed put for some reason. "He told you that?" I asked. It came out sharper than I'd intended.

"No. I remember it," she said softly.

I was confused. How could she remember it unless he had told her? I was cloned after Matrona. She should have no memory of me. "Explain."

"Not here. Come with me and I'll tell you anything you want to know."

She popped a squad waypoint and we teleported back to the Staal Detention Center. Soon we were sitting in the tavern there at a table left of the stage, our helmets off, weapons put away, quietly studying each other over a round of drinks.

"I'm not much into small talk so let's jump right in. Where's Mabon?" I never was good at small talk.

"Howling Maw."

"Did he tell you about me?"

"No." I detected a touch of anger in her eyes when she answered.

"Have you seen my file through Penumbra?" Matrona has Level One access just like I do.

"What? No. I told you..."

"You said that you remembered me, but how could you? Mabon cloned you first. I read it in your file. You shouldn't know anything about me."

"You read my file?" Matrona looked stunned, then embarrassed.

"Yes." I immediately regretted saying that.

"All of it?"

I nodded slowly and looked at the floor. "Yes."

There was a long awkward silence with neither of us looking at each other. Thankfully the Brann waiter came by with another round of drinks. I snatched mine up. So did Matrona. Our eyes locked for a second, then she made a toasting gesture with her glass and downed the entire drink. She turned the empty glass on its base as she spoke again. "Mabon had completed a couple of missions for Penumbra that gave him samples of Forean and Brann DNA. He went back to Irendas Penal Colony with the intention of having you created from the Brann DNA. You were going to be the first one. At the last minute he changed his mind. Instead he had a fully Human clone created. Me. I remember this because, as you know since you read my file, I have all of his memories up to that point. I assume he didn't make the same mistake with you."

I ignored that last comment. "Why did he change his mind?"

"Emotional reasons. At that point he was all alone. He hadn't yet met Teanae, and his brothers had been killed in the attack on Earth. He decided that by cloning he could create someone that would be as close to family as possible. A fully Human clone would better recreate that sibling bond he'd lost. So he decided to first create a twin sister. Does that make sense?"

"I don't know. Aren't I family, too?"

"Of course you are, dear."

"Then why wasn't he there when I was born, or when I graduated boot camp? I've never even seen him. Why did he create me this way?" I held up my arms, practically forcing Matrona to look at the perfect blue skin. I had never reacted this way before. I had always tried to suppress my emotions, never acknowledging pain or shedding any tears, but I found myself crying like a child. "I don't even have a home. I don't know Earth. I was created in a lab to fight for the Humans and I'm not even one of them. I'm just another weapon in the war. He didn't even tell you about me."

Matrona hugged me. I just held her for a while, crying, until some AFS ass clown shouted, "Get a room!" We both stood up ready to brawl the guy, but when he bolted from the room we started laughing. "So, if you're Mabon's twin sister, that makes you my aunt, doesn't it?"

Matrona smiled at me. "Yeah, I guess it does."

~ Caeruleum
Staal Detention Center, Crucible, Arieki.