The helicopter touched down on the private airfield just as dawn broke over Los Angeles, painting the sprawling city in hues of gold and amber. Adelina's stomach churned with anxiety as she watched the familiar skyline emerge from the morning haze. Their paradise felt like a lifetime ago, though only hours had passed since Nathan's phone had shattered their perfect world.
"The safe house is twenty minutes from here," Nathan murmured, his hand finding hers as they disembarked. His touch was steady, grounding, but she could feel the tension radiating from him like heat from a furnace.
They'd barely spoken during the flight back, both lost in their own thoughts about what awaited them. The reports kept flooding in through Nathan's encrypted channels: more sightings, more confusion, more Adelinas wandering the streets like lost souls seeking their creator.
But one report stood out from the rest—a young woman who looked exactly like Adelina but spoke with a Russian accent, claiming to remember a life that had ended in a car crash in Moscow three years ago. Unlike the others who seemed confused and disoriented, this one had sought out law enforcement, demanding to speak with someone in charge about "illegal human experimentation."
She was being held at a discrete facility downtown, away from prying eyes and media attention. Nathan's contacts had managed to contain the situation, but barely.
"Her name is Adriana Volkov," Nathan explained as their car wound through the quiet morning streets. "According to the records we've been able to dig up, she died in a car accident in Moscow exactly three years ago. Single vehicle collision, no survivors. But here she is, walking around in your body, speaking perfect English alongside fluent Russian."
Adelina stared out the window at the city waking up around them. Somewhere out there, women with her face were wandering the streets, each carrying fragments of other lives, other memories, other souls. The thought made her feel sick.
"She remembers dying?" Adelina asked quietly.
"That's what she claims. Says she remembers the impact, the darkness, then waking up in a laboratory with doctors speaking English instead of Russian." Nathan's jaw tightened. "She's been conscious for six months, apparently. Living under the radar, trying to piece together what happened to her."
The safe house was an unremarkable building in a business district, the kind of place that blended seamlessly into the urban landscape. Nathan's security team had already swept it twice, but Adelina couldn't shake the feeling that they were walking into a trap.
Adriana Volkov was waiting in the main conference room, flanked by two of Nathan's most trusted security personnel. The moment Adelina saw her, she felt like she was looking into a funhouse mirror—familiar yet distorted.
The woman had Adelina's face, her bone structure, her coloring, but everything else was different. Her posture was more rigid, more guarded. Her eyes held a coldness that Adelina had never seen in her own reflection. Even her hair, though the same shade of dark brown, was cut shorter and styled differently.
"So," Adriana said in accented English, her voice carrying a slight rasp that sent chills down Adelina's spine, "you are the original."
"I... I think so," Adelina managed, settling into the chair across from her genetic twin. "You remember dying?"
Adriana's laugh was bitter. "I remember everything. The ice on the road, the way my car spun out of control, the moment the truck hit me. I remember the darkness, the cold, and then..." She gestured to herself. "This. Waking up in a body that looks like mine but isn't."
Nathan remained standing behind Adelina's chair, his presence both protective and possessive. She could feel his tension increasing with every word Adriana spoke.
"How long have you been aware?" Adelina asked gently.
"Six months, like I told your husband." Adriana's eyes flicked to Nathan with something that might have been amusement. "I spent the first month thinking I was going crazy. The second month trying to kill myself. The third month researching everything I could about human cloning and consciousness transfer."
Adelina's chest tightened. "You tried to...?"
"Of course I did. Wouldn't you?" Adriana leaned forward, her eyes intense. "I died, Adelina. I had a life, a family, a career as a pediatric surgeon in Moscow. And then I wake up in some stranger's body, in a strange country, with no memory of how I got there."
The pain in Adriana's voice was raw, genuine, and it made Adelina's heart ache. She recognized that particular brand of existential horror—the terror of not knowing if you were real, if your thoughts and feelings belonged to you or someone else.
"But you didn't succeed," Nathan said quietly. "In killing yourself."
Adriana's smile was sharp. "No. Because I realized something important. I might not be in my original body, but I am still me. My memories, my personality, my soul—if such a thing exists—they're still intact. I am Adriana Volkov, and I will not let whoever did this to us win by destroying what they couldn't."
Adelina felt a strange mix of admiration and fear looking at this woman who shared her face but possessed such fierce determination. In some ways, Adriana seemed stronger than she was—more certain of her identity, more willing to fight.
"What do you want from us?" Nathan asked, his voice carefully neutral.
"I want to stop them," Adriana said simply. "These people who think they can play God, who think they can steal lives and consciousness and use them like toys. I want to find every single one of our sisters and wake them up, help them remember who they really are."
"That's... that's not possible," Adelina said softly. "Some of them weren't born with transplanted consciousness. Some are just... copies."
"Then we help them too," Adriana insisted. "We help them become real, become whole. We give them the chance to choose their own lives instead of living as someone else's puppets."
Nathan's hand came to rest on Adelina's shoulder, a gesture that didn't go unnoticed by Adriana.
"And what about those of us who've already chosen?" Nathan asked quietly. "Those who've built lives, found love, created something real from this artificial beginning?"
Adriana's gaze shifted between them, and for a moment, something softer flickered in her eyes. "Then you're lucky. You found each other before they could activate whatever protocol they have planned for us."
"What do you mean?" Adelina asked.
"I've been monitoring communications, hacking into systems I probably shouldn't be able to access. There's something happening, something big. The activations aren't random—they're coordinated. Someone is waking us up systematically, and I don't think it's for our benefit."
The room fell silent except for the hum of the air conditioning. Adelina felt Nathan's hand tighten on her shoulder, and she could practically hear his thoughts: How much more can we take? How much more will they demand of us?
"I need some air," Adelina said suddenly, standing up so quickly her chair scraped against the floor. "I just... I need a moment."
She stepped out onto the building's small terrace, breathing deeply of the smoggy Los Angeles air. The city sprawled below her, full of millions of people living their lives, unaware that their reality was being systematically infiltrated and manipulated.
Nathan followed her out, closing the door behind him.
"Talk to me," he said quietly.
"She's like me," Adelina whispered, wrapping her arms around herself. "But she's not like me at all. She's so... certain. So strong. And I'm just..."
"You're what?" Nathan stepped closer, his voice gentle but firm.
"I'm scared, Nathan. I'm terrified that she's right, that we should be fighting harder, doing more. And I'm terrified that she's wrong, that getting involved will destroy everything we've built." Tears stung her eyes. "I'm terrified that she's the person I should be, and I'm just a coward who chose love over duty."
Nathan's hands came up to frame her face, forcing her to look at him. "Adelina, listen to me. You are not a coward. You are not weak. You are the strongest person I know."
"How can you say that? She tried to kill herself rather than live as someone else's creation, and when that didn't work, she dedicated her life to saving others like us. Meanwhile, I've been playing house, pretending I'm just a normal woman who fell in love with her husband."
"And what's wrong with that?" Nathan's voice was fierce now. "What's wrong with choosing happiness? With choosing us?"
Adelina stared up at him, seeing the fear in his eyes that he was trying so hard to hide. "Nathan..."
"I'm terrified," he admitted roughly. "I'm terrified that meeting her will make you realize you belong with someone who understands what you've been through. Someone who shares your experience, your struggle. Someone who—"
"Stop." Adelina pressed her fingers to his lips. "Just stop."
"But what if—"
"No." She shook her head firmly. "You want to know what I see when I look at Adriana? I see pain. I see anger. I see someone who's been through hell and came out the other side harder, colder, more isolated than before. And you know what? That could have been me."
Nathan's eyes searched her face.
"But it wasn't," Adelina continued, her voice growing stronger. "Because I had you. Because I chose love over anger, connection over isolation, hope over despair. Adriana survived by becoming harder. I survived by learning to be softer. And I wouldn't trade that for anything."
She stood on her tiptoes, pressing her lips to his in a kiss that was fierce and desperate and full of promise. Nathan responded immediately, his arms coming around her, pulling her against him as if he could physically prevent her from slipping away.
"I love you," she whispered against his mouth. "Not because you're safe, not because you're convenient, but because you're you. Because you saw me at my most broken and loved me anyway. Because you made me believe I was worth loving."
Nathan's response was wordless, conveyed through the way he held her, the way he kissed her back like she was oxygen and he was drowning. They stood there on the terrace, lost in each other, reaffirming their bond in the face of new uncertainty.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, Adelina felt steadier, more certain than she had since Adriana walked into their lives.
"We'll help her," she said quietly. "We'll do what we can to stop Elise and save our sisters. But we do it together, as a team. I'm not going anywhere, Nathan. Not with her, not with anyone. You're stuck with me."
Nathan's smile was radiant with relief. "Promise?"
"I promise," she whispered, sealing it with another kiss.
They were just beginning to lose themselves in each other again when Adelina's phone buzzed insistently in her pocket. She ignored it, but Nathan pulled back slightly.
"You should check that," he murmured. "It might be important."
Reluctantly, Adelina pulled out her phone and felt the blood drain from her face as she read the message.
"What is it?" Nathan asked, alarm creeping into his voice.
"It's from Adriana," Adelina said, her voice barely above a whisper. "But that's impossible. She's inside, and she doesn't have my number."
Nathan took the phone from her trembling hands and read the message aloud: "They're coming for you tonight. Trust no one—not even the woman who looks like you. She's not who she claims to be. —A.V."
They stared at each other in shocked silence, the same terrible realization dawning on both of them.
"If Adriana didn't send this message," Nathan said slowly, "then who did?"
And more importantly, Adelina thought with growing dread, if there was another Adriana Volkov out there—one who apparently knew she was in danger—then who exactly was the woman they'd been talking to for the last hour?
The answer to that question, she suspected, would change everything.