Cain kept his distance as he followed his twin through the streets of Albion. It was all too clear he was heading for the palace. People justled him from time to time, seeming to not care they had hit him and Abel himself didn't react as he would have in Cain's reality – by taking off their heads. He didn't react at all just kept moving, head down and shoulders hunched.

This really wasn't the brother who had been consumed by 02 then. Yet, there was something almost broken about the way Abel moved. Lingering sorrow with each shuffled step he took.

It wasn't the Abel he had imagined seeing if their positions had been swapped. And there had been many, many times Cain had wished he had been the one to the nano-machines took over his brother.

"We could still take you," 01 said in a cheery voice which echoed through Cain's skull.

Cain ignored them. There was no point in giving them a reply.

"No fun," a pout settled into the tone of 01's voice. "You're no fun, we don't like you. Fun killer."

Silence followed these words.

Thank god, Cain thought. 01 was so annoying.

They were nearing the palace when Cain heard twin pare of footsteps following him. He stopped. A small breath escaped him when he caught a familiar scent.

"Mother thought you wandered off, Uncle." An arm wrapped around Cain's shoulders. He was pulled down a little. "I thought it wise to track you down to make sure nothing happened to you." The woman winked. Her golden eyes sparkled with mischief.

"Lilly," Cain bit back the urge to snarl at her. "You should have stayed with the others.

"Where's the fun in that!" she huffed and straightened. Her arms folded across her chest now.

Lilly Nightlord was Lilith's younger daughter. She looked like a cross between her parents right down to her skin color. Her hair was the same silvery blond as Abel's while her eyes were her mother's. Her skin was several shades lighter than Lilith's but too dark to be the same as Cain. She stood at the same height as her mother.

She looked so much like Abel though with her hair. Abel had managed to fight 02 long enough to help name the girls before he at last lost the fight for control of his mind and body.

Cain swallowed passed the lump forming in his throat. Guilt and pain flickered in his heart. He had been the one to fuse Abel. To save his brother's life. He had grabbed a random Crusnik and thrust it into Abel's heart. So, his brother could live to see his daughters. So, his brother could just live.

In his selfishness, Cain had stolen the real Abel from his nieces. He had been the catalyst which had destroyed their Earth and lead them to this one. His sister, before she had died at 02's hands, had been right. It really was all Cain's fault.

Lilly huff. "Honestly you have the 'I blame myself' worry lines forming, Uncle Cain." He pulled at his cheek. "Smile a little. You and that priest friend of yours found us this new Earth. Have a moment and just be happy."

Cain brushed off Lilly's hand. "Is your sister still with Lilith?" he changed the subject from himself. His voice betrayed none of the pain which had swept through him.

Lilly closed one eye, an almost smug grin on her face. "Nope. I managed to convince her to stop wallowing and follow after me."

Cain glanced around. His lips twitched. "Where is she then?" the question almost hissed from between his teeth. Damn. If Lilly had lost her older twin, Lilith would blame Cain.

"I thought she was just behind me." Lilly turned, scanning the crowd.

Cain turned. His eyes widened, breath catching in his throat.

Abel had stopped dead in his tracks, head up staring at the unmistakable figure of Elizabeth.

"Ha," Lilly gave a smug laugh, "see I didn't lose her." She raced towards Elizabeth, not even giving Abel a glance. "Bethy, I said stay by me, not run off as soon as we found our Uncle!" She stopped before Elizabeth.

Cain groaned. So much for keeping a low profile. He seethed as he moved after Lilly. Though, he shouldn't have been shocked. Elizabeth had always wanted to know her father. She had been like a shadow to the foul tempered 02 when she was a child. She had done everything to try and prove herself to her father or who she believed was her father when 02 had destroyed Cain's hotheaded brother long ago.

Pain was etched across Elizabeth's face. "I killed you," she whispered. It sounded as if she had repeated this a few times, each time softer than the last. "You can't be here. This can't be real."

Cain stopped. He hadn't even drawn level with Abel yet. What had he done? This was cruel to Elizabeth beyond all belief. It wasn't her father before her. This Abel wasn't the man she knew. The man she had killed.

"Come on, Bethy, we found who we were looking for. Let's head back." Lilly's tone was soft, almost gentle. That of a mother trying to cox a child to do something. "The others will be worried about us by now."

"I killed him," Elizabeth whispered. She seemed unable to hear her sister's words. "I killed him."

"Bethy." Lilly started to guide her sister forward. She stopped level with Abel. "Sorry about her, Father," – she called him by his priest rank – "my sister and I just got a little lost. That's all. She doesn't mean anything about what she's saying." Lilly pushed Elizabeth over to Cain.

"Were going," Cain told them. All his annoyance at the stunt Lilly pulled lost at the shattered look haunting Elizabeth's eyes.

He moved so his nieces were before him. There was no way he would risk losing sight of either of them.

Once they were out of the city. Cain turned to Lilly. "What were you thinking?" he demanded. "We know nothing about this reality. Or even how that Abel would react to seeing any of us." He glared at his youngest niece.

"Then why were you following him?" Lilly demanded, hands on her hips. She glared up at Cain. "Did you think he's like the one from our reality when he's dressed as a priest with glasses? Glasses and a priest!" Her eyes flashed. "Last I checked mother always said dad had the best senses out of all four of you. Meaning he would never need glasses!" Her eyes narrowed.

Cain opened his mouth. She had a point but he wasn't about to go around admitting it. "You still shouldn't have come looking for me. I was gathering more information on this dimension. We are strangers here."

Lilly's eyes narrowed. "We're not children, Uncle Cain!" she hissed. "So don't go around treating us like we are." She took a step towards him. "I look old enough to pass as your twin sister!"

Cain scowled. "You're not, you're my niece. No matter how old you get nothing will ever change that fact!"

Elizabeth shifted. "He's right, we shouldn't have come," her voice echoed with pain. Eyes hallow as she looked at the ground. "I might have wrecked everything by seeing dad – I mean that version of him."

Cain felt himself soften. "It's not your fault." He made to touch her shoulder but withdrew his hand.

A soft sound greeted his ears.

Cain turned. No!

A familiar figure stepped into view. His glasses flashed in the light of the two moons.

Abel.

He lifted his glasses and let them fall so they hung around his neck beside the cross. His wintery gaze flickered between the girls before resting on Cain. Red rimmed his eyes. Yet, he made no move for his weapon or activate the crusnik as if he knew something was wrong. As if he could tell they weren't from his reality.

"Who are you?" Abel half demanded, half growled the question. One hand moved wrapping around the cross he wore. "Why do you – do you two look like Lilith?" Pain dripped from his voice.

Lilly huffed. "That's a stupid question. We're her daughters of course!"

Air hissed between Cain's teeth at Lilly's response. That was no way to speak to this Abel. There was no telling if the girls had ever even been conceived in this reality.

x – Abel – x

A sharp ringing pierced deep into Abel's ears.

Daughters?

He took a step towards the all too familiar girls. They shared so many of Lilith's traits, he shouldn't have been shocked to hear they were related to her. There was something more, something familiar about them on another level. His mind flickered to the drawings he had made long ago of his lost daughters. They looked just as he had always pictured they would. Yet, what if they were illusions? Images conjured by 02 to trick him as 02 had done before back on Mars when Abel had first activated them.

No – he took a deep breath – they had to be real. Abel had never pictured them as being older than ten. He couldn't bring himself to see them grown when he had never seen them in the first place.

Abel reached the small group. The girl closest to him was the one who had his hair. His hand trembled as he lifted it. If she wasn't real, then what? He couldn't bare the thought of seeing them, grown, only to have it ripped away as an illusion.

His gloved fingers touched her warm skin. She was real. She was alive!

"Lilly?" the name slipped from his lips as a breath. His eyes burned. He felt himself smile. He drew her into an embrace, unable to stop himself.

She was alive.

They were both alive.

"Um, okay, I am more than a little creeped out now," Lilly stated. Her breath warm on his ear from the closeness of the hug.

Abel stepped away from her. His gaze moved from her to the woman with Lilith's hair and his wintery eyes. The woman he had first seen and made him want to follow this group. Abel longed to draw her into an embrace; yet, he knew all too well the shattered look in her gaze. The look which reminded him all too much of himself after losing the both of his girls and again after Cain had killed Lilith.

"You already know my name?"

Abel looked back at Lilly. "I do," he stated, none of his normal goof act coming through in this moment. "Yet, I don't know how you and Elizabeth are here now."

His gaze moved to Cain. In the same instance, this man wasn't the brother he remembered. He wore priest robes and eyepatch which covered about half his face, moving around his nose and mouth. His hair was neat as it had been before the fusion with 01 rather than the mess it had turned to after. He stood there in silence without a stupid grin on his face. Instead he wore a rather grim look with a calculating glint to his visible eye.

Cain straightened a little. "As you've no doubted guessed, we're not the same people as you would have known," he stated. Not even a trace of the annoying cheer in his voice. "We came from another dimension, one which the Earth was destroyed."

Lilly leaned back a little. "This might be easier to explain if we just took him back to where the others are," she pointed out.

Elizabeth shifted a little, her gaze down cast. There was an air of unease in her frame and glittering in her eyes. She didn't speak.

"I don't know," Cain confessed. "The others might react poorly to his presence."

"But he's not the Abel of our reality," Lilly protested. "Mother will understand at the very least. Her people will follow. And you can explain it to your people, Uncle Cain."

Mother? Was Lilith alive as well? No, it wouldn't be his Lilith but one from another dimension. This meant there would be none of the same shared moments with his beloved. She might not even have met Aran or heard all about Azul. There was no telling just how far the differences were between this reality and the one this good Cain came from.

At the very least, Abel knew he wouldn't be able to share memories with Lilith about the girls' childhood.

Abel forced himself to take a deep breath. He had to be ready to see those he knew to be dead. Like with what had happened with Vaclav's scent earlier this evening.

"All right," Cain relented, "but stay close to me. I don't want the group attacking you outright."

Abel eyed this version of his brother. He wasn't too certain he wanted to be close to any version of Cain. Yet, he had to remind himself, this Cain hadn't killed Abel's daughters. He hadn't killed Lilith. All three of them were alive in the reality this Cain came from.

Abel nodded and fell in beside Cain. He restrained the urge to glance at the priest Cain. Instead, Abel looked at the two girls. In their reality, they had lived. Lilith had lived. Their Earth had been destroyed. If their timelines matched up, then this Earth would have been destroyed by now as well.

If it wasn't Cain who was seeking to destroy the Earth of that reality then – Abel looked away from the girls.

"I killed you," Elizabeth's soft words rang in Abel's ears from when he had first been stopped by her. His daughter had been forced to kill the him of their reality. Also, he hadn't heard anything about Seth from these three.

"What about the Seth of your reality?" Abel asked, breaking the silence. "What became of her?" His gaze moved to Cain.

Cain didn't look at Abel. "Perhaps we should save this conversation for when we see the others. There's no need to explain everything twice."

Abel bit back the urge to scowl. Such a simple question being dodged made it clear something had happened to his sister. Well, the her of this Cain's reality. Seth was fine in the empire right now.

Silence pressed down on the group. Abel fell a little back from them as they walked. Soon Lilly joined Cain and started to chatter up a storm. Abel did his best to block out what they were saying. He would have to drop back further to have their words lost though.

"He seems so different from the him of our dimension," Lilly whispered. "You used to tell us stories like mother did about how he acted before 02 fused with him. But this doesn't seem like those stories at all." She kept going on and on about how Abel wasn't hot headed.

Cain didn't speak. There wasn't an opening for him to do so as it was. Though, he did glance at Abel. It was clear he was checking to see if Abel was still following. Abel paid Cain little notice. His gaze lingered on the twin girls. Or women as they were now.

They were grown. And he, he wasn't their true father. The other Abel from that dimension was. Could his girls have grown up to be like these two if they had been given the chance?

Cain silenced Lilly with a raised hand. The group paused. Then Cain entered a small passage which lead downward. Lilly followed.

"Come on, Bethy," she called over her shoulder.

Elizabeth hesitated and glanced at Abel. Pain flickered in her eyes before she hurried after her sister.

A small breath escaped Abel. The pain echoed his own. Neither of his – of the other Abel's daughters should ever have known such a deep, scarring pain as to lose everything but a few and a single dream. He shook his head.

"I still don't know the full story," he muttered to the night. Then took another deep breath and followed after Elizabeth.

Darkness wrapped around him followed by the cool scent of earth and damp stone. An acidic scent of fire soon cut through the soft scents of earth. The passage lightened before widening. Abel stepped out into a cavern.

No more than a few hundred people were there, if not fewer than a hundred.

Abel's gaze skimmed the crowd before coming to rest on a small group closest to him.

Cain stood within the group as well as the two girls.

Air was knocked from Abel's lungs at the sight of who else stood among this group. Ghosts seemed to have risen from the ashes of a haunt past and stood, living, before his eyes now.

Vaclav Havel and Noelle Bor were there. Both had died three years ago. Noelle within the silent noise incident in Barcelona. Vaclav during the uprising of the Neu Vatican. Yet, here they stood, alive and well. Perhaps this really was a mirror world. Those who should have been dead were alive.

Another stood with them.

Abel forced himself to look away from her. It was all too easy to see blood dripping from a severed neck. The boyish and cheery face of his twin as Cain held her head up by his hair and the Earth framing him.

It was in the past. This wasn't the same Lilith. Abel closed his eyes and forced the images down. This Lilith had never known the pain of losing their daughters. There had never been the moment which had torn them apart. The fight which had followed the start of the war. Well, so he assumed.

Abel opened his eyes when he heard a sharp intact.

One of the people had drawn a weapon. The gun shook as it was pointed at him.

Abel just stared at the person. He knew his expression was flat if not pained. He had faced far worse than a gun. It was the fear which tore into his heart. It was fear he loathed to see in the eyes of humans and Methuselah alike as they gazed at him. The emotion which frightened him the most, which made him stick to the act of a fool just so people wouldn't be scared of him.

"I-it's him," the man stammered. "B-but you d-died. W-we all saw it. You-you were killed." He gripped the gun with both hands. The cooler draining from his features.

"That's not the same Abel." Cain stepped up to the man and forced him to lower the gun. "He's from this world. This dimension."

The man relaxed a little. "You're certain he won't kill anyone, Father?" the man asked, looking to Cain.

"Yes." Cain looked at Abel. His eye reflecting the seriousness of this matter. "Right, Abel?"

Abel fought the urge to act as goof and say "how rude? Assuming I would kill someone." He figured this wouldn't ease the tension in the cavern only increased it. Instead, he said, "I won't harm anyone here. I promise."

The man just nodded. Though the fear lingered in his gaze. He moved back to his family and gathered them. They moved further into the cavern.

Perhaps the act would have helped a little.

Noelle and Vaclav approached. There was cation in their eyes, none of the warmth Abel knew from the two who had passed three years ago.

He let out a shuddering breath. He had failed to save the ones he had known. "I believe your dimension is mirror one," Abel stated after a moment. He had glanced around for others from the AX. There was no sign of any of them, not even Caterina. His Holiness was missing as well. In fact, the only one Abel knew to be alive was Cain. This was only because Seth had told him their Cain had survived and slowly restored himself over the past eight hundred years.

"Explain." A slight frown had appeared on Cain's face.

"Sister Noelle Bor code named Mistress passed in action three years ago during the Silent Noise incident in Barcelona," Abel recited, pain echoed through him and trickled into his voice. "Father Vaclav Havel," – Abel looked at the other founding member of the AX – "passed a few months later during the rise and fall of the Neu Vatican, giving his life for his Holiness." Abel's gaze moved from them to Cain. He bit his lip before looked back at the two allies and friends he had lost three years. The two he had been unable to save.

No matter what Caterina had told him. He still blamed himself for losing Noelle that day.

He was also careful to only tell the partial truth about Vaclav's death. Only Caterina, Alessandro, and Abel were aware of the full truth behind what had happened that day. Vaclav was a traitor to the Vatican where everything else was concerned. He had still kidnapped the pope and help the Neu Vatican.

"All right what else makes you believe this outside of what happened to Sister Bor and Father Havel?" Cain asked.

"Perhaps it is a longer story than a few words." A familiar voice sounded.

Abel looked towards it. Sure enough Lilith had moved to join them. It was her. Yet, she wore none of the gold Abel had given her while he had ruled as the original empire. There was little wealth on her at all. She wore a simple dress and henna. Outside of this there was nothing was the same about her. Even her hair was far too short, falling just passed her shoulders instead of well passed her waist.

It was still her.

Abel forced down the rising agony swelling in his heart. Her gaze held none of the warmth and love she had once looked at him with. There was only a coldness to it. This above all else told him, she wasn't the beloved he had lost eight hundred years ago aboard the Ark.

"Come." Lilith gestured for him to follow.

She led the four of them to the closest fire where Lilly and Elizabeth both sat. They were sharing a rather merger meal.

Abel was careful to sit a little apart from them. Their lingering gaze was hostile with mistrust.

"By your expression, I take it something happened to the me of his reality," Lilith started, "and your Cain had something to do with it." Her gaze board into him.

Abel bowed his head. His hand wrapped around his beloved's cross. Given this Lilith didn't recognize the cross, there was too much which had changed. "Yes," he confessed. "Eight hundred years ago, at the end of the human-Methuselah War, you – my Lilith and I were to meet aboard the Ark for a peace meeting to end the war. She was the representative from the Vatican. Seth decided to come along.

"When we arrived, it was to find her dead, Cain over her body." He glanced at the girls. They didn't need to hear all of this. "I managed to get him over the airlock. Seth activated it and he fell to Earth."

"So, I am dead in this reality?" Cain asked.

"No." Abel looked up. "Given the reaction of that man when I entered, I'm actually assuming our places are swapped in your dimension. You were driven insane after the fusion with crusnik," Abel explained.

"Insane?" Cain gave a small, almost pained smile. "So, 01 won the fight then."

Abel frowned.

"02 took control of you in our reality," Lilith told him. "You fought them for months, years even, but gradually they won. One message from you was 'all deals are a lie.' I still don't understand what you meant and 04 has never been open about it."

Cain shrugged in response when Abel glanced at him. "I am assuming the me of his reality is then really 01 with my own conscious and personality lost to the nano-machines." Cain looked at him. "Was I the one fused to one hundred percent in this dimension?"

"Yes."

"Then, perhaps this is a mirror world after all. Either way, the world seems to be have been far better with you in control than not."

Abel couldn't meet Cain's eye. Better? It was laughable really. Sure it wasn't destroyed; yet, he had still killed millions. He couldn't save anyone he cared about. Peace was only coming through Caterina's efforts.

"—can't stay here forever." Abel was drawn back to the conversation by Lilly's voice. She was glaring at Cain. "We need drier place to stay. Beds, more food, and safety."

"I doubt people would believe you're from a mirror world," Abel told her. "And a few people here wouldn't be welcomed in the Vatican. I doubt Albion will be open to receiving refugees."

Lilith frowned. "Surely Queen Esther—"

"Queen Esther?" Abel cut her off. "Bridget is the current ruler of Albion."

"Bridget stepped down when her granddaughter turned sixteen." Lilith frowned. "Esther has been Queen of Albion for two years now."

Abel coughed. He had a nagging feeling she was referring to the Esther he knew. The one who had been left to the church as a child. He pulled out an old tattered note book. He kept photos tucked into a split cloth of the back cover there. He pulled out the one on top.

"This queen wouldn't happen to be the red head in this photo, would it?" he passed the photo to Cain.

The photo had been take when they had been in the empire. Seth had wanted a reminder of the moment. Abel had been dragged into the photo. It also showed Asthe and Ion. Seth wasn't in the image, having wanted it to be of the those four who had served the leaders to get this far in the peace process so far.

"Yes, that's her," Cain confirmed as he passed the image to Lilith. "I don't know who the boy or woman are though. Lilith?"

Lilith shook her head. "No, I only recognize Abel and the queen." She looked at Abel. "If you're friends with the queen you could put in a good word for us."

Abel took the picture. "Er, just one problem, Esther isn't a queen. She's a sainted sister. She was raised by the church." He cleared his throat. "Though the empress might be willing to help if I can convince Caterina to get word to her."

"Empress? As in Empress Nightlord? Your sister." Lilith gave soft laugh. "You could just call her Seth, Abel."

Abel let out a breath. So they hadn't been forced to change their surname in the other dimension. "No, as in Empress Augusta Vladika."

Lilith frowned. "What happened to Seth?"

"She is Seth," Abel explained. "It's complicated but the Nightlords had to vanish after your – I mean, our Lilith's death in order for an unstable peace to come between the Vatican and the empire."

"What happened for this to ever have to happen?" Lilith asked.

"And what are you going by then?" Cain added.

"Nightroad. Abel Nightroad. I don't do too good if I had changed my first name as well like Seth did." He looked at Lilith. "As for what happened, that is far too long a story for one night."

"There is another problem as well," Vaclav started. "You said Sister Noelle and I are dead in this reality, it wouldn't do for us to wander around then. But we need people to head out for supplies. If others here are dead in this reality, then what?"

"It's unlikely many people have met Cain." Abel nodded to his brother – sort of brother. "From what Seth told me when I was in the empire, he – the one of his world – has only just started to recover from falling to Earth."

"In that case I should be able to move freely as well," Lilith stated. "If I died eight hundred years ago."

Abel shook his head. "Most humans remember you. And I know the Methuselah do from what I read in the history books while in the empire."

Lilith blinked. "Why would they?" she asked, frowning.

"She is the Black Lady Saint," Abel explained. He didn't explain further, instead continued on, "Outside of those here, only your daughters would be able to set foot outside without notice."

Lilly jumped on this. "Why is that? Does it have to do with why you looked like you were going to cry when you hugged me?"

Perhaps Abel shouldn't have spoken. He managed to look at Lilith and the two girls. His girls he had lost. Two before he could ever know them and one to betrayal. "Because," he started, "you both died when Lilith was fused with 04."

(Author's Note: A special thanks to Bluewing for giving me a few ideas for the girls' backstories.

Also, this Elizabeth isn't the one from VV, rather Abel's blood daughter who died in this reality during the events of Divergent Path. Same goes for Lilly.

I just realized, in the alt world without Aran and Azul, Ion wouldn't exist. I don't know how Caterina does, but we will let that one slid.)