Twin Encounterance

Rosie and Uno’s chests heave with exhaustion as the dust clouds settle around them. One by one the bodies come into view as their eyes set to refocus on the scene laid out in front of them like a detailed crime scene. Rosie supposes this is, in fact, a crime scene, but one she has no trouble being a part of. She de-summons her scythe and kicks the boot of the man she had just sliced into. She wipes her brow, accidentally getting blood on the back of her hand. Huh. Blood. Must have been from one of these fine folks. “That was the last of them. Building should be cleared out now.” she says, turning to Uno. They nod and go around to inspect the rest of the bodies for any faint signs of life silently. She takes the time to inspect the boss’ desk for any sort of intel that could be useful for future takedowns. When the laptop comes up a bust she rifles through the drawers, checking for secret pockets or keyholes where such a higher up would hide incriminating details involving a bigger ring. All come up empty, and she decides that secrets may have died with them. How disappointing, but her job was not to collect, only kill. She looks back across the room and Uno is waiting by the door.

“Come on, we should have a look on each floor before we leave. There were too many to count and I don’t want us to have a slip-away.” She opens the door and leads them out into the hallway of the now too quiet ‘office’ building. On each floor of the building they inspect every body, kicking them around and for good measure, stepping on their hands with her heeled boots to get a yelp from any. No such noise came, not even a pin drop, and so they deem the place secure and void of life. Rosie cheerily makes her way down the final staircase toward the lobby when she hears the front entrance click. She slinks quickly behind a wall and watches to see who is coming in, only to see the familiar sight of cloaked figures. “Three of the cleanup crew; looks like Madame knew this would be a hell of a pickup for just one cleaner.” she whispered to Uno. They slipped into Rosie’s shadow as she readjusted the cloak around her, pulling the hoodie up as Uno hid her face in shadow. This is the routine they play sometimes when they take long enough that the cleanup shift gets there before they can leave. It is not like their job is any secret to them, but it is a means of having everything be as anonymous as possible in the actual workforce.

Her heels click against the blood-stained floor as she strides over to the entrance, giving a nod to her coworkers. They nod back, their own means of protecting their identities shrouding themselves from proper view. As Rosie passes by one she catches a whiff of a familiar cologne. She stops momentarily at the door, the coworker none the wiser as they watch the other two make their trek up the stairs, leaving the perfumed one behind for the bottom floor and already taking out their instruments of body disposal. Rosie watches them for just a second, trying to pinpoint where exactly she has smelled that scent before, but ultimately shrugs it off and opens the door to leave into the cool night. They don’t make it even a few steps down the sidewalk before they hear a panicked scream coming from the building they just left. She sprints back and yanks the door open to see a remaining member of the ring grinning madly over the now-downed cleanup worker. Their hat had flown off, in the attack most likely, and revealed a shock of lavender hair that Rosie recognized immediately. Maxie!?

Sibling mode kicks into gear faster than Uno can react as Rosie lunges at the attacker, pinning him to the ground with her scythe split into two already.  They struggle on the floor as she pushes a scythe closer to his throat. She chances a glance behind her and can see Maxie getting up from the ground, watching his eyes go wide at the sight. Fuck fuck fuck. She turns her attention back to the assailant and he is still grinning. “What type of assassin are you if ya can’t find the last one standing, huh? What fuckin’ agency hired ya, ya can’t even finish ya job correct-” His words are cut off, much like his head as Rosie cleanly slashes through his throat in an X-formation. She growls at the dead body below her for getting her scythes dirty once again and picks herself up. She turns around slowly and Maxie is still there, staring in her direction. She suddenly feels the size of Tottie with her twin looking at her like that. Thankfully she can feel Uno’s power still encasing her features in nothing but shadow, meaning her appearance was still hidden. She didn’t bother to dissipate her scythes this time around, now on edge that her twin is this close in her vicinity and in an extremely dangerous location at that. What on earth is he doing here as part of the cleanup crew? When did he get this job?

The tension growing a little too thick for her, she starts walking back toward the entrance, wiping the blood from her scythes along her cloak. “Hey, wait!” She stops, eyes going wide at hearing Maxie’s voice and confirming this was not an illusion. She doesn’t turn around and just stands still. “Thank you for that! I probably could’ve handled that if I wasn’t caught off guard though.” he says, and she can see from the corner of her eye the way he shifts to show a glint of a hidden rapier. She stifles a chuckle and gives a little wave while keeping quiet and starting her steps out the door once more. Typical Maxie to say he could handle it. He probably could have, and that is the worry that is starting to bubble up in her stomach. She knew what she was getting into the moment she stepped into the Mistress' office to sign up for this job, but having anyone else in her life directly involved in the same work seems… unsettling. She believes in her family and their strengths very much, but even for demons there are risks. She stops walking, seeing she has made it to the end of the sidewalk without hearing much else from the building again and leans against a random wall. “Let’s go home Uno. It’s… been a long day.”