The magnificent voices of two teenagers decked out in gothic apparel rang through a rather large night club as the two performers finished their song and struck a triumphant pose. The older and taller of the two standing at the front with a guitar around her neck, the younger one with a bass guitar around hers.

The older of the two sported long curly orange locks with yellow highlights as she stood tall in combat boots and a lacy black strapless dress. She didn’t have much cleavage to show off, but the proper padding on the front of her dress at least made her chest somewhat more impressive to look at for the onlookers as she took in the cheers and ovation she was receiving. Her reddish eyes scanning the room with pride as they all cheered for the two of them.

The younger one, her kid sister only fourteen years of age was panting from the excitement. The thrill of the crowd cheering them on, begging for more, it was too much to take in at times, but every show they played seemed to give her that same high that the first one they had ever done gave her. Together, the two of them had nearly flawless harmony, their voices complimented each other so perfectly. It was truly remarkable, almost as if they were born to sing, born to perform.

After several moments of cheering and applause, the two girls removed their instruments and set them down. They had opted not to bring their own, and instead utilize the ones provided for them so that they wouldn’t have to lug them around.

They stood for a few more moments until the owner of the venue approached with his hands clapping together. He grabbed the microphone and spoke to the mob that they called a crowd. “Thank you so much! That was the awesome new band, ‘Sirens’, we’re super thankful that you ladies could come out here tonight, we know you are just about to land a record deal, so thanks for taking the time to play at a smaller venue like this one!”

The two sisters chuckled and nodded.

“Let’s hear one last big cheer for them, everyone!” He shouted into the microphone.

The room came back to life with cheers and thunderous applause. The two sisters bowed gently before exiting the stage.

As they made their way behind the scenes to a dressing room provided for them, the younger of the two sisters yawned and stretched. Her wild blonde hair bounced as she stepped, and her older sister smirked as she admired how perfect her younger sister looked. She was short, petite and was starting to fill out in all the right places. There was no doubt in her mind that the young teen would eventually become a sex object to most men, something that admittedly worried her.

The blonde entered their dressing room and plopped down on the couch with another long yawn (possibly exaggerated). “Eight songs in a row, damn... That was a lot... They were eating it up, I’d say we killed them though, right, sis?”

The elder sister sat down at the vanity mirror provided for them and checked over her eyeliner. It had miraculously held up despite her sweating and movement. She looked down at her wrist to see the clear green transparent band wrapped around it.

Hovering her hand above the band, she made a quick swipe gesture and a digital clock appeared above her wrist in a neon green. Checking the time, she was thankful that it wasn’t too late, only 8:08 PM. She would still have time to get the two of them something to eat before heading home.

“Ya’, remember v’we have to get up early tomorrow though.” Her older sister’s accent sprinkled over the words that came out of her mouth.

“Why is everything in America open at really weird times, Adagio?” Her sister asked.

Adagio shrugged. She wished she had an answer to that, but the reality was that Americans did many things completely backward or just in an odd way in general. Stores were open at two in the morning that didn’t really need to be, and people drove to places that were less than a five-minute walk. It was nothing like back home, but Adagio wasn’t complaining. She’d rather be surrounded by a bunch of strange people than go back.

“I have no idea,” Adagio responded.

“Why can’t we just go in at like fucking eight or something?” Her younger sister complained.

Adagio grunted and shot an annoyed glance in her sister’s direction. “Serenade Dazzle, language.”

“Sorry... It’s just I’m not even awake at seven...” Serenade complained.

“Back in home country, you’d probably be up v’working by that time. Stop v’with the bitching,” Adagio lectured.

“Now look who needs to watch her language...” Serenade smirked.

Adagio swore in her native tongue and rolled her eyes. “Do as say, not as do, understand?”

“It’s do as I say, not as I do, sis,” Serenade corrected with a matter-of-a-fact tone, clearly just wanting an excuse to annoy Adagio. It wasn’t uncommon for her kid sister to pull a joke at Adagio’s expense, but usually, it was all in good fun. While Serenade appeared to take nothing seriously, she was actually far less confident when pressure was put upon her. Many times when things got too difficult for her, she defaulted to running to Adagio to fix a mess.

While Adagio’s sense of humor was far less childish than Serenade’s, she couldn’t stay mad at her even if her jokes annoyed her at times. “Fabulous. You should apply to Harvard University. Get English degree, and spend all of time correcting me, ya’?”

Serenade rolled her eyes before she came to a stand and retrieved a soda from a mini-fridge that had been left for them. Popping open the sprite, she took a long sip of the carbonated beverage and sat back down. “No need to get butt mad about it.”

“What is this butt mad?” Adagio raised a brow, unfamiliar with the term.

“It means you’re getting your rear end bent out of shape.” Serenade rolled her eyes once more.

“Must be idiom that Americans say.” Adagio shrugged, still not quite understanding it, but she wasn’t particularly interested in hearing another boring lesson on the English language. Her grasp upon it was enough to sing, and enough to understand a conversation, even read a book or two if she needed to.

“You know, you really should care more about getting that kind of stuff right, given the circumstances...” Serenade reminded her, tilting her can in Adagio’s direction.

“I have this, trust me,” Adagio reassured, “I’ve been practicing, promise.”

“So we’re really staying here then?” Serenade asked.

Adagio stopped what she was doing and turned around, her big eyes focused on her sister. “Ya’, v’we can stay in New York, promise.”

“You’re the best, sis.” Serenade smiled.

Adagio laughed and shook her head before standing up and approaching the couch. She sat down next to her sister and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, pulling the blonde in before ruffling her hair lightly. Serenade grumbled and resisted briefly, but she eventually chuckled and let it happen.

“Do not thank me, yet. Still have to pass test, then it is official,” Adagio reminded.

“You’ll do great.” Serenade gave a thumbs up.

“I hope.” Adagio sighed.

There was a short pause followed by Serenade requesting something that Adagio was starting to grow tired of talking about. “Tell me more about Russia.”

A sigh escaped Adagio again. “Why you want to keep hearing about Russia? Homeland sucks, that’s why we’re here.”

“I read that Russia was doing better at one point though...” Serenade rubbed her chin in thought.

The girl was too young to remember most of Russia. They left when Serenade was only three. From the age of eight, Adagio had raised her little sister herself. They had managed to get into a refugee program to make it to America during the war. There was so much going on, that they didn’t even notice they weren’t accompanied by parents at the time. From there it was just a matter of keeping a low profile until Adagio was sixteen where she could start beginning the process of getting citizenship. If she could pull it off, then she could make herself Serenade’s guardian until she was old enough to apply herself.

It was a long process, and learning English proved to be a challenge for the girl, but she had managed to get by with her talent for singing. Singing had lead her to work, and that work got her income. Money could buy a lot of things, and Adagio discovered it could even buy discretion. The federal offices were willing to look the other way on her sneaking into the country so long as she was making money and willing to pay taxes.

It wouldn’t take long before she managed to get them to allow Serenade to be enrolled in a home school program and take night classes a few nights a week. It was a busy life, and Serenade had started a bit later than most kids her age, but she was getting caught up quickly. She was on track to getting her GED on time at the age of eighteen.

Since she turned sixteen, Adagio had been busy, not a moment of her time was wasted. Between singing, working toward citizenship and caring for her sister, her life was hectic. She hadn’t been on a single date in her life, and she never really took time off. Now at the prime age of nineteen, she was exhausted. Tomorrow though, if she could pass her test, then she could at least check her citizenship off of the long list of things she had to take care of.

“Media publishes lies, Serenade. Russia probably still shit, assholes in government probably just want to convince Americans that they not treating people like trash.” Adagio rolled her eyes.

Serenade shrugged and waved her hand over her wrist, causing a projection of a screen to appear before her. Flicking her fingers she scrolled through her social feed. In the past few years, the newest fad for social media became a site called Valor. Adagio didn’t quite understand it that much, but she allowed Serenade to handle their feed for the band because she couldn’t be bothered.

“Hey, we’re up to 88,000 followers!” Serenade giggled.

“Is good?” Adagaio asked.

Serenade nodded. “Definitely, we gained like three thousand in a day!”

“V’what about new album? It selling?” Adagio tilted her head.

Serenade nodded. “Yeah, I think we had about 10k in sales after taxes last week. We’re really setting it on fire.”

Adagio closed her eyes. She was tired. “Good to hear. Record people will like, for sure.”

“Yeah, totally. I guess we should get home and get some rest though, don’t want you falling asleep for your citizenship test tomorrow,” Serenade stated.

Adagio nodded in agreement as she came to a stand. Collecting her bag, she gestured with her head for Serenade to follow.

With a simple hand gesture, she made the projected window vanish and came to a stand. She brushed off her black lacy dress and adjusted her fingerless arm stockings before smiling at her sister with her hands behind her back. “Let’s get out of here.”

With a long morning behind her, Adagio had finished the final part of her questionnaire. Sitting in front of a man in suspenders and a bow tie, she couldn’t help but feel like she should have worn something more business professional than her usual gothic attire. She had an image to maintain, which meant she only shopped to support that image, but this meant she lacked proper dress clothing.

Looking over her answers, the man squinted and brushed his graying hair out of his face. With a smile, he looked up at her and nodded. “Well, I have to say these are some of the best results I’ve gotten all month.”

“Does that mean...?” Adagio placed her hand atop her chest.

He nodded. “Yup, congratulations, Miss Dazzle, you’re officially a citizen of the United States of America. The rest of the paperwork will take a few days, but you can expect for everything to be finished by the end of the week. You've finally done it.”

Adagio reached across the table and grabbed his hand with both of her own as she stood shaking it. “Thank you! You have no idea how much this means!”

He blinked in surprise but shook her hand back. “It’s no trouble, Ms. Dazzle. You’ve had a long journey getting here, I’m glad to have been a part of it.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she nodded. “I spend many nights fearing that we get sent back to Russia... This is huge relief to me...”

Releasing her hand, he reached forward and patted her shoulder before sitting down. “You don’t need to fear anymore. We’re glad to have you here. Your story is one of many that makes America so great. It must have been hell after the war.”

That was an understatement. When the war was going on in her youth, she recalled Russian soldiers would occupy homes of citizens. All people were required to accommodate them, and her family had endured such a thing quite a few times. The vast majority of them, however, were rude, slobbish and even violent. Her own mother had been raped by a few of them, all to protect her and her sister.

Adagio got lucky, none of them had ever laid a hand upon her, but she vowed to not let her sister get harmed either, a promise she was proud to say she had managed to keep even now. Serenade was too gentle for the world, she was shy, and she was not versed in the way of the world. Unlike Adagio, Serenade had grown up mostly in America. While they had to be crafty to get by in their early years, life in the US was one of privilege. Serenade never knew what it meant to hide in a basement and hope the soldiers didn’t hear you. She didn’t know what it meant to be trained to fire an AK-47 in case the military resorted to drafting children.

While Russia had not always been so bad, sometime around 2024 it had gone severely downhill. A new leader had taken over and had started stripping the people of their rights. A long winter followed which lowered harvest that year, combined with a trade embargo that most of the world had put on them had lead to diminishing food supplies. The leader had ordered all supplies to be rationed and that the military got first dibs.

The problems only got worse from there. Before they knew it, Russia’s economic state had nearly collapsed and within eighteen months of bad spending, Russia had officially been declared a third world economy.

Adagio was still very young when most of it went down, but she could remember waiting in line to get food to bring home. She could remember people literally searching through trash cans for food. She could remember having only one shirt that she had to wash every day. It was a harsh life, one that she was thankful that Serenade was too young to remember.

“I have to go tell my sister!” Adagio exclaimed before racing out of the office and into the lobby where her young sister sat rocking her head as she listened to music.

A pair of headphones made of light hovered over her ears, fins coming off of them at a slant. Phones had gotten incredibly advanced in a short time after Adagio had arrived in the US. As a child, she had seen a smartphone, but now they had ultraphones. They were incredibly advanced devices capable of projecting interactive holograms. With a few hand gestures, one could make a pair of holographic headphones appear or their social media feed. They could even sit back and watch a movie in virtual reality, all with a device that fits around their wrist.

Ultraphones had become so common that they had replaced virtually every other type of computer shy of large mainframes that businesses held. On a consumer level, it was the only type of computer that people were buying. Serenade was far better with them than Adagio was, but she knew her way around a device.

Serenade caught a glimpse of her sister and gestured to make her headphones disappear. She came to a stand and shot her an eager look. “So?” She asked.

Adagio nodded. “It is done.”

With a gleeful squeal, Serenade leaped forward and hugged her elder sister. Adagio chuckled and petted the girl’s hair, smiling as she did. “It’s finally over...” Serenade cooed.

“Now, we can stay here in America forever.” Adagio nodded. The biggest weight felt like it was lifted from her shoulders at that moment.

The next night the two girls celebrated before Adagio allowed Serenade to head to bed while she went out to a gas station nearby to acquire herself a beverage. She was thankful that New York always seemed to have 80% of stores open even in the late hours. She thought about it and realized that she had spent most of her life in New York now. It wasn’t the greatest place in the world, but it had become home.

Stepping into the small gas station, Adagio wandered over to a fridge and picked out a lemon Brisk tea. Looking over at the beer in the fridge next to her, she chuckled at that thought that back in her home country she would have been able to legally drink years ago, and yet in America, she was still two years away from being permitted to do so. She wondered why the Russian accent alone wasn’t enough to make them look the other way.

Taking the drink to the counter, she scanned her phone by holding her wrist up to a reader on the counter to pay and nodded as the cashier as she popped open the bottle. The fact that these devices were so advanced that one needn't carry money anymore astounded Adagio.

“A bit late for you to be out, don’t you think kid?” He asked.

“I’m nineteen,” Adagio replied before taking a sip.

He raised a brow. “Quite an accent you got there, where are you from?”

“Doesn’t matter, I’m American now.” Adagio smirked.

The cashier nodded and laughed. “Well, congratulations, but do be careful out there at this hour, a lot of strange people.”

“Whatever...” Adagio shrugged before heading out the exit.

The moment she was outside of the door, however, a hand gripped her wrist causing her to flinch and turn to see a person in a black hoodie with the hood up holding her wrist. Adagio looked down and then back up at the hooded figure.

“You really should listen to him, there really are a lot of dangerous people outside, you can never be too careful...” The person said, their voice revealing their gender as female.

“Let go!” Adagio growled.

“We need to have a little talk first,” the hooded woman said.

“Not interested, now let go and piss off.” Adagio tugged to break free once more but the woman’s grip was too strong.

“You will be when you try and walk home tonight...” The woman said and finally released Adagio from her grip. She placed both of her hands in her pocket and headed toward the entrance to the store. “I’ll be here when you decide to come back...”

“Sure, whatever...” Adagio rolled her eyes, recognizing that this woman was obviously crazy if she thought that Adagio was going to back.

She had thought that would be the end of it, she had no idea how wrong she was. Sipping from her tea, she decided to cut through an alleyway that she knew would bring her back to her apartment faster. After making it halfway through, she stopped and sighed as a familiar craving came over her. She tried to compose herself but knew she would give into temptation. Reaching into her purse, she retrieved a pack of cigarettes that only had about eight left.

Pulling one out, she rationalized to herself by saying she hadn’t had one in a week, and that she was closer to her goal. Nodding after she felt her personal rationalization to herself was sufficient, she lit the cancer stick and took a puff. She would need to make sure she held her cigarette away from herself and chewed some gum afterward so that Serenade wouldn’t find out. Fortunately for her, she could slip in and throw her clothes in the wash to prevent them from smelling of smoke.

She sighed and shook her head as she inhaled. It felt good to intake, but she also was overcome with guilt. She was only glad that her little sister didn't see her smoking, as she was so impressionable. Serenade would do anything that Adagio did, and that frightened her at times, it meant she had to always be a good example for her at all times. Anything deplorable had to be done behind closed doors.

“That’s a nasty habit you know?” A voice called to her from the other side of the alleyway.

She grumbled and internally wondered why random people always felt the need to inform smokers of how bad the habit was for their health. “I’m trying to quit, not that it’s any of your business...”

The voice was now accompanied by the sound of a lighter flicking. Adagio blinked and could see the glow of a cigarette held by a hand in the shadows. She laughed and shook her head. “Can’t follow own advice, then?” Adagio smirked.

Stepping out of the shadows, the figure’s face came into full focus. Adagio stepped back in horror as she recognized the face, it was her own. This woman was almost a perfect twin. But unlike Adagio, she had on some kind of tight stealth suit and trench coat over her body. “I’m not exactly concerned about my health these days...” They said.

“Who are you!?” Adagio barked as she stepped back once more.

The other Adagio laughed and shook her head before taking a drag from the cigarette. She leaned her head back and exhaled before facing the young Russian woman. “Who? That’s a difficult question that can’t be answered in a few sentences, what I am though... Is a phantom of the past, and maybe one day a phantom of the future...”

“You not make sense...” Adagio shook her head.

The other Adagio laughed and dropped her cigarette. Reaching into her jacket, she retrieved a switchblade that she drew and grinned. “You’re just out of the loop.”

Not hesitating, Adagio reached into her purse and retrieved a handgun she had grown accustomed to carrying. When she was a child she was taught how to use weapons and since old habits died hard, she found herself feeling safer only when she had a firearm not far away from herself. “Stay away,” she warned.

The other Adagio laughed before twirling her blade in her hand, running her finger along the side of the blade. “That’s cute, go ahead, shoot me.”

“Don’t make me...” Adagio growled.

The other her stepped forward with the knife drawn and like a reflex, Adagio pulled the trigger and a bullet zipped out of the gun and through the other Adagio, piercing where her heart would be. The only problem, however, was the bullet passed right through her and hit the brick wall behind her. Adagio gasped and lowered her gun. “H-how!?”

The other Adagio felt where the bullet had passed. She was completely fine, not even a hole in her outfit. She laughed and brushed the spot. “You can’t kill me, I don’t exist in the same way that you do. Mortal weaponry won't get rid of me either.”

Not wasting any time, Adagio panicked and bolted out of the alleyway. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her, looking over her shoulder occasionally to see if she was being followed by her doppelgänger, but to her surprise, the other Adagio never gave chase. Instead, she stayed in that alleyway not even bothering to follow her.

After a good mile of running, Adagio was out of breath. She slowed down and rested her hand on a nearby streetlight. She huffed and puffed and tried to compose herself. Her mind suddenly returned to the hooded girl from the gas station and what she had said.

You will be when you try and walk home tonight...

Was it possible that the hooded stranger had some kind of involvement with the other Adagio appearing? She had to know. Turning around, she made her way back to the gas station, hoping to find some answers to some difficult questions.

It would only take a few minutes before Adagio burst back into the gas station huffing and puffing. The owner gave her a squared eye of confusion, but Adagio quickly composed herself, brushing her hair with her hands as her eyes scanned around the room. There, sitting at a table intended for coffee purchasers who wanted to sit and read a bit before heading out was the same hooded woman with a hot coffee in front of her.

Adagio couldn’t make out her face, but she gestured with her finger for Adagio to come over.

Not wasting a second, Adagio sat down across from her and cleared her throat. “Okay, who is you? V’why strange clone of me attack me on way home? V’what do you know?”

The girl opened the lid to her coffee and picked up a nearby sugar-free creamer and poured it in. She swirled the cup carefully in her hand. Adagio took note of her teal nail polish on her long and expertly manicured fingernails.

One she was done, she placed the lid back on and took a sip before setting the cup down. She didn’t seem in a particular hurry to answer Adagio’s questions.

“I say-“ Adagio was cut off.

“I heard what you said, I was waiting for you to calm down a little so you’ll actually internalize what I’m going to say,” The girl responded plainly.

Adagio took a few breaths and nodded. “Alright, explain please. V’what is going on?”

Motioning over the phone on her wrist, the girl made a projection appear in front of them on the table. “This is all going to be hard to believe, but the reality is that two Adagio’s exist.”

“Ordinarily I v’would say you Americans are crazy, but I see for myself, so go on...” Adagio nodded, following thus far.

“What you saw was a phantom, an Adagio Shade. She represents an Adagio that was, one that is gone now...” The hooded woman explained.

“You say there is second me?” Adagio raised a brow in confusion.

“She came from another world, a world connected to ours... She was undone by this girl...” The woman continued and shifted the hologram to now one of a woman with long wavy red and yellow hair. “Sunset Shimmer.”

“So v’what?” Adagio shrugged.

“Just like there are two Adagios...” The hooded woman began before flicking her hand over the hologram to make a second Sunset appear, this one sporting a ponytail and glasses. Adagio leaned in to examine the two girls. “There are two Sunsets, like the two Adagio’s though, one of them was eliminated...” Waving her hand again, the Sunset with glasses vanished.

“This Sunset... She is from other world as v’well?” Adagio asked.

The hooded figure nodded. “But now, there is a new problem...”

“Problem?” Adagio leaned in.

“There are thirds of each arising; a third Sunset and a third Adagio...” The girl stated.

“This is bad?” Adagio gulped.

She nodded. “In the end, there can only be one of each. Only one Sunset and one Adagio will remain after all is said and done...”

“You mean...” Adagio could feel her heart racing. She didn’t want to believe this woman, but at this point, she had no reason to doubt her, she clearly knew more than she was even willing to tell.

“Yes, one of each will be dead before this is all over...” She replied.

“But which one!?” Adagio banged her hands on the table and leaned in.

The hooded girl chuckled lightly before shrugging. “That will be up to many factors, but know that you will play a hand in it.”

“How do you know all this?” Adagio asked, her voice starting to grow a temper.

A sigh escaped the girl before her gentle-looking hands reached up and gripped the hood of her hoodie, pulling it down to reveal long red hair with yellow streaks, shining greenish eyes with her hair tied into a set of pigtails. Adagio gasped and pushed back from the table causing her chair to screech across the floor.

The redhead brushed a small tuft of hair from her eye and opened and closed her gorgeous eyes. “Because one of those Sunset Shimmers is me.”

So to quell any mysteries: Yes, this is the human Adagio and Serenade. I’m sure a few people were curious where they played in all of this, well now at least we all know why they haven’t been involved until now. My girls were over in NY getting a music career going.