Twelve hours had passed, and the two small children still hadn't awakened. They laid upon a stiff metal railed bed, eyes closed, hands limp by their sides, an IV line going into each of their left arms, giving them the vital fluids their little bodies needed.
An auburn haired woman with almond red eyes and pale skin hovered over the boy. A sad smile donned her face as she pushed back his chocolate coloured bangs back off of his forehead, smoothing her hand gently over his forehead. She withdrew her hand as she glanced over to the dark haired little girl. Cooling cloths were on her forehead, her temperature abnormally high, although, considering how one of the guard had perished when she laid a hand on his skin, it didn't surprise her as much, but still worried nonetheless.
Nothing but the sound of their soft breathing and the occasional drip from the IV tubes sounded across the room. The woman ambled over towards the little girl, drifting gracefully across the old stone floor. The girl was exactly the same as the boy she had been found with. Her mousy brown hair was astray across her face, her pale lips parted as she squeezed each breath in and out.
Red eyes softened as she brushed the strands of dark hair back into place, hearing footsteps approaching from the centre of the castle towards the east, where she was, with the children. They were above her a few floors, but they were heading towards her, nonetheless.
In a blink she was over by the worn out looking desk in the corner of the room, picking up a manila file that had the details of the tests she'd been able to run in such a short space of time. She'd been able to determine that they must have just had their second birthdays sometime in the last month, and that they had suffered much in the short twenty-four months of life they'd had. Scars covered the young girls arms, almost like she'd been chained akin to how a wild animal would be. It was horrific. Some scars covered the little boy, but not much compared to his companion.
Aro swept into the room not a heartbeat later, closely followed by his two brothers, the blonde already scowling at the sight of the two toddlers. A small woman with dark coloured hair followed him, her fingertips looking as though they sown onto his black cloak. He beamed at the sight of the auburn haired woman. "Chelsea my dear!" He exclaimed in a loving cry, drifting forward and placing a feathery kiss upon her pale, stone skinned cheek. He pulled back, his eyes drifting to the two youngsters who were still unconscious. "Any results?"
The woman- Chelsea- nodded, sweeping back over to the children. "I estimate them to be around twenty four months old, and they're surprisingly well taken care of for them to have such horrific scars that tell of injuries long since been and gone. They're a little underweight and slight of build for their projected age, but otherwise, I think they're healthy. Josephine went to gather some supplies from the nearby hospitals so I'll be able to run more tests when she returns. Ana, Danika and Ingrid are procuring me more medical equipment. There is a problem." She confessed, looking squarely at Aro.
He raised a brow in response, his cheery smile dimming somewhat. "Oh? Elaborate, my dear, what kind of problem?" He answered, his voice smooth and full of the promise that he wasn't pleased with there being a problem.
Chelsea looked back at the two children before back to him. "When Ana was using her gift to sense if there were any medical issues that needed to be dealt with, she sensed something attached to their brain stem. I believe it to be a failsafe of sorts, a option to terminate their experiment without it getting messy. It'll need to be removed before anything else can go ahead." She explained.
Aro opened his mouth to respond but stopped short on seeing a pair of cerulean blue eyes drift open sluggishly. A wide smile appeared on his face. "Ah," he murmured, his eyes on the little boy who was gazing around, the only light coming from the lit torches in their scones that were dotted around the room. Chelsea turned immediately, moving over towards him smoothly, looking as though she were gliding across the floor.
The little boy recoiled in horror, scrambling backwards even in his semi-conscious state. He stopped moving when she did, her eyes soft as she looked to him, his blue eyes dilated apprehensively, as if waiting for a beating. She gently held her hands up, a soothing smile on her face as she attempted to find his bonds, the very emotional ties that would make him less apprehensive towards her. She found them easily. With a millennia of experience, she swiftly bound him to herself and the masters, Marcus giving a soft sigh as he too sensed it with his own ability.
Chelsea stretched a hand out. "I'm not going to hurt you, I promise," she murmured to him, her voice lulling him into a sense of security. His little brows furrowed, his hazy eyes drifting towards the little girl on the bed. She followed his line of sight. "She's just sleeping," she said gently, his eyes moving back to hers.
A weary groan came from the dark haired leader behind her, his mere voice ashen with grief and age. "Siblings," he groaned, his tired eyed drifting between the boy and the girl. "Twins, I would say, given their similarity in age." He added, his weary voice coming to a grinding halt as he sighed a deathly sigh.
Caius scoffed. "Surely you could verify that yourself, Aro?" He hissed, the boy watching as the raven haired leader himself drifted forward. He clasped his hands together in front of him. The young boy recoiled somewhat as the raven haired man leered eerily towards him, a wide smile on his face. He extended a hand.
The boy looked to Chelsea, and the auburn haired vampire nodded with a reassuring smile. "He won't hurt you," she affirmed. He seemed to hesitate for a moment before he stretched out his IV free hand and gingerly placed it into Aro's papery skinned one. Hand tightening around the child's a little but not enough to cause discomfort, Aro gave a sharp inhale, releasing it out just as sharply. His eyes flickered towards the girl and then back towards the boy. He nodded his head. "Twins indeed. No names, just given the name Gemini in an amusing sense of irony, I believe, and very powerful. They were right to have called them a weapon of formidable force." He stated with an increasing tone of fascination.
A little gasp came from the left, the little boy almost fighting to get off the bed, his noises desperate as he whined and stretched against the firm hold of the auburn haired vampire. His eyes were fraught with worry, and Aro raised a hand, looking at Chelsea. "Let the boy go to his sister. I would rather know she isn't about to turn us all into ash like dear Killian." He commented dryly.
The little boy scrambled up the bed towards the dark haired girl, his hand pressing against her face in a silent gesture, making sure she was alright. Chelsea watched silently from beside the bed, her mind already working fast at severing the bonds they had to the old masters of the hell they'd been living in and binding them to the three ancients and herself. The little girl flickered her dark blue eyes over to her, piercing through her, almost as if she knew what the immortal was doing. A soothing smile was sent back to her; it didn't work.
Blue eyes flickered suspiciously to the three men that were waiting at the foot of her bed, the small figure of a woman attached to the raven haired man. Aro gave her a bright smile; it too, did not work. The eyes narrowed further, regardless of the bonds that were firmly secured in place. Marcus gave a breathy groan. "She is distrustful due to her experiences," he groaned, the sound as though he were in pain, and Aro looked to Chelsea. She gave a firm nod. "She is bound to us all, but I believe the treatment of both of them will make it harder for her to trust the others. Her injuries, although healed and some not, were far more extensive than her brothers."
Milky red eyes drifted to the said scars and his lips thinned. "Yes..." He murmured. The piercing blue eyes watched him. "See to it that those failsafe devices are removed, cleanly, my dear. Gather whatever supplies you need from the hospitals in our area and then remove them, as soon as possible." He ordered.
He then glanced over the two children, who were both looking at the female immortal with wide blue eyes, and a steady, sly smile spread across his face. "And you, along with Afton, will take responsibility for them both. They will be your charges as they mature old enough for them to join our ranks." He added, the smile never leaving his face.
Chelsea, her eyes widening, looked at the children beside her before back to her master. "M-Me? And Afton?" She stumbled and he nodded, the smile never leaving his face. "As you said so yourself my dear, they will have a hard time trusting the others. You will be the face they see until they are well enough to leave here. They will attend a public school in a nearby city, perhaps Florence, to make sure they don't turn into an unnaturally vicious immortal when they join us. You will be, how would you say, their surrogate parents from now on. It is not a task I give lightly." He warned.
Her eyes still wide, she nodded jerkily. "Of course Master," she answered softly, looking back at the twins who were clutching at each other, the little boy holding his sister as carefully as he could. She looked back at him with a firm look on her face. "Who will name them? Surely they cannot retain the name Gemini, both of them." She voiced.
Aro chuckled, looking at her pointedly. "I believe that is your task now, my child." He stated cheerily before sweeping from the room, his brothers following in quick succession. She frowned, looking back at the two small children who were now gazing up at her with wide eyes, one more suspicious than the other.
A small smile came over her face, a sudden one, for she sensed the arrival of another, a man with dark, sandy blonde hair that feel over his forehead in unruly curls. His arms came around her in an instant, Chelsea leaning back into his embrace as his nose ran the length of the column of her smooth, exposed, bare throat. He inhaled sharply. "I overheard, love," he murmured, a thick, ancient Greek accent, one that hadn't been lost with time, coating his soft words.
Chelsea hummed, looking to the two children before them. "I believe they deserve significant names for being so powerful," she mused softly back to him and he nodded. "What would you think on naming them after a constellation, like Gemini?" He murmured back.
Her brow raised. "After a star?" She added and he nodded. "I believe Lyra and Orion would suffice. A musician and a hunter, a dangerous mix, to themselves and to those who would dare do them harm." He answered.
A small smile came across her face. "Lyra and Orion," she murmured, testing the names out for herself. The smile widened. "I love them," she replied and a smug grin spread across his face. "I knew you would," he mused, the grin widening as he captured her lips with his own.