"The agents of Shadaloo are Sir Bison's special forces.  We specialize in espionage, sabotage, small numbers combat, and various other things which may slightly vary from agent to agent.  We were extremely well-trained all our life, to the point where our abilities surpassed those of any normal person.  Or at least that's what we were led to believe.  Everything fell apart in a chain reaction that started from a failed mission and another agent who seemed to despise the world."

Juli shook her head as she took a sip from the tea cup.  A memory of an image of young Juli with another brunette who had a circular hairstyle appeared.

"Couldn't catch Avelle again, huh?  You're worthless!"

"I tried... I saw her fall..."

"No, you didn't make sure.  You should have stayed around.  You should have searched the area.  But you didn't.  And do you know why?  Because you're worthless.  Everyone is.  If Shadaloo wasn't filled with such a large array of idiots, morons, and lazy fools like you or the gimps in their science department, Lord Bison would have had the world in the palm of his hand by now."

Another image of a young male scientist appeared as Juli put the cup down.

"Poor poor Bison.  How does he put up with idiots like you two?  This man here... he is just as worthless as you.  Nothing good will ever become of both of you.  Ever..."

The image of the circular-haired agent faded away, leaving behind only the young Juli and the other newcomer.

Juli sighed.  "You might already have realized what happened next."

"A Shadaloo agent?"

"Failure is unacceptable.  Master Bison should just throw me out into the trash where I originally came from."

"Bison wouldn't have to do that to me.  I've already lost the most valuable person in my life."

"Although he never showed any indication of knowing about my failure, Master Bison's punishment was greater than just throwing me out into the trash."  Juli commented.  "You know where this is going, right?  On that day, we did something forbidden.  Huh?  Hey!  We didn't go THAT far.  You have to understand that a Shadaloo agent simply being a friend with someone in another department, especially something like the science department, was extremely forbidden within Shadaloo."

"I got into a new project.  Project DOLL.  We are on a quest to clone the ultimate soldier.  You are my only friend that I have left in Shadaloo now.  I want to thank you.  With her."

Once again, a third image appeared, this time of a short-haired blonde agent.  The image of Juli was now more similar to her in the present day.

"This is Juni, your new partner.  I am hoping for the best for you two.  This is your memory tape.  The department gave it to me to give to you.  Memorize it for it contains the memories that your new partner has been programmed with."

The image of the scientist dissappeared, leaving a now more-present day Juli with her new partner.

"You're a clone?  You're a freak.  You're not even human.  How am I supposed to deal with you?"

"Juli?  What's wrong?  You're acting much more differently about me than you used to."

"It's nothing."

"That's when my investigations began.  I didn't know that I wasn't supposed to know that the DOLL project ever existed."  Juli remarked as the image of Juni faded away, leaving Juli's present-day image by herself.  "Once I had the clues from various eavesdropping on other scientists, I began to notice the disparities in the later memory tapes that Yamoto handed to me."

"Why are some of these memory tapes that my science friend gave me in Binary?"

"Why am I supposed to be friends with an agent named 'Desire'?  What would that have to do with the memories my partner is supposed to have?"

"It all snowballed from there."

"Why do we all have feelings beyond even simple admiration for Master Bison?"

"Why do we all enjoy playing minesweeper?"

"Why... do I exist?"

Juli's image faded away.

"My friend was a fool.  Or perhaps it's his fellow scientists' fault for not being clear to him about what was going on.  They all speak in this absurd 'language of the birds' that took me a damn long time to decipher, myself."  Juli frowned and looked at the laptop computer on the ground nearby.  "I thought you were just another person on Master Bison's hit list.  And your answers to my questions seemed to imply such but now, it has become apparent to me that there's much more. Your personal connections to Lord Bison must be much deeper than anyone else's could possibly be, for him to choose you as our prototype.  At least that's my belief.

She took another sip from the teacup then put it down and glanced at the mystic who was sitting across the table listening intently.

"So, Miss Rose, what's your story?"

Rose stopped listening and glared at Juli.  "Story? Hmph, calling it a story is misleading. Gives the impression it's a tale long ago, told only by a fireplace.  This little piece of story doesn't seem to be able to go end anytime soon."

"Order of the Third Eye, they were called. Originally The Watchers, a counter nazi occult group. Rumors of Hitler's connection to the Secret Doctrine, a fabled citadel which houses only the most powerful adepts, sparked fear that the Nazi's secret weapon may actually be on the Metaphysical side."

A history unwritten. She could almost feel the immense power oozing from the grey washed walled dungeon from her imagination. Faceless men watched eerily in their dim brown suit.

"The government didn't believe it, of course, but they were never ones to be on the unprepared side. The Watchers were founded, as a way to sniff out this secret weapon, and give psychic support on the battlefield."

Rose glanced off to the side.

"World War II reports the most apparitions in the middle of battle."  She sighed, "That was way before my time though."

"Have you heard about the Order of the Third Eye?"

"Should I have?"

"They're the biggest thing in the Esoteric world. Only the most elite can even dream to get into it."

"Though I did get in... But so did he."

Memories have a habit of bringing up everything.

"Is this it?"

"I guess."

"Hmph, good enough for me, let's go already."

"What do you mean? I never asked for this in the first place!"

"Exucse me, Sir?"

"Well....it's highly unorthodox, but I guess an exception could be made."

She could hear them calling her name, and strange giggles emenated from nowhere. The trance like atmosphere of the place was really intensifying all of this.

"His style was...strange. But well meaning. The overzealous part of him could be extinguished by meditation, anyway. Guess, looking back, I was way too cocky about my own abilities."

"The etheric sensation certainly is strange here, wonder what the clairvoyants can find out."

"Highly irregular, this shouldn't be here."

"He changed. Instead of subduing the zeal, it overcame him. The mysteriously higher frequency of his subtle bodies haven't made it easy. And during a fight to knock reason into him, his own complexes completely consumed him.

That was it, the tragedy that changed everything. And it's being replayed continuously in a sort of huge karmic play of sorts. It's unknown for what reasons."

Her hand was shaking, but the psychic tried to keep it steady enough as to not spill any tea. "Sorry, I go melodramatic when it's about this matter."

Juli stared at Rose's cup for a second, before remembering where she was.  "Huh?  Oh, that's all right.  I can see that this is really important to you.  That doesn't completely explain everything, but it does come close, I believe.  Let me guess.  You were close to Bison back then?"

"Close, not really...though he is interested in-"

It hit her in an epiphany.

"The dolls project. Now I see what Cheng was talking about with the forged paintings that took a year!"

Rose got up, it seemed so simple she wondered why the thought hadn't occured to her before. This was an inspired moment, and she took the chance to thank whatever muse was guiding her.

"Although Bison's form is integral, it's hyletic in origin. The spiritual dimension is out of it's grasp. He had to get the power from somewhere...the power of the soul."

They couldn't get the original-

"So they try the next best thing, cloning. A perverse and unwanted marrige of Aeon and Archon. Of course!"

"Paintings?  Hyletic?  Aeon and Archon?"  Juli blinked.  "Say wha...?"  She paused, then put her hand to her chin.  "So we're just... forged paintings... of you?  Someone whom Bison sees as an obvious mortal enemy?  Hmm... now I'm really starting to see why they'd want to keep us from finding out about ourselves so much.  In that case, it would be a good thing that the others don't know, yet."

It was at this point in Rose's and Juli's conversation that the fluffy pink-haired agent Serina, who had been sitting in the background listening the entire time, decided to finally interrupt the two.  "Um... it's a good thing the others don't know?  You know I'm still here, right?"

"Well duh..."  Juli muttered.  "I know.  I just don't care.  Not like you'd probably understand what we're talking about, anyway."

"That's not very nice."  Serina commented.  "Besides, I don't think you understand what's going on, either, anyway.  What IS Miss Rose talking about, anyway?"

Rose had to clarify the Aeon and Archon bit.  "You see, you are merely an extension of the ultimate soul and psycho power merge."

"What?"  Serina thought for a moment.  "Oh!  Like how lobsters were originally babies but were turned into lobsters due to vampiric intervention!"

Juli glared at her.  "Huh!?"

"Er... yes, something like that..."  Rose remarked as she rolled her eyes.

There was a reasonably long silence as Juli contemplated her new information.  The agent sighed then stood up from her seat.  "Well, I suppose that's it then.  I was looking for Juni's origins and then discovered that they were my own, too, and I guess I've found them."

"I still don't understand all of this."  Serina commented.

"It's a good thing you don't."  Juli replied.  She turned to Rose and saluted.  "Well, that's it.  Thank you for your time, Lady Rose.  Now I have to get going back to base before everyone gets worried or suspicious."

Rose lowered her head. "It's unwise to return. The place is dangerous, especially now."

Her comment made the brunette stop.  "Oh?  What other option do I have?"

"There's always a third option."

Juli put her hands on her hips and glanced at Rose.  "A third option?  Are you implying that I not go back to Shadaloo, knowing what I do now, and actually betray Lord Bison for it?"

"You said it." She shrugged.

"B... betray Lord Bison?!"  Serina looked at Juli wide-eyed.  "T... That's blasphemy!  That's insane!  That's just... just wrong.  And mean.  Very mean."

"I still don't have a reason to.  And... and I couldn't.  Even knowing that the main reason I..."  Juli glanced off to the side and quickly muttered "ilovehim" then turned back to Rose.  "is because it's a programming of my mind doesn't justify me betraying Sir Bison.  Sir Bison... gave me life, in fact, and as I've stated before, I should probably thank him for that more than anything."

"And allow his sick game to continue?" Rose shook her head. "He may have programmed you well, but the fact is all the programming in the world can't stand a chance against self consciousness."

"My... self-consciousness..."  Juli closed her eyes and quickly turned away.  "I... we don't have a self-consciousness.  No... the only self-consciousness we have is the one we were programmed with.  There is nothing else.  So I can't betray Bison just to obtain a self-consciousness that doesn't exist.  If only that were true..."

One might assume that Juli was crying at the moment.  Serina was too busy trying to figure out what Juli was talking about to notice, though.

Rose tried to remain sober in the whole situation. "Who are you?"

"I am..."  She wanted to say an agent that joined Shadaloo long ago and had an undying loyalty to her master.  She wanted to say her name.  She wanted to say she was a person named Juli.  But she couldn't.  "I am merely an extension of the ultimate soul and psycho power merge."

Juli opened her eyes and turned around.

"And I suppose that's all I ever will be.  Serina, go find Noelle."  She motioned to Serina, then glared at Rose again.  "Be aware that you being 'the original painting' in no way obligates me to spare you.  On the subject of betraying Lord Bison, you would be wise not to bring it up again."

"Noelle?  Um, I think I saw her snooping around in another room.  I'll go get her."  Serina waved to Rose.  "Good bye, Miss Rose!  Thanks for your cooperation and all that!  We'll be seeing you maybe someday dunno oh well later and stuff!"

The pink-haired girl ran off.  Juli followed her, but turned around to give Rose one last look.  "I'm sorry..."

With that, she quickly dashed out of the room.

Rose didn't even bother to get up, she simply murmured a couple of words to herself and watched the 'guests' leave. There was only so much words could say, and the psychic couldn't really find them.

"Maybe we're all just dolls to that psychopath..."

"Yes, Professor Irvine, none of my medical instruments or knowledge could determine the cause of the problem.  We simply all blacked out during the soul blast.  I've done extensive medical examinations but have been unable to come up with anything conclusive at all.  I still feel a bit sick in the head though and I imagine that Agent Serina and Juli feel the same way."

"Hmm... I see..."  Professor Irvine replied to Noelle, then addressed Serina, who was standing besides her.  "Agent Juli, she isn't here to report anyzing for she vas not supposed to be in zee mission originally.  Is zere anything else we must know about zee Rose?"

Serina looked around and shrugged.  "Well, Rose did babble something about paintings and clones and metaphysical extensions, but I couldn't understand any of it."

"Oh?  Is zat it then?"  Irvine paused for a moment, then slowly smiled.  "Very well!  I zank you all.  Zis information shall prove to be very valuable!"

Noelle and Serina saluted, then left the room.

Irvine waited a few moments in quiet after they left to make sure he was alone.  The lights slowly dimmed and the room became dark, save for a single spotlight which centered on the smiling professor.  He slowly spoke out to no one in particularly, a beautiful soliloquoy which perfectly summed up the situation.

"Zee secret of life has been a mystery for so long, even zee greatest of minds have been baffled. Zat is, of courz, before zee great enlightenment zat is Freud! Now....Oedipal shall revive!!  But now zee Rose has discovered zee ones which zee male looks upon.  For she is zee female auzority figure, and what purpose do we all serve in life but to find zee mate?  Zee high commander kneels to zee female auzority figure and dezires but just her, but must rely on mere forgeries!  But zee forgeries are but too close to auzenticity, as zee power of zee soul has caused an overload of zee high commander's psycho drive rendering them inactive.  So zend in zee clones!  Zend in zee clones!  It will but prove zee greatest zeory of all!!!  That Freud shall be dezired and no other can be declared!  Zat is zee way!"