Orpheus | Installment Fourteen – Shattering

“Orpheus hesitated beside the black river.
With so much to look forward to he looked back.
We think he sang then, but the song is lost.
At least he had seen once more the beloved back.
I say the song went this way: O prolong
Now the sorrow if that is all there is to prolong.”

– “There is a gold light in certain old paintings”, by Donald Justice, 2004

Shattering

“It was a lie.”
― G.S. Jennsen, Abysm

His original was a kind-hearted, honest man. A guy who had always considered compassion, generosity, graciousness as primary assets in his life, no matter what. He had always tried so hard to see the best in others and, most of the times, he had succeeded, despite being constantly defecated on. Heroic dude. But those were different times.

Mike Jackson felt those same formidable characteristics tickle his spirit, but it was not his intention to let them emerge and flourish. He realized that it was way easier to see the full picture and the full scope of Michael Jackson’s actions, in retrospect. Their consequences. Although his visions and memories made him feel like he had somehow lived Michael’s life, Mike had also observed how it had unraveled from the beginning to the end. And the end had not been pretty at all, for the talented man with the golden heart.

As he strode straight to Sydney Bankmann’s office, oblivious of the people walking past him and staring at him, he tried as much as he could to build an invisible armor around himself. He didn’t want things to go down the way they had in the past. He and Lisa had not been able to avoid the betrayal and the manipulations, but he needed the outcome to be different this time. Both for the original Mister Jackson and himself.

His old soul and his new soul suddenly were inhabiting the same body.

Leaving Lisa in that bed had been torture. Yet something had been nagging at him – a feeling that he could not pinpoint telling him to keep her safe, to not drag her into this. She had to stay in a place where she could be protected. And that was what Mike had asked Akira, on his way out and up the levels. To keep Lisa safe and sheltered until his return.

The sliding doors opened even before Mike could announce his visit. Sydney’s personal assistant was not at her desk. It was a regular Friday morning, and it was supposed to be his day off. He shouldn’t have been there, and he knew that Sydney would be wondering. Or maybe not.

He found her in her office, standing by the huge window facing the skyline. She wore a white power suit that enhanced her alien appearance. She was a spot of color against the backdrop of a gloomy sky, where clouds swirled, grey mixing with light blue and an odd shade of pink.

Mike closed the door behind his back and Sydney turned. She saw him and smiled, tilting her head to a side.

“Good morning, Mike. Is everything OK?”

Her voice sounded perfectly calm, collected. The way Mike had always known it. But something moved in her eyes. It was a glimpse, a flash of deeply rooted emotion that was so unlike her. It was gone before he could even decipher it.

The shutters went down and he almost gazed at his own reflection in her eyes. Eyes that were back to being professional, collected, dead. But he was quick, and his disposition was too prone to being alert for him not to notice. He saw it and he knew. He knew that his gut feeling had been correct. Out of the periphery of his mind, he wondered if it was all his doing or something his original, Michael, had brought him and influenced him with. It didn’t really matter.

“It will be.”

He scanned her face and, despite her chill attitude, he couldn’t see any nefarious sociopath. How had this woman gone from pole to pole? Mike had seen, first-hand, her humanitarian work. The money she donated to charities. The good deeds. The kindness and thoughtfulness when it came to her employees, to her family members. She didn’t look like a mustache-twirling villain, and yet his alarm system kept going off. Alert. Danger. The predator was right in front of him but didn’t look like one.

Be careful, Mike.

He heard those words in that other man’s voice. Or maybe it was his own. They were the same, after all. His head had started to hurt again and he rubbed the nape of his neck. All the while, Sydney’s hand came up and fixed her wireless earpiece. A device she only rarely wore. Her bright, almost white irises were tethered to his. She was waiting for his next move.

“It will be…” Sydney repeated, and a melancholic smile graced her perfect face. “Well, wonderful. And how can I help you with that? I guess you’re here to ask me something. Or to tell me something. Either way, go ahead.”

“Sydney… There’s no point in circumventing the subject. I know what you did… to Lisa and me.”

She narrowed her eyes, looking honestly surprised by his words.

“What did I do to you and Miss Presley, Mike?”

Of course, she caught him off guard. What should he say? You created us? You manipulated us? You lied to us? You built a fake life for us?

“If anything, I tried my best to facilitate your relationship. I supported you. I gave you two the time to be together and get to know each other. I protected you. Even when you misbehaved here at the company… or at my party. And you know why I did it? Because I like you both, and what I’ve always wanted for you was to be happy.” She cocked her head to a side. “Are you happy with her, Mike?”

He hesitated, not wanting to reveal much about his feelings. Sydney touched her earpiece again, but her eyes didn’t leave him.

“You say you want us to be happy. Then why? Why, Sydney?” His voice came out exhausted, disillusioned. All of a sudden, he felt deflated. And part of his fury was washed away by an unexpected, inexplicable sadness. “Why did you do this to us?”

Sydney kept staring at him and, for a while, there was only complete silence. The smirk disappeared from her face and she frowned slightly. As if something, in his voice, had tilted her off her usually unmovable axis. Mike understood that his question made no sense in her mind. Her perspective had always been different.

She took a deep breath and rested her hands on the desk, palms flat. For a second, Mike glanced down at her perfectly manicured nails. And missed Lisa’s hands touching him to the extent that bordered on physical pain.

“It’s easy to believe that someone is an evildoer…” Her voice had dropped and now sounded way more vulnerable than he had ever heard it. “Way easier than trying to understand what brought that person there.”

“That’s what I am here for. To understand.”

Her eyebrows sprung up.

“Oh, are you, really? You’re not here for retribution? Revenge?”

Mike blinked.

“Revenge?” He grimaced. “I am not like you.”

She closed her eyes and scoffed, shaking her head.

“You know better, Mike. Please, spare me the contempt and stop pretending that this whole matter is dull, predictable or even incomprehensible. It isn’t. You, of all people, should know well that things are never black or white…”

“This whole matter? Tell me then. What is this whole matter about?”

It was Mike’s turn to repeat her words. He wanted her to say it out loud. Either that he was wrong or that she was the maker of it all. And he wouldn’t leave the room without an answer.

“This whole matter, yes.” Her body relaxing, Sydney sat and leaned back into her plush chair. “Me giving you and Lisa what otherwise you would have never had. You ask me why I did it, when you know very well that the alternative would have been non-existence. Death. Oblivion.”

“Say it, Sydney. Be honest with me. Tell me who we are. What we are. Tell me what you did to us.”

Mike’s chest constricted. Was he ready to hear the words? Would he ever be prepared to see the truth set in stone? That it was a lie? The life they thought they had lived up until that point, nothing but utter deception?

Sydney’s eyes kept studying him. There was remoteness in them, but also serene awareness. And complete peace of mind. She was not in the least nervous. She was not in the least sorry.

“Once again, what do you want me to say? I gave you both the afterlife in this life. But you don’t get it, do you? Or maybe you are just choosing not to.”

“You’re asking me to not see this as the work of a self-centered, egotistical, narcissistic sociopath?”

His fist closed in an automatic motion. Fury started to bubble, like lava in a volcano that had been dormant for a very long time.

“Do I look like one? Or do I look like someone who tried to do well by you? Am I not treating you with kindness and generosity? Am I not respectful of your desires, dreams, requests? Last time I checked, neither you nor Lisa are shackled in a lab, forced to undergo experiments, or lied to. Actually, I did my best to give you the perfect inception for a wonderful future. The one you couldn’t have. The one you would have never had without me.”

“But we were made in a lab, weren’t we?” It didn’t matter how soft Sydney’s words sounded. His internal alarm kept going off.

Sydney clasped her hands on the desk.

“How many kids are created in a lab, nowadays? Pretty much all of them.”

“We are not the result of love. It’s different.”

“Oh, you’re not, Mike? Are you sure about that?”

He bit his lip and shook his head. He didn’t like how he felt. This was not going the way he had planned. She was confusing him. The tapestry of her words was wrapping itself around his mind. He sat across the desk.

“Your knowledge of English is extraordinary, Sydney. But unfortunately for you, I’m an ordinary man. So you gotta speak up and be very clear. That’s all I’m asking. To be clear with me about our origin, and then let us go.”

“You’re all but ordinary, Mike. And as far as letting you go, what do you mean exactly? I don’t recall you and your woman being nothing but free to go wherever you wanted. Has that changed?”

“Yes, it has. Neither Lisa and I are allowed to descend to Level 0 anymore. Did you revoke our passes? Are there other restrictions we’re not aware of, yet?”

Sydney took a deep breath. Then her lips thinned. He was finally getting to her. Or was he?

“You confuse protection with control. I got a call from a precinct. It seems like you and Lisa were caught partaking in some unauthorized protest event on Level 1. At the very least, you were going to get fined for that… if not worse. I convinced the officer to let that slide, but I had to take action to protect you and my company. I had no other choice. I can’t risk any of my employees to have a bad record. It would be awful for my firm. So it was either about containing your… enthusiastic activity, or firing you both.” Her brow furrowed and she looked at him with concerned eyes. “Did you want me to fire you both, Mike? How can you and Lisa start planning your future if your résumés are tarnished? If you don’t have a job?”

“Well, that’s a moot point anyway, since we’re talking about non-existent stuff, right? There’s no résumé because there are no degrees. No real job experiences. There was never any school. Our families are bullshit, too, right Sydney? It’s all a lie.”

“Not for the rest of the world.”

He slammed his hand on the desk.

“It is, for us!”

The growl he emitted sounded foreign even to him. Sydney didn’t even flinch. Mike stared at her and, almost distractedly, realized that he was sweating.

“Are Lisa and I clones? Clones that you created?”

“You are individuals.”

“Are we clones?” He raised his voice. “Are we, Sydney?”

Sydney’s eyes narrowed for a moment, then she rose from her chair. Once again, she turned her back to him and stared at the skyline outside.

“You think this is all some grand conspiracy, Mike… But it’s not. This is not one of those old movies you like to watch. Things are way simpler in real life. Basic characters with basic motivations. Not necessarily the wrong ones.”

She paused, letting the words sizzle.

“You want to know if you and Lisa are clones. And I know you. You’re a straightforward man. You ask a question and want a clear answer. Yes or no. As if life were so simple. So, I’m going to tell you what you are here for. Yes, you and Lisa are the result of a specific project, my project, called Orpheus.”

“Orpheus?” Mike wanted to stand up, but his legs felt suddenly rigid. He was frozen in place.

Sydney clasped her hands behind her back. Everything, in her stance, exuded complete placidity, composure, patience even. As if a part of her was aware that this moment would come sooner or later. As if she had replayed those words in her mind thousands of times.

“Yes, Orpheus. In ancient Greek myth, he was considered one of the chief poets and musicians, and a symbol of the art in music. By singing and playing, he could charm the wild beasts, coax trees and rocks into dance and even arrest the course of rivers. He was also considered a pioneer of civilization… Does that ring any bells, Mike?” She paused but did not move. “I’m sure it does…”

Mike did not reply.

“When his wife Eurydice was killed, Orpheus went to the underworld to bring her back, and managed to charm the infernal deities with his music to the point that they allowed Eurydice to return to the world of the living. Orpheus was warned against looking back at her on their way out of the underworld. But he did it anyway, and lost his beloved wife once again. After that event, he lost all interest in women. But they didn’t lose interest in him and, one day, they attacked him and tore him to pieces… killing him. His head floated down the river, still singing about his lost love.”

She turned and stared at him.

“The indestructibility of Orpheus’ music symbolizes the willpower needed to achieve significant results in life, but also shows how fateful his love for his wife was.”

Mike just stared back at her. Was she out of her fucking mind? Had he misread this woman completely?

“It’s poetic, don’t you think? And what’s even more poetic is that both Michael and Lisa Marie have been each other’s Orpheus at some point.” Sydney smiled softly. “I know you know about them, Mike.”

“Yes, I do know about our originals.”

“Well good, then. You know more than enough. Such a beautiful, ill-fated couple. Dead and gone for such a long time. And yet here you are again now. Both of you, because of me. Because I had the means, the inspiration and the discipline of giving you that second chance you never had, back then. So, Mike… Am I that evil? Because I wanted to give some poetic justice to two people who haven’t had the chance to reunite?”

Michael’s eyes narrowed.

“So you’re telling me that whatever you did, you did it for us. You created us, built fake lives for us, created the conditions for us to meet again, only to give us the chance to reunite in another life? That’s it?”

“That’s it.” Sydney shrugged her shoulders. “And I wanted to be the spectator, I must admit that. I don’t know about the afterlife or if your originals ever reconnected there. I know about this life – this level of existence is the only one I can do something about. And I did. Yes, I wanted to witness the beauty of it all. I didn’t make you fall in love again. You did that on your own. I just observed you. Does that make me a villain in your eyes? A monster?”

“In my eyes you look like someone playing God, Sydney.”

She looked utterly amused for a moment.

“God? There’s no God, Mike.”

He lowered his gaze. Then he looked up again. The emotional tiredness he felt could no longer be ignored. And he had a feeling they were running in circles. He had felt sincere affection for Sydney, but now he thought he didn’t know her at all. More than anything else, he realized that he had overestimated her, at least in her ability to emphasize with Lisa and himself.

“OK, then. I am not entirely sure I understand your motivations, and please forgive me if I don’t feel like thanking you… at least not right now. I’m still kinda having a hard time making sense of all of this. But anyway… we won’t be animals on display in your zoo. We’re not giant pandas. Lisa and I wanna live our lives without being under anyone’s microscope. And that’s what we’re going to do.”

“Mike, Orpheus is an evolving project. There’s a reason why you and Lisa are the way you are. What I created is the best version of you both, only limiting or even changing the traumas your originals were subjected to. I did it to give you the best resources and tools to be together. To be happy. You must understand that creating a new life, a profession, memories for you both was necessary. Otherwise you would have been nothing but empty boxes. At the same time, no cloning process can replicate the memories and feelings of who you once were. Those are still locked in a vault… at least as far as science knows.”

Right. Only, they were not locked in a vault at all. Did Sydney know that Mike and Lisa experienced memories that did not belong to them, but to their originals? Did she know about their visions? Mike scanned her face, looking for a sign. Something, anything, to make him understand. But Sydney’s face showed nothing. If she knew, she wasn’t saying anything about it. And if she didn’t know, she looked utterly believable in her lack of awareness.

Mike decided to take the bull by the horns.

“But we do know. We have those memories and those feelings. Lisa has them, I have them, and ours looks like an ongoing process of confluence between who we were and who we are. That’s why we wanna access Level 0. We gotta go back to the black market. We need to finish our research on our own terms. What we have is ours, not yours. Not anybody else’s. You gotta understand that. We are not pets. We are not property. We are people.” At this point, it was clear that Sydney would only reveal the information she found fitting. Not a word less, not a word more. “I want you to validate our AA passes once again.”

“I can’t do that, I’m sorry.”

“And I want you to stop purchasing items belonging to us.”

Those items didn’t belong to him and Lisa at all, really. Mike realized that he had said the words without even realizing it. Or maybe it had been Michael speaking. Something had started hammering his skull from the inside. The beginning of a neuronal short-circuit perhaps. Who the hell knew, at this point.

Sydney’s back stiffened.

This time he had caught her off guard. In all honesty, Mike’s had only been an educated guess, but it was clear that he had hit the bullseye.

“And who’s going to buy those items?” That smirk, again. Only colder. Devoid of her usual warmth. And her voice, subtly resounding with a slightly mocking tone. “You? Are you a collector now? Is that it?”

Mike rose from the chair. He placed his hands on the desk and leaned forward just as she stepped closer.

“See? It all comes down to money in the end. And control. You say we’re free. You say you did it for us, because you want us to be happy. But that’s how you exert your power… by choosing what we can see or discover, how, and when.” His eyes stared into space. “I had come here hoping to find some genuine understanding… I even hoped you could help us leave this place. But I realize now, it’s pointless, Sydney. What you did was not selfless. You just want us to be the actors in your personal movie… otherwise, you would have been honest with us from the start. And you would be clear now.”

He widened his stance.

“Well, I ain’t having it. I quit.” He extracted his Company Pass from the back pocket of his jeans and carefully placed it on the table. “I’m leaving, and Lisa’s coming with me. Thanks for the convo… it’s been… revealing.”

Sydney’s face didn’t betray any emotion. She took his pass from the desk and observed it pensively for a moment. Then she opened a drawer and let the card fall into it.

“OK, I understand. But before you leave, Mike… let me give you something.” As her left hand took something from the drawer, her right hand came up and touched her earpiece. “I don’t think you’d ever imagine you would see these again…”

She stretched out her hand and opened her fist. Shining over the pale backdrop of the milky white skin of her palm, there were two rings. Mike – or Michael – recognized them instantly. They were their wedding rings. Michael’s and Lisa’s.

Mike swallowed, his hands closing into fists. His fingertips were itching.

Sydney tilted her chin.

“Consider them my parting gift for you and Lisa. They come from the Purgatory, but in a way they belong to you. Take them. They are yours.”

Something, in his mind, told him to just leave. To exit the office, the floor, the building, the level, and to never come back. It was a wise voice, but too low and murky to be comprehensible. What screamed out loud, in his mind and his heart, said something different.

“Lisa…”

“Michael?”

He cleared his throat and went down on his knee in front of her. He glanced up at her – and her blue eyes were huge, sparkling in the orange reflection of the fireplace, in the library. At his ranch. His throat felt parched and he had to muster all his self-control not to shake from head to toe. But hey – he planned to do this only once in his life. Only with this woman.

“Lisa Marie…”

He held out the velvet box and opened it. Her hand came up and covered her mouth. The diamond shone in the dim light, its many faces reflecting the soft blaze of the fire, their desires and their hope.

“Would you marry me?”

Lisa closed her eyes for a moment and the shadow of a smile appeared on her perfect lips. When she opened her eyes again, there was nothing but peace in them.

“Yes.”

That was how all had begun. It had all started with that diamond ring.

Mike’s hand moved on its own volition, reaching out and touching the rings on Sydney’s palm. They felt cold to the touch and his fingertips skimmed over the smooth platinum surface. It felt like finding something that he had thought lost forever a very long time ago. Those rings were his. Those rings were theirs – they belonged to him and Lisa. He had all the right.

His touch compensated for the lack of sight. His eyes were focused on the past, on the massive flashback he was now experiencing. Mike was split in two, his body was divided and doubled; one part was in the present, half of him was in a time that was long gone. The part in the present was at Electron Enterprises, the other in a library in California. The fracture too tidy and neat for him to realize the danger. Or maybe he wouldn’t have realized anyway.

He short-circuited. His brain, overloaded with too much information and too many stimuli, just shut down. Like an overcharged battery that was way over its maximum voltage limit. A sudden seizure followed and he didn’t even realize his legs could no longer sustain his weight. They simply gave in and he fell down onto his knees, the rings still in his hand. His eyes rolled back and his whole body started to shake. As he collapsed to the floor, convulsing, not emitting any sound, the hand holding the rings closed in a fist. He didn’t let go.

Sydney just stared down at his shivering form. Mike looked like he had been plugged into an electrical socket. Her eyes, albeit distant, showed a trace of what looked like pity.

She touched her earpiece.

[Jewel++: The surge of electrical activity in the subject’s brain is still in process, boss.]

Sydney’s lips tightened.

“Is he dying?”

Her eyes stayed fixed on Mike, still convulsing on the floor.

[Jewel++: The electrical activity is caused by complex chemical changes that occur in nerve cells. Currently the subject is alive, but heavily disabled. Borealis can stop the seizure right now and keep the subject unconscious.]

“Stop the process.” Sydney blinked and winced, but couldn’t look away. “Stop the seizure. He’s hurting.”

[Jewel++: Order recorded, boss.]

The spasms shaking Mike’s body diminished, then subsided. Pale and sweaty, he just stood there on the floor, like a ragdoll. Still and motionless.

Sydney inhaled and exhaled slowly.

“Keep his vital signs monitored… We don’t want him to be permanently damaged… He is way too precious.”

Her voice sounded tired.

[Jewel++: Monitoring in process. Assessing essential body functions. Pulse rate, temperature, respiration rate, blood pressure. The subject is stable.]

“Is he in pain?”

[Jewel++: Question unclear, boss. Please, clarify: physical, emotional or mental pain?]

Sydney shook her head and closed her eyes.

“Forget about it. In five minutes, send a call to my PA and Maddix Hoover. We need Mister Jackson to be transferred to our private clinic on floor 29 ASAP.”

[Jewel++: Order recorded.]

She let herself fall in the chair and leaned back, her head resting in the soft white velvet. She needed a minute. Her eyes closed, and for the first time she felt that Project Orpheus was getting out of hand. She had never wanted to reach this point. This had never been her intention – but he had forced her hand.

He wanted to leave! With Lisa. Both of them, gone. And Sydney knew Mike… Whatever he said he would do, he did. He had inherited that from his original – among many other things.

It was never her intention to resort to this. And it hadn’t been planned at all – at least until he had told her, point blank, that he was quitting. She knew that a controlled seizure was the last option, and at one point it had just become inevitable. Free will was a great thing only as long as Sydney was still involved. But no, Mike – Michael – didn’t like to be told what to do. He was stubborn, relentless like a mule. He wanted things to go his own way. No matter the cost. He had forced her hand. There had been no other way. It didn’t matter how sorry she was – her decision to involve Borealis had been the right one.

Why, oh why, clones weren’t as manageable as she had first thought? These two, they were rebellious beings. She had significantly underestimated the scope of their individuality, their drive, their willpower, their desire to be free from all constraints. And every single time the events had suggested that things weren’t going the way she had planned, she had ignored her gut feelings, cutting both Mike and Lisa some slack.

Big mistake. And now… well, now, it was time for more extreme measures.

Sydney had tried so hard to show him the beauty of what she had done for him and Lisa. But he just couldn’t see the big picture. And he had dared to threaten her – making clear that she would end up losing them both. Well, fat chance. Sydney wanted Lisa and Mike, together, but given the circumstances she was ready to sacrifice at least one of them. Her least favorite one. Such a shame. She loved them both so much…

Sydney knew that she had been arrogant. She had thought of herself as someone way above some basic, petty, human feelings like jealousy, like possessiveness. She was sure to be the perfect, godlike creature for the job. Giving life without wanting much in return. She had thought she had enough emotional detachment to do the right thing. Now she knew that she was wrong.

As she tried hard to compose herself, she started to wonder. How long had it taken her to cross the line? It was a process that involved escalation. Little by little, the transformation had happened. She guessed the trigger had been intruding Mike’s and Lisa’s sex life.

She should have been more careful. That had been a huge red flag, and at first she had tried to resist the urge. But then she had capitulated. And after that first time, after that first powerful hit, she had done it again, and again, and again. At one point, she had realized she was no longer the distant bystander, but someone who felt directly involved in the couple. She wanted, needed, craved to be a part of who they were. Their intensity had pushed her to the limit, and something inside of her, something she had never known existed, had snapped.

Plus, who did Mike think he was? A hero? Like in his previous life? Times had changed and dichotomies didn’t exist anymore. The lines were blurred. Mike Jackson was not a hero in Sydney’s opinion: if anything, he was something of a deviant, because he was bulldozing all over the place, without any consideration for other people’s feelings. He was going against the conformity and comfort of the perfect plan she had so neatly drawn for him. How dared he not be passive enough to understand that? How dared he speak when everyone was requested to be quiet, to stand when everyone was asked to sit, to fight when he could just accept his fate, instead?

The seeds she had planted were good seeds. Mike didn’t need to extirpate them. Why care about the seeds when you could smell the flowers? Sydney was well aware that she had manipulated the whole situation, but she did not believe it was necessarily bad. In fact, being subtly manipulative was all about psychology, about getting someone to do what she wanted without them realizing it.

Even the rings had worked that way. Mike had felt compelled to take them and they had been the medium to make him stop on his way out and give Borealis the time to act. To physically prevent him from leaving. By giving him a seizure.

That last part, Sydney didn’t like. But she also knew that Mike had given her no other choice.

Gaslighting had worked quite well, too. She hadn’t needed to do much – Mike had done it all himself. Her subtle denial in answering his questions, her constant presenting another point of observation for the things he was saying, her misdirection, contradictions, and – yes – at times blatant lies had made him feel unsure of his opinion and position. And that was on him. In fact, Mike’s reaction had only shown that Sydney was right. Had he been utterly unmovable in his stance, no manipulation would have ever sufficed.

She opened her eyes and watched Mike once again. He was still lying on the neatly polished white floor. He was still unconscious.

“I love you and Lisa so much… More than you’ll ever know. But I can’t afford to lose you both.”

She sounded as if she was speaking to herself.

Mike had probably thought that Sydney liked to collect memorabilia coming from the old times.

That wasn’t an incorrect statement in itself. She was, indeed, a collector. She had been buying memorabilia regarding the Jackson and Presley families for decades now. But what Mike hadn’t fully understood was that Sydney didn’t merely collect items. She had wanted to collect the most precious prize ever conceived: the people she felt she loved. Michael and Lisa.

Sydney was the ultimate collector.

She still remembered the first time she saw a clone. She was just a little girl, around seven or eight years of age. At that time, Electron Enterprises was run by her father – a man she had loved and hated with equal intensity.

The first clone Sydney had ever seen was a lady whose appearance was so incredibly different from everything she had ever laid eyes on to become unforgettable. A scar in her mind. The lady had been the result of a private, customized project that had involved a lot of money and much time and commitment. His father had become obsessed with the outcome and had tried and tried again until the creation was perfect.

Her name was Marlene.

She was a blonde beauty with hooded eyes and a distant gaze. Exotic and ethereal, an alien-like form in a non-human world. She had been created because that man, the client, was obsessed with her. She was the clone of an actress from the past, a German diva that had made people dream when movies were still in black and white. That man, the client, wanted her no matter the cost. Back then, Sydney had thought that the primary motivation driving him was as simple as that.

As the years passed and her knowledge of the mechanisms that regulated her father’s secret business deals became clearer, she learned that many of those clones were the embodiment of obsessions and dreams, and that they often were replicas of people coming from the forsaken list.

Why? Because people loved what they couldn’t have.

Oh, she had studied the list in great detail. She knew that the more distant in time the original, the lower the chance to create a clone. Biosamples were often missing or, if they still existed, they were not in good condition and not even the advanced technologies that made Electron Enterprises such a pillar in the body parts replication industry could suffice. But when it came to people who had lived in the 1900s and 2000s… well, in those cases, with the right amount of money you could have access to some viable organic samples, and cloning was indeed possible.

At one point, Sydney had started to recognize the special clones that she saw at the company. All of them.

Marilyn. James. Grace. Marlon. Martin Luther. Greta. Audrey. Theda.

It would never take long. Her photographic memory and the nights she had spent studying the list – her father had a complete version of it, and unlimited access to digital files about all the names included – made every face click the moment she laid eyes on them.

Many of those clones were actors. Some were writers, or musicians. Others were politicians, philosophers or scientists. All of them had something in common: they had been banned because they stirred way too many unruly emotions in people. They had been banned because they were extraordinary in a world that needed to be dull and ordinary to survive.

Too bad the reasons for their recreation were always, always basic. Those wealthy clients always wanted the clones for themselves, and themselves alone. Those creatures were never made for the greater good, for the benefit of all humankind. Not once. They were animated objects with incepted memories, fake remembrances that made their new life more manageable, and they belonged to the clients. The clones were theirs to possess. Theirs to watch. Theirs to marry. Theirs to fuck.

So primitive. So elemental and selfish.

So disgusting.

Sydney had gotten to know the story of Michael and Lisa Marie while studying the forsaken list, and she had been fascinated by them. At that time she was nothing but a strong-willed and stubborn teenager, but she had understood right away that those two were no ordinary people. Oh, they had been so unlucky. Such a beautiful couple, such a doomed love story. They could have impacted the world so much, had they stayed together. They would have been the apex predators somehow, the ultimate power couple.

Sydney didn’t care about the motivations that had generated their separation. She was not that kind of person, she didn’t dabble in romance, fanciful stories or narratives. She had an analytical mind. She knew about love, but it was nothing but a theoretical feeling for her. A wild, incomprehensible emotion that she could barely tolerate. Her rational approach identified Lisa and Michael as the epitome of the quintessential Greek tragedy. She believed theirs was a story that didn’t deserve to be erased.

But what she believed had nothing to do with the reality of things and events. The forsaken list existed, it was real, and it worked perfectly. All the names included in it had successfully been canceled from the collective memory. It had taken a while, but in the end it had worked just fine.

She, of all people, should know, since her family was directly involved in the purge. For generations, the Bankmanns had actively contributed to the systematic eradication of the most influential humanists, revolutionary artists, writers, philosophers and scientists following the guidelines set by the authoritarian government that they supported. The one that still ruled the country.

Well, although Sydney respected her family and would never actively operate against her father’s wishes and instructions, she didn’t like his position. She didn’t like the concept that was the very foundation of the annihilation of so many brilliant minds. Because she, too, was a brilliant mind, and nothing felt worse than the idea of being nullified to create a more obtuse environment.

Then she had inherited her father’s money. She had inherited his company. She had inherited many of his clients and, for years, she had built her reputation – and her very personal project. Recreating those two people she secretly loved so much. Because Michael and Lisa were hers to clone and because they were special. She was a creator and they would be resurrected. And not because she wanted to possess them, but because she wanted them to live again and be free. She wanted them to be part of her world and era.

Her clones would be different from those her father had created throughout his career. They would have free will. They would not be living dolls.

Was that an act of rebellion?

No. She was merciful. She was magnanimous. Hers was a pure, selfless act of altruism. She was going to give that man and that woman the chance they had never had when they were alive the first time. She only wanted something in return: to be part of their lives.

Sydney was not a villain. In her mind, she was a benefactress.

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