Okay. Okay. I'll probably kill this fanfiction, but the more I read this story, the more I think I should continue this. Do you? Anyway, this could stop at any time, when I feel I have done enough. Or when I think I've killed this enough, whichever comes first.

And yes I know, I have other stories in waiting.

Disclaimer: Considering I'm in fanfiction dot net, this means I don't own any characters (wish I owned Abel u.u), canonical events, and storyline. Except my own. Now buzz off and read.

--

Esther sighed as she steadied her balance in her new pointy-toed shoes. It was yet again, another outing for shoe shopping. Why? Because she wanted more comfortable shoes like the ones she wore while she was an AX agent. And speaking of which, she felt a little better today. Ion, which is now her husband, King of Albion. Still, even though she was married to Ion, she didn't love him as how she loved Abel.

Her heart ached with pain again at the thought of his death.

With a sigh she straightened her stockings (with all those petticoats underneath, it was quite a challenge and besides all that, she looked funny doing so with her arms high in the air, a canopy of cloth shielding her view in the mirror. Still, she wonders why she has to do that with all that fabric...) and tried to clear her mind. It wasn't like she tried to forget about Abel, but she tried to forget about his death.

Sometimes, when she looked into the mirror every night, she still could see her beloved embracing her neck, his fingertips dancing merrily down her back, untieing her loosened corset...

"Your majesty! Your carriage has arrived!" One of her most trusted handmaids, Selene kocked lady like. Though her hard-oak door was thick, it didn't stand a chance against Selene's voice. After all, she was a classically-trained opera singer.

"Alright. I'll be out," She answered. She blushed a deep crimson as her hair, as if someone had walked in on one of her fantasies with Abel.

And she was out. immediately three of her handmaidens, including Selene rushed around to gather her outing bonnet, which Esther tied with ease, her coat, and her gun (which she kept from the AX ever since she was crowned. She insisted on keeping it for protection reasons, since she couldn't right well trust her body guards...) which she kept hidden inside her coat, only her escorts knew of her such weapon. Five escorts gathered around Queen Esther as she left her Imperial Suite, and through the beautiful Albion courtyard, the most exquisite in the area.

Finally she arrives in her Cinderella-like carriage, four white horses leading, and four behind. She smirked before it all. The first time she saw this carriage she fainted. Now, ten years since, she just sighs.

After boarding, she greets three noble Albionian women whom always shared the the ride with her (she always hated being alone outside her suite). She gracefully bowed their heads and Esther did the same.

Delta, Lois, and Furnette met Esther five months after Esther's coronation. Esther hired them to protect her from attacking methuselah, although she was already trained (but then years since...you kind of lose your touch). In fact, they were sent by the AX for her. They were full-blooded methuselah. But since they heard so much of Abel and Esther's legacy in the AX wing, they gladly accepted the job.

But ten years since, Catherina was involved in an accident. After Abel's death, the cardinal decided to travel to the Empire, to show Her Majesty's condolences. But half-way, the Iron Maiden was shot down. Only five people were killed - two nuns and three priests. WIlliam was injured, but soon recovered from his broken leg, now walking with an even worse limp. Vaclav was killed, and Tres, as usual, recovered from system damage. Catherina suffered head trauma and was in coma for half a year. Her daughter - Constance Amelia Sforza - took over for Catherina. Only now she is in a weak state, taking three medications a day.

Back to the present, Esther stared out the opening of her carriage, and saw how Albion built up since ten years ago. A little sigh escaped her silky pink lips as Furnette cocked her blonde head.

"Esther?" It was perfectly acceptable for them to call her by her first name, as they had developed a bond not since...Abel.

"Hmm?" She still gazed out the window sleepily, her eyes were glassy with daydreams.

"May we ask what's wrong?" She bent over and touched Esther's hand, which she only closed her eyes, and squeezed in response.

She shook her head slowly and rubbed her temple. "Nothing to be concerned about, Furni."

The blonde nodded and squeezed back. She could tell contact like this helped Esther go through her hectic day. Only when everywhere else she's waving, smiling, giving speeches, signing documents, and such, riding in her carriage is when she has silence.

Furnette was a slender girl, at the age of two-hundred she barely had developed breasts, but her hips were definitely showing signs of womanhood. Her wavy, golden locks were untamed, shielding emerald eyes underneath. Usually, she was Esther's jester, always asking for cookies and piggy-back rides from her two fellow half-breeds. Only from these events did Esther laugh fully. She would laugh on the floor, while Delta stood deathglaring at Furnette with a bishbowl on her head, dripping with water...

Esther gave a snort, accidentally alerting the trio.

Delta, with black hair and violet eyes looked at Esther with worry half the time. She kept silent most of the time and stayed to herself. The young half-breed wore black, simular to the AX's uniform, but not so much as to tip rebellionists off. Her fangs stuck out half the time, indicating her methuselah bloodline. She hated drinking blood, especially when her job is to protect the Queen. Her hair was sleek and long, down to the bottom of her breasts. Generally, she didn't like wearing clingy clothes, as to protect Her Highness from attracting any leery men. Her body was fully mature, her age around 361 and counting. Basically, she was Hugue with black hairs and female organs.

"Your Majesty?" Delta's low and considerate but womanly voice was laced with worry.

Esther just chuckled and shook her head. "I don't think a fishbowl would catch on the runway, will it?" She snickered.

Delta blushed and looked out the window.

Furnette snickered "Yeah Delta!"

Lois snorted. "Of course not!" She nudged Delta who just deathglared at her.

Lois, about Esther's height was more of a tomboy. Her orangish hair was cropped, and wore skull earrings. She barely wore any lipstick, except for eyeliner and green eyeshadow - her usual.

Her clothes were boyish - only a t-shirt and baggy cargo pants - with simple black sneakers. Her fangs rarely came to view. She was bisexual, mostly lesbian, but she merely considered Her Majesty and her fellow protectors as close friends.

Esther was getting another show by her three methuselah guardians. All at once, while they were fighting amongst themselves, Esther forgot all her cares and woes, and felt like her previous little nun self. All she needed was Abel to --

And suddenly, her laughter died, and her throat closed.

--

Another season in Abel's life has finally came to a close. Like a wounded soldier exiting a hospital from combat, he was wounded. His left arm was in a cast, but everything else was perfectly normal. His priest's robes were tattered, some people mistook him for a street bum, and so gave him some change. He just smiled wistfully and gave it back with a simple explanation. Years ago, he would have taken the money, but that was when he was just a travelling priest with a cute redhead nun at his side.

Another sigh, another push up on the glasses.

Ten years ago, he fled from the Vatican to fight his brother. And two years ago, he suceeded, but barely. With all the loss of blood he had to do something, and that something made him feel even worse.

Abel counted mentally in his mind - nine, ten...eleven...no, twenty. Twenty methuselah he drained. He would've preferred to die rather than to take twenty methuselah souls. But...somehow...

...her face kept telling him to live on. Keep living. Push on no matter what.

In Albion, things have really looked up since Esther's coronation. The air was cleaner, there was more cafe's (to his disadvantage. Maybe he should've kept those dinars...), more security, and a place safe haven for peaceful vampires.

A pang of guilt swept through him.

Twenty methuselah...dear Lord forgive me.

But, he thought, those methuselah tried to kill him. So what other options did he have? Kill or be killed, the number one rule of life.

He never contacted the Vatican while on his self-set mission for Cain. Ion became injured from an attack by Isaak, and almost killed by Dietrich. Insisting that Ion go back to safety, Ion reluctantly returned to the Empire. Ion always had a obsession on Esther, but never dared to tell Abel about it, went on to marry Her Highness, the Queen of Albion. Abel, however knew of his love for Esther. And, he thought, it was just harmless. He knew his Esther would never marry unless strictly pressured to do so. Even then, the Feisty Star would resist.

He had, however heard news of the accident from the Iron Maiden ten years earlier. It saddened him to hear that Vaclav didn't make it, neither did the two other priests and nuns. Catherina's daughter however, had never met Abel. She only heard of him through her mother, Caterina Sforza.

He sighed. What awaited him at the Vatican?

At a crossroads, there was very little traffic. He looked to the left, then to the right before walking on ahead.

Abel wondered how Esther was doing. What was she thinking of? Was she thinking of him? He would be so lucky as to have even that. But he knew her, and he knew she would be thinking of him.

In his mind he carefully considered his options: He could return to the Vatican, where he could live the same life he lived the earlier ten years; be homeless in Albion; go to the Empire and ask Asta for a few month's time for a stay; or go to Darkland and stay desolate the rest of his days.

As much as he wanted to see Asta again, he knew she would crown him if he did even the slightest thing wrong. Being homeless in Albion was certainly not an option for anyone, and being alone in the rest of the world just unsettled Abel's stomach. So that left the only option, the most depressing one: living in the Vatican with new faces, and some aging.

Speaking of which, he really should've bought that sandwhich --

The whinnying of horses breaks his thought. He turned his head and saw that they were coming right at him!! And before he (or anyone else for that matter) knew it, he was trampled by a stampede of horses and a carriage.

--

Esther sighed as she leaned her head against her palm. Sooner or later she would be in a new pair of comfortable shoes, fit for a nun-turned queen --

Suddenly, the carriage rocked back and forth as she faintly heard the scream of some poor soul. Her heart ached for them dearly.

Then, they stopped. She could see a crowd gathering on the sidelines. She looked out her opening, and tried to see what it was that caused the ruckus. A hand on her shoulder reminded her of her AX body guards. "Stay here," Delta, closest to the carriage door said. Esther nodded and allowed Delta to exit her hand at her side for her hand gun.

"It's a priest!"

"Somebody do something!!"

"Call an ambulance!"

She relaxed by a few notches and looked underneath. The said priest, with matted white hair caught in the spokes and his robes tattered, whether it was from his trampeling or if he was just a street bum that Esther needed to sign a decree to give them temporary homes. She'd have to get back to her later. A few feet away from where he was impacted, a pair of broken round glasses lay bent in the street. Her heart felt a pang of pity as a rush of police ment and an ambulance came running over.

As if time had slowed, Delta walked to the glasses. The police had loosened his hair from the spokes and turned him on his back. He was breathing, and his eyelids were twitching like mad.

She picked them up and studied them carefully. Where had she seen these before? Delta walked back to the carriage and handed Esther the broken spectacles.

Esther's eyes widened ever so slightly as she held the glasses before her as if they were holy.

Furnette shook her head slowly so Her Majesty wouldn't see her.

"Is he...?" Esther still gazed at the glasses. Her question wasn't about his life, but whom this man's identity was.

Delta opened the carriage door for the queen. Esther, with grace and dignity stepped out and nodded lowly to the staring bystanders. She looked to her very right at the stretcher, and her heart stopped.

His eyes cracked open.

"Hello Sister Esther," Echoed Abel's words in her subconscience, as the man before her grinned sheepishly and turned a bright tomato red.

--

A/N: Like it? Don't? FLAMES WILL BE USED TO COOK MY BEEF RAMEN. PLZKTHX.

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