Motion slowly returned to the room. The Twins both turned from the door to the computer, perceiving that the bigger threat lay there. "You-you can ghost! Like-" Aidenn began "-us." Adrian finished. "No. Not possible." "Yes, Adrian, it is. Remember how weird the Merovingian was when he sent us?" They remembered...



"Source, what a boring day..." The Twins lay in their suite, draped over cream leather couches, looking utterly dejected. "Wish we had something to do... Even dodging Persephone would be better than this..." "Huh, that's what WE think, Aidenn... Trust us, it's not. Did we ever tell us what happened that one time?" Adrian's Twin sat up, looking interested. "No, we never have. Do tell..." "Well, we," he indicated Aidenn, "Were out getting a new switchblade after it broke, so we were left here all alone... All by ourselves, miserable..." "Yes, get on with it!" "No need to be impatient! Anyway, we were alone. We got bored, so we took a nap, and when we woke up we were hungry. Or, well, we just felt like eating, even though we don't have to..." "Whatever! Why do we always drag our stories out so much?!" "Because, dear brother, it annoys us so much!" "If we weren't feeling so lethargic, we'd...!" "...never hear the end of the story! It would be faster if we didn't interrupt so often." Adrian smiled at his Twin's bulging eyes. At least he was no longer draped over the couch like a rug... "So, we were just heading down to the kitchens when we saw HER coming towards us. We tried to ghost, but she had a THING. An anti-ghosting thing. We just ended up slamming our head against the wall. Literally." "Ouch! That's gotta hurt, to quote those damn movies Cain and Abel are always watching..." "Yeah. It scared us. She grabbed our arm, and we were so shocked we didn't try to pull away. Besides, she's stronger that she looks, and she threatened to make the Merovingian delete us... So she dragged us to her suite. Not her regular one that we lock her up in... This was a secret one..." "So what happened?" By now Aidenn looked completely enthralled, which was of course Adrian's point. He couldn't stand seeing his Twin looking so miserable. "Well, she opened the door, and shoved us in. The door clicked behind us, and we found ourselves in a room decorated ALL IN RED! It was horrible. We tried to forget, but-" "-we can't. We know. Go on!" "Well... She shoved us on the bed, and..." "Ugh! How disgusting! So that's why she's been looking at us so oddly lately..." "Uh huh. She'll be after us next. Beware her anti-ghosting thing!" "Oh, we will! Did we have to stay all night?" "No, she finally let us go at about 3:00 AM, which is when the Merovingian comes in." "Lovely." "Yeah."

At this point their - beautiful - conversation was fortunately cut short by a knock on their door. The Twins looked at each other, both saying "No, you get it!" with their eyes. Finally Aidenn got up and opened the door. It was Cain and Abel, two more of the Merovingian's guards. (They're the ones in reloaded who are watching the movie when Persephone comes in and shoots one) (No, whichever one died didn't really die, because I say so! I tried to find out which one died... Honestly I did! If anyone knows PLEASE tell me!)

"The Boss wants to see you two. He says he has a job." Cain said.

"Oh, please," Aidenn said, "You don't need to call him that, not here. We can't stand it."

"Uh, ok..." They were both a little afraid of the Twins, jealous as well. They always got the best jobs. "Hey," said Abel, the dumber of the two, "You aren't being disloyal, are you? We'll have to tell him, won't we Cain?"

"Um, no..." Cain stared at a spot on the cream rug.

"Oh, he won't care. He doesn't trust us, anyway. Shall we go, Adrian? There's nothing to do around here, anyway... We may as well..." "Alright. We're coming."

Cain and Abel lead them to the Merovingian's private study, an old-fashioned room all done in oak and gas lamps. The Twins hated it, and avoided it as often as possible. They far preferred their modern white room.

"Ah, so my Twins have decided to come! Excellent." The Twins bristled at being called 'his'. They were theirs. "Well well well... Cain, Abel. You may go." They bowed obediently and left. "I noticed that you two were looking rather bored, and something very interesting has just come to my attention. I think you will find this mission - revealing..." He gave them an uninterpretable look. "Now, go to this address, find this girl, and bring her to me - alive, and as unharmed as you two can manage. No guns, knives only!" They shrugged. They preferred it that way. "This should be very easy for two of your expertise." He held the last word carefully. "Remember, unharmed!" The Merovingian handed them a piece of paper and dismissed them.

"That look he gave us when he said we would find this 'revealing' was pretty strange, even for him." Adrian said, as they walked away, towards the parkade that held their Escalade. "Ah well, don't bother ourselves with that. He's just a crazy imitation French program. We sure wish we could delete him." "Yeah. Too bad he won't let us near a powerful enough computer..." "Tell us about it..." Adrian growled. They drove...