Lights, Camera, Action!

Chapter 40: Bombshell

Yippee! Lights, Camera, Action! has reached over 300 reads. Thank you to all of the readers and voters of this story who have chosen to read and continue to do so. This story is also my biggest story to date with now seven more parts than my second biggest. I hope you have all enjoyed it and now, on with the story!

Sliver and Starlight may be very clever but they weren't the best as expressing their emotions. Normally, they could express them easily enough to one another but as their negative emotions were about them; then it became difficult. Still, it wasn't like they could just avoid each other until the coldness defrosted slightly and it wasn't like they were having a big arguement either. They just... weren't as good as friends as they had been before the massacre.

It didn't impact on the quality of their work though. Bloodshed needed to be as good as it could possibly be to make all the suffering in the last few months worth it. To the Twins, this meant that it was something rather personal. They believed themselves partially to blame for the deaths of others and didn't want their deaths to be in vain. They worked hard together, fixing all the miniscule details of the lightning and special effects so that everything was perfect. The visual and sound effects were on point and nothing technological was a breath out of place. If anything, this pent up anger and frustration was allowing the siblings to produce work of an even higher quality than usual. But they didn't want to stay feuding forever...

Starlight would be more then happy to talk things through with her brother until they reached an understanding, but he had to be the one to start it. Sliver was the one who had hacked her account and created a personal survey in her name. A survey that had been the tipping point for one of the worse massacres in this area. She was a victim in this who had nearly lost her life because of his disregard for privacy. Although thinking about it, Sliver had always had an issue with that. Nevertheless, he needed to be the one to apologise. He was in the wrong and simply needed to swallow his pride. The longer it took, the more of an injustice it was to the people who lost their lives.

Sliver knew what his sister thought about their current situation. That she was innocent and he was in the wrong. Even if they didn't have this nearly telepathic connection, he would still be able to tell what she was thinking. Starlight wore her heart and mind on her sleeve. He also wanted to reconcile with her greatly but he refused to take full responsibility for the massacre in her eyes. That way, he was practically a murderer in her eyes. Honey may have been the one to actually kill the people, Petal and Branch may have failed at providing grief support and Shadow may have failed at being a good boyfriend but he, Sliver Holograms, would be the one Starlight secretly blamed. And he would not let that be the case. So he kept his pride and beliefs and let the pair work in this unusual discord.

Yet this silence apart from the odd sentence or two had stretched for a good few months now. Both were getting rather fed up with holding these kind of grudges against one another. When really, neither had done nothing wrong. Sliver did intend to apologise for hacking her account, but that was it! He would not accept responsibility for any other incidents that happened as a direct or indirect action due to what he had done. It wasn't fair. Starlight was also thinking of lessening the punishment her brother would face. He didn't truly deserve a punishment, Honey had seen to it he would remember the consequences for a long time. Plus, while he had been in the world fifteen seconds without her, she had never been without him. Therefore, this disharmony between the pair made her feel incredibly lonely and she didn't really have anyone else in her life to bond with.

The Twins shared their friends. Shadow, Blaze, Branch, Sonic, Amy... all of them. They were their friends. Not his or her friends, their friends. Sharing, co-owned, joint. It had always been that way: What belonged to Sliver was Starlight's as well and vice versa. So neither sibling wanted to put their limited friendship in a position of trouble by making them feel like they had to pick a side. That wasn't what they wanted. This distance was simply just personal to them. What they also shared, were their parents. Granted, that was the same for any siblings but they were twins so it was special. Parents who they had never met and never would meet.

Starlight considered that she perhaps missed their parents more than Silver though; he'd had a few barely existent seconds with them while Starlight had absolutely nothing. So that was why she spent more time down in the basement with all of their parents' belongings. After being in their bedroom and laboratory the pair finally settled on them being back in the basement. She was still miffed that they had managed to lose the dress but highly doubted that was the case. The Twins were very careful, especially with things precious to them and would never lose anything that connected them to their kin. So that's was what she was doing now: Scouring the other boxes and rooms to see if they had misplaced it. After about three hours, she gave up. They must've simply lost it. In more ways than just one.

Sighing, she sunk into a chair. "Sorry Mum and Dad." Starlight whispered, a strange melancholy taking over her heart.

Silver poked his head out of the kitchen. "Did you say something?" The kitchen was quite far away from where she was sat and Starlight suspected he'd implanted a listening device somewhere around here.

After rummaging around under her seat, she pulled a small disk out with a triumphant smirk. "Nothing I said was worth you knowing." She threw in back to him and Sliver caught it with a frown. Her words had been meant as a joke but they had been delivered a little harsher than intended. "That came out wrong." Starlight started to backtrack. "What I meant was-"

"I know what you meant." Sliver snapped at her, glaring ever so slightly. That took her aback, he never glared at anyone!

Starlight took a step forward hoping to resolve this. "Sliver, you know that's not what I meant!" He simply shrugged and made a humming sound that said 'I don't believe you. I'm right, you're wrong.' It infuriated her to no end. "FINE! You want to be this, fine! I don't care! You can be immature and selfish and I'll be the actual adult in this household!"

"Oh?! So you're the only adult here, is that right?! What about the fact that I pay the bills?! That I'm the one who keeps stock of our supplies while you keep dreaming about fantasy after fantasy! I AM OLDER! I HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY! Yes, okay, I made a mistake and I'm very sorry. More sorry than you think but I don't deserve to have all my good points discredited for one mistake!" Sliver was full on shouting at her now and the pair were ready to attack. This was their first proper fight and it felt strangly exhilarating.

A slow clap started behind them and the Twins whirled around to see Beauty standing in the doorway. "Well done, those are both excellent arguments. The pair of you really should get into politics. Plenty of time to shout, heck, that's practically your job as a politician." She smiled warmly at them both and it put them on edge.

The siblings started moving closer to one another whilst keeping a good distance from Beauty. "How did you get in?" Sliver asked, an eye trained on the usually always activated security alarm.

Beauty smiled. "I just opened the door." She made a point of extending her fingers to show off her fingerprints.

Starlight shook her head. "Forgive me Beauty, but that's impossible. Only someone with our DNA or who we add to the system can open the door. Then we have to check who it is and open it from the outside. While I mean no disrespect, you are not on the system." Her boss cocked her head to one side as she pulled out a garment from behind her.

Midnight blue and floor length, it was fit for a princess. The bodice was small with sleeves that hung low on the arms. They were a slightly lighter shade of blue with a glittery gauze over them. The actual top half was the midnight blue but the centre was trimmed with what looked like diamonds. Then a swirly, sliver pattern decorated the stomach. If that wasn't pretty enough, the skirt appeared to be an even darker blue, maybe indigo, that spilled downwards and reached the floor. It flowed effortlessly at the front and back, surprisingly light as well. A sliver, sapphire-encrusted tiara and a pair of gorgeous indigo heels completed the look.

"I assume you recognise this?" Beauty asked fairly innocently.

Sliver felt his temper flare. "You stole it! That dress belongs to our Mother!" He instinctively moved in front of Starlight as he moved to get it.

Beauty was enjoying this far too much. "Well then I guess you can have it back. I just thought that as her sister and as she left nothing to you in her will, I was entitled to Star's belongings. My mistake. I'll see you later then." She left without another word, leaving the wedding dress free of plastic on the floor and a pair of scientists who has just had their world shifted a few degrees.

I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, on time. I think that was quite the bombshell Beauty chose to drop at the end there. I'll probably update again tomorrow. Adiós.