Raychaell: Hello there guys! SORRY I NEVER UPDATED FOR THE PAST FEW DAYS! SORRY! I had a mini writer's block, and added to that, my mom confiscated the laptop for two days! SORRY! Anyway, back to the story. Bet you're all thinking, 'Rouge and Claudia are TWINS?' Surprising, right?

Rouge: It would be to those who do not know at all. And Phantomhive still can't seem to get over the shock…

Raychaell: And so, without further ado, let us start this chapter! And to all Casshern lovers, the cat will be reappearing briefly in this chapter!

Disclaimer: I do not; thankfully own Black Butler since I'm already getting a headache writing this story!

Italics - Flashback

Last time on A Rescue and Surprising News

"Ciel, Sebastian, meet my twin brother, Lord Carlisle Damien Donovan Darius, bearer of the title, the Black Rose."

"YOUR TWIN BROTHER?"

"YOUR TWIN BROTHER?" Ciel and Sebastian yelled in unison even as they exchanged shocked looks. Of all the things they were expecting to hear, this was the last thing they expected.

Next to them, William and Jade exchanged raised eyebrows before bending down to one knee, with one hand over their hearts, and murmuring, "It's a pleasure to acknowledge you at last, my Lord."

Rouge, or Carlisle which was his real name after all, started laughing away at the shocked expressions, earning him a nudge in the ribs from Claudia.

"Stop laughing at them already, big bro. They are already upset over the news that you tricked them so spare them any further humiliation." Claudia said in a scolding manner, about to say more only to start swaying on her feet. Will and Carlisle were quick to react and support her between them.

"Didn't I tell you that you should rest in your room, little sister?" Carlisle scolded, concern apparent in his face and voice.

Claudia merely rolled her eyes, and replied, albeit weakly, "I'm not that fragile, bro, so stop cosseting me already."

Carlisle merely hugged her tightly and whispered a reply that everyone heard clearly. "I can't bear to lose you like I lost Mom and Dad, so can't you be obedient for once and let me be happy? William," At this, Carlisle looked up into William's expectant gaze, " Can you take Claudia back to her room to rest?" William nodded in reply. Claudia buried her face into his chest, clinging tightly to him, not willing to be separated from her twin. William and Jade sighed and exchanged rueful looks that clearly showed that they had seen this scene plenty of times. Ciel and Sebastian just looked at each other; surprised by the emotions the usually cheerful twins had always hidden under fake smiles.

Carlisle sighed ruefully. "Fine, you may stay. But you are to sit on the settee at all times, understand?" He said, mock glaring at his twin who immediately let go of him and sat on the settee he indicated. With a bright smile, she patted the empty space next to her, where Carlisle plopped into, his attention now on Ciel and Sebastian, who remained standing, looking at the twins with expectant gazes.

"Care to tell us the whole story now?" Ciel asked in a sarcastic manner. Carlisle opened his mouth for a response, only to be interrupted by a scratching at the door and an irritated yowl.

"Casshern! I forgot about him!" Claudia shouted and nearly headed for the door, only to be stopped by a stern glance from her twin. Carlisle looked at William, who nodded in understanding before heading for the door and opening it to reveal a furious Casshern. The cat, upon seeing Claudia, made a beeline for her, deftly avoiding Sebastian's attempts to catch him for himself. Casshern leapt straight into his mistress' arms, purring contentedly while rubbing his head against Claudia's cheek. An irritated Ciel, whose glare promised death for the next interruption, soon interrupted Claudia's blissful moment.

Carlisle quickly spoke. "Back to the story, Claudia and I are truly twins. Surely you can see how we're practically mirror images of each other?" Ciel and Sebastian couldn't deny that fact. After all, if the twins weren't wearing different clothes and had different hairstyles, Ciel would have a hard time telling them apart.

Carlisle continued. "Now, I'm going to tell you everything, but please do not interrupt, or else I will not continue. If you have any questions, ask when I've finished."

"Now, this story will have to start from our parents. Our parents were Lord Daniel Gilbert Oscar Darius, and Lady Cassandra Teresa Nolan Darius. They met at Dad's twenty-first birthday ball. It's rather funny how they met. Apparently our mother, who at that time was a noble from the Nolan house, had stumbled into my father while he was escaping from his lady admirers. Mother was just eighteen then, and was soon to engage to Lord Victor Bogart, who was an Earl back then, and rather good looking too. Anyway, both crashed into each other, instant hate occurred between both when Dad tried to flirt with Mom, thinking that she was just another Lady admirer he could flirt with."

"Needless to say, Mom wasn't amused, and called Dad plenty of names that weren't fit for the ears of a well bred noble. But Dad didn't give up, and eventually managed to charm Mom into accepting him. Mom gradually came to love him, but it wasn't all thanks to Dad."

"You see Mom has a gift for predicting the future. You may call her a clairvoyant, and that gift was from the Nolan line. It apparently manifests itself in women only, and there was no way of predicting which daughter had it, since the gift was so erratic that it may take form in mother and daughter, or it may not show itself for one whole century and appear in another daughter instead. Therefore, the Nolan family hid this gift of theirs and instead quietly groomed each daughter on what to do should the gift manifest in them."

"Mom saw Dad in a dream, where they were happily married and had a blissful life ahead of them. When she woke up, she realized then how much she actually loved Dad, and that the relationship she had with Victor Bogart didn't mean anything to her at all except for a simple friendship. So, she personally told Lord Bogart the news that she was ending their relationship. Victor was upset over these news, but seeing how happy Mom was when with Dad, he accepted the break up and turned to gambling to ease the heartbreak."

"Mom was twenty when she married Dad, and twenty one when she became pregnant with us. She was just two months into pregnancy when a group of scientists approached our parents, asking Mom to let us be part of their experiment."

"Apparently, they wanted to create genetically engineered assassins, assassins that would not feel pain, and were much stronger, faster and smarter than the average human. These assassins would also have increased reflexes that would make them the best of all. But for these assassins to be created, the scientists needed a human egg, or the fetus of a human since earlier experiments showed that humans that were already born could not be made into perfect assassin the scientists wanted. Therefore, they needed us."

"Our parents were doubtful of these experiments at first. They did not condone human experimentation, but the scientists assured them that the humans they were experimenting on were all volunteers. No one was forced into doing these experiments. After some written evidence and weeks of persuasion, Mom and Dad gave in, and accepted us being used."

"I remember Mom and Dad telling me that that decision they made was one of the harshest decisions they ever made. Mom was inconsolable for weeks after we were taken out of her womb, and turned into test tube babies. The scientists did a lot of experimenting on us and other baby fetuses that were taken from their mothers too. Out of all these babies, we were the successes. We still have no idea how this was possible, but we know that when Mom learned of their success, she immediately wanted us back, experiments or not. Dad supported her in this."

"The scientists were not happy, since they wanted to watch us grow up and see if their experimenting was a true success. But the Queen, who is our grand aunt by the way, and Dad's maternal aunt, was the sponsor of these experiments and gave a royal command that we were to be returned. It made Mom and Dad happy, and we were soon born."

"We were born as twins, but the scientists had no idea about this, since when they took us, we were one. It was after the experimentation that we separated and became twins. No one knew, except our parents, the family doctor who oversaw our birth, Jade, Gertrude and Isaiah. One boy, one girl, and according to our parents, when we were born, we refused to let go of each other's hands and clung tightly to one another. We were inseparable. And even as we grew up, we stayed by each others' sides and cried whenever we were separated to different rooms."

Claudia continued the story when Carlisle's voice faded away. "Then our peaceful lives changed when we were nearing our twelfth birthday. At that time, William had not entered our service yet, and Jade served as our protector and Thorn. We were already more intelligent than the average eleven year old child and our parents decided to start our training as the Crimson and Black Roses. We trained hard in self defense, combat lessons with kinds of weapons, and were taught all about our duty to the Queen."

"We trained hard, and did our best in all our lessons. At the same time, Mom and Dad had to hide Carlisle, since we did not want to alert our enemies to the fact that our parents had twins instead of the single child everyone thought they had."

"Anyway, four months before our twelfth birthday, our parents organized a ball at our residence that my brother and I regularly swapped places so that he could see what a ball was like. Lord Bogart came to the party with his son, Jonas. When my parents introduced us to Jonas, I was the one who met him first. He was just like his father, having the same hair, nose but his mother's looks. Upon seeing me, Jonas foolishly fell in love with my beauty. His father then decided on the spot to ask my parents to allow Jonas to marry me when we were older."

"Mom and Dad disagreed. They didn't think the marriage would work out, seeing as to how I showed absolutely no feelings of any kind for the young Lord. Instead, I hated him the moment I read both his and his dad's minds. Both thought me as beautiful, but his father was thinking about how he could use my family's riches to rebuild his own family finances since he had gambled most of it away. That was one of the reasons why my family declined the engagement."

"Lord Bogart was not happy about it. He was hoping for the engagement to his beloved son and hated rejection. So he started to woo back our parents' favor by sending them expensive gifts or trying to put Jonas and me together. My parents were not fooled by his flattery or gifts. Instead, they sent back every gift offered, and rejected every attempt to put me and Jonas together."

"Lord Bogart then decided to take matters into his own hands. As you may have found out, I was sick the day my parents left for London. They were thinking of bringing Carlisle along, but Carlisle wanted to stay and take care of me. This decision saved his life."

"Lord Bogart, taking advantage of the fact that I was not with them, decided to set fire to the townhouse with his cronies. Mom never saw it coming, either in dreams or in real life. They died in the fire, leaving Carlisle and me as orphans, Of course, the police never found out about Lord Bogart despite everything. The suspect they arrested was just a scapegoat Lord Bogart had for situations like these. In the end, the police couldn't find anything pinning Lord Bogart to the crime, and the case was eventually closed."

"Lord Bogart decided to take advantage of our orphan status to adopt me. But the Queen was one step ahead of him, and decided that Jade would take care of us and become our legal guardian. Bogart was furious at this news, but did not dare defy a royal order. Then Uncle Lionel secretly stepped in to continue our training as the twin Roses."

"The position of Black Rose was held by our Uncle Lionel Darius back then, who was a bachelor and he was getting old anyway, so he decided to take Carlisle under his wing, and trained me the best he could to become the Crimson Rose. Carlisle was told to take on a new alias, so as to ensure that no one could trace him back to me. When Uncle Lionel passed away in his sleep, leaving us truly alone with Jade to care for us. It was two weeks before our birthday."

"Things became problematic after his death. Brother here had to take on the mantle of Black Rose, which meant becoming Rouge, so Jade had no idea whether to leave with big bro or stay by my side. The night after Uncle's death, I dreamt of William."

"It was a surprise to me when I first dreamt about him. After all, I had no idea that I had my mother's gift for clairvoyance. Therefore, I didn't really have any idea whether I was having an actual vision or a dream."

"I saw William being used as a human experiment. He was in pain and wanted to run away, the only problem being that the place he was imprisoned in had no escape route. Even if he managed to escape, he would be lost in a snow-covered town. Therefore, he wanted out so badly that somehow, I saw him."

"But that wasn't all I saw. I saw him by my side, and being my most loyal servant. But there would also come a time where he would undergo the greatest torment of all. I had no idea what it meant, and since Mother always told me the future is unpredictable, I decided to ignore the last part."

"So I started searching all the locations I knew were snow covered. After all, from my dream, the place where Will was held had snow all season. This helped me narrow my area of search. Carlisle and Jade also helped a lot by asking all the contacts they knew and had. And that was how we learned of the super soldier project."

"Apparently the military had been trying to create the perfect soldier, with many of its traits similar to ours. For example, enhanced strength, speed and also a soldier's mind. This meant that the soldier created from these experiments would be brainwashed to only follow the commands of the officer in charge. This had always been a success, until it was Will's turn."

"Will had all the traits of the perfect soldier, and it was easy for them to enhance these traits, but when it came to brainwashing him, it didn't work. William was determined to hold onto his own will and refused to be brainwashed. This earned him multiple punishments among the scientists. They tried lots of ways to strip him of his will, sometimes even resorting to physical torture."

"After months of torture, Will managed to escape but got lost in the same town I predicted he would be in. And then I finally found him. I'll let Will continue from here." Claudia finished, placing her hand above William's, which was on her right shoulder. William smiled briefly at Claudia before speaking.

"I do not remember exactly where and who I was before Lady Claudia found me. What I do remember is that I was just a simple test subject in the eyes of the researchers and scientists. Even though the brainwashing did not succeed in stripping my will and personality away, what they did succeed in was removing my past memories of who I was before I became a human test subject."

"They did numerous methods of torture to me, some of which I can still recall in my dreams. It was traumatizing, and I barely survived it. It took me months to gather my resolve to escape from my prison. And from there, I managed to escape in just a simple hospital gown to cover my body. And then, I hid in the freezing snow to avoid my pursuers."

Flashback

He hid in the snow, freezing away. The stinking garbage hid his scent from the scent hounds that hunted him while he trembled in his fear. He was so cold, and so tired that all he longed for was the chance to sleep without fear for the next round of torture. But he couldn't sleep! No he could not. After all, if he slept, he may never wake up and lose the battle to survive. So he kept pinching himself awake and moved the best he could in the alleyway in which he hid in.

He was about to fall asleep again when he heard her voice. It clearly belonged to a girl, and her next words froze him and made him shrink back into the shadows in fear. "Jade, I know he's nearby! I just know it!"

He shrank even further back, only to hiss in pain as his bare foot stepped onto broken glass, making him slip and fall onto his bum. Then he heard the voice again, this time at the mouth of the alleyway he hid in. "Jade, over here! I found him!"

He looked up in fear, only to see the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen. Amethyst eyes stared deep into his icy blue eyes, making him think that the eyes were looking into his soul. The eyes belonged to a youthful face of a girl's who looked no older than twelve. She was dressed in a white hooded fur lined coat, which had red highlights on it. White snow boots peeked out from under her coat, and a rose red scarf was wrapped around her neck.

He couldn't help but shiver as a cold wind swept through the alleyway. Upon seeing his shiver, she quickly unwrapped her scarf and offered it to him, smiling gently as she did so. With trembling fingers, he accepted the scarf from her white gloved hands, and quickly wrapped it around his neck while looking at her with a distrustful gaze. Then she asked, "Are you very cold? I would love to offer my coat, but it's much too small for you, so I'm afraid you'll have to be contented with the scarf instead."

Then they both heard a voice. He recognized it. He would never forget that voice, for it belonged to the general who had allowed the torture to try and break him. "Young lady, please step away from that man, He is a dangerous fugitive who is now under arrest."

At this she straightened, her hood falling back to reveal ebony black hair which flowed down her back in a black wave as she held her head up to gaze into the general's eyes. "Is he really a fugitive? He just looks like someone who is starved and dehydrated." The girl said mildly, her gaze full of apparent innocence.

The general bristled at this. The man could understand why. The general did not like having his words contradicted, and now this girl was questioning him, insulting his position. "I repeat, little girl, step away from that man before I remove you with force." The general spat in rage.

The girl merely snorted, before drawing herself up to her full height, which only reached to his waist at most. Her gaze turned into a haughty glare, which was emphasized by her next words. "I am Lady Claudia Rosario Alicia Darius, head of the Darius house and bearer of the title, Crimson Rose! Therefore, I advise you to treat me with respect befitting one of my status!"

The general and him were taken aback by her words, but before the general could scramble for a reply, she continued. "This so called fugitive here is to be my employee and join my staff. So do give him some respect too or I'll report your misconduct to your superior officer, you understand?"

The general's face turned red with rage, and he said coldly, "Since you want to take him, Lady whoever you are, I'm afraid I can't let you go. Soldier," This was directed to him, "This is an order! Kill that girl!"

The soldier struggled to disobey even as his hands rose to try and grab her neck and snap it. He had no wish to kill the girl who had offered him kindness and a new life while many others treated him with contempt. Then he heard Lady Claudia's voice again, this time a comforting melody to his ears. "Do not worry. You have no need to obey him, because that general has no control over you. I hereby return you your will." With her words, she gently kissed his cheeks and the soldier felt his hands fall to his side, as the order no longer controlled him.

The general was clearly pissed off, and he drew out a gun, aiming it for Lady Claudia's head. "Whoever you are, I'll kill you first before taking back that failure to be disposed of!" With that, he flicked the safety off, his finger tightening on the trigger, clearly preparing to shoot her.

Lady Claudia just looked at him with an amused gaze before speaking clearly. "You have just clearly made your biggest mistake in underestimating me. So why don't you just aim that gun you hold at your own head and shoot yourself. " The soldier and general both widened their eyes in disbelief as the general's arm moved and, pressing the gun muzzle to his right temple, pulled the trigger.

"BANG!"

The sight before him stunned the soldier. Half the general's head was gone and in its place was a bloody mess. After a few seconds, the general slowly dropped to the ground with a muffled thump. Lady Claudia examined the general's corpse with a gaze of indifference. "Hmph, too much mess this time." She said with a sniff. She turned her attention away from the dead body and started back towards him, a friendly smile now in her face. She was about to speak when a loud voice interrupted her.

"Lady Claudia, are you all right?" The voice belonged to a young woman who was slightly shorter than him, and dressed in winter gear that was similar to Lady Claudia's the only difference being that hers was all black. She also had a bag on her back that was coloured forest green. Jade green eyes stared anxiously at the calm girl before she noticed the shivering soldier and the dead general.

"Hey Jade, pass over that bag, would you? He needs it." Lady Claudia said towards Jade even as she turned towards him. The soldier watched in surprise as the woman named Jade unloaded her bag and opened it. She took out something and shook it out to reveal a black fur lined coat. She wasn't finished though. She took out a set of fur lined black boots as well, and handed it over to Lady Claudia, who gave them to him. He accepted it with trembling hands, and put both on. The coat and boots were, surprisingly, a perfect fit. He fully knelt down then, to the surprise of both women, and bowed his head towards Lady Claudia.

"Lady Claudia, thank you… thank you so much for saving me. I am forever in your debt." He started to bend his forehead towards the ground, only to be stopped by a small hand on his shoulder. He looked up to see Lady Claudia's face full of worry.

"Please do not do that. I hate it when people bow to me for without my permission." She said gently even as she hooked an arm under his elbow. With that, he staggered to his feet with her help, and managed to stand up, limping towards the alleyway and his new life.

To be continued!

Raychaell: Love it? Review then!

Claudia: About time you finished it… I was beginning to think that you've abandoned us!

Raychaell: Sorry! But then I keep getting distracted because I have a great idea for a D. Gray Man fanfic! (It's great! Watch the anime or read the manga! Both are awesome!) So I'll try to speed this up so that I can write the other.

Claudia: I hate you.

Raychaell: *glomps Claudia* Love you too!