"Oh Juli, please be more careful!!  I worry about you!!"  The brunette in the black bodysuit whimsically and mockingly imitated before sighing and laying back down in her medical bed.  "What is with Noelle when she talks like that, anyway?  Who does she think she is?  My mom?"

"Well, you know, Juli,"  Serina commented as she put a tray away on a cart to be wheeled out of the medical ward, "Noelle's just trying to be really nice and all.  Being shot is a big health no-no and generally something which could even cause death and other stuff like that."

Janet continued to watch them through the one-way window.  Behind her, the local evil custodian apprentice in her large amount of rags with that silly cap over her eyes was mopping the floor as her teacher/sensei/whatever-evil-custodians-who-reign over-their-apprentices are called watched.

"Besides,"  Serina continued.  "Noelle remarked that whatever the heck shot you could possibly have long term effects if it isn't handled soon.  Since that was like, Avelle's gun that Juni accidentally shot you with and Avelle tended to customize her gun to be like, really do stuff and stuff that causes lots of bad stuff to happen to the poor people that it does its stuff to."

Behind the window, Janet straightened out one of the braided tails in her hair.  She sighed as she checked some notes.  "How did Agent Juni get her hands on Avelle's gun, anyway?  I spent weeks searching for that dumb thing myself and I never found it..."

"Decided to forego your lab coat, oh 'doctor' Janet?"  Fenrir leapt down from the ceiling and landed in front of the girl.  "I see you've decided to wear the generic agent outfit.  You know, the rumours are that Lord Bison's true favorite flower is now wearing the same thing.  Isn't that a wonderful coincidence?"

"What of it?!"  Janet annoyedly snapped at the circular-haired agent.

Fenrir frowned, then glared at her.  "Hey, at least I have the right to this uniform, unlike a certain busy body usurper."

"SHUT UP!"  The extremely annoyed girl turned back to the window then continued.  "Why don't you go back to your training and leave me alone?  You know that you're still at a sixty-percent efficiency rating, right?  Even mine is higher than that and I haven't exactly been going on any missions for a while now."

She almost thought she heard Fenrir drawing her sword for a second before deciding not to, but by the time she turned to look, the other agent was already at the door.

There was some anger in her eyes but otherwise not much as Fenrir sarcastically commented, "Go back to monitoring Avelle's ghost's activity.  Being paranoid suits you much better."

Fenrir looked out the door and down the hall.

She turned around and smiled.  "Oh, and speaking of paranoia, look who Noelle is bringing to the medical ward, right now."

Janet quickly ran to the door and looked outside.

Rose and Noelle were walking down the hall exchanging some small talk as they headed to the medical ward.

"Hmph."  Janet remarked.  "I am NOT paranoid.  I don't really mind that Rose is here at all.  Really."

"Sure you don't..."  Fenrir laughed a little.  "Well, I'll be off then."

"And don't let Aurora out this time!"  The girl shouted at Fenrir as she left.

She looked around, then glanced back outside at Rose while Noelle was inputting the password to the medical ward.  Janet slowly smiled.  The lights in the room slowly faded, and a dimly lit spotlight centered on her as she gave a monologue.

Before Janet started, the custodial apprentice sighed.  "Where DO these lights keep coming from?"

"Silly Rose..." Janet slyly commented.  "Oh, make sure you enjoy your stay, oh little flower. For before you know it I'll make sure that anything after this will be nothing but torture and pain. Your petals shall scatter on the floor and vultures shall pick out what's left when I'm done and you'll learn that your very breath drinks in the reaper's chalice.  You think you know, what's going on, what'll happen? You have no idea. Dead people know not their fates as Azrael chooses them into his cradle. And his cradle is in my hands, now."

Janet laughed, then proceeded to walk back to the screen.

"AAAAAAAAH!!!!"  She slipped and slammed flat on her back hard to the ground.  The lights quickly turned back on as the girl angrily leapt to her feet and glared at the custodial apprentice.  "OKAY, why the HELL didn't you put out a wet floor sign?!?"

The custodian's apprentice simply grinned as her master shrugged.

"Hey,"  The custodian  remarked.  "I'm merely doing my part in an evil underground organization like this by contributing my own little bit of evil whenever I can. You want a wet floor sign?  Tough shit.  Go buy one yourself.  Custodial paychecks, even evil ones, aren't exactly six digit figures here."

His apprentice laughed.

"Don't mock me!!!"  Janet glared at the custodian's apprentice.  "I have better things to do than put up with you morons always undermining me like this!!!"

The custodian's apprentice giggled a little more before getting back to mopping the floor.

"It's bad over here." The red haired girl Rose came to know as Noelle walked in front of her to a destination unknown, "Really bad. But I guess the soldiers already told you. We're working overtime, that wasn't even my sector. If this goes on the medics will be in need for caring."

"Where are you taking me?" Rose said, not really sure how to react. After all, her encounter with Cammy was less then pleasant. How about twelve of them fresh for blood?

"Oh!" Noelle blinked.  "I just thought Juli'd be interested in seeing you again."

"Juli..." Rose whispered.  "I'm not exactly welcome here, though."

"Oh, don't worry about it."  Noelle smiled as she opened the door to the medical ward.  "We're not all that bad."

Another agent with a circular hairstyle walked up to Rose, stopped, stared at her, drew out a sword, spun it around in a circle, then grinned evilly at Rose before walking on.

Rose could only wonder and worry at what the heck that was about as she entered the medical ward and Juli turned to look at her from her bed.

Juli blinked.  "Rose!?"

"Ah, Agent Juli.  I met her in the cafeteria."  Noelle explained.  "I heard the rumours but I didn't know what to make of them.  But since you talked to Lady Rose more than I did back on that mission, I figured you might want to talk to her again now that she's with us."

"Um... thanks, I guess."  Juli remarked, still staring in shock at seeing Rose again.  "Yea, actually, that'll be just fine.  Serina, here, I think this time you don't have to listen in on us."

"I don't?"  Serina looked around, puzzled for a bit.  "Um... rah?"

"Rah!"  Juli snapped back.

"Okay, hooray, I guess."  Serina happily skipped out the door.  Noelle followed after her.

Juli shook her head sadly before looking up from her bed at Rose and frowning.  "What the hell are you doing here?"

"Nice to see you too," Rose smiled then talked inaudibly, almost to herself, "That didn't take very long did it?"

The brunette must have detected Rose's discomfort a bit since she somewhat apologetically explained.  "Well...  I'm a bit shocked."

"Really shocked!"  Serina shouted from the door way.  "Agent Juni shocked her with Avelle's lightning gun!  And oops, forgot, I don't need to be listening to this.  Bye!"

Juli glared at the doorway, then looked back at Rose.  "Do you have any idea what you being here means for us?  I don't know the exact specific details but even I know that we agents aren't supposed to be your cuddly friends, here."

Rose leaned back on the wall, "Funny, being in the exact same situation as before, hmm?"  She shook her head, "I know, exactly what I told Noelle when she dragged me over here. She was not supposed to see me. My concealment leaves much to be desired."

The lady laughed.

"What happened here, routine mission gone bad?"

"My partner shot me."  Juli bluntly replied.  She then smiled a bit and added, "Erm, accident, of course.  Speaking of which, there she is right now."

A young short haired blonde agent holding a purple hyacinth flower walked up to Juli.  "Hi, Juli.  I brought a flower.  I'm sorry I took so long to come over.  I had some things to do.  Sorry if I can't stick around for very long but I'm not feeling very well today."

The girl seemed to be so spaced out that she didn't even notice Rose nearby.

"Rose, this is my partner, Juni."  Juli introduced.  "Together, we managed to net a seventy-eight percent efficiency rating, each.  Which I guess makes us second in killing efficiency only to Cammy."

Rose leaned over to her and whispered.  "That's a super genetic soldier type? She looks so harmless."

"Harmless?"  Juli stared at Juni, who was putting the flower into a vase, then looked back at Rose.  "You know that she's a nazi, right?"

"A... nazi?"

"Yep.  You should listen to her rant about it."  Juli remarked.  "She tends to go on and on about how Hitler should have been the greatest thing that happened to the world.  Well, it's actually not that bad.  At least she doesn't believe in the bloody fun sadistic killings part."

Juni must have heard that last statement because she slowly muttered, "Poor poor lil' repressing Hitler..."

Juli frowned, then whispered more softly,  "I'm still trying to figure out what the hell she means when she says that."

Rose shrugged.  "Let me guess.  That strange little man, Irvine, got to her?"

"That's what I thought," The agent replied.  "But after asking her programmer a bit more, I learned that Irvine apparently didn't touch any of the doll programming at all.  Which... for some reason that I can't put my finger on, I find to be quite disturbing."

The two looked at Juni again.

"Watch this."  The brunette saluted.  "Third Reich!"

Her blonde partner quickly saluted in reply to her.  "Heil Hitler mein gocht ein schmidt stolchiem reinbach the third!"

Juli grinned and leaned back towards Rose.  "As you can see, her programmer didn't exactly have a very good grasp of the German language."

"......."  Juni stared in space for a moment before blinking again then slowly commented, "I'm tired.  I'm sorry, I must be off to take a nap."

As she left the room, Juli grinned at Rose.  "It's a great party trick!"

"If it doesn't freak everyone on the spot," Rose laughed, then thought to herself.  "Nazi technology? What kind of things is Shadoloo up to?"

"I've seen freakier."  The agent glanced around the room, then looked back at Rose.  "Ah... I need to talk to you about... other things.  But this really isn't the place.  Meet me in three hours at laboratory #002 in Science Sector F.  Just follow the 'You Are Here' signs that light up whenever you press those red 'I am lost.' buttons lying around the halls.  You can't miss it."

"There are....actually those in here?" Rose tried not to stall. She was lucky so far but who knew what other angry girls could enter at the very moment. "See you there."

Juli nodded as Rose left.

Fenrir watched the red-clothed mystic leave the medical ward then turned to the black agent beside her.  "She suspects.  Of course, she'd have to be really clueless to not get the message when I saw her before she entered the medical ward."

"So that's Rose..."  The other agent stared, a bit dumbfounded, as her pet monkey hopped from her left shoulder to her right.  "Is what Janet said about her true, too?"

"For the most part."  Fenrir nodded.  "If you thought Cammy was bad, Rose is even worse.  Cammy made sure that Bison simply would ignore the rest of us because all of his attention would be devoted to her.  But this Rose... she was Bison's original love, they say..."

"And... she'll make sure to crush any possible competition..."

"Janet told you that, too?"  The circular-haired agent put her hand on her chin in thought, then put it at her sword sheath.  "Agent Olvere, I need you to track down this Rose.  We should nip this flower in the bud now before it's too late.  Muramune was getting hungry, anyway."

Olvere nodded, and the two proceeded to head down the hall, until a voice stopped them.

"Vait!!!!"  The kooky professor Irvine quickly ran up to the two girls.  "Vhat are you trying to do?!?"

Fenrir slapped herself in the forehead. "Dammit, Irvine!!!  Must you always poke your stupid nose everywhere?!?"

"You can not go against zee ultimate authority figure like zat!!!"  Irvine snapped.  "Are you inzane?!?  Only those zat are truely pure in zee way can even hope to have a prayer against zee Rose!"

Irvine dug into his lab coat and yanked out a spear, then handed it to Olvere.

"Your stupid veapons are mere imitations!  If you truly can stack up to zee original painting, then zis spear shall stab her through for you!"

Fenrir and Olvere looked confusedly at the weapon.

"And you must use this sword, too!!   Zat pathetic one is not pointy enough!"  Irvine remarked as he handed Fenrir another sword.

Fenrir didn't recieve it.  "I don't need your stupid sword, Irvine!!  Haven't you decided that you messed with my life enough already!?  Olvere, come on.  We have a job to do."

Olvere nodded and the two proceeded back down the hall.

"YOU ARE REPRESSING!!!!"  Irvine shouted after them.  "Your failure shall prove Freud right yet again!!!!"

The lab room was eerily empty when Juli turned on the lights.  The large monitor was off, several files were lying around, and Juli herself hadn't been there in a while.

"That's odd..."  She muttered to herself.  "What has that guy been doing all this time, anyway?  Ah well, I'm sure he won't mind if I borrow our room for just a moment."

There was a knock at the door.  Juli opened it and found herself face to face with Rose again.

Rose.

Wearing the doll uniform.

It took Juli's eyes quite a while to adjust to Rose wearing that body-suit get-up.  Especially since Rose, compared to Juli, was so... so tall.

Juli blinked.

She never really noticed all the little oddities with that uniform before.  From the overall... shapeliness of it to the silly thing that was on Rose's head.  She finally made a comment.  "That McDonalds Cap really doesn't suit you."

"I could say the same about you."  Rose bluntly replied.

Juli took off the cap on her own head and stared at it in surprise, then put it back on and nodded.  "Point taken."

On the subject of strange uniforms, Rose had to ask. "So, one thing I've been wondering for a while now. What's with the ties?"

The agent blinked, as if realizing something for the first time.  "Ties? What ties?" She looked downward.  "Hmm, well I'll be... in all my life of serving Shadowlaw, I never really noticed this little thing. Who was the weirdo who designed our uniforms again?"

"How should I know?"  Rose shrugged.  "Now what did you want to talk about, again?"

"Over here."  Juli pressed a few keys on the computer then a wall in the back moved aside.  "We should... go to more private quarters."

She quickly yanked Rose into the room.  Somewhere, somehow, a lone Indian girl shed a tear at the subliminalness of the scene.

Juli locked the door, then proceeded to lead Rose down the short dark hallway.  "My friend in the science department secretly made this room when he first joined.  He was paranoid about Shadaloo monitoring his more private conversations.  I'm not supposed to know about the doll project after all, so I figured we could talk more in this room."

Juli offered Rose a seat at the lone dinner table in the room.  The Indian girl out there could already detect despite not knowing about the event that the day was not a good day for soulmates remaining faithful to each other.

"Wine?"  Juli asked.

"I suppose.." Rose sighed wearily.  "There's no harm in just a little sip. Thanks. So.... what was it you wanted?"

"What's it like, Rose?"  Also already seated, Juli took her own sip of the wine.  "I mean, what's it like to be in an organization where there are twelve super-soldier cloned girls out there who are programmed to want to kill you?  Even Noelle and Serina, who both seem greatly out of place in what's supposed to be an evil vicious organization, ended up going ballistic on you."

There was no easy way to honestly answer that question. She just shrugged, "I didn't come here to make friends. Like I said, I had absolutely no intention of meeting up with you all until Noelle caught me..."

Juli sarcastically thought to herself, "Well, I guess that rules out one option out of an infinite amount."  She then questioned further.  "Well, why did you come here, Rose?  I thought you and Bison hated each other.  Or that you were the avatar of good.  Or that at least you wanted to kill Bison and obviously working with him isn't going to help you with that.  Unless this is some sick twisted 'keep your friends closer than your enemies' kind of thing."

"A...lot has happened." Rose said thoughtfully, swiling her glass of wine delicately, "Things have changed. So much that even I have no idea what really happened. All I know is that I'm here, and Bison doesn't seem to be Satan's mean uncle anymore."

"Bison... is NOT Satan's mean uncle?"  The brunnette rolled her eyes.  "Last I checked, he still was an evil psychopath.  Just recently, he gave orders to his troops to go off slaughtering a bunch of helpless children in an already conquered backwater Amazonian village.  That seems like a pretty satanic thing to do to me.  Not that I really mind either way, though."

Rose shrugged, "He's still the same. The change is more, from me. Almost like a complete make over really. And if they're stupid enough to follow such an order than they get what they deserve."  The lady lowered her head for a few seconds before snapping back. "Oh! I'm sorry I didn't mean..."

Juli frowned.  "Are you SURE that you really wanted to join Shadaloo, Rose?  I really don't see anything stupid about such an order.  Ethical complications, perhaps, but other than that, it's not like the soldiers were told to run around then jump off a cliff. although I heard rumours that Bison sometimes gives those orders to people who pissed them off if he's in a bad mood."

A refill of her glass, a refill of Rose's.

The agent took another sip.  "I thought that I was programmed to believe everything I believed in, Rose.  But I've come to find out that's not necessarily true.  Maybe the initial beliefs were programmed in, but what beliefs I had developed afterwards came from myself.  The revelation was a relief, to say the least.  It's nice to find out that you're not some mindless drone who doesn't have a self-conscious at all."

The girl put the glass down, then stared intently at Rose.

"So considering how you believe that shooting children is so 'stupid', Rose, where's yours?"

Rose ignored the last bit, but couldn't but raise a little suspicion when she put down her glass abruptly. "Oh no, the initial order was stupid. The end result was stupider. The men were clearly not prepared."

"I noticed, self consciousness."  Rose added.  "You didn't proclaim eternal love to Bison when you mentioned his name this time."

"Ah... that?"  Stumped by the question for a bit, Juli had to think for a moment before responding.  "I didn't, did I?  I'm... not even sure how I feel about Bison anymore.  To be honest, it's been such a long time since I've seen him myself and knowing that the initial love I had for Bison wasn't self-conscious choice does tend to put a damper on the relationship a little."

"So can I declare you a traitor and carry out your execution now then, Agent Juli?"

Juli and Rose quickly turned to see the circular-haired agent, who was backed by another one.

"Agent Fenrir?  Olvere?"  Juli stared in shock.  "How did you get in here?"

"How did you find out about the doll project!?"  Fenrir questioned in return.  She then turned to look at her confused companion, and shook her head.  "Nevermind.  I thought Agent Olvere and I were just going to do some weed-whacking today, but it looks like we'll have to eliminate a certain lazy worthless agent too."

"You're here to kill Rose?"  Juli glanced at Rose, then back at Fenrir.  "Fenrir, if you know about the doll project, then you should know that your want to kill Rose isn't REALLY what you want."

"You'd be surprised."  Fenrir grinned, then stared at the psychic.  "Hmm... ah, Rose, you don't know me, but I know you.  I know that 'she' wouldn't want me to outright kill you heresay since she wants you for her own stupid reasons, but I don't really care what SHE thinks anymore."

Rose nodded, the other two simply stared in confusion. "Wonder if SHE would be too pleased at that disobedience. We all know her asipirations."

"Ooooo, so she-who-must-be-obeyed is displeased at me.  I'm scared, really, I am."  With her mockful reply, Fenrir drew her sword.  "If SHE has a problem with me, then my precious sword Muramune here will devour her soon enough.  But right now, Muramune cries for blood."

The sword-girl nodded to Olvere, who quickly readied her spear.

Fenrir then pointed the sword towards Rose and added, "Your blood."

Hearing that battle signal, Olvere raised the specially made spear custom fit and made by the Professor Irvine himself for this battle. But as she tried to reach it at a respectable height, it suddenly dramatically increased in weight, making her lose balance and swing it around wildly.

"Hey watch it!" Fenrir cried as the spear came too close to comfort. She stared in horror as the uncontrollable spear came stabbing directly toward her. The agent dodged succesfully and without harm.

Which was more than could be said for her sword.

She was on the verge of tears as she stared at the sword, snapped in half by the massive lance.  "Muramune? M...Muramune? NOOOOO! YOU KILLED IT!!!!!!"

Olvere didn't have anything to say but, "Well now.... isn't that... interesting?"

Not even the wildest animals or demons in the deepest jungles could compete with the angry glare Fenrir gave the poor bewildered Agent Olvere.

"A..agent Fenrir. I really think we should be attacking...them..?"

Fenrir stared at her broken sword in dismay.  The sight of it made her quickly forget her anger as her eyes had actually begun to fill with tears.

"Um... are you done yet?"  Juli asked.  "Or are we going to fight, now?"

"Fight?!?  Without my sword?"  The now ex-sword wielding agent kneeled to the ground.  "Muramune..."

"Whatever."  Juli shrugged.  "That's good.  For a minute there, I thought we'd have a fight scene where Rose and I would actually have to team up on you two."

"You're a fool, Agent Juli!"  Fenrir replied with an angry scowl.  "Lord Bison will kill us all, anyway!  He has his little Rose now.  He no longer needs us worthless stupid dolls to compensate.  I just hope he decides to have you terminated first so I can be there to see you die!"

The girl with her broken sword ran crying out of the room.  Olvere looked around confusedly before running after her.

Rose blinked, trying to register what happened. "Are they all like that?"

Having just as much trouble as Rose was with figuring out what just happened, Juli simply nodded.  "Sadly, yes, they are."

"I'm starting to think you're the only sane one in this nut house."  Rose remarked.

Juli had no comment.

"Here, you can have your stupid spear back."  A rather annoyed Olvere handed the spear back to the professor.  "I hope you're happy.  Agent Fenrir liked that sword even more than all the other swords so far that always end up breaking."

The agent walked off, deciding to stick to her own old tried-and-true spear from then on.

The Professor shook his head.  His words proved prophectic enough, and they failed for not realizing the way. He was mistaken, entrusting such a powerful weapon with someone who has not the mystical secret.

"I am dizapointed. Even with zee sword and spear, they pale in comparison to the rest of Shadoloo. Ah vell, at least I have zee notes about Fenrir's lamenting her dead sword by the Spear of Longinus."  Cheering up, Irvine smiled.  "Freud has been proven right yet again!"

"I suppose that's it, then."  In the hallway, Juli proceeded to give Rose her farewell.  "I'm sorry I wasted your time.  You probably won't be seeing me ever again, at least.  Fenrir has serious anger-control problems, but her comment about Lord Bison not needing us anymore was probably true.  So I guess this is goodbye."

"I..." Rose lowered her head, "I doubt that even Bison would try to do that. But I'll bring in a good word for you all next meeting."

"Would Bison do it?  I don't know."  Her head also bowed downwards, Juli sighed.  "Cammy's been the only one with him for such a long time..."

She looked up, then realized what Rose said, and stared at her.

"Um... you know what Cammy did to get on Bison's good side, right?  Besides the fact that her efficiency rating is the highest of all of us, the rather-founded rumours say that she.... well..."

Juli leaned over to whisper the rest to Rose quietly.

"That... that..." Rose had nothing to say, the pallor in her face spoke more than words.

"It's okay."  Juli comforted, though the disturbed look in Rose's face remained for a good bit.  "You'll be better off without us, anyway.  I don't think that soul drain move would easily disable us anymore, since I'm almost positive that Janet would have fixed that bug in the doll programming by now."

Rose sighed, "Let's hope so.  And regarding Bison, do not worry.  He's promiscuous enough not to choose monogamy."

"Perhaps..."  The agent's reply wasn't very confident, though.  "Rose, if you ever see us again, then you'll know that Bison decided to spare us.  If not, then... well, there's nothing more to say."

Juli gave one final salute to Rose.

"Goodbye, Rose.  I hope you enjoy your stay at Shadowlaw."