Cie sits on her bed, drawing out new blueprints for the next rendition of her portal machine. Her phone lights up, and she glances at it. It’s the fourth text from her sister, the Never-Aging Sniper, Aria Stellar. She rolls her eyes and ignores it. She wants nothing to do with someone who hurt Agent O so much. There’s a knock on her window and she snaps her eyes to look at who’s knocking. It’s Aria. Of course. Cie sighs and gets off her bed. She walks over to the window and slides it open after unlocking it.

“Cie, why are you ignoring me?” Aria asks as she crouches on the roof of the house.

Tonight, she’s wearing an oil-stained t-shirt, and looks an awful lot like a mechanic.

“Who did you kill for those clothes?” Cie snaps, keeping her voice down.

Aria looks taken aback.

“I killed the person a long time ago. The name is on the clothes.” Aria points to the name on the uniform, which reads Wren.

“Well, do you remember Cicelia? Agent O’s charge that you got with a headshot?”

“The one back in the nineties? Yes, I remember, she was brilliant. That’s why she had to go. Is he still mad about that?”

“What do you mean is he still mad about it?! She was like an adopted daughter to him!” Cie hisses.

Aria scoffs.

“She was going to die eventually. She was mortal, Cie. Agent O is mortal; everyone you know is mortal except for me. They are just humans.”

“Just humans. Huh. Now I know why you’re an assassin. You have no feelings.” Cie says, her voice taking on an eerily calm tone, contrasting the rage in her eyes.

“If I don’t have emotions, that’s humanity’s fault. I was raised to kill, and I’ve done nothing but that my whole life. Yes, I hate humans. I admit it. They’ve turned me into the person I am today.”

“You’re not a person. You’re just a monster in a human-like body.” Cie spits.

Cie moves to shut the window, and Aria grabs her wrist in a death grip, stopping her. Cie grits her teeth, and her green eyes sharpen.

“Let go.”

“No.”

Cie uses her other arm to try and shut the window, and Aria grabs that arm as well.

“You are my sister. I will not lose you to the disgusting filth known as humanity.”

Cie’s eyes start to glow slightly, and Aria releases her arms in a flash, hissing with pain as she glances at her now burnt hands. Her blue eyes widen, and she whispers.

“Cie, Cie, no! Snap out of it. You’re going to blow up Earth!”

Cie starts to glow from within, and Aria looks around, her alarm growing. She slaps Cie but Cie is unresponsive as she starts to float slightly.

“Sorry Cie.” She mutters, as she whips out her sniper rifle and aims it at Cie.

She aims it away from Cie’s head, and fires. The silenced sniper makes no noise, but the bullet flies through the open window, striking Cie in her left shoulder. Cie cries out in pain as she stops glowing, and falls back to the ground, her knees giving out beneath her. She falls on the wooden floor of her bedroom. Aria slides off the roof, rolling away and then running in her high heels as she hears footsteps rushing to Cie’s room. The door to Cie’s room flies open and Nathan bursts in.

“Cie?” He calls, and then he sees his adopted sister on the ground, green blood oozing out of her shoulder.

“Agent O! We’ve got a situation!” Nathan shouts as he charges over to Cie and scoops her up.

He exits the room and races downstairs where Agent O emerges from his room. He looks tired, until he sees Cie.

“Bullet mark. Sniper rifle…Son of a-“ He cuts off as he studies his charge and then motions for Nathan to follow him.

They go into the first aid room and Nathan sets Cie down on the machine she had set up to fix her up in case something ever happened to her. The machine whirs to life and Agent O turns to Nathan.

“Stay with her. The Never-Aging Sniper was the cause of this, that I’m sure of it. I need you to protect her.”

“Who? Agent O, what is going on?” Nathan asks and Agent O shakes his head.

“I’ll tell you later. Just protect her. Promise me. I don’t know how, but that coward is back to take another one of my charges. I refuse to allow it to happen.”

With this said, Agent O leaves the room. He makes a stop in his room and picks up a shotgun. Then he calls Agent B.

“I need you to be on guard. The Never-Aging Sniper struck again. I think Cie will live.” He says, in response to Agent B’s sleepy greeting.

Agent O hangs up and then walks up the stairs to Cie’s room. He investigates the room for a few minutes, before his eyes settle on Cie’s phone as it lights up. It’s sitting on her bed. Agent O picks it up, and then sees there’s five missed texts from an unknown number. He opens the texts and his eyes narrow. He scrolls all the way back to the top, and he swears as he chunks the phone against the wall, shattering it.

“Cie, you fool. You let a wolf into the sheep pen.” He growls.

He turns and races downstairs. The machine finishes patching up Cie; the bloody bullet rests on a metal plate, and her green eyes flutter open as Nathan guards her.

“Ouch.” Cie groans and Nathan’s eyes fly to her.

“Cie! What happened?!” He exclaims and Cie feels her bandaged left shoulder.

“I-I’m not sure. Aria was there, and-and I got really mad because she kept calling humanity filth and acting like they weren’t important. And then, I don’t remember what happened next. I was in a glowing, white place, and then I felt this awful pain in my shoulder-“ Cie cuts off her hazy mumbling and sighs deeply.

“She shot you, Cie.” Agent O growls from the doorway startling Nathan and Cie.

“Oh. She must have had a good reason.” Cie slurs.

“Agent O, who is she talking about?” Nathan asks uncomfortably.

“The Never-Aging Sniper.”

“My sister.” Cie defends.

“She’s not your sister. You were born of a supernova explosion, remember?” Agent O snaps.

“Yeah, and she was born during the star’s life. Our other sister was born at the birth of the star.” Cie argues.

Agent O frowns at Cie and looks to Nathan.

“Don’t let anyone in the house. And you’re doubly grounded, Cie.” Agent O says and Cie whines.

“Aw man.”

“I need to figure out why Cie is reacting this way to whatever she was shot with.” Agent O says as he uses a plastic bag to pick up the bullet.

The bullet pulses and is a white color, now covered in green blood. Cie’s green blood. He leaves the room, and exits the house, heading for Agent B’s house to examine the bullet there in Mag’s lab. Nathan sits beside Cie, waiting for Agent O to return.

“You’ve certainly done it this time, Cie.” Nathan sighs.

Cie only laughs weakly and bops Nathan on the nose.

“Boop.” She says and Nathan frowns.

“It’s like you’ve been drugged. I certainly hope it’s not some weird Supernova poison she shot you with.” He says.

“I like poison. It tastes weird.” Cie giggles and Nathan groans.

“Shush.” Nathan says and Cie pouts.

“Why? I like talking.”

“You’re going to regret saying such weird things once you’re back to normal. I hope you can go back to normal after this.”  Nathan explains.

Cie only stares at him vacantly.

“Are you calling me abnormal?” She demands after a moment.

“You are abnormal, Cie. You aren’t even human.”

Tears well up in Cie’s eyes.

“You’re so mean.” She huffs as she looks away.

Nathan pulls out his phone and texts Agent O.

Please hurry. She’s acting crazy.

He gets no response for a few minutes until Agent O texts back.

Don’t know what she was shot with. It’s not a substance natural to Earth.

Will she be okay?

I don’t know. I’m not a Supernova doctor.

Nathan bites his lip, nervousness clawing at his insides. Nathan sighs in relief a few minutes later when he hears the front door open.

“Agent O, she’s been-“ Nathan cuts off as a female walks into the room.

She has black bangs with blue hair pulled back in a ponytail. She also has blue lines underneath her eyes. She’s wearing a light pink sweater and khakis with white high heels.

“I know. I shouldn’t have shot her. But she was going supernova.” Aria explains and Cie giggles at Nathan’s stunned expression.

“Aria! You changed clothes again!” She grins.

“Hi, Cie.” Aria says, her blue eyes turning on her baby sister.

“Oh man, you’re a wreck. I forgot that my bullets probably wouldn’t have a great reaction with Supernova blood.” She mutters as she puts a hand to Cie’s forehead.

She frowns and then turns to look at Nathan.

“Don’t you dare attack me. Unless, of course, you want your half-sister to have the mentality of someone constantly on laughing gas.”

Nathan’s eyes widen and Aria nods.

“Good.”

“Okay, Cie, I need you to work with me here.” Aria says, her voice gentle and kind.

Cie boops her on the nose, and Aria scrunches up her nose.

Aria whips out a knife and cuts her own hand. She removes the bandages covering Cie’s wound, ignoring Nathan’s stare at her deep blue blood, and holds Cie’s hands away from her wound, wincing at the contact of her burnt hands on Cie’s now cold hands. She squeezes out a bit of her dark blue blood into Cie’s wound, and Cie’s eyes slowly focus on the wound as it sizzles. The mixture of their blood seems to cause some sort of chemical reaction, and Cie stares, entranced.

“What…How?” Cie asks and her voice sounds normal again.

Aria kisses her little sister’s head.

“Got to go before Agent O shows up.”  She murmurs, and then in a flash, she’s out the window, climbing out in her high heels as if it’s no big deal.

To her, it’s probably not. She probably does something similar every day.

“I swear, what is with her and high heels?” Cie mutters.

“Cie! You’re back to being you again!” Nathan exclaims.as he hugs her tightly.

Cie winces.

“Ouch, ouch, ouch. Okay, please let go.” Cie groans and Nathan releases her.

“Sorry.”

“Where’s Agent O?” Cie asks.

“At Agent B’s house.”

“Oh.”

“You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”