Chapter 4: Changed

Triela withstood the angry twins' gazes for several long seconds, confused about what had offended them and unsure how to tackle the situation. After a while, she decided to exorcise the demons from the room by walking over to the windows behind the beds (she tried not to cringe away from the girls noticeably as she did so) and opening the blinds, letting in the sunlight and dispelling the mystifying, hostile aura within the room. Now that she was back in her social element, Triela was regaining her confidence.

For the first time she was able to look at the twins carefully, although the way they still stared at her made her doubt whether or not she wanted to. Both were truly identical, and both were incredibly beautiful. Describing them as "dolls" would not suffice. They were closer to angels; angry, scary cyborg angels.

Triela resisted the sudden and powerful urge to pat the closest twin on the head for fear of losing her hand. She continued to try to be friendly. "So," she said brightly, "You two are Celestia and Catherine."

"Celestina," the closer one grunted without humor.

"Caterina," the farther twin corrected an instant after, using an identical tone.

Damn! Triela inwardly cursed herself, fearfully taking a step back. "I-I'm sorry, I'm usually good with names!" she said aloud, following with a nervous laugh. Something about these twins was throwing her off, making her lose her focus. Was she actually being intimidated?!

Despite her mistake and pathetic attempt at a recovery, neither twin changed their expressions. Well, at least they don't seem any angrier, Triela thought.

"Ugh," the farther twin (Caterina?) grunted, "Cel, I'm getting tired of scaring her. It's too easy." She stopped scowling, lay back, and turned away from Triela, drawing the covers over herself. "Wake me up when she's gone, alright sorella?"

The closer twin, Celestina, turned to Triela, no longer scowling and smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry," she said, "Scaring you was Caterina's idea. We thought it would be funny."

Triela could only stare in disbelief. It was a joke? A prank? They don't really hate me? In any case, Triela thankfully found Celestina to be charming and amiable enough now that she had stopped scowling. Caterina on the other hand…

"Unfortunately," Celestina continued, sounding suddenly and inexplicably spiteful, yet retaining her sweet, innocent countenance, "It was a lot more boring than I thought it would be. I hope you're a better handler than a hostess."

Whoa, Triela thought to herself, getting increasingly surprised and impatient, Where the hell did that come from?! However, she managed to calm herself down. Triela didn't let Elsa de Sica get to her in the past, no matter how arrogant that girl became, and she definitely wasn't going to go off on her own cyborgs. She decided to keep playing the warm, friendly card, "O…kay, why don't we all calm down and try again. I'm Triela and-"

"And you'll be taking care of us for a while," Caterina finished for her impudently without even turning over to face Triela, "We understand all of that perfectly. We just think you're… how do I put this… too jumpy to be telling us what to do."

So it wasn't a prank, Triela thought to herself in amazement, It was a test! "Alright," she laughed, hiding her shock, "I guess I for fell for that, but since we're going to be working together, why don't the three of us try to be a little friendlier to each other?"

Celestina looked over at her sister's back. So we're going to drive her away?

Her sister answered without turning around, No, now that I think about it, chasing her off would probably land us with someone more difficult to handle. She should be okay for the moment.

Agreed, Celestina concluded. "Ma'am?" she decided to relay this decision, turning to Triela, "We're sorry for putting you through this. We've decided to accept you…" and then, with a small, poisonous, imp-like smile she added, "…for now."

Yeah, right, Triela scoffed in her head, and then aloud said confusedly, "Wait, when did you decide that? And why?" She was getting suspicious. So far, the Alvise Twins appeared to be the kind of manipulative, insidious people that always have an ulterior motive.

Caterina sat up and both girls got out of their beds simultaneously. They shrugged together and answered in perfect unison, dismissing the questions absentmindedly, "No reason."

"Alright," Triela said to the twins as they left the infirmary, "Since both of you are still probably getting used to your prosthetics, today we'll be selecting your firearms and going over safety and maintenance."

The twins, following slightly behind Triela, glanced at each other and grimaced. Then, Caterina said in protest, "The Agency's already given us rudimentary firearm knowledge."

"Key word being 'rudimentary'," Triela retorted, "And besides that, I don't believe you. Jean told me that you haven't received your weapons conditioning yet."

"What happened to 'working together' and 'getting along'?" Celestina asked, outraged.

"Don't get me wrong, I still want to work and get along with both of you," Triela answered flatly, "I just don't trust you yet, and I'm sure you don't trust me. I have an actual reason, though, because the two of you may look like the cutest little porcelain dolls ever made, but you act like… let's just say you act at a subhuman level."

The twins shared another glance, this time both rolling their eyes. Triela's 'doll' comment was likely sparked by the fact that they were wearing identical white dresses recovered from their family's estate and because of this everyone that crossed the trio's path stopped and stared, most likely wondering if they were looking at live humans or some experiment by the SWA scientific staff. In actuality, both were at least somewhat true.

After leaving the hospital wing and main building of the Agency, the trio found themselves outside in the courtyard. It was still early morning and the sun was still hidden behind large, gray clouds, the grass still damp with dew, and the air still chilly, cold, and wet. The twins shivered in their light, insulation-starved dresses.

"Hey, Triela!" a voice called out behind them. The group turned to see an approaching man wearing a dark leather jacket and jeans, with straight black hair framing his stubble-covered face.

"Amadeo," Triela said, more as a greeting than anything else.

The man smiled good-humoredly and commented, "Well, well, it looks like our little Princess has found herself two beautiful young handmaidens."

As they heard this, the twins glanced at each other once more and smirked in a dark, sinister fashion.

Noticing this, Triela began to panic. "No!" she cried out to no one in particular, "Why would you call me that?!"

Mistaking her tone for simple embarrassment, Amadeo laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Relax," he said, "You know it's just the pet name that the Agency's staff have for you. That's just how much we all love you."

Triela hung her head slightly. Never mind, she thought to herself in a comically despairing way, You wouldn't understand.

"Hey," Amadeo continued, "I heard about your new job."

"Well," Triela responded doubtfully, glancing at the twins, "It's become more of an assignment than a job, really."

"All the same, I wanted to wish you good luck. Me and the other non-handler staff were talking about it and we all agreed that no one else could manage to train two cyborgs at once. We're all sure you'll do great, though."

"Give everyone my thanks. Oh, and speaking of the two cyborgs, this is Celestina and Caterina."

"Actually, I'm Celestina."

"And I'm Caterina," the twins laughed innocently, putting on their masks and reintroducing themselves in the correct order. That is, the reverse order that Triela had done it.

Triela made a face and said cryptically, "They're… quite a handful, I'll tell you that."

"I'm sure they are," Amadeo laughed shaking the twins' hands. "You two are lucky. You get to be trained by our most talented girl. She'll take good care of you."

"We know," the twins said simultaneously in a sickeningly sweet manner.

Suddenly, Caterina tugged on Triela's arm and, to her horror, said, "Come on Princess, you promised us a lecture about guns!"

Celestina joined in, tugging on Triela's other arm, "I want to hear a lecture too, Princess!"

Triela hid her frustration as well as the twins hid their spite when she said, "S-sorry Amadeo, I have to take these squirts and lec-" she was cut off as the twins jerked her arms exceptionally hard at the "squirts" comment, "-Lecture them about the way to handle their inner demons – I mean chosen weapons!" The "demons" remark earned Triela a few more powerful tugs, but truthfully, it was worth it. The trio continued to walk across the courtyard toward the Agency's armory.

Amadeo watched them leave, the twins dragging Triela in whatever direction she was facing and she simply revolving herself, letting the girls move the group for her. "They're getting along really well already," he said to himself, smiling.

Hours later, the sun had begun to dip below the horizon, bathing everything in orange and pink. The moon was already visible, eagerly waiting to take over.

Claes sat at the table in her dorm reading about eggplants, a hot kettle of tea before her. She quietly took a sip from her own steaming cup as she flipped to the next page with her free thumb. She then realized with surprise that she had finished the book and so set it down and picked up another one about eggplant recipes.

Suddenly, the door burst open and Triela shambled in, hunched over from the fatigue that was the result of answering constant, intentionally stupid questions and being called "Princess" once every few seconds. She dragged her feet over to the chair opposite Claes and flopped down, dropping her head on the hard wood with a Thump!

Claes calmly steadied her teacup without spilling a drop or putting on any emotion. She then poured another one and passed it across the table to Triela, who took it slowly and sipped it. "Hard day at work?" Claes asked simply, focusing once again on her eggplant recipes.

"You don't even know," Triela answered tiredly, "I'm wiped out. Those twins… they're… they're… wait a minute, how did you know I was 'at work'?" She became suddenly attentive.

"Jean told me; told me to take it easy on you for a while."

"Huh," Triela scoffed, "Well after meeting the twins I don't think there's anything you can do to bug me."

"Are they that bad?"

"As I was saying, they're monsters!" Triela began to ramble quickly, "At first glance, you'd think that Caterina is the worst because she's openly arrogant and disrespectful, but I personally think Celestina is the eviler one! She pretends to be innocent and sweet and even when she's insulting you she does it in a polite, quiet tone. I mean honestly-"

Claes stopped her with a raised palm. "I get it," she said impatiently, "You had a hard day, but please try making your stories with a beginning, middle, and end."

Triela leaned back in her chair, arms folded behind her head. "Sorry," she said, cooling off with a short huff of her breath. She thought for a while about the twins and the way they acted. Both were rude, rotten, and all-around horrible, but something in their eyes didn't suit them. She didn't think it was possible for anyone to have eyes as beautiful as theirs and be so mean. Their hair was long, silky and shiny, their skin was fair, soft, and radiant, and those dresses they wore…

"I wonder," Triela contemplated quietly, "What makes those two so angry?"