Sound system ready.  Set to full blast, powered by the processing might of her room-mate's computer system.  Mike in hand, CD in the drive, karaoke program set, kitty plushy on the bed to act as the audience, and everything ready to go.

Yippy skippy!

The fluffy pink-haired girl known as Serina held the microphone up in the air before bringing it back down near her mouth again and spinning around.

"Who is the guy that everyone likes?"

Seemingly not paying attention as she stared at her screen, Marzche responded.  "Freudian Mike from Oedipal Pike."

"Who is the guy that forsends his night?"

"Freudian Mike from Oedipal Pike."

The pitch became higher.

"Who is the guy that for all we care?!"

"Freudian Mike from Oedipal Pike!!"

"Who is the guy sung by this girl with the mike?"

"Freudian Mike from Oedipal Pike."

The beat picked up as the chorus began.

"Who is the guy that makes your day?  Who is the guy that knows the way?  Who is the guy that rules over all?  Who is the guy who's aura is ten stories tall?"

Who is the guy that makes you fear?  Who is the guy that makes you cheer?  Who is the guy that steals the show?  Who is the guy with the great shadow?"

Marzche paused for a moment before responding.  "Clueless Moe from Cannibal Joe?"

Serina looked at her, and snickered a bit.

"NO!!"

Marzche smiled.  "Ah!  Freudian Mike from Oedipal Pike!"

The second verse started.

"Who is the guy that loves his mo..."

"SHUT UP!!!"

Serina and Marzche quickly turned to face Juli, whom they failed to notice had entered the room earlier.

The annoyed brunette glared at the two and spoke in a slow angry tone.  "Do you have ANY idea how ANNOYING that stupid nonsensical song sounds?!?"

"Not really."  Marzche responded.  "I have my headphones set to block out the music."

"You're not being very nice today."  Serina muttered with a sad tone.  "Something go wrong?"

Juli simply frowned.

"Well, anyway, we have something which should cheer you up!"  The karaoke girl happily continued.  "But I hope you appreciate it, because spying on others is mean and whatnot!"

"Huh?  You actually found a conversation from those videos that wasn't just gibberish?"  In a flash, the anger was forgotten.  Juli leaned over Marzche's shoulder to look at the laptop computer screen.  It was the same scene as before she left.  Once again, there was Professor Janet, Senoh, and Irvine at one of their private scientist meetings...

On the screen, Janet poured herself a cup of coffee before turning to the table and sitting down.  "The battlecruiser cannon is still malfunctioning.  It is currently experiencing a series of overheating, but I'm sure that it'll cool down soon enough and the heat will be returned as a useable energy."

"Hmph!"  Senoh coughed.  "That yamato cannon is too unreliable.  Maybe we should petition to the high commander to have it removed."

"Zee battlecruiser cannon has its uses at times."  Professor Irvine broke in.  "What we have now are zee more important things to discuss."

"Yes, well, let us arrive back to our own garden and worry about what the cruiser is doing way up in space with its overheating cannon, later."  Janet remarked.  "As we all know, that simple little flower has managed to survive past New Year's, the emotion of love, and basically everything else in the garden.  It has even managed to significantly withstand the harsh storms and showers of the elements."

"Hmm..."  Old man Senoh put his hand to his chin.  "This flower is an extremely durable little thing.  Perhaps we should try to test its endurance against more than just one factor at a time."

"It is already set."  The female scientist replied.  "There will be a heatwave lasting two months in the near future, and we shall see if the flower will be wilted or not from the barrage."

"The high commander already seems to enjoy zee little flower very much, I see."  Irvine grinned.  "But of course it is to be expected since zee flower is zee most similar to zee rose, of who's aura would be most suited for a fine spouse for zee commander."

"I will take the rose, myself."  Janet assertingly replied, her facial expression becoming extremely serious.  "I will pluck it from its roots and its scent will be my perfume.  It shall be more alluring than the scent of any other mere flower could ever hope to be."

Senoh let out a cackle, while Irvine continued to grin, but the serious look on Janet's face remained.  Juli, on the other hand, could only think of one thing to say.

"Okay," Juli muttered.  "What the hell was that?"

I am Agent Juli, a special forces soldier of Shadaloo.  A while back, I had the fortune of being given a partner by a friend in the scientist department.  She actually turned out to be extremely helpful, as well as a good friend.  She used to get in my way all the time, but she learned quickly and now I find it hard to picture that I ever got along without her.  But she wasn't just a normal partner.  She wasn't even human.  She was a freak.  A test-tube subject.  A clone, for crying out loud.  I didn't know much about Doctor Hawlson's "doll" project; I didn't know about it at all.  I still don't know why to this day I did what I did.  I became determined to know the truth about the doll.  I wanted to know the truth about my partner.  But I didn't know that when I was looking for the truth about my partner, I would find the truth about myself.

Dressed in a wide assortment of varied rags and wearing a large dirty coat and cap, the custodian sighed as she continued to attempt to clean away the red stains on the floor.  Leaning against the laboratory's wall observing the site was another agent with a circular brown haircut, Agent Fenrir.  She slowly looked at the still uncleaned spilt blood on the ground, seemingly drawing an unknown inspiration from it and the events that transpired.

Kneeling down to another blood stain was another agent.  This one had a red skin-tone and wore a headband with a feather in it as well as an animal hide vest over the usual Shadaloo agent uniform.  Unlike Fenrir, she wasn't drawing any pleasure from the blood on the floor, but instead was meditating deeply on the consequences of the horrible sight before her.

Juli and Marzche entered the room, unprepared for the sight before them.

A stare at the blood on the ground was given by the brown-haired newcomer.  "What happened here?"

Fenrir calmly closed her eyes and smiled.  "Intruder alert.  Security took care of him really nicely though."

"Stubborn blood stains..." the custodian muttered as she tried to scrub harder.

"What happened to our old evil custodian?"  Juli asked, glancing at the female newbie working away at the mess.

Marzche answered the question this time.  "I heard he got an apprentice or something to help him with his job after Juni filed more complaints about how dirty our working conditions were."

"I... I don't like it."  The other agent with Fenrir muttered, her eyes also closed, but mainly due to thought.  "I've been getting some extremely bad vibes from this occurrence."

"Those vibes is probably the lashing that all of us will recieve for letting that guy get this far.  From the agents to the soldiers to the ones that programmed the encryption of our computer system, we're all in pretty big trouble now."  Fenrir responded, though she didn't seem shaken up about it at all.  In fact, the grin on her face and the calm closed eyes remained.  "Special forces soldiers might not be responsible for security, but to let someone infiltrate our base right out from under our noses is still untolerable."

"Don't look at me."  Juli commented.  "I wasn't even here.  I had some outside business to attend to for a while."

"I wouldn't think that that would excuse you, if I were you."  Fenrir was still smiling.  "You're just as expendable as the rest of us."

Marzche walked over to one of the computers and started typing some things, completely ignoring everyone elses' conversations.  Meanwhile, Juli couldn't help but respond to the insult.  "You should be one to talk, Miss Cynical.  It's well known that my efficiency rating exceeds yours by quite the significant margin."

Fenrir frowned.  "You would be nothing without your damn little partner to back you up all the time.  You two are helpless without each other."

"What?!?"  Juli, who was trying to focus her attention on the computer Marzche was typing at, quickly turned around.  "I don't need Juni to do anything!  She just complements my abilities.  And the same would go for her, too, so don't you dare talk about us that way!"

"You shouldn't tease Agent Juli like that."  The agent with the indian headband scolded.  "Who knows how upset she is over the current situation about Juni, anyway?  It must really hurt deep inside, to lose the other half of your very soul to a renegade agent who's supposed to be dead."

Juli stared at her.  "Um... do I know you?"

"You don't remember Agent Desire?"  Fenrir opened her eyes and looked at Juli.  "That's odd.  I thought you two knew each other pretty well."

"Now I'm getting worried about you, Julia."  Desire added.

"Look, I appreciate your sympathy but I don't really need it."  Juli commented, dropping the subject.  For some reason, however, she found it hard to get it out of her mind that she saw Desire before, but not as an agent.  Juli quickly focused her attention back on the screen as Marzche attempted to scan the archives for a metaphysical babble translation file.

Julia?

Juli figured she must have been hearing things.  None of the other agents in the room noticed that Desire called her by the wrong name.

"Denial is one of the first stages of true depression and worry."  The Indian girl responded.

"No, I mean it."  Juli responded, as she looked at the screen.  "I mean, sure, Juni's been a great partner and all, but it's not like I've known her and worked with her all my life.  Heck, we've been together for less than a year, now."

Marzche stopped typing.  Desire and Fenrir both stopped looking at the poor overworked custodian and turned to look at Juli instead.  The three all spoke in unison.  "Huh?"

"It appears I was correct."  Desire muttered.  "Your loss of your soulmate has clouded your mind.  Perhaps you need a rest, Agent Juli?"

The three girls were staring at Juli like she went mad.

"But I..." Juli was about to speak in protest, then she changed her mind.  "Nevermind.  I probably just need a break or something."

The other three agents nodded in agreement, then Marzche resumed her scanning of the database for some metaphysics guides.

"There would appear to be nothing that can assist us."  Marzche commented as the screen scrolled to the bottom.

Fenrir stared at the computer screen.  "What are you doing, anyway?"

"Hmm... Julia, Marzche, I didn't know you were interested in that type of thing."  Desire commented with a smile.  "The world of metaphysics is much more spiritually fulfilling than anything you could find in this physical realm."

Juli glanced over at the Native American agent.  "You might be able to help us.  You seem to know about this sort of thing."

"I'm interested in it, but Janet's knowledge far exceeds mine."  Desire stood up.  "What do you require my assistance for?  Are you researching about nefes?  Do you need to know about the mark of the wolves?  Trouble comprehending the language of the birds?"

"Birds!  That's it!"  Juli snapped her fingers.  "Dr. Yamoto mentioned something about birds.  That must be the constant gibberish that Janet uses to talk!"

"Janet speaking with the language of the birds?"  Desire pondered the thought for a moment then nodded to Juli.  "Well, let me see it and we'll see if we could figure it out."

"Ah!  Excellent!"  Juli smiled.  "Let's get going then."

The two left the room.  Fenrir stared at them as they left and shrugged.  "That Juli spends way too much time goofing off when she could be training and improving herself."

Juli dashed back into the room and yanked Marzche out by her sleeve.  As she glanced back down at the blood on the floor, she remembered one last question to ask Fenrir before she left.  "Um... if this intruder got past the soldiers, the security system, and even the agents, what DID finally stop him?"

"What did stop him?  Obviously someone who's even more capable than those who are always Sir Bison's finest."  Fenrir had that grin again.  "Just remember, Juli, like I said, you're just as expendable as the rest of us."

Juli paused at Fenrir's answer, then glanced at Fenrir with a questioning look on her face, but that grin was really beginning to freak her out.  She quickly dashed out of the room with Marzche.

Senoh let out a cackle, while Irvine continued to grin, but the serious look on Janet's face remained.  Desire, on the other hand, could only think of one thing to say.

"Hmm," Desire muttered.  "I don't know what the hell that was."

Juli slapped herself in the forehead.  "Why me?"

"I could attempt to analyze it..."  Desire added.  "Because as far as I know, the only thing we have in space is a satellite for firing death rays and the only thing we have a garden of is marijuana."

"USED TO have a garden of."  Juli corrected, remembering the lawnmower incident.  "Though I imagine it'll grow back eventually."

Serina smiled.  "Oh, well then it's obvious!  The satellite is the battlecruiser cannon and the flower would be the drug that was strong enough to withstand things like Juni's evil lawnmower of death!"

"Yea, I guess that would make sense..."  Juli commented.  "Dammit, I thought I was on to something for a moment there."

"What are you trying to discover, anyway?"  Desire asked.  "I don't believe that we had the authorization to spy on Bison's scientists..."

"Yea!  I tried to tell her that!"  Serina piped up.  "Spying on Bison's scientists isn't very nice and I really can't think of much of a reason we're doing this and..."

"Hey look!"  Juli yelled while pointing to the distance.  "Something shiny is over there!"

Serina quickly turned to the direction Juli was pointing in.  "Really?  Where?!"

As Serina looked around, Juli turned back to talk to Desire.  "Okay, there probably is more to this.  Maybe we should analyze it some more."

Desire shrugged.  "If they really are talking about something using the language of the birds, it's probably for the best."

Marzche was about to rewind the video when there was a knock on the door.

"Oh!  I'll get it!"  Forgetting about the shiny object and not thinking, Serina quickly opened the door before Juli could protest.  "Oh hi, Professor Janet!"

Janet looked at Juli while Juli hoped she didn't hear anything they talked about.  She then turned to look at the other agents in the room.  "Marzche, Serina, there's been a slight change in plans.  I have a mission for you two.  I shall have to trust that Juli won't try to cause any trouble by herself."

"Oh, that's okay!"  Serina responded with a smile.  "She already did that!"

"Huh?"  Janet stared at Serina.

Juli quickly pushed Serina to the side and gave a fake smile.  "Serina's just annoyed because I yelled at her a lot."

"I wasn't aware that you had the authority to assign missions to us."  Desire said sharply, not caring too much for Janet's position, it seemed.

"Oh, we can handle communication and recon missions as needed for the science department."  Serina beamed.  "It's generally for efficiency reasons, since we all know that Sir Bison likes it when everyone's being the most efficient they can be, as efficiency is really helpful and whatnot and imperative to retaining a nice efficient organization and..."

"I need you to go to this address and bring the lady over there to see me personally.  By force if necessary."  Janet quickly interrupted, obviously to get Serina to shut up.

"Huh?  That doesn't seem like either a communication or recon mission..."  Serina replied with a tone of doubt in her voice.

"It is."  Janet responded sharply.  She glared at Juli and Desire.  "This is a private matter.  Why don't you two go find something else to do with your time?"

Juli gave Marzche's computer a quick kick, causing it to eject the disk with the video and turn off at the same time.  "I'll just be taking my journal tape and going, then."

She quickly snatched the disk as Marzche frowned at her now turned-off computer, then she and Desire left the room.

Juli slammed the door shut, leaned against it, and sighed.  "I'm dissappointed.  I thought I really had something there, but it turned out to be nothing more than a really wierd discussion of the psycho satellite and the drug fields."

"What are you looking for?"  Desire inquired.  "You haven't exactly been very open with information, yourself.  I'm sorry if I seem to be stepping where I don't belong, but I believe that you're just being paranoid about something so that you'll have something to do while you wait for Agent Juni to return, seeing as to how you two have been inseparable for such a long time."

"For such a long time?  What are you..."  Juli glanced at Desire, then frowned and turned away.  "Yea, that's it.  You're probably right."

Desire paused, then shook her head.  "Well, not necessarily.  That's an interesting thing about the language of the birds."

"Huh?"

The Native-American girl had begun to walk away but turned around to answer Juli's inquiry.  "The language of the birds?  Oh, I'm sorry, I don't believe I fully explained it to you.  Well, it's basically a way of speaking which has a double meaning.  It seems metaphorical on the outside, then when analyzed further, you think you've figured out the meaning, but in reality, there's a deeper meaning completely separate from the more obvious meaning that the speech has on the outset."

"Oh.  Er, thanks, I'll keep that in mind."  Juli replied, having a little trouble understanding what Desire just said.  She glanced at the tape in her hand.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Janet were using the language of the birds."  Desire continued.  "Like I said, she tends to be more interested in that sort of thing.  Janet is much more in touch with the spiritual realm than I am, which is pretty odd for a scientist, I think.  I believe that she even has a little ability to make psychic predictions or influence another's dreams, though it's probably no where near Lord Bison's psychic power."

Juli didn't respond.

"Oh, I'm sorry again.  Am I boring you?  I really should get going.  Well, Julia, until we cross paths again then."  Desire waved to Juli then continued down the hall.

I had the fortune of being given a partner by a friend in the scientist department.  She actually turned out to be extremely helpful, as well as a good friend.  She used to get in my way all the time, but she learned quickly and now I find it hard to picture that I ever got along without her.  But she wasn't just a normal partner.  She wasn't even human.  She was a freak.  A test-tube subject.  A clone, for crying out loud.  I didn't know much about Doctor Hawlson's "doll" project; I didn't know about it at all.  I still don't know why to this day I did what I did.

Juli entered her room and sighed.  Maybe Desire was right.  There really wasn't any reason for her to go around trying to dig up so much information on her partner like this.  Besides, Juli was getting sick of metaphysics and double meanings and stupid birds.  She slowly sat down on Juni's bed and glanced at a picture of herself that was on Juni's desk, then glanced over to the twin stuffed kitty plushy that Juni brought to complement the one Juli had.  It was really odd how all of the agents seemed to enjoy cats so much, except of course for Agent Olvere, who seemed to enjoy more exotic animals.  Course, in Juni's case, it was only something that Bremare Yamoto programmed into her so that she'd get along with Juli better.

After all, it was important that agents that work together get along...

Juli glanced at the kitty plushy across the room on her own bed and blinked.

"I... I thought I saw a ghost..." Juli muttered.  She quickly shook her head.  She was probably just being paranoid because her partner was gone like Desire said.  She slowly stared at the picture of herself on the desk once again, hoping that Yamoto would hurry up and bring Juni back.  What the hell was Juni thinking, anyway?  Running off like that.  Course, considering that her general personality was given to her by Yamoto, it was probably to be expected since Yamoto also had a tendency to bend the rules of authority, as shown by him running off to go get Juni without getting any authorization to.

And, of course, Yamoto had a decent excuse he could give to Bison if he was persecuted for it.  He could just tell them that he was trying to bring Juni back before it was too late.  It wouldn't fully excuse Yamoto's quirks, though.  The guy was...

Like a malfunctioning device that had its uses.  And it was only trying to turn overheating energy into useable energy...

Juli stared at the tape she was holding, then quickly began to place it into Juni's computer since her own computer was all the way across the room, and of course Juni wouldn't mind since she wasn't there.  However, she found she couldn't place the disk in because there already was one there.  She quickly removed the current disk and was about to continue, when she noticed something interesting about the label on the disk she just removed.

"Avelle Memory Disk v. 3.02."  Juli whispered as she read the label.  "Memory disk?  I thought Juni told me she had Avelle's journal tape, not memory disk.  The only other time I've seen something labelled 'Memory Disk were those disks that Bremare gave me..."

Out of curiousity, Juli put the disk back in and began to read the files.  The file was last updated quite a long time ago, before Juli even got Juni for a partner.  Expecting to read some tales about Avelle's exploits, she instead found herself reading something disturbingly different.  She found herself reading the same memory disk that Yamoto gave her, except that it didn't have the information about how Juli was partnered up with Juni almost her entire life.  Not that Juli really WAS partnered up with Juni her entire life.  She was just told to pretend that she was because that memory was programmed into Juni, so of course she had to play along.

Though.... if that were the case, then why did all the other agents play along with it?  Juli slowly remembered back to how everytime she mentioned that she's only been with Juni a short time, everyone stared at her like she didn't know what she was talking about.  But those stares were obviously not them playing along with it.  They really looked like they genuinely believed it...

Avelle Memory Disk v. 3.02.  Juli Memory Disk v. 2.45.   Why version two point forty five?  That was the first Memory Disk that Juli had ever recieved from Bremare, so what happened to versions one point zero through versions two point forty-four?  Course, Yamoto always did seem to misinterpret orders that other scientists gave him.  After all, if he was the yamato cannon that Janet and her colleagues were talking about, they did say that the battlecruiser cannon was unreliable.

Juli Memory Disk v. 2.45.  Yamoto makes mistakes.  Juli never recieved the earlier memory disks which most likely existed, unless... she was never supposed to recieve the one she currently had in the first place.  Yamoto gave Juni a memory tape that he obviously shouldn't have given her.  Yamoto gave Juli a memory tape that he REALLY obviously shouldn't have given her...

Avelle Memory Disk v. 3.02...  Juli looked up away from Juni's computer and noticed the picture of Avelle posted on Juni's wall.  It was from last year's hunter calender, and apparently the producers thought it'd be funny if they made Avelle the month of April, to coincide with the similarity of that month to her name.

In the background, there was rain, as a really stupid pun about April showers.  Course, the next page had another stupid pun about Maytime flowers.  April showers bringing Maytime flowers and all that crap, after all.

Juli blinked.  Ghosts... they don't exist...

"But... Juni and Juli?!?"  Juli protested.  "That sounds even worse than... June and July!"

"Hey, I think that if I keep this up, we might be able to have special agents named for every month of the year."  Dr. Yamoto laughed.

That couldn't be right.  That had to be coincidence.  It was all just silly.  It couldn't be true.

"Yea, I know it sounds kind of similar to your name, but there was just no question for me."  The doctor sighed.  "Even before the doll project was revealed to me, I've known about it for a while.  I thought of a girl for a story.  I enjoy writing spy novels in what little spare time I have nowadays, you know.  If I had a choice, I would have been a Shadowloo agent like you.  I never knew her name, but I began to have these absolutely crystal clear dreams of her.  She had short blond hair and wasn't exactly Lara-Croft but there she was, utterly real.  At first I was simply the writer, watching from afar.  But one night, I found myself IN the story, and not just writing it.  I saw her, travelled with her, talked with her... and I knew for some reason that her name had to be Juni."

"I wouldn't be surprised if Janet were using the language of the birds."  Desire continued.  "Like I said, she tends to be more interested in that sort of thing.  Janet is much more in touch with the spiritual realm than I am, which is pretty odd for a scientist, I think.  I believe that she even has a little ability to make psychic predictions or influence another's dreams, though it's probably no where near Lord Bison's psychic power."

"Yes, well, let us arrive back to our own garden and worry about what the cruiser is doing way up in space with its overheating cannon, later."  Janet remarked.  "As we all know, that simple little flower has managed to survive past New Year's, the emotion of love, and basically everything else in the garden.  It has even managed to significantly withstand the harsh storms and showers of the elements."

Maytime flowers.  April showers.  New Year's.  The emotion of love on Valentine's Day.

"It is already set."  The female scientist replied.  "There will be a heatwave lasting two months in the near future, and we shall see if the flower will be wilted or not from the barrage."

And June and July, the hottest time of the year in two months...

Juli stared at the kitty plushy on the bed.  She then slowly glanced at the kitty plushy on her own bed, then recalled seeing the kitty plushy on Serina's bed and another on Marzche's.

Agent Juni.  Juli slowly picked something up from her partner's table and whispered to herself, remembering her thoughts from long ago word for word.  "She wasn't even human.  She was a freak.  A test-tube subject.  A clone, for crying out loud..."

She stared at the object in her hand.  It was the picture on the table.  It was a picture of...

Herself.

A cry across the sky, and the song spread through the air.  Who was the guy that made the lie?  And why did she have to care?  But there was no mistaking it. No matter how hard she tried.  The good old boys drank their whisky and rye, since this was the day that...

the music...

died.

I wanted to know the truth about the doll.  I wanted to know the truth about my partner.  But I didn't know that when I was looking for the truth about my partner, I would find the truth about myself.  The truth about myself was inter-related to the truth about my partner.  And the truth about my partner was that, truthfully, she was no different from the rest of us.  And that, unfortunately, was the most disturbing truth of all.