The Copy: Project 863

Damn You

(Olivia's POV)

108, as Nelson called them, dragged Ben's body away. He's dead. Tears sprung to my eyes.

Ben..

Ben please answer.

GODDAMMIT BEN ANSWER ME!

please

Nelson, this is his fault. It's all his fault. He is going to pay. Why am I angry about this? Months ago you were being attacked by this guy, now you're mourning his death? What happened? He was the only one who could understand what I went through. It's so lonely here. How did I live like this? God. This is terrible. I hate this. Nelson, you're a dead man.

While I was still venting to myself, Deborah and Matt had been talking to Nelson. Something happened, I was in shock and therefore numb to everything. A phantom came up behind me, I punched him in the face, hard. He fell to the ground. I leaned my neck to the side, it cracked. I picked up the phantom's bat, it had nails pounded into it. Perfect. I was already imagining caving Nelson's face in. Matt grabbed my arm.

"Why are you stopping me?" I was surprised by my voice. It was gravelly from the serum, threatening from my anger, and cold from my numbness. 

"This isn't how we should end this." Is Matt asking for peace with this monster?

"Why not?" I looked Matt in the eyes,"He deserves it." No-one could find a flaw in my logic,"Nelson, you like games, I have one for you. It's called, Go the Hell Away and Die, I'd kill you right now, but for some reason, they don't want that. So this is how we play the game, you go away, and never bother us again. And if you don't," I didn't finish, I just waved the bat around.

He laughed, a real laugh. "Are you threatening me?'

"I suppose I am."

"I'm not afraid of a weakling like you," he insisted.

"Alright then, you can't say I didn't try." I stalked towards him. I didn't want to hurt innocent people, but if they were in the way, I didn't kill them, I got them out of my way. In my time when I was forced to go on 'errands' for Nelson, I at least learned something, how to kill.

I took a swing at him, he dodged and retaliated. I couldn't feel anything, whether that was the serum or the meaninglessness of life, who knows. I stuck to attacking from the right, his blind side. I caught him in the arm a few times.

"Olivia stop!" Woods cried,"You're not a murderer." 

Woods. I had Nelson on the ground, I could've killed him, but I stopped.

"Oh, but she is," he taunted from the ground. He knows I won't agree with him, so I can't kill him.

"Only to people who deserve it." But I was already coming back to my senses.

"Olivia," pleaded Sam,"Put it down, step away."

Dammit. 

"You don't deserve this," I said as I pointed at him with the bat."You don't deserve anything." I dropped the bat at his feet and walked into the studio, I went to Red Base warehouse. I need to do something, or make something. I heard footsteps running into the base, so desperate for pain are we? Woods ran in and wrapped his arms around me.

I didn't know what was happening, but I started to cry. Woods guided me to the stairs where we sat and I sobbed into his shoulder. I needed that. I felt something and that was good, sure, I felt shitty, but it was infinitely better than being numb.

"They left."

I looked up from his shoulder,"What?"

"They just left." Woods smiled a little bit,"I don't know what you did to them. But they left. You're thinking about something, what is it?"

I was already planning a funeral. "My grandmother was from California, her grandmother bought each of her grandkids plots of land in a cemetery. My Grandmother lived, died, and was buried in Canada. She left the plot to me. So I do have a random burial place lying around."

"You want to have a funeral," he reasoned.

"Yes."

"Okay," he agreed,"We'll have a funeral."

-------------------------------------------

(Deborah's POV)

Nobody spoke during the funeral. The headstone was made by Woodland, I had seen him work with concrete before. They had suggested putting 'B27' on it, like Wesley's. Olivia told them how he hated how people called him that.

Olivia and I were the last ones there. She cares about him. She knows she cares about him more than she should. They survived him together, that's why they were close. She reminds me of him.

"You remind me of him." I said to her.

"That's why I'm here," she said emotionless,"Is it not?"

Smart. Always thinking. "Tell me, do you find you talk to yourself in your head? Tossing an idea between two versions of yourself?" She turned to look at me.

"Yes." 

I was about to leave when she started talking again.

"I know why we were close, I was just a different version of him. But he felt like a brother to me. Do you know what was one of the first things I did when I got back from the S.P.I.R.E.? Once I was better and pretty much done with my recovery, I went back to find him. He was staying there. The entire time I was there, we just drank. He had some bottles of liquor lying around from when he tried ignoring Nelson by drinking. We finished off a bottle of cheap wine and about half a bottle of bourbon." She laughed. "We took turns exchanging stories of childhood. Dumb things our friends, siblings or cousins did. We found that we were usually the ones who were telling the group what was dangerous. And when our friends got hurt, we were there to tell them, 'told you so.' That might have been the worst wine I had ever ingested."

I realized I was smiling. I had forgotten how we were before Syntec. It's my turn for a story. "Did you know Ben was terrible at making coffee when he got here?" She turned her head,"Yeah. He was the best at making tea, if there was a medal for 'best tea-making', he would've one it. But he could not make a decent cup of coffee. He would just go to a coffee shop instead. But when he didn't have time to leave, he struggled and made the worst coffee known to mankind." I laughed. "I had to teach him how to make it. With how many late nights Nelson made all of us put in, coffee was a necessity. He got plenty of practice."

We sat down on a nearby bench and continued sharing stories for who knows how long. We only parted when Samantha called Olivia, asking if she was okay, and saying they should have a sleepover. She agreed. 

"I guess I should be going." She stood up, extending her hand for a handshake.

Instead I pulled her into a hug which she reciprocated. We went our separate ways in a pleasant fashion.