WARNING::: some mild abusive content (physical brutality), some language, violence/gore and drug relations.!!!!!!! PLAESE DO NOT TAG!!!!!!!

The world was a dark and fear-filled place. People everywhere were dying of disease, homeless and half-crazy. Doing anything they could just for their next meal. Kids ran through the streets just as desperate and angry as the horrid people who surrounded them in this dead world.
But that wasn’t all of it. There was a flipside to this coin. With all of the filth and dirt of the general public, there were also the rich and beautiful in this world. They were rich, glamorous, beautiful and ruthless. As the rich got richer, the poor got poorer. It was just that simple.
The rich were all organized into family clans that were either united by blood or marriage. And there weren’t many. The business was simple and dirty: old vendettas formed the ground for either of the six clans, then the clans would give out word, quietly letting it spread through their commanded and conquered territories, and thugs would prove themselves by killing another in the job’s specified way. Of course they were paid a substantial amount, which made the jobs hard to get, because then the thug’s clans would attack each other just to try to get one of their member’s into the job. Either way you look at it, it was a war-like affair.
But in this world there was a city. And in this city is where this little tale shall begin, five hundred years in the past. Geonin was a beautiful and prosperous city in its height, but towards the end, when two twin boys were still young, the entire world came to collapse into what it is today.
They were the heirs of the most wealthy family in the country, the San Versailles family. They were loved by the people for their law system, their family benefits, the outstanding leadership of Marcellis San Versailles I, the twin’s ancestor. The people praised the family in its legacy for the ‘heaven on earth’ that they had created. When word spread that there would be two heirs in this new world, joy hung heavy in the air. Acelin and Marcel San Versailles were adored by the people and loved by all.
Acelin was the gentler and more thoughtful one of the two, he was good at writing and reading. While his twin was quite the opposite; he was rougher, more of a hunter, he was a mathematical genius and had a fair hand at science.
But on their nineteenth birthday, April 13th, terrorists attacked the city, raiding and looting it wherever they went, setting off bombs that tore apart the city it went on for a month. In the end, the damage was too great for anyone to fix.
Acelin and Marcel were separated in the chaos. In the end, it was believed that Marcel had died in one of the bombings. Marcel, devastated, couldn’t accept that that was the truth. He spent months looking for his brother before they found a body, there wasn’t enough there for a DNA match, but it was in agreement with the story; Marcel was last seen in the garden, and that’s where the body was found. Soon after, they had a quiet and mournful funeral for him. Even so, Acelin rebuilt his mansion far from the city in his large receding lands where he would be safe from the hungry public. Acelin soon became a quiet and serious person. The absence of his brother took its heavy toll on him, he never laughed again.
In the meantime, Marcel was never killed in the bombings; in fact he was alive. –well, sort of.  When Marcel had awaken, he was in a place he did not recognize. It was dark, he was restrained, and it was cold. He didn’t see or hear of anyone anywhere. In his small cell, he began to despair, he began to hunger and wilt from the lack of food for weeks and the cold, dark, wetness he could never escape. Months passed, he lost all track of time. He felt the pain of separation from his brother stronger than what is describable. He knew, deep down somewhere, that his brother was still alive. He spent his time trying to hone in on his brothers thought and emotions. Soon, he began to feel his brother’s consciousness, and feel his brother’s pain and sadness. Soon, all he could do was try to lift some of that weight of f of his brother.
In time, the emotional weight on Marcel’s psyche was too much; all the torment he took on and all the weight from being solitary and in confinement, proved devastating. He became more aggressive and angry, like an animal caged for the public, he even began acting a bit like one. Every now and then someone would bring by food for him, never very much, just bare minimum needed for a human. He almost never moved in his cage, it was too small, but he growled and swiped at his food before the man could chuck half of it at him.
Acelin was often plagued by the thoughts of his brother and dreams of his brother as well. He came to the conclusion that his brother must still be alive. Somewhere. Acelin began sending people into all sorts of different places to spy for him. He paid whoever would dare to let themselves be kidnapped or sent to prison, just for the money involved. –of course once it was confirmed that his brother was not in that place he would work his way into releasing the person. He spied on crooked business after crooked business. Month after month, three years passed before he had any whisper of a place he had not yet checked. The Undertaker. He was a mass murderer of the underworld. He kidnapped young kids typically, and brainwashed them into becoming murderers without even knowing it. In all his years, only three were successful of the hundreds of kids he’d taken. Acelin decided that it was worth a shot. He sent word to one of the other clans, to the Quinlan clan. He requested the help of their leader, Jasper, he wanted him to send in one of his D-agents in to do the surveillance. And he agreed.
The D-agents were something like special-agent-SEAL-ninja-super people who did their job, and did it well. They were the absolute best in the business. Within a week, someone was inside the Undertaker’s lair, watching and waiting. Two weeks later, there was word that that agent knew where Marcel was and that he was alive.  With the news, Acelin was overjoyed. He made immediate preparations for the return of his brother. He also had no idea what to expect.
Marcel felt strange emanations from his brother ever since that strange woman had peaked into his cell.  He couldn’t shake it from his mind. He usually only ever saw a cloaked figure who handed him food in complete silence, every other week or so. As he was contemplating this, at that very moment, the woman reappeared at the door. She proceeded to unlock it and rushed inside. He looked up at her in question, already growling at the intrusion of his space.
“Be quiet. I’m here to get you out of this place. Do you understand?” she asked him, gripping his face to make her look at him. He growled, snapping his teeth at her. She recoiled, surprised; then shot her hand straight back at him, gripping him by the throat. “You will leave this place with me, whether you like it or not. I don’t care.” She hissed back. She began dragging him out as he protested, fighting back with a great ferocity that would have been lethal, were he not as weak as he was. He collapsed on the floor, unable to even move. The woman sighed, then picked him up easily, and carried him out, no one was in the building, which made it easy to walk out the front door. But before they even left the building, she knocked out Marcel and blindfolded him.
When next Marcel awoke, it was nighttime, he was on something soft and it was warm and dry. It felt strange to him after being in a cold stone cell for three years. He sighed quietly, he was still blindfolded, he moved his hand to remove it, but his senses told him that we wasn’t alone. Alert, he growled in the darkness, it sounded something like an angry wolf. He heard the quiet rustle of clothes moving, then, a sound he never would have expected, -laughter. A chuckle to be exact.
“Do you think that you could scare me…” a gentle, slender hand on his chest, “brother?” the blindfold removed to reveal soft, yellowy light and Acelin’s face, looking back down at him. Marcel immediately stopped. He didn’t believe what he saw. But there he was; his twin brother, staring down at him.
“Hello, brother.” He didn’t smile. “I’ve missed you. I only hope that they didn’t hurt you too bad. It was I who had that woman go and take out of that place.” He paused, seeing a kind of change in his brother. “Do you understand me, brother?” he asked, uncertain, now. But suddenly –and uncharacteristically –Marcel leans up and hugs his brother. Right there, he started bawling his eyes out, like a little child. He hated it on the inside, and yet, he felt a sort of release in doing it. He sat and cried and cried and cried.
“Brother, come now, we’re alright.” Acelin soothed his brother. “Come on this isn’t like you! Why don’t we head of to the bathroom? Hmm? Some nice hot water?” Marcel simply clung to his brother and nodded a few times.  Acelin easily lifted his brother’s light body from the bed, carried him like a child to the bathroom and unclothed him. A few moments later, Marcel was in the hot water, his brother massaging shampoo into his long, golden hair. Soon after, they were in the bed, sound asleep, like the twin boys they always were.
For the rest of the month, Acelin helped his brother to make his way back to health. It went by faster than they could have imagined. Soon, Marcel was healthy and strong again. Acelin’s staffs of bodyguards, servants and others were having a hard time trying to figure out which one was which, and this, was the brother’s favorite game. They found they could control and play with people’s minds in this way; from this, a plan formed and evolved its way into reality. All they needed was a way. A path.
Allow me to tell you what the people saw, what they read of and heard of in their darkened little lives.
Rumors spread like wildfire. The magicians of the mind. The harbingers of hell were worming and spreading in the world. They could steal your heart right out of your chest, and you wouldn’t even know. They could be your neighbors, your closest friends, the old man around the corner. Anyone. Anywhere. The people began to call them the Voleur; for their mischievous and seemingly random attacks. And after one was attacked, they were no more, they acted vicious –like animals. They attacked their own friends and family, and often, they killed them. People were terrified. But you see, this pandemic hadn’t reached the streets of Geonin, the city that belonged to the San Versailles clan, yet.
Nonetheless, Marcel and Acelin still went into the city on their own –under disguise- to conduct business every week.
On one of these business trips, things went into quite a different direction than what was expected. They were in the Royal Bar and Pub, confronting with an arms dealer. –he was passing through, and they wanted to find out why he didn’t just stay wherever it was that he came from, wanting to know if he was running from something. They were talking with the man…
“Why did you decide to leave the place you came from, wherever that may be?” asked Acelin, smoothly. He was wearing a white suit, short hair falling over his face in the darkness of the pub. The man drank from his drink slowly, savoring the warmth the liquor made in his throat.
“Aren’t you the leader of this whole area? Don’t you think it’s just a little bit dangerous for you to be meeting here with me, like this?” asked the man. Acelin smiled as he answered.
“Hmm, well, you see I’m really very well protected right now, though you may not know it… but, tell me, why did you leave the Anaconda Clan’s District? Hm?”
“I… got onto bad terms with a gang there. –took their money in a scam. And uh… well I ran.” Acelin smiled.
“And why are you being so cooperative? –it usually takes me five months to track down and get a response from dealers like you. They almost always run and hide. So why didn’t you?” Acelin sat back, taking a drink, lighting a cigarette.
“Well, because I know that you’re a very powerful man. That’s why.” The other smiled. “So… I hear that you’ve found your brother recently…” the man prompted.
“What are you saying?” said Acelin, guarded.
“Oh, nothing, nothing… do you use him as your double? In risky situations?” he snickered, as Acelin became angry with him.
Slowly, Acelin raised his hand and snapped his fingers; as soon as he did, Marcel stood from his place at the bar, and put his gun to the man’s head, growling deep in his throat. The man turned his head slowly to look at him. He wasn’t expecting to see a nearly exact mirror image of the man sitting across from him, with a gun at his temple. Now it was Acelin’s turn to smile.
“Sir, tell me your name.”
“Uh, Perriot, James Perriot.”
“Alright, then, James, here’s what I’m going to do for you. I am going to let you walk away from this place-“he gestured to his brother as he spoke next-“unless my brother wants to have a little fun with you first; and at some point or another, I will need you, and when I do I’ll call for you, and you had better show up. Because if you don’t, you’ll be very sorry. Do you get my drift?” Acelin leaned in close to James, and he nodded.
“Brother, do you plan on playing a bit with him?” Marcel smiled a bit as he answered slowly.
“Yes… I think I will. This insolent… needs to learn some manners.” Acelin smiled, and Marcel made the man get up and head out to the parking lot. Once they were both out there, Marcel threw a few punches at him, just enough to make the man bleed, then he leaned down to James’ ear and said:
“I hope you learned well from this lesson, James.” Then he licked his bloody knuckles.
“NO!!!” shouted James. “You don’t know what you’ve just done! You’ve doomed yourself!” he shouted. Marcel lifted him higher off of the ground. “What are you talking about?” he growled back at him, but the man didn’t speak, and with his frustration, Marcel hit him hard enough to knock him out. He returned to the Rolls and slid in next to his brother.
“what was that all about, Marcel?”
“I don’t know… but I suppose we’ll find out soon enough.”
Three nights later, Marcel came down with a horrible sickness. No doctor knew what it was, but they all agreed that whatever it was it would most likely kill him. Filled with despair, Acelin didn’t leave his brother for a single minute.
When next his brother awoke, he didn’t seem like himself. He sat up, waking Acelin.
“Brother? You’re awake? How do you feel? Brother?”
“Something… is different…” he murmured.
Although Marcel didn’t fully realize it, his vision was better, clearer. His hearing was better, sharper. His reflexes faster and better. He was stronger, too.
He stood from the bed, and looked about the room, unable to find what it was the was different about it.
“Brother, you’re alright? –they said that you would die in less than a week. I-“ Marcel turned and look him straight in the eye, the look was what silenced him.
“Acelin, I’m not weak.” He said venomously. Without seemingly thinking about it, he reached out with blinding speed, and grabbed his brother’s neck, squeezing, lifting his own twin off the ground.
“Ma-rcel…?”his brother whispered, losing air. “Let-go…ple-ase…”
Something had clouded Marcel’s eyes, something dark. But his love for his brother was stronger than that. And he was fighting it off, and he was winning. He was then keenly aware that something had changed in him. Something that was now making him hurt his brother. He stopped squeezing his hand, he released just enough so that his brother could breath, but he couldn’t let go. Not just yet. He needed to know what it was in him that was making him do this. He searched inside himself,  deeper and deeper. Until he found it. he knew that he had been poisoned with the Voleur virus. But why hadn’t it fully consumed him yet? Why could he still make decisions on his own, and still think for himself? But this wasn’t the time to be asking these questions. He needed to release his brother. He needed to tell his brother what his suspicions were. But he also needed to make sure this situation wouldn’t occur again, because he didn’t know how much time he had. He set his mind in that dark room. He needed to control the virus’s influence.
“Brother?”
Very slowly, his released his brother from its new iron grip. Acelin fell to the floor, coughing and gripping his own throat gingerly.
“Brother…? What’s…did I…why did you…???” Acelin’s words came out tumbling onto the floor. Marcel stepped back until he could brace himself against the wall. He shivered all over with the control he was exerting.
“Call… for help… I want you to… have me tied up…brother…”he grunted, trying desperately to keep himself in control. “Do it.”
“What? Why? Is something wrong?”
“Do it, damn it!” he pushed against the wall, realizing that anger sparked the virus to become stronger. Acelin reached for the phone, and called for one of the servants to bring up the ‘black bag’. This term was unfamiliar to Marcel, but he was sure that whatever it was it would help him. A few minutes later there was a knock at the door.
“Here you are master… is there somethi-“
“No. Go back to bed. I don’t care what you hear, tell everyone to stay away from this room unless called. That’s all.” He closed and locked the door, holding a black suitcase, and headed near the bed. He opened it, and took out a long needle and a small clear, glass bottle.
“Is this okay…?” Acelin was shaking as he held up the needle. Marcel nodded, sinking to the floor.
“Yeah, yeah that’s good… do it.” he nodded, he bent his head towards his brother, but exposing his neck at the same time. “In the neck, it’ll hit the bloodstream faster. When I wake up, you had better have me tied up good and tight, okay?”
“I don’t get it, why?” Marcel’s eyes became peaceful when his brother put the needle in, but waited for the reply before pushing the plunger down.
“For you…I’ll explain after –use the spare.” He said, and Acelin pushed the plunger. Within seconds his brother was in a deep sleep.
Acelin picked up his brother and set him on the bed, then he reached into the suitcase and retrieved a set of restraints, the bid, white bulky kind they used in hospitals, and went to the spare room across the hall to attach them to the bed. Then he saw the straight jacket they had in the case as well, and wondered which would best to use. His brother had said ‘good and tight’. He figured that since it was near nighttime, that he should just use the first set of restraints he planned on, then after they talked, he’d see what else might be needed. He turned back to his brother in the yellowy light, he picked him up with little problem, carried him across the hall, and set him gently on the bed. It wounded his heart that his brother would want him to do this, but he figured that his brother had a reason for it all. When the restraints were all tightened around his wrists and ankles, he put on other set of restraints as well, they were made of a strong cloth and went across the chest, waits and legs. He tightened the large buckles on everything as far as they would go. Then he waited. An hour passed before Marcel awoke, and Acelin was intent on his brother’s reactions.
“Oh…” he groaned, and tried to move his hand to his head, but was cut off short by the restraint. Then he snickered. “Ah, thank-you…” he let his hand rest on the bed. “What did you hit me with, Acelin?” he asked suddenly, Acelin shrugged before answering.
“Uh, xanax…Why?”
“Cause I feel horrible… Get some Liquid E instead, okay? -For next time.” Marcel smiled.
“How can you smile like that?” asked Acelin. “Tell me?” Marcel’s eyebrows pulled together, asking the unsaid question of ‘what?’ “Marcel, you just attacked me, had me sedate you and then restrain you in the spare! What’s going on? I need you to let me in! Brother?”
“Oh, Acelin… Perhaps I should wait… this is clearly taking a huge toll on you, brother.” Acelin put his hand in his brother’s.
“No, no I have to know. So tell me what you couldn’t before.” Marcel nodded, looked at the ceiling and began to speak.
“I…Think that on the day that we went to interrogate that guy James Perriot, and afterwards when I licked his and my blood from my hand… I think that there… was something in his blood, and I think that it was the Voleur virus. But what I can’t understand is why I can still keep myself like this… that I can be here talking to you almost as if nothing was wrong. I found, while I had my hand around your neck –which I feel horrible about- that my anger feeds it. The angrier I am, the more dangerous I am. I don’t think. -But I know I can fight it.” he stopped to measure Acelin’s emotions, watching him for a moment.
“I think it gives you power, too. Because I’ve never felt a grip so strong. Ever.”
“I am sorry, for hurting you.”
“Think nothing of it. I understand now what was happening.” They stopped talking for a bit, both of them brooding Marcel’s suspicions.
“What do you think?” asked Marcel after a short time.
“I think… that you’re right. Bu I also think that it might be our blood –the blood of San Versailles –that’s helping you in this way. I’ll get one of my scientist-friends to compare your blood with that of another person’s who has the Voleur virus. But I’ll take care of that in the morning.” They were quiet for another spell of time.
“You seriously want me to get Liquid E for you?” they stared at each other, then they both laughed quietly, their minds in the same places.
“Yeah, ‘cause that other shit you gave me has bad after effects.”
“Yeah, but you want E?”
Marcel shrugged, “Yeah, cause then I’ll at least feel euphoric!” he smiled, then grew weary. “I think that… you’ll end up doing this fairly often, brother. And I’m sorry for having to put you in this position, because I know how it pains you.”
“Do you remember hoe, when we were kids, if one of us got hurt, then the other really didn’t feel the pain as much? But if we both got hurt, it’s like pain was stronger? –well I think that that’s what’s going on with you and this virus. I think because I don’t have it, it won’t fully consume you. –so it’s a small price to pay.”
Just as Aceilin had said before, he sent for his scientist friend. He arrived soon with the portable microscope. He set it up on the desk, drew blood and compared it to a sample from a recent Voleur virus victim. As he watched, he was surprised.
“Huh… it seems… that your blood, has mutated and joined with the virus… making it a part of your DNA.”
“So what does that mean? Is it still going to consume him?”
“No, no, no. nothing bad will come of this. He simply needs to learn how to use it. Once that is done, it’ll be just like having a gun you can’t remove. –simply a weapon.” He smiled, looking over his shoulder at Marcel. Then he turned all the way around and faced Acelin.
“I suspect that you should always be prepared to incapacitate him. And be weary of angering him as well.” He paused to stand up, then said, “But for the most part, keeping him like this isn’t necessary.” By now, he had removed most of the restraints, and let Marcel sit up. “Acelin, carry some small needles filled with…what was it? -With liquid E in it, Marcel is right, it would be better if that’s what you used on him. And don’t be afraid to have to rough up your bro just a little, if you have to, you have to, alright? Just relax about it.” he smiled in his easy demeanor, patted Acelin on the back, packed up and left. Leaving the blood sample from Marcel on the desk.
After that, things continued in nearly the same way. They stopped going into the dangerous parts of the city to conduct business, they stopped all business for a little while. During this time, Marcel tested himself and learned (in a remarkably short time) how to control the virus, and what it did to him. It took him two months to learn. And when they finally did go back to conducting business, the first place they went to was the lower west side of the city, they were after a guy named Twink, it was rumored that he could find anything for anyone. Acelin wore his signature white suit and red tie and Marcel, next to him, in a black suit and red tie. What they were after, what they wanted, was the liquid E, for Marcel. The first they were aware of was that this guy, Twink, would most likely have some sort of protection, since a lot of people wanted him dead because he wouldn’t swear his allegiance to anyone clan. The only allegiance he had was to the highest buyer.
They found his hideout in a dance club, in the back. It was hot and crowded inside. But when Marcel told the bouncer who they were, and that they had a business proposition for the boss, he lead them inside, three more bouncers joined them on all sides. They found the dark-skinned boss, atired in faux leopard skins and purple pants in a back room, sitting on a large, plush sofa, girls in skimpy outfits sitting around him chattering about unimportant things.
“Boss, sorry to disturb you, but the leaders of the San Versailles Clan are here, claiming to have business for you.”
“Right, let ‘em in, Rog’.” The bouncer nodded, and allowed Marcel and Acelin to pass. “Well, well, well… the Versailles….hehehe…” he held out his hand to them both, taking names, and sending the girls out of the room for a little while. “What can I do for you two, eh?” he asked. Acelin looked to his brother discreetly and decided to talk.
“Well…We want to buy some liquid E from you.” Twink raised his eyebrows.
“Well that I can do that I can do… what else you need? Coke? Needles?” Acelin looked to his twin
“Yeah, we need medical-grade needles, too. Clean, right?” he asked. Twink nodded.
“Only kind I sell. They new or they don’t come from me. Got it?” Acelin nodded. “So how much you want?”
“How much can you get me?”


<TEMPORARY END>>>?