Can A Clone Feel? (A She-Ra Fanfiction) (On Hiatus)

A House Of Gold, And A Cell Of Metal

Mercy's POV

We were walking through a dark hall somewhere in the Fright Zone.  I was still a little shaken from having the nose of the gun in my mouth.  I honestly had no idea what had possessed me to do such a thing.   Apparently, the same question was on everybody's minds.

"Mercy, what the cheese nips is wrong with you?" Senna hissed, grabbing my arm with her still cuffed hands.

"Eighteen years in my own body and I still don't know."

We walked for a little longer, watching the ghost like woman, Shadow Weaver, as she led us past branching hallways with people walking through them.  I was horrified to see children running about as well, wearing what must have been the under uniform for the Horde.  Red shirts, grey pants, even little red boots.

Nieta was looking at the back at Shadow Weaver's head, trying to figure her out.  She carried no weapon and didn't bother to cuff me again.  I think some part of her knew that I wouldn't leave Senna or Nieta, even if it meant the Horde would never touch me again.  I felt so incredibly naked in the open like this, surrounded by all this metal and cement.

"This way." Shadow Weaver called softly in her silky voice.

We turned right down a hall, farther for the chatter of children.  The place was like a maze; weaving and twisting in routes that made no sense to me.  There were small circular lights placed about six feet apart, lining the hall.  There was mildew on the ceiling and rust on the metal walls, gathered around screws and vents.  I tried to memorize the path we had taken, but already found myself lost as Shadow Weaver drew us farther away from the walkway where we had entered.

We walked into a hub like room, with a wraparound control console.  There were three separate guards in the room, all of which turned to look at Shadow Weaver.

"Open containment cells 110, 111 and 112." Shadow Weaver ordered calmly; hands folded in front of her.

"I thought Lord Hordak wanted to see Prisoners from the cliffs personally." One of the guards said a little loudly.

The thick tendrils of Shadow expanded around her, growing to create a dark mass, the only thing visible was her shining white eyes, pulsing with a controlled anger.  The smell of fear rose up in the room, and I shrank back, grabbing Nieta's hand.  I did not know what we could do to protect each other from shadow.  It seemed impossible.

"Y-yes, Shadow Weaver; right away." A female guard stuttered and pressed a few buttons.

The room vibrated slightly under my feet and I looked around wildly as the shadows shrank back into Shadow Weaver's fold.  A door opened by the large console, and I stared out onto a thin platform.  It was four feet wide and seven feet long, and it was extended out over a gaping circular hole, sides lined with thin walkways, and hundreds of cells, green glass walls pulsated lightly and only fifty of what appeared to be over a hundred contained a single prisoner.

We were guided by Shadow Weaver onto the walkway, and there we stood, waiting.  The platform jerked under us and I grabbed onto Senna who grabbed onto Nieta for balance at the shock of moving through the air by a strange platform.

The platform scooted out into the center of the circular gap and I took a deep breath, sucking it in past my teeth.   The vertigo was welling up in my body, my black eyes bulging out of my head as we moved up a few levels.  I was shaking as the Platform moved forward and connected to a thin walkway on the boarder of a level of cells.   The cell we stood before was identical to the others, tinted green.

I jerked back a little as what had originally appeared to be tinted glass, was an electric field of sorts; I could feel the energy off it.  The two cells on the left opened as well, and Shadow Weaver stepped onto the walkway and gestured for us to follow her.

We didn't have anywhere to go, and it was clear this was far from the plasma guns and pistols carried by guards.  This was the safest place we could be in the Fright Zone.  So, with absolutely no plan, I stepped onto the platform and walked on the first cell.

I closed my eyes as I heard the electric shield close behind me with a crackle and I tried to picture myself at home... Home.  I remember the small dug out with the five wooden steps down to the dark wood of the oval door, a small mat on the ground, dirty and old.  I remembered the front room, the dirt wall was packed behind wooden planks, and the floor was covered in stones, pressed smoothly into the ground.

There was a small brick fireplace crackled with a small fire.  There was a wicker couch and table set in front of the fire, and a small cupboard for coats and hat on the opposite wall.  There was an arch doorway that lead into a kitchen with a step lower than the living room, mostly brick walls, with wood panels.  There was a pantry and cupboards, a counter, and a small dining table with four chairs, set for dinner.  To the left was two wooden steps up into a thin hall were two bedrooms branched off.

My room was small with a bed on wooden legs, draped with fur blankets, set next to a bookshelf full of old, leather bound books.

I remembered the smell of the old pages as I would read them, each flick of a page sending the sent in a wave to my nose.

"Mercy?" I heard Nieta's muffled voice from next door, and I scurried to the wall pressing up to the corner of the electric shield and the metal wall.   I could See Nieta's wavering Shadow on the ground of the walkway in front of us.

"Nieta? I'm here. Are you okay?" I asked.

I felt like this was all my fault, even though I was positive it wasn't. It wasn't like I planned to go to the hot springs and get captured by the Horde.  I wasn't to blame here, none of us were, but I couldn't help but feel guilty.

"I'm fine. Just a little nervous is all." She admitted, and I could feel her nerves through the wall. "You feel scared too." She took note and I nodded, before remembering that she couldn't see me.

"Yeah. I am." I admitted and pressed further into the wall. "Senna?" I called a little louder.

"Present and accounted for." Senna said with an air of sarcasm. "What are we supposed to do? Sit here and waste away?" Senna asked, irritated.

I didn't know what we were supposed to do, so I watched as Shadow Weaver walked off the moving platform and into the hub, leaving us behind.   I felt fear and anger mix in my chest, the reaction caused me to spin around and smash my back into the electric wall.  It crackled but didn't shock me, instead a wave of heat rippled through the screen at my touch.  I banged back again, throwing my power into my shoulders, grunting as I repeated this a few times.

I this this was pointless, but it helped the anger that boiled in my blood.  I could hear Nieta running to the back wall and charging the screen with a cry of rage.  Senna snapping and shouting as she kicked at her over door.

With a final throw of my shoulders, I had sunk down, panting. "This is useless." I choked. "We might as well die here."

I could feel Nieta and Senna sit down as well, and I laid down, with my body curled up in a ball, back pressed to the shield.

"She asked me 'son,

When I grow old,

Will you buy me

A house of gold?

And when your father turns to stone,

Will you take care of me?'"

Senna sang softly and I closed my eyes, thinking back to the time we had sang that song in the springs when we were younger.

"I will make you

Queen of everything

You see.

I'll put you on the map

I'll cure you of disease."

Nieta's voice bled into the song and I belt my lungs will with air as I waited for the next verse to join in.

"Let's say we up and left this town,

And turned our future upside down.

We'll make pretend

That you and me

Lived ever after happily..."