Unlikely Friend

AN: This fic was inspired off of an AU created by Ophelia the Painter (an online artist who has drawn a great deal of fanart for Repo, Devil's Carnival, and AMS). The AU she created is called Sister Sweet and, as the name entails, is a sequel AU where Amber and Shilo develop a sisterly relationship. I've always liked the idea and now I've kind of written a fragment of that story out. So thank you, Ophelia!

Amber Sweet sat in her office, shuffling over more boring, stupid papers. This wasn't what she had expected when she took over GeneCo. She had expected more glamour. Oh, true she'd thrown a few good parties already, but being a leader was harder than she thought. There was so much work and thought involved. Every paper had to be organized in order for every cog in the machinery of GeneCo to run smoothly. What made things harder was the fact that the papers weren't exactly simple agreements with "yes" or "no" replies. Some were long treaties, some were complaints, some were budgeting numbers, some were lists of organ inventory. There was just so much to sift through and so many people to attend. She had meetings and interviews and conferences and speeches almost every hour. It was running her ragged!

But despite the strain of being the most powerful being on Earth, Amber never complained. As tired and mad as she was, she never thought about surrendering GeneCo. Not even once did she imagine quitting. She never canceled or missed a single meeting or interview no matter how much she wanted to. This dedication and determination surprised her. Of course, Amber always knew she was sharper than other people believed, but she never realized she'd be this determined to be a better leader than her father. Her father. That cruel, greedy, selfish man who was never happy with her, yet never denied her a thing. He had made it look so easy. Even when he was complaining to her about all the work he did, there was just something in his genes that screamed that he was a leader. Amber wasn't sure she had that gene but boy did she want it. It would be really useful right now. Her father was almost lucky, he didn't have to clean up all these messes anymore... Amber rubbed her head wearily. Another problem with her current lifestyle was that she was forced to think. This meant she had to stay away from the sweet relief of Zydrate.

A ding echoed Amber's tiny office suddenly and she looked up to see her two guards and a pitiful lump between them. Great, more problems.

"What is this?" Amber half-snapped, half-groaned. Now she understood why Daddy was always so mad when her own guards used to carry her home after she got her hit of the glow. The guards dumped the lump on the floor and the pathetic thing rose up. So it was a human... it was... a girl? And Amber recognized the girl...

"Shilo?" Amber asked. Though Amber had only seen the girl a few times, her face had been plastered everywhere since the Genetic Opera. Amber knew Shilo as the girl who almost stole GeneCo from her. As this memory popped into her head, surprise turned into anger. "Why are you here?!" she snarled.

"I'm-," Shilo broke off, coughing feebly. Blood dripped from her lips as she coughed. Amber cringed slightly at the sight and deduced that the guards must've hurt her somehow.

"Give her a chair and water," Amber ordered the guards. They obeyed silently, one of them shoving Shilo into a chair while the other pulled went to fetch a drink from one of the lower floors. She returned in about a minute and Shilo gasped in relief as she took a sip of the cold drink. Once she had finished every last drop, Shilo finally met Amber's eyes and answered the question Amber had posed to her.

"I'm here because I want to apologize," she said, and Amber's world was turned upside down again.

Amber and Shilo spent the next hour talking and Amber learned a lot from that talk. Contrary to what she had believed, Amber realized that Shilo never meant to take GeneCo, or Rotti's love. Everything Rotti did to Shilo he did of his own choice. Shilo hadn't wanted any of it really. All she had wanted was a chance to see the world. Rotti had used her just the way he used everyone. Amber frowned as Shilo continued to explain how Amber's beliefs about Shilo were all due to misconceptions.