Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

There was a day in my life that was indisputably the worst and best .

A walk with my twin sister, just heading down to the corner store to pick up a few Synthcubes or whatever our new overlords had decided to feed us. It had been mere hours since the Terran Accord had surrendered. No one knew what to do, but hunger didn’t seem to give a damn about the world irreversibly changing overnight.

Beside us, the normally-busy road was still; only the occasional rich person who thought they could escape to the middle of nowhere to avoid domestication flew past. 

Her hand was warm in mine, swinging between us. Trying to cheer me up, even through the uncertainty. It meant everything to me.

No matter what happened, we assumed we’d always be together. That she’d always have her precious brother, and I’d always have my brave big sister. 

I started to cross the street, and a firm hand tightened around my fingers and pulled me back. I turned and stuck my tongue out at her.

“The world is ending and you’re gonna make me wait for the walk sign?” I complained. She rolled her eyes and nodded, dropping my hand. She was checking something on her phone.

Mischief welled up in me, as it often did then. With a haughty laugh, I took off, skipping into the empty street. I heard her shout behind me, something about me being a brat, and broke into a run. 

“Catch me if you can!” I hollered. My heartbeat roared in my ears just from the short burst of movement, and my shoes were loud on the pavement. My laughter, so carefree, drowned out anything beyond that.

But when I reached the curb and turned to look at her briskly walking after me, I noticed something else. In the sky was a ship, somehow like a giant flower bud. We knew they were coming, but seeing their arrival in person was so much more real. I pointed up at it.

“Sis! Look, the Affini are here!” I called out, and watched her eyes find my hand and follow it up, up, up. We craned our necks and stared at the strange vessel steadily descending, likely to land in the nearby park where it was open enough to fit. 

Apparently we weren’t the only ones captivated. 

They were going so fast, there wasn’t any time to hear them coming, and no time for them to regain their focus and stop before-

Before-

“SIS, NO-”

A sickening screech, accompanied somewhere in the middle by a dull thud and a cry of pain.

I watched, frozen. The Affini were entirely forgotten, nothing could have possibly torn me away from the horrible view. The white car’s hood crumpled and stained red against a concrete median. My sister, just fine only seconds before, laying across the lane, her limbs at odd angles and her face against the pavement. A pool of scarlet gathering and soaking into her clothes. Her phone, shattered, thrown clear of the road entirely. 

“No-” I squeaked, my breath caught in my lungs as though if I just held my breath, time wouldn’t keep going. Memories and feelings filtered into my vision like overlays, trying to see her any way but this.

“Sis?” I whispered, slowly reaching out a shaking hand, already cold after letting go of hers. Never to be warmed by her again.

I crumpled, my knees surely scraping hard on the sidewalk, but I didn’t feel it. Nothing felt real. Time was slowed, my brain racing to find some way in which this was all a bad dream.

“Little ones! What- No! Nonono!” A strange voice, one of the Affini, called out from behind me. Suddenly a blur of green and orange passed me, vines stretching out to take my sister into them before their form was even all the way there. I wanted to scream, to tear them apart for touching her, but immediately I could see the care in their movements. Then, I was jealous, wishing I could move to her side. Wishing I hadn’t left it in the first place. Wishing, wishing-

It was an accident. A freak accident, something no one even considered. We didn’t know the Terrans well enough yet to understand just how distractible they could be. 

Still, I felt my core fracture as I took in the scene before me. With every detail the crack splintered, surface level but clear in its evidence of my pain. Of hers.

There was another little sophont, one who I would come to know but at that time, I only had eyes for the girl in the road. My mind and body moved in total accord, moving far faster than any Terran ever could. Tendrils wrapped, creepers dove into the wounds, needle-tipped flowers plunging xenodrugs into her rapidly-diminishing blood supply. There was no time.

I turned her over, and for the smallest of moments, our eyes met. Her face was confused, void of the pain that was hidden under shock. Tears welled up and spilled down her scratched and bloodied face, and it was terrible and beautiful all at the same time. She was afraid, but then she lost herself in my gaze and the Class E’s kicked in. The fear slipped away, replaced by the smallest smile of peace. 

Without the proper grafts, Affini cannot cry. But I longed to do so. Sorrow built, as though pressurized in my vines. This was my fault. And she was dying. There was no time.

Faintly I noticed one of my colleagues racing over to the driver of the vehicle that had very nearly snuffed out the poor girl’s life. Surely they were injured too, but not like this. Their life was not draining out and pooling in my vines. Their skin wasn’t growing paler and paler, their eyes weren’t growing dimmer, there was no time!

“I’m so sorry, Little One. I’m so very sorry.” I whispered to her, knowing it was unlikely she could understand anything anymore. I hoped she could understand at least that, even if only in this moment, she was loved. The crack in my core splintered as I whined in pain. 

Then, something small touched me. 

I turned some of my visual receptors to it, and found the little Terran from the sidewalk trying its best to climb into my lap with the other. It shivered, sobs wracking its small body. Blood soaked into its clothing, too, but it didn’t care at all. 

With great effort, I saw the dying girl widen her smile just a touch. She still recognized them. The flicker of life in her eyes was fading fast, but still, she knew her twin was there. 

“Save her!” The little one begged, terrified eyes looking up at me, even as the girl sagged in what seemed to be acceptance.

“You guys are supposed to be able to do anything, right? Then save her! Please, she’s my sister, I need her!” They screamed, the agony in their voice hurting more than the spreading crack in my core. Tears streamed down their cheeks, their hands clung to their sister’s and my vines. 

“Help!” It cried. I was truly doing everything I could, but with my grafts, all I was capable of was relieving her pain. There was nothing I could do. There simply wasn’t any more time-

Except . Perhaps there was . 

“I promise you I will try my best.” I spoke simply, merely tightening my vines around them both and situating them in a way they wouldn’t be jostled, and took off for my shuttle with renewed urgency. There was a way. Her body was finished, but maybe, her mind could still be saved. I prayed to the Everbloom that I could be fast enough. 

Chapter Text

I wasn’t lying when I said her hand would never warm mine again. Not in the same way. But as I sit and feel my sister’s synthetic hand carding through my hair, I can accept that. The memory plagues me, but its far too important to erase. Instead, my sister and my Mistress comfort me, and remind me that that terrible day ended happily. 

“You know, Mistress, I’ll always be grateful that you saved me. But far more important to me was that you made my body’s final moments peaceful and comforting. Had I died then, I would’ve still known a taste of the love an Affini can give, and it would’ve been enough.” She whispers, and I squeeze her other hand tightly. 

Vines coil around the both of us, golden eyes look down upon us, and I know without a doubt that we are safe. The Accord failed to take my sister from me, and now no one would ever separate us again. Its taken years, and may take more still, for us all to heal. Mistress and I for our guilt, my sister for her grief over losing her Terran form after so long of making her skin feel like home. But we will.