"Y'know... It's been a while since the Syndicate did anything."

Tobias chuckled at his wife's observation. "Yup."

"I dunno, something just... doesn't feel right. I mean, Wesker and Neo-Umbrella were almost riding our asses when they had their sights on us... Now it's... quiet."

"Yup." Tobias repeated, smiling as he nodded his head.

"You know something." Rize gave him a sardonic look.

"They're still the same Syndicate we lead against Umbrella. The fact they're not showing hide nor hair of themselves is because that's how we taught them to operate. We're so hidden that even those watching from the shadows have no clue we're watching them." Tobias explained as he glanced over at her on the couch. "The fact that you feel something isn't right is a sign that they're still playing by my book. New leadership aside, the methods I had them learn are simply the most effective. Hide in plain sight, control the shadows, faceless and without shape."

"Yet they're after us for some reason." Rize pointed out, and of course, Tobias nodded.

"That's true." Tobias agreed. "But they're my army, I know how they think, and how they operate. The only thing I don't know is who's leading them."

"Whoever it is, they clearly had something against us." Rize agreed.

"Wesker's at the bottom of the Pacific... HUNK's dead, Krauser's dead, Irving's in custody, Issacs is dead... My mother's been dealt with, as was Akira. Spencer's already on our side, but he's dying of cancer. All of the Raccoon City CCG are gone, none had next of kin with known reason for resentment... Every single survivor of the original Syndicate was compensated, given immunity from their involvement, and of course, they are still on good terms with us and the BSAA - which, let's be honest, is Syndicate 2.0..."

"Hey hey!" A couple voices came from the foyer as the front door was opened. "Anyone home?"

"Sherry, we're in here." Rize called around the corner as she and Tobias stood up, ending their conversation for now.

"Yo!" Jake leaned around the living room entrance, nodding respectfully to them both. "Are the girls here?"

Tobias nodded, then pointed to the back of the house, towards the large pool room. "I think they're at the bottom of the pool."

"Where's Valentine?" Jake asked, glancing at the closed basement door for a moment.

"He's sleeping, he just got home from work. Said he had some moron at school to deal with and it was a huge pain in the ass." Rize shrugged, rather unsurprised by what her son had explained happened. "Bullying someone on their first day of classes, what a piece of shit."

"Aww, I was really looking forward to bringing him with us to the beach." Sherry stuck out her lip for a moment, clearly disappointed.

"Oh, if that's all..." Kuro spoke up as she pushed the basement door open, holding it open for Valentine as he came into view, once again defying the constraints of gender. He was wearing a pair of short shorts and a loose fitting tank top with one of the shoulder straps partially hanging from his shoulder. Shiro came up last and they flanked Valentine as he blearily stared at them for a few seconds.

"I heard..." Valentine yawned loudly before continuing. "I need coffee first... Then I'll go too."

For some reason, Sherry's eyes glinted with a tell tale sparkle, even though her facial expression stayed the same. Jake was the only one to notice, but he held his tongue for the moment. He knew from Yuuki that his own face gave away his questions before he'd even asked them.

"I could use one too." Yuuki's voice came from down the hall, and a moment later she and Rachael moved into the kitchen and came into view. "Sup sexy?" She caught sight of her two partners and smiled.

"Public beach party with a concert from a couple local bands. We figured you two'd be the ones dragging us to the coast." Sherry explained, then glanced over at Valentine. "We also invited your brother, apparently he had to deal with a bully at school today."

"I still think it's bullshit that you're not allowed to bring Kuro and Shiro into the building." Rachael commented as she and Yuuki collected the necessary items for theirs and Valentine's coffee's. "I mean, the two of us are allowed to bring our guns, why can't you bring your robots?"

"Under academic regulations, we cannot escort Valentine at school because we would be considered visual distractions for other students, possibly interfere with wireless signals, and of course, due to our cyberbrains, we have constant access to the internet and databases, which brings about the argument of cheating or manipulating data, such as assignment dates, marks, or even malicious data manipulation." Shiro explained. "We can, however, pick him up, drop him off, and act as intermediary contacts - excluding emergency contacts - between the school and Rize or Tobias."

"Even though you were..." Jake began, but Shiro - formerly known as Balilaika, Valentine and Tobias' biological mother turned near-total cyborg - shook her head.

"Subsequently, our former identities are no longer ours. This is because we aren't organic anymore. 100% cyberized, androids, robots, they're all correct terms for us now. We're not prosthetic like Motoko, nor cybernetic like Stella. Our personalities are generated by AI, our former lives... and of course our original lives, they are merely implied, irrelevant, emotionally based information that we do not need for our duties."

"You notice how neither of us refer to anyone beyond their names? Shiro doesn't call me Akira or any nicknames or pet names. Nor does she call Valentine or Tobias her sons. And, of course, I don't call her Balilaika or any of our former pet or nicknames." Kuro was assisting with making Valentine's coffee as she spoke, her gaze focused on her work.

"Wait... you two had pet names for each other?" Yuuki's cyan gaze had a very distinctive glint - which Jake, Rachael and Sherry all knew very well - as she stared between the two androids. "I gotta hear this!"

"Yuuki, c'mon, that's none of our business..." Rachael spoke up, but Shiro and Kuro shared a brief moment of eye contact before they shrugged and Kuro continued speaking.

"Rachael, we don't mind sharing. After all, our cyberbrains still contain the digitally stored memories of our former lives to actually allow us to talk about them in this manner. Motoko's idea." She added the last part when the sisters raised their eyebrows in confusion.

"Well then...?" Yuuki was clearly interested, resting her arms on the counter.

"Akira used to call me Yelena for a while, after I told her the old name... but her pet name for me was Kitty." Shiro explained, smirking for a moment before it turned into a small - rather cute - smile. "We both owned cats." She added in explanation.

Tobias let out a low chuckle at that comment, so when everyone turned towards him, he simply said. "Back when I was still a kid, I never got along with that damn cat. We hated each other. Dogs just suited me."

"That reminds me... Didn't you guys have a huge dog when we were kids? What was his name again...?"

"Odin." Tobias smiled slightly. "He was a wild Grey wolf I came across in Raccoon Forest, near the river, when things were still pretty normal and I was still dealing with the CCG. T-Virus from my body gave him the ability to speak, he was bulletproof like me, five feet tall at the shoulder, easily 150, maybe 160 pounds. Yuuki used to ride like he was a horse when she was little."

"I notice consistent use of the past tense." Rize's eyes were on her husband. Of course, she remembered Odin, who was the official-unofficial mascot for the BSAA Alpha Team that Tobias lead. He was usually over at the BSAA base, working alongside her husband like an advisor. So, the last time she'd seen the huge wolfhound was the day before he and Tobias had gone over to Eastern Europe to deal with the bioterror event that eventually escalated into the Carrier Incident, which Tobias had officially given the codename Operation Yuki-Onna... That was nearly two and a half years ago.

"Odin went MIA during one of the assaults in the mountain skirmish. Our gunfire caused an avalanche, and Odin got caught right at the last second, I was grappling a Licker and didn't get to him in time. He was considered an actual BSAA member, of course, so after the region was secure, we sent S&R teams to the last confirmed position of his GPS tracker. We found it and his gear, but not him. twelve hours later, I personally called off the search, declared him 'Presumed KIA' and spent the entire night at our command base under orders from our head medical officer. He wanted to make sure I wasn't going to lose my mind."

"Odin was Toby's best friend for ages and ages." Rize nodded. "So, sorry to divert the subject again..."

"I actually didn't have a normal nickname from Balilaika. But my pet name from her was Kiki. We were drinking one night and she kept stuttering my name at the K, so I teased her about it and she just declared that would be my name for the rest of the night... But that was it, the name stuck."

"Kitty and Kiki, that's adorable..." Yuuki actually let out a giggle. "I mean, shit, if you've got those memories for the names, why not call each other by them? Shouldn't be a big deal, right?"

Valentine accepted his mug from Kuro at that moment, she hadn't replied because she was actually thinking about it. Yuuki was right, it wouldn't be a big deal...

Valentine glanced up to see that forced neutral expression on her - very expression capable - face, then smirked as he spoke. "I don't mind you two using your pet names with each other."

Tobias' phone rang at that moment, so he excused himself to stand outside the front door, closing it behind him as he answered it.

Kuro and Shiro locked gazes again, both internally deciding whether or not to do it - which was easily visible on their faces - until they turned into small smiles and they nodded to each other.

"If they even dare to steal my Onee-tan schtick, I'm gonna be super pissed..." Rachael whispered into Yuuki's ear, then teasingly nibbled Yuuki's earlobe before adding. "Isn't that right... Onee-tan?" Rachael put on her cheeky little Imouto voice as she spoke to her older twin.

"Bite me like that again and I'm gonna shove the purple strap-on up your ass again, you little shit." Yuuki grabbed Rachael's face in her hands, pushing her cheeks together and forcing her lips to pout. Then, just as quickly, she kissed Rachael and bit her vulnerable lower lip hard enough to draw blood. "Now we're even... Onee-chan."