"You alright?" Sheva had heard about what Yuuki did at the bar, and was waiting for the twins in the foyer of the house when they came back. Right away she noticed that Yuuki's gloves were gone.
"Little shit tore my gloves to shreds when he tried to pull the knife out of my hand." Yuuki scowled briefly, but her expression softened when she realized who was talking to her. "How about you? How's your leg?"
"Still can't walk on it, but I can at least set it on the floor when I sit down." Sheva shrugged. "Mind if I ask what's so special about your gloves?"
"I bought them with my allowance when I was eleven. First thing I bought with my own money, never took them off unless I absolutely had to. And they've survived me and my bullshit for seven years..." Yuuki paused for a moment. "I guess they were just... part of me. Like... I wasn't completely me without them."
"I understand." Sheva nodded, glancing at Yuuki's hands for a moment. "They're the same ones that Val wears, right?"
"Same style, but not the same 'model' so to say." Valentine called from the kitchen.
"Hey, don't sweat it, Sheva." Yuuki shook her head. "I'll be alright for tonight. I know the store I got them from, I can get a new pair."
"But they won't have the same emotional attachment." Sheva pointed out.
"They're just gloves." Yuuki chuckled slightly. "It's like breaking a favourite mug, then finding the exact same one in a store the next day. Only difference is the little rips or chips are gone, and it's a lot cleaner than it was yesterday. Like going to a spa and coming back feeling fabulous, y'know?"
"That reminds me... I need to call Koko." Valentine called from the kitchen before he came wandering down the hall to join them. "Stop being cheeky, Yuuki. Sheva can't do the thing."
"What thing?" Sheva was briefly confused by what they were talking about.
"You wouldn't understand, it's hard to explain." Rachael giggled, well aware of what her siblings were referencing.
"Hey, Rico..." Sheva spoke to her Titan in their DNI a little later, just after Valentine went to see Koko about whatever their short phone call entailed. "Do you know what the hell they were talking about? What is 'the thing' they mentioned I can't do?"
"Do you want the honest answer? Or the logical one?"
"Does it matter?"
"It does, actually."
"Honest."
"They've all inherited a power from their father that allows them to do something called 'Break The Fourth Wall'. They've never actually revealed what exactly that means, but apparently it's something they can't actually control like their respective Kinetic powers."
"Sounds fucked up." Sheva chuckled at the unusual answer. "So how did Toby get it?"
"No idea, he never said how nor when he got the ability. Though I have noticed that Serenity can do it too."
"I don't understand it, but I at least get it enough not to question it anymore." Sheva sighed aloud for a moment. "On an entirely different note... You've been keeping track of things through my eyes, right?"
"I always do when we're not together." Rico replied.
"Have you noticed how Yuuki's been acting since Tselinoyarsk?"
"I have, yes."
"Anything coming to mind that would explain her strange edge?" Sheva hadn't failed to notice how much more aggressive Yuuki had been since Sunday, it was such a drastic switch compared to her usual problems with anger.
"Only thing that would make sense for her would be... regret." Rico paused for a moment. "I think she might have had a clean shot on Volgovitch when we were on the deck of the Nightfall... and she either didn't or couldn't take the opportunity to save you from being sent overboard. She's probably still coming to terms with the fact herself, hence the aggression that she'd had coming home almost immediately vanished when she realized you were waiting for her on the stairs like that."
"You were EMP'd, how the fuck did you learn that?" Sheva was surprised by Rico's insightful observation about Yuuki during the duel.
"I got all of this before and after, respectively. She had the nearest Vulcan turrets aimed at Volgovitch the entire time, and what with the way we were beaten, she couldn't open fire in time due to her reactions being delayed by shock. And of course, her behaviour afterwards - both on the ship and here at home - lead me to create this theory with confidence."
"What about Rachael?"
"Railguns stayed out of the way, otherwise just turning them to aim would've knocked me off the ship, let alone the shockwaves when they fire. She seems to be alright, in comparison. I will admit the loss of Yuuki's gloves may have simply been an unnecessary trigger to set off her emotions at that moment in time."
"Should I go talk to her?"
"Hang on... checking to see if she and Rachael are livestreaming." Rico replied, then after a moment added. "They're not streaming, but they did announce that they're gonna be studying for the rest of the night."
At that moment, Sheva heard the sound of one of the twins' voices coming from the top of the stairs, sounding incredibly frustrated.
"I AM SO FUCKING HORNY RIGHT NOW! GODDAMN IT!"
It was then accompanied by a peel of the other's laughter and marching feet descending the stairs, so Sheva eased herself onto her crutches to at least determine which twin was so pent up...
Rachael.
"Going to see the boys?" Sheva couldn't resist teasing Rachael as she shrugged on her biker jacket and grabbed her helmet from the hook they hung them on.
"No, I'm gonna kick their door down. If Yuuki wasn't so quick to make fun of me like that, I'd have bent her over our desk by now." Rachael waved over her shoulder as she shoved her head into the helmet and left the house.
Making her way up the stairs, Sheva knew Yuuki would hear her coming, so she wasn't surprised to see Yuuki sitting with her feet up on their desk, her eyebrow raised expectantly, almost as if she was excited by her arrival. Rico's theory grew stronger in her mind with that subtle expression change on Yuuki's face.
"Yo." Yuuki smiled slightly. "I heard that last part of what she said."
"Mind if I ask you something, Yuuki?" Sheva asked, and Yuuki seemed to pick up that it wasn't casual chit chat, so she sat upright and spun Rachael's abandoned desk chair around for her to sit in it.
"Why do I get the feeling I'm back in the cop shop?" Yuuki asked warily as Sheva sat down and leaned her crutches out of the way.
"I was just wondering what's gotten you so on edge since we got back from Russia. Rico thinks it's because of the fight with Sasha."
"You mean how I had the bitch lined up the entire time and never pulled the trigger?" Yuuki closed all six of her eyes and put her face into her palms. "Gotta give the big guy credit for noticing it first... Been tearing myself apart since I had the chance to stop you from getting tossed off the ship, but never did anything to do it in the first place."
"So the kid you shot earlier today... was that just an outburst?"
"Makes the most sense, now that I think about it..." Yuuki lifted her head, idly sweeping her lopsided hair out of her face as she leaned back in her chair, lifting her knee to rest her heel on the edge of her seat. "I panicked, never thought to open fire, and you lucky little shit managed to get off with a broken shin and bruised ribs. And I was this close to cracking open a bottle of Jack." Yuuki held up two fingers to signify the close call to her comment. "Fuck, I just... It's..." Yuuki faltered, then sighed for a moment before tilting her head slightly in a way that Sheva instinctively knew was Yuuki's direct gaze hidden in the solid cyan glow from all six of her eyes. "You're family. And my family means everything to me. When you fell overboard, all I could see was the 'what if' images of you dying. I just... Can't. I can't lose family like that... Virus or not, it just kills me to even think about losing anyone like th..."
Sheva didn't even realized she'd moved until Yuuki purposefully pulled apart their sudden kiss, but her eyes all turned over to her Kakugan, and all of her eyes were locked onto Sheva's face.
"You have a boyfriend." Yuuki pointed out in a very matter of fact tone.
"And you have a harem." Sheva countered. "Don't be a dense protagonist like every harem anime we've ever seen, 'kay?"
"Your boyfriend is my little brother. You don't seem to realize how awkward I feel right now..."
"Says the one into incest with her twin."
"You're not really helping my case, are you?"
"Should I be? Even I can tell what triggers your Kakugan like that. Val's goes off immediately, just like yours did, whenever I make a move on him. Besides, I already know what's making you hesitate like that. Val and Mr. Birkin did a couple tests on my blood and confirmed that I'm actually one of the rare individuals that's actually immune to the T-Virus. Your C-Virus was stemmed from T-Virus exposure, so I'm almost certainly immune to it too."
"And even Sherry's G-Virus?"
"Isn't the G-Virus a prototype of the T-Virus in the first place?"
"You're not wrong..." Yuuki's red and black eyes all averted to the side, and a faint pink flush was creeping onto her cheeks. "But this is still awkward for me, even if you're safe from being infected by any of us."
"Rachael went to see her boy-twins. Val's meeting with Koko for something about the ship. Toby's back at the base until eleven, and Rize's writing on her computer. Odin's out back, and both Kuro and Shiro went with Val." Sheva smirked slightly as she realized that Yuuki's fingers twitched at the same time her expression changed to a slight pout.
"Justify it as having no other options to get off, then fine. But you're too young to be part of my harem, sorry." Yuuki slightly smiled at the absurdity of her comment, but gently leaned closer to Sheva until their lips were less than an inch apart. "Just our little secret, and it's just to get off. Deal?" She whispered, already feeling Sheva's fingers clenching at the shoulders of her t-shirt.
But before either of them could make it any further, Yuuki's eyes snapped towards the door, detecting a faint sound of approaching footsteps.
"Someone's here... Front door. I got it." Yuuki already knew it had been a buzzkill, so her eyes returned to blue as she hurried downstairs, leaving Sheva to collect herself for a moment until she heard Yuuki opening the door, and for a very brief moment there was utter silence...
"MOM!"
Rize came hurrying out of her office at the worried tone to Yuuki's voice, and Sheva managed to hobble over to the door of the twins room to see an unfamiliar old man leaning heavily on a cane, with a suited man behind him, just out of her view.
"Sir Spencer, I thought you were still in Europe?" Rize asked warily as she held the door open to invite the old man inside, having Yuuki step aside.
"I have some news that Tobias needs to hear in person. How quickly can he be here?" Sir Spencer spoke in a gravelly, slightly strained voice that clearly gave away his age of almost 94 years old.
"Sheva, can you have Rico relay that for us?" Rize turned back to Sheva at the top of the stairs, nodding as she called to her Titan at the BSAA base.
"Sir." Tobias nodded his head respectfully at the sight of Sir Spencer seated in the family's black armchair when he arrived. "I was told you have something to share?"
"You feeling up for a bit of T-Virus history?" Sir Spencer smiled slightly. "Because it's directly related to what I'm here for."
"I presume Walter's here and has documents to go with this storytelling?" Tobias already knew the butler was present in the house, likely preparing tea for Sir Spencer in the kitchen.
"No documents, but he's here, yes." Sir Spencer shook his head slightly. "So, skipping the irrelevant details, there's a flower that produces the original base of the T-Virus, which became known as the Progenitor Virus. Only grows in a specific cave system in Africa, it was myself and James Marcus that secured the caves back in the late 60's for our research, and it later became the one in your veins now."
"I understand so far." Tobias nodded slowly, stroking his lip with his thumb, which Sir Spencer internally noted before continuing with his speech.
"The Progenitor Virus alone is limited in bioterrorism applications, since it requires synthesis with certain DNA to even become usable. My point is that even in raw form, the flower... it can still be used to conduct mass infection. And now to the reason I am here..."
"Let me guess, Syndicate did some digging, both literally and figuratively, and found the flowers?" Rachael's voice came from the front door behind her father, drawing Sir Spencer's gaze at the new arrival of the other half of the Darkwood twins.
"You are correct... Miss?" Sir Spencer raised an eyebrow curiously.
"Rachael. I'm Yuuki's cloned twin sister." Rachael indicated her eldest sister sitting on the stairs nearby. "Zenith got wind of an Africa operation earlier, so I came back to tell Dad, and heard enough to piece that together."
"Alright, so what do you want us to do, Sir Spencer?" Tobias asked, turning his gaze back to the oldest man he knew in the world.
"You might want to bring your wife and brother into those caves with you... And your new ship to make sure there's no further risk of the plants being cultivated ever again." Sir Spencer chuckled slightly. "I already know what those damned things can be used for, I've learned from the evils of my past sins."
"You were a scientist, then a businessman. You did nothing truly evil, Sir Spencer. The ones you left in control of your company's research are to blame. I actually know the original intended application of the T-Virus. It was to cure decaying muscle tissue and dead cells."
"Which it does do... Sort of." Sir Spencer laughed heartily with a warm smile on his face. "Only problem was Marcus and his damn leeches, royally fucked the whole thing up, that dumbass did."