*NOTES: Please remember that both chapters 15 and 36 (and the information that I disclosed in them) were not filtered through Daphne's POV. Those were standalone chapters from Apollo's and Agape's POV respectively, which means that Daphne knows NOTHING of what's being said there.

Besides that, translations have been provided at the end, as usual. Enjoy! 😊

A female harmonic moan resonated in the air while I walked through the closed shop of Oyster and pushed the call button of the lift that Wednesday morning. An electronic saxophone skilfully danced a melodic tango with her voice. That electronic lounge music softly echoed in every corner of Oyster, like a distant lullaby, even inside the lift as I rode up to the top floor of the building.

I checked my look one last time on the full-body mirror in the lift while going up to the top floor, where the party was being held. My shop assistant uniform was in perfect condition. Not a single wrinkle. My only complaint was that stark black and white were not my favourite combination of colours.

I had done my hair in a loose bun, leaving only a couple of wavy bangs falling freely on either side of my face. I was wearing my mother's diamonds since I was attending a special event. My father insisted.

Did he know the full truth about that day's event? Of course, not. I told my father what Mrs Nevermore wanted the people outside Oyster to know, that was, the mere fact that Oyster had won the bid – and that the model's identity was a mystery. Even though it was part of our deal and Mrs Nevermore's marketing plan, I had been invited and I was planning to enjoy myself openly as if I had had little to do with that success.

The silvery double doors of the lift opened, and I was greeted by an acoustic assault on my ears. The electronic lounge music boomed in my ears, and it whisked my thoughts away into that party-like yet formal environment.

Tall female clone models chatted amiably in small groups. Their white mascara contrasted wildly with the multicoloured eyeshadow they wore. Their faces were an explosion of colours. Many wore the trendiest outfits created by Mrs Nevermore and her design team. I recognised them from the shop.

I spotted Nausicaa in a flirty attitude with a co-worker by the bar and drinking from an expensive-looking, fancy, deep pink drink with a slice of pineapple on the glass. The buttons of her white blouse were undone way below her breasts. Her black push-up bra was putting a generous cleavage on display. She looked dashing but slutty. And drunk. And it was only nine in the morning.

A familiar dark-haired bob called my attention right behind Nausicaa. It was Mirela. She was snogging a female model by the bar. I assumed she was drunk too, but after what she had admitted to me the previous day, I supposed she was on board with any kind of slutting around if it suited her ambition.

Her skirt was so short that I could almost see her panties. Oh, wait. No, I wouldn't see them any time soon because the model she was making out with put both her hands on her ass, her fingers below the seam in an exploring kind of mood.

I averted my eyes with a look of disgust and "I-can't-unsee-this-please-God-help-me" kind of face. As soon as I had done so, Kono called my attention. She came walking to me with a broad smile and offered me a glass of champagne.

"You're gonna need this if you want to survive this party, honeysuckle."

I drank it all in one go as if it was a glass of whiskey. I had seen that move in some films when a character needs to deal with something hard. The bubbles harshly tickled in my throat. I coughed a couple of times.

"Is Mirela like that all the time?" I asked with a raspy voice.

"Unfortunately, yes." She looked up and then back at me with relief. "Oh great. They're rushing to the restrooms to hook up. We're safe. For now."

She gasped and stared at me with wide eyes all of a sudden.

"Oh wait! I could lock the door from outside and put on an "Out of Order" sign! Back in a second."

"Wait! Your nanochip's gonna get you..." I exclaimed, but she didn't hear me. She was already gone and her aura of mischief would probably block any warming on my behalf, "in trouble."

Well, that wasn't 100% true. Kono was trouble herself. I was hoping for the best.

She was already rushing to get the restroom's keys, some paper, and a pen from a vintage wooden escritoire which Mrs Nevermore kept in a quiet, lounge-like area of the floor. In less than ten seconds, Kono had her mischief done and nobody had seen a thing but me.

She didn't return the keys, she kept them in her trousers' pocket. Then, I witnessed her trademark naughty smile when I saw her sneaking behind the bar's counter and amping up the music, as well. I guess she didn't want Mirela's cries for help to be heard either.

That girl had me snorting with amusement. Her naughty face was the best I had ever seen. She was the best. The funniest friend I had ever had.

"Thanks for saving my life today, Kono," I told her in a loud voice. The music was booming in my ears, but I didn't care. Nobody did actually. Everybody was having the time of their lives.

"You're welcome, honeysuckle." She winked at me.

"Funny that you've done this, and you don't even know that she wants to get me murdered for the ad thing."

"SHE WHAT?!" Her funny mood seemed to break into smithereens, like a glass falling on the floor.

"She threatened me yesterday. Ambushed me in the canteen's restrooms."

"Then, I'm gonna go full-on evil prankster mode on her from now on. I swear!" Her proud vouching made me sigh.

"You're gonna get in trouble for this, Kono. Don't do it. Your nanochip, remember?"

She stuck out her tongue at me as if she were a dumb teenager who never cared for any advice from adults. It was funny that she was older than me. But no clone cops had come. Was Kono in the habit of pulling pranks like that one, knowing exactly where the limit was? She had ovaries indeed.

"Bah! Stop being a grandma!" Kono yelled over the loud music. "You don't know half the things I've said and thought. Nothing serious has ever happened to me. Let's go have some fun, Daphne!"

I simply smiled at her. We took a look around us.

Not only were there wolf-whistling female models around (who got most of Kono's attention by the way), but also drop-dead gorgeous male models, who had come to celebrate Oyster's success as well. Many of them were making small talk with Eros and Mrs Nevermore by the pool.

I also spotted Layla, who was checking something on her tablet while discussing something with the IT people by the pool.

"You should go and say hello to our current and future bosses, don't you think so?" she said in a naughty tone and wiggling her eyebrows.

"I will gladly do so if you stop looking at me as if you're a curious cat that's impatiently waiting for me to get a kiss from Eros and screw it up with Sigi."

"Not gonna do that anytime soon. Sorry, not sorry." She was smirking at me.

She was reckless, fun to be around, and cute. I exhaled with mild frustration and softly bit my lower lip as I walked away from her toward Eros and his mother.

The lounge music dropped dead all of a sudden, only to be replaced by an ominous-like, epic electronic aria. I recognised it from some music clips on TV: it was a brand-new version of Carmen's Havanera, by George Bizet. A clone composer had recently revamped the aria.

"L'amour est un oiseau rebelle..." a mezzosoprano began signing over a loud, electronic arrangement. Her powerful voice triggered goosebumps all over my skin, "que nul ne peut apprivoiser..."

That was when a countdown could be softly heard on the speakerphones. When the count stuck zero, a replica of Oyster's ad was meant to get exposed to the audience. At the far back of the swimming pool, a curtain dropped to reveal my young body in a red and golden bikini, alongside Oyster's name, logo, and tagline.

Many wowed members of the audience began to whisper among themselves in sheer awe.

"Holy Cow! She's smoking hot!" an intrigued male voice exclaimed in awe as I walked on by. "But where's the model's face and name? Who's she?"

"I don't know," a friend replied, intrigued.

Many immediately drew out their mobile phones, took photos of the poster, and posted them on their social media. Oyster's mystery was on... and already hot and trending in the following few minutes according to my own phone.

As I walked on by, many accidentally overheard conversations crossed my path. Many attention-seeking models were checking the news feed on the social media and giggling at each other.

I even heard one confessing to a friend that it was she, the one in Oyster's ad. I raised an eyebrow at that. But her friend's reaction was even better than the smugness of the confessor: she slapped her and said that she was the one.

I walked away from the catfight that would soon unleash with a look of satisfaction. Clone models were willing to beat each other in public for a stupid lie. Both models called each other names and pulled each other's hair. Another female model who was witnessing the catfight sighed loudly and confessed that she was the one and begged them to stop fighting.

Poor imbecile. Those two simply launched a feral attack on her.

I detached myself from the crowd of models circling the fight, and approached Eros and Mrs Nevermore, standing by the pool. A waiter was handing them some superbly decorated crystal glasses with champagne on a silver tray. The male models had gone away.

All of the people present there in that group were the team involved in the ad, and they all seemed cheerful. Only Eros' look of contained anger was out of place. I wondered what was wrong with him. Then, I saw him handing out of courtesy a glass of champagne with an eye-catching golden base to someone I couldn't see. There were too many people blocking my view of that person.

A couple of seconds later, Eros spotted me.

His instant, flawless, blinding smile could even put out the sunlight. He called the waiter back and got another glass.

"Hello, Daphne," Eros greeted me warmly as he handed me the extra glass of champagne. Its golden hues contrasted with the leaden tone of the base of the glass.

"Hello, honey!" Mrs Nevermore welcomed me when she realised that I was there. Her pearly smile would always bewitch me. "How are you today?"

"Fine, thank you. How about you, Mrs Nevermore?"

"Elated. This is one of the best days in my entire life!" She took a sip of champagne. Her happiness was contagious. "The ad has left everybody breathless. Even the Great Apollo seems mesmerised by it!"

Oh, right. I had forgotten about the fact that the clone tyrant would be there too.

Well, I assumed I didn't need to worry about him. He was only there to celebrate Oyster's victory like I was. I was just a filthy traditional human to all the clones in the venue. He would not spare a glance my way.

I took a sip of champagne even though its sour taste repelled me. I didn't want Eros to think I was being rude and ungrateful.

"Oh, Great Apollo," Mrs Nevermore called his attention as she approached him by the pool.

He was giving all of us his back, staring at the ad hung at the other side of the pool in silence.

His broad back and shoulders were impressive. He was wearing a dark grey suit that fitted him perfectly, outlining his godly physique. The shining of his cufflinks got my attention. The morning sunshine made them stand out, as much as his recently polished black leather shoes.

The crystal glass with a golden base was in his right hand. So, he was the one Eros had given the champagne before. But the champagne was all gone by then.

"Isn't this ad the most beautiful ever made?" Mrs Nevermore asked him. She turned her face to him, and I saw her smile drop from her face. Worry was scarring her perfect features as she went on: "My God? Are you OK?!"

"Valentina... I mean... Who... who is she?" Apollo asked. His voice denoted something was off as if he had just been given a stunning surprise. He also sounded concerned.

"Great Apollo, that's part of the marketing campaign. The mystery around her identity is a stunt to make it viral."

"I can check who it is thanks to all your nanochips whether you like it or not. Tell me who she is right now," he demanded fiercely.

"Yes, Great Apollo. I would kindly ask you to keep it a secret, though." Her submissive attitude seemed satisfactory to him when he briefly nodded once.

"You have my word. Tell me the name. And where she is right now."

"She's a... traditional human." Her voice was sweet, pleading, and low. Thank God for that, because I didn't want anybody else outside the few people involved in making the ad to know about my secret. "Please, don't make a scene, Great Apollo. We didn't mean any harm by choosing her over a clone model, I swear. She's perfect for the ad. And she's right here, behind you. Her name is Daphne Peneus. Let me introduce her to you, Great Apollo."

That was when he turned around and our gazes locked. Time froze out of my own accord.

His pupils dilated instantly when he took me in. His deep blue irises shivered mildly just as his mouth was left partly open in sudden amazement. Softly angled eyebrows. Nicely shaved sideburns. Chiselled cheekbones. Square jaw. Flawlessly shaved beard. Those thin, rosy lips on his manly face. Eros was as gorgeous as Apollo, but he was a teenage version of him, sort of. I could understand why many heterosexual clone women and gay clone men instantly fell for him.

The soft morning breeze of that sunny day gently dishevelled his hair. The golden crystal glass fell from his hand and got broken into smithereens. That was when he weakly whispered:

"It's you... my love."

What?! What had he just said?!

I gulped hard. The clones around me turned their baffled eyes towards me as if their eyes could X-ray me. Even Eros had his eyes glued on me, beaming with amazement. My cheeks were aflame with shame and disgust.

I left my glass of champagne on a table right behind me. I had only had one sip, but it had been more than enough. I turned my face and eyes back to the hateful man in front of me.

That was the man who had my brother kidnapped for a transplant, changed into an android, enslaved as such, deprived of emotions, and eventually killed the previous Sunday. He was also the evil mind behind the birth of clones and the current discrimination in our world. I could make him responsible for all the deaths that had happened ever since the Prevalence War had started. He was Agape's nemesis and moral lookalike. He was willingly ignoring the palaeoviruses, and insulting and threatening Eros in every way he thought fit. He was behind all the unjust laws that forbid me from becoming a mechanic, and the laws which had enabled faking my mother's murder and which had weaponised her.

I loathed the man. Yes, understatement of the century.

"You're... here. I can't believe it," he said lovingly as he took some steps toward me.

"Miss Daphne Peneus works here as a shop assistant, Great Apollo," Mrs Nevermore explained, following him closely. "She's an agreeable young lady who's recently befriended my son, Eros."

He extended an open palm to me. I didn't want to be rude, so I placed my hand on his, and I let him kiss my hand. I had to pretend that my nanochip was still working correctly, so I could not show defiance. Therefore, I suppressed a grimace of repulsion even though his lips were soft on the skin of my hand. It was a chivalric, agreeable gesture from old times, which I had seen in some old films; however, when done by such a despicable man it felt weird and disgusting.

"How is it possible? You're a miracle." His dumbfounded attitude caused a light frown on his forehead, but his eyes said I was some sort of coveted treasure.

He combed his hair gently backwards with his left hand and smiled. Then, I recovered my hand in a hurry out of both embarrassment and aversion. He didn't take it badly, though.

"That mole on your right shoulder," he added, full of marvel while examining me with his inquisitive eyes. "It's exactly the same. Not one single detail is different. How come you resemble my long-lost love, my dear Valentina, so much?"

Valentina? I frowned at those comments and that question. I didn't know what to make of them, but he was expecting an answer from me anyway. The keen expression on his face implied it so.

The French aria went on and on, singing ominously like a mean joke:

"L'oiseau que tu croyais surprendre 
Battit de l'aile et s'envola; 
L'amour est loin, tu peux l'attendre; 
Tu ne l'attend plus, il est là!" 

"Great Apollo," Eros said then. "Daphne is just a traditional human. If you'd rather not have her here, I can escort her out. And if you don't like the ad, we can change it."

It surprised me to hear him say that, mainly because Apollo had been nice to me, not the opposite. I was the one to feel disgusted, not him. And that was when I realised that he was only trying to get me out of trouble's way. He had noticed my displeasure.

"Shut up," Apollo replied curtly. His eyes had murder written in them. "She's far more important than you'll ever understand."

That got me freaking out. What was he talking about?

Eros froze all over, and then Apollo's undivided attention was gently cast on me once again, like those piercing eyes of his.

"A gene pool has never looked so ravishing in the whole history of humanity, my dear. I know what I'm talking about. At the end of the day, I'm your God."

He was no god of mine. I was Christian, not a clone ass-licker.

"Look at you. Young, beautiful, flawless,..." He tried to comb one of my stray locks of hair that framed my face so nicely, but I instinctively pulled away. He stopped halfway and chuckled. "Always prudish. I've always found it charming, but you know that. Forty years might've passed, but nothing has changed. Let me guess: you even might be a brilliant and passionate scientist, maybe?"

Who did he think I was? Was he crazy?

"No, I am not a scientist. Traditional humans aren't allowed a superior education," I whispered back the obvious as dryly as I could.

"You'd love to, wouldn't you?" His smile grew as if he was about to offer me a scholarship or something like that just to make me happy. "I could make that happen."

"Actually, no. I love my job here. And repairing household gadgets, too. Even cars and motorbikes. I am self-taught." The clones who heard me say that reacted negatively at that by either gaping at me or gasping.

Apollo laughed wholeheartedly then. I felt a cold sweat run down my spine. Had I been too defiant?

"May I invite you to have lunch with me later, my dear Valentina? My treat. It's long overdue that we sit and talk."

"I'd rather not go. And my name isn't Valentina. It's Daphne."

"Sure it is." He chuckled. His smile became a feral threat then, issued with a grave voice that sent chills down my spine: "Just take this friendly advice from your old... friend: do not defy your God, woman."

That man was no god, and with his flirting and his threat, he was making me feel uncomfortable – as much as the clones around me, who looked disgusted to have so much attention from their god bestowed upon a piece of traditional-human trash like me.

"If you say so," I whispered. I just wanted to flee.

"Rien n'y fait, menace ou prière," Apollo replied as if he was whispering to himself. I had heard those same words in the aria for the ad, "as usual."

"If you'll all excuse me, I'd like to withdraw. Thank you for inviting me, Mrs Nevermore." I made a rushed bow to her and immediately turned around to make myself scarce.

I couldn't bear to stay there for a second longer. I ran away to the lift. I accidentally collided with some guests on my way.

"I'm awfully sorry!" I clumsily apologised while I fled.

The aria had faded, and jazz-like music was being played instead. A piano began to entertain the audience with a sad and cynical, yet soft melody.

I felt Apollo's piercing stare glued to my back, chasing me as if it was my own shadow, although a huge crowd was standing between us. I felt the need to put more and more distance between us just like an engine needed fuel to run.

Hello, my sugar cubes!

1. The aria's fragments' translation goes as follows:

2. This chapter echoes the prologue and the original myth of Daphne and Apollo: the gold, the lead, the mindless love, the unwanted flirting, the fleeing. An obsession has begun. again.

3. As regards the ad's presentation song, it's George Bizet's Havanera from Carmen. I found a remix on youtube by Janno months ago, and I thought it was perfect for such an occasion! 😉

Stay tuned to know more!

4. I'm an idiot! I realise NOW that I need a ship name for Sigi and Daphne. How about Siphne? Dagi? Any suggestions? 😊

XOXO

MS

PS: A closer look at Oyster's poster: