What Have We Here [Eliane, Antonetta]

"Because I want to live my own life."

As plain, straightforward, and blunt an answer as was ever possible, and delivered with all the sharpness of a slap to the face. Eliane knew playing games with Antonetta wasn't necessary at this point, and so she wasn't going to waste her time. She could get what she wanted with plain old French.

"Even without that collar around my neck, I've always just been on her leash, and I won't be doing that anymore. A life where I'm just her lapdog, doing what ever she wants? No, thank you."

Eliane's eyes narrowed just a touch as she stared right into Antonetta's eyes, a piercing gaze that contained untold malice, yet none of it directed at Antonetta herself.

"She's weaker than any of us. Arlette and I both have more than enough money to keep her from simply crushing us underfoot. So I wonder, why should I be afraid of her? Do you think, if you take that collar off, she'll come after you herself? Do you think she'll miss you?"

You can't. Was the first thing that came to mind and the first thing she wanted to say to Eliane's answer. They couldn't live their own lives, it was impossible! It was like she was talking about flying pigs, or whatever analogy had been made to replace it since you could probably make a pig fly nowadays.

"No... But I'll miss you, I don't want to lose any of you."

She said back, even if no one gave it to her in return she did love all the individuals that she had a relationship to. No one in the world was worth anything compared to the handful of people she'd known her whole life, if she could hollow out the world and just have all five of them there together then she'd be happy.

Eliane's entire being tensed at those words. There were several things she felt as she heard them, and none of them were what one would ever particularly call pleasant. Irritation, disgust, contempt, all of it coursed through her being as she heard such a simple, straightforward statement of her sister's genuine affection for her.

But she knew why it made her so angry. She wouldn't ever admit it to anyone, but she knew all too well why it infuriated her so much to hear words like that said to her. Instead, she simply sighed to herself, and stepped forward to give Antonetta a hug. There wasn't any malice, no ill intent, no threat that she might snap her little sister's neck.

It wasn't in Eliane's nature to offer this sort of affection, but she'd do anything to get what she wanted. Even play the cards closest to her chest.

"One day, she'll do to you what she did to Arlette. One day you won't be replaced anymore. There won't be a backup Antonetta. When you've only got one life, where do you want to spend it? With her? Or with your sisters?"

It made her sick to her stomach, to be so forwardly caring. There was nothing Eliane hated more than the fact that her sisters meant something to her.

It was incredibly difficult to fight her desires, the desire to close the space between them and squeeze back to hug but that desire was mixed with fear. Eliane would always toy and ruin her somehow, this could also just be a game as well for her older sister. This whole thing they were doing right now could just be a play written and composed by Eliane to toy with her. Why should she trust her most conniving sister? What if this was just a plan to get rid of her as well? Trick her into betraying their mother, then she doesn't get to come back!

"This isn't fair!"

She shot back with blue eyes clouded by the fact she was getting teary over the situation. Why'd she have to pick? Why'd she have to decide between two loaded possibilities. It was the cruelest thing Eliane had come up with yet.

"I don't want to choose."

Antonetta rebutted, not wanting to decide because either option felt like it just played into whatever cruel scheme her sister could be making.

"Life isn't fair."

Eliane's reply was cold, cutting, to the point. But she didn't let go of her sister, because she was all too aware that Antonetta cared more than any of them about that kind of bond.

"Do you think Arlette wanted to choose? If any of us could have chosen, do you think we would have chosen a life under her thumb? I wouldn't have."

It wasn't surprising that Antonetta was so disinclined to trust her. Eliane had planned for that anyway, after all. It wasn't as if she expected anyone, even Antonetta, to suddenly imagine she was some angel who would never tell a lie.

"It doesn't matter whether you want to choose or not. I won't go back, and neither will Arlette. You have to choose. So who is it, Antonetta? Your sisters? Or the woman who will throw you into the trash one day?"

"You're not all my sisters."

She pouted back. Did Eliane just think that she'd abandon Wolfina? She was her twin, kind of. Being the new types and the most recent batch drew her to have the most in common with her. The smallest Ovide glared at the idea of abandoning one of them to the fate that would come if all three of them ran away.

Not that she was entertaining the idea of listening to Eliane or anything. She was just entertaining it for now. Yeah, manipulating and turning it back on Eliane she assured herself.

"No, we're not. I wouldn't condemn Wolfina to that, either. But we both know going back won't help her. She'll have to come to us, just like you did."

Eliane was the last person that ever could have been afraid of being manipulated by her little sister. She knew Antonetta's tricks better than anyone, and if anything, she'd helped the girl refine many of them simply by poking holes in weaker attempts. But now, when things were seriously on the line, she'd already chosen her path. She wasn't going to settle.

"If you go back, the two of you will just get thrown away together. Tossed into the incinerator, but at least you'll have each other. Right? That's a pitiful way to go."

Needling, cruel words were Eliane's specialty, but at the moment, she was using them sparingly, pointedly. She needed Antonetta to understand the reality of what was happening.

"Why would Wolfina be allowed to come? You're senseless, once she learns that you're gone and I'm gone why would she even keep Wolfina around?"

She shot at Eliane angrily. It was rare occasions that she'd ever actually bare her fangs over something to one of her sisters but the idea of leaving her twin to a cruel fate, discarded and destroyed like scrap was painful. All alone and unsure of why. That was the worst part for her, the time that she spent waiting to see which one of them was going to hunt down Arlette, the anticipation of everything being alright but the feeling that of abandonment.

"You don't care. You've never cared about any of us, or else why would you have done all those awful things to us? You don't care about her, or me, or Arlette either."

Antonetta showed some of her colours. Once Eliane crossed the line then she would, she so "naively" let her emotions get the better of her to deliver her own cruel words that hoped to drive something into her sister's cold heart to maybe make her feel something.

"Why do you think she'll know that I'm gone? I wonder, Antonetta, if you think I only just got these scars. As far as she knows, I'm still wherever she wants me to be, dancing to her tune and wearing that silly little collar."

Eliane could have snapped back at her sister, but that wasn't the way to handle this. If anything, it would have seemed all the more fake of her to do so. She never showed a serious side, and she wouldn't get even more stern now. Being herself was the most honest she could be, after all.

"She'll probably send Wolfina and that fake me both to find you. And I know myself better than anyone, so getting rid of her won't be any trouble."

Her eyes did, however, narrow again, her smile falling a touch as her expression became infinitely more like their mother's.

"I know how she thinks more than you. More than Arlette, more than Wolfina. I've always been her favorite, and you should be thankful for that."

She pouted at Eliane as she explained it in her cunning way. The way that her older sister enjoyed talking about things, everything sang and danced to her choreography. Antonetta closed her hands into fists and bit her lip, as far as one could tell she was acting like a spoilt child that was upset that she hadn't gotten her own way. She wanted her cake and to eat it too but no one else wanted to play along to it.

Perhaps it would've been appropriate to throw a punch at her sister but in public like this she'd only cause trouble and the last thing she needed was them both to end up captured. She'd get bunched into being involved with Eliane who'd be exposed as being alive, killed off and Wolfina would be punished or worst.

"Fine."

She crossed her arms looked off to the side.