Finally it's here: the answer! Took me to long? Well I like developing step by step. Confusing jumps from one time to the other? Well, maybe I want to see if you are paying attention...no, to say the truth it just turned out this way. Sorry!

I'm always happy when I receive reviews, so if you got a bit of time, please tell me what you think about my story.

Warning: Blood, violence, slight yaoi and not enough Gaignun in this one!

"Why did you forget about me?" - Gaignun

"I didn't, I just couldn't find a place where you would fit in. Don't be sad there are still more chapters to come. At least, as long as someone wants to know how the story ends!" - Freyr

Don't own Xenosaga. All belongs to Monolith!

Schatten sei mein Bruder

Chapter 6

*Inside the Encephalon, Yuriev institute, park, time unknown, Elsa's dive*

The hell was going on inside the institute. Security guards were running around and Shion's group had a hard time to not being spotted. They walked around to the maintenance entrance and hacked the locks. Forcing their way into the facility in order to search for the core of this domain.

Would they have stayed a minute longer inside the park, they would have maybe been able to witness Dimitri Yuriev walking inside the main door.

"Sir, we have the recordings from the security camera! He went into the direction of the dorm."

"Evacuate the URTV's I won't have him kill anymore of my creations. But don't touch him, he is MINE!"

…

*Yuriev institute, underground research laboratory, hatching sector, 27 years ago, shortly before the park incident*

"Aren't the results just wonderful? He isn't even remembering who he is. Harharhar!"

Dr. Yuriev read the values again. He was pleased with himself. The surgery had been a masterpiece. Accuracy at it's fullest. And any minute his assistant would come back to give him a report of the newly created cell nucleus. That new variant would maybe be strong enough to overcome even Nidhogg.

He started humming to himself. Playing god wasn't to hard after all, he smiled to himself.

"Dr. Yuriev, please, Sir, you must come immediately! The nucleus is growing to fast, we don't know what caused it! We can't stop it."

The doctor followed his assistant to the pillar of his newly formed life. After looking at the data his face turned red and his eyes emitted pure anger.

"No, god damned, this can't be true! Why? I evaluated every outcome, so why? This destroys him! Number 666 will never be as he was intended! I can't stop that process anymore. I HATE IT, WHY, WHY TWINS?

…

*Encephalon, Yuriev institute dorm area, time unknown, Elsa's dive*

Chaos just blew a container away, to get to an air tunnel, when he heard screaming. It really was, as if they had been teleported straight into a nightmare. Momo was scared and held tightly on Ziggy's hand. This place was really different from the other time they had visited this place.

Then again, Junior had been with them before. Maybe that was why everything seemed out of place now. They continued their way by crawling through the air system, not aware what was going on beneath them.

...

"Hyahyahyahya Coooooome to me, cooome to me little baaaby! Cooome out wherever you are! Join your brothers, don't be afraid. It won't hurt to badly, I promise!"

A blond URTV sat under his bed, trying not to make a sound and blocking the connection to the link. He hadn't known where to go when the crazy variant had attacked them. He had just stayed right where he was. Surprisingly it had kept him alive till now. The ones that had tried to escape, had been the first to die.

He could hear the sullen voice, that from the sound of it, had hardly been used before. The variant wasn't able to pronounce the words quite right. Making it sound more threatening, like an angry animal.

The mocking screaming suddenly stopped, but the blond URTV could still feel the berserk monster creep closer.

"I know you are here!" growled the aggressor, that had given them no warning at all when he had suddenly appeared inside the entrance of the dorm. Pure madness that hadn't allowed them to run away.

The fiend's steps were accompanied with a sludgy sound. Blood and ripped apart URTV's covered the floor.

The hiding boy couldn't contain a whimper when he suddenly recognized one of his brothers.

Laying on the floor with emotionless eyes, a big wound right across his face, was number 389. He had been his room mate. They had enjoyed each others company. Now he would never go on a mission with him again.

Though URTVS were like a big swarm of beings with a connected conscious, each number still had possessed a small individual character. He missed the humming sound of his brothers minds. Right now everyone had abandoned the link.

He sniveled, immediately freezing for it had been louder than intended.

The mad variant stopped right before the bed, that his prey was using for hiding.

"Heelloooo there!" He had bend down and looked right into the face of the scared URTV.

"What number do you have?" A crazed expression played around the variants mouth.

After the slaughtering, he was in the mood for something else. Maybe he should enjoy the scared URTV's physical presence for a while before killing him as well.

He tried to grab the blonde, but was interrupted by a loud noise. That sounded like gun shot. He got up again and looked into the direction of the sound.

"Seems the beast runs wild. Your not being a good son, Nidhogg!"

"Fatherrr!" he spit out the word, turning it to nothing more but a snarl. Hate shone out of the hazelnut-brown eyes.

"When you don't start following my orders, I will reconsider being your father. Bad behavior has to be punished, I thought you would have understood that by now. I didn't want to use force, but you gave me no choice."

A dripping sound caused the already bruised and wounded variant to look down on him. He was bleeding from a a big wound in his side.

So it had been a gun shoot before.

"Now let your brothers alone and follow me to the laboratory! I'll take care of your injuries there."

Yuriev stepped closer, but Nidhogg bared his teeth.

"NO! No more wires! No more drugs! You hurt me! I hate you! U-DO is inside of you. You must be destroyed. DIE, DIE FOR ME!"

With that Nidhogg ran towards Dimitri, who with a great presence of mind, shoot again. This time in the leg of the painfully crying boy.

Still the variant continued his attack. He formed a wave and threw it at his creator. Dimitri was caught by it and was knocked on his back. Nidhogg was on him in no time, closed his hands around the scientist's throat and started to choke him. His strength was incredible for such a small framed boy, but then again, Nidhogg wasn't a small boy.

Dimitri was getting short with air, slowly lifted up the gun, that he had held onto the entire time, placed it on the heart of the boy but stopped there.

Nidhogg was to valuable to him, there was no replacement after number 666 turned out to be a failure. He had to think of a way to knock him out and he had to think of something fast for his vision started to get blurry...

*BANG*

For a second the brunette boy didn't move an inch. Then as if in slow motion, the body sunk down on the man's chest lifelessly. Yuriev coughed and pushed the body off of him.

"What?" surprised Yuriev starred at the motionless body.

His assistant came running at him.

"Oh my god, Dr. Yuriev are you hurt, sir? Is Nidhogg dead? I saw you being attacked by him and fired. I didn't want to kill him. I just wanted to wound him. What do we do now? He was our biggest hope! How do we destroy U-DO now? Can we still continue with the Plan to call forth the god? Sir I really..."

Without pausing the assistant would have continued with his sputtering, if Dimitri wouldn't have lifted his gun, pointed it at his assistant and shoot.

Still with a shocked expression on his face, the assistant fell to the ground.

"I never said you were supposed to kill him. You just destroyed my most promising weapon against U-DO."

He kicked the bleeding body of his assistant to make sure if he was dead.

By contact, the suffering man turned painfully away from his boots.

Still clinging to live, how amusing.

"By the way, haven't I told you to never talk about my goals again? You said you understood me. Apparently not, or am I mistaken? Too bad, I was never able to remember your name."

He placed the gun directly in the front of the scared man's face and pulled the trigger again.

Silence settled over the battlefield. Only a single crying boy disturbed the tranquil web of death. A man dressed in bloodstained, white clothes stood in the ocean of red and black. Starring at the corpse of an abused brown-haired child.

"It's not over yet! Nidhogg, you won't get away so easily. I still have an idea. It has been your words, right, my stupid follower? Plan B, will be carried out!"

…

*Inside the Encephalon, Sakura's domain, around 14 years ago, Durandal's dive*

After Albedo had stood there for a second without moving at all, he started chuckling which turned gradually into a fierce and crazy laughter.

"Hahahahahaha you got me my ruby! After all, you got me! To think that I was unmasked by this stupid language, that no one can speak anymore, but that idiotic number 667. Ancient is still an understatement. Who cares for that stuff from Lost Jerusalem anyway? Took you still quite a while to notice it. I really thought you would never find out. But I'm afraid that even so you finally did, it's already to late, my dear. You won't escape this time!"

Jr. wanted to get away desperately, but the man held him back with brute force.

"When you're not Albedo, who the heck are you? What do you want from me?"

Instead of an answer the green and warm summer scene started to wither away. The plants died and the temperature fell. The sun died down. No birds could be heard anymore. Juniors breath started to condense and the first snowflakes started falling. An harsh and cold wind blew around them. Within the blink of an eye, the domain had changed from summer to winter.

"Ah I'm sure you know this time and place, my fooled beauty. You want to know who I am? Well, then let's just watch your memories! The past is such a marvelous thing. Long gone but sometimes it bears the key to understanding."

The white demon lifted Jr. with just one arm around his neck, so his feet weren't touching the floor anymore.

The redhead remembered that position and he didn't like it. He wanted to call forth his red dragon power, but strangely his body didn't react at all against the fiend, that held him effortlessly above the ground.

Juniors struggle died down when he saw four children coming his way.

Of course he knew them all. He had watched them on the clearing just a moment ago.

"Not so fast Rubedo! Wait for me!"

"Stop whining Albedo! You don't train enough, that's why your stamina is so weak. Even Sakura is faster than you!"

"You're mean! I'm as fast as you are. I just don't want to run in this horrible ice-cold surrounding. What if I slip?"

"It's not that you would be hurt anyways!" The boy stopped, realizing what he had just said and turned around with a sad expression on his face.

"Sorry Albedo I didn't mean it."

The white-haired boy didn't answer but demonstratively held a distance to his twin. Nigredo silently watched the two but didn't interfere. He knew they would come to terms eventually.

Rubedo decided to apologize to him again later and turned his attention to the shivering girl that stood behind them.

"Sakura! There's nothing here today if we run we will be at the beach in no time!"

The girl shook her head.

"Why not, let's go! First we'll cure your illness then we'll go to a real beach."

The girl frightened pointed her finger at a place behind the URTV-leader.

"Rubedo look!"

A black shadow crawled over the white and untouched snow. It almost seemed as if the shadow stretched and moved on it's own. Tilting and billowing, a being that was dangerous and evil.

"No this, this isn't my shadow!" Both Juniors formed the words simultaneously.

Jr. was hit by the sight, he began to understand:

"That was you! You are my shadow? That's impossible! You are a part of me? But I'm, I'm..."

"I'm not a monster!"

…

*Yuriev institute, underground research laboratory, hatching sector, 27 years ago, a few hours after the dorm accident*

All machines were activated and the laboratory was full of realians that prepared the operation. Dimitri Yuriev had changed his clothes to a green doctor's overall. He needed to rescue as much as he could.

"How is number 666's status?"

"Sir, we evaluated the development of the cell culture and found out that both children will be boys. They will also be Siamese twins and monozigotic. Except for an defect of the ones skin pigments and a slightly weaker stamina, they should both be perfectly fine."

"Then we will try to get the bigger portion into the healthier one. Of course we won't be able to separate the induction completely at this time. We can't cut them away from each other. They're not ready for that yet. It's very likely to worsen the outcome, but I don't have more time. The first cells of Nidhogg's brain are already dying. We will start to extract his DNA-Formula and combine it with number 666's stronger side. After that, create the artificial link to seal his mind into the growing fetus!"

Yuriev placed a scalpel on the skin of the dead variant and started his gruesome work.

…

*Inside the Encephalon, Sakura's domain, around 14 years ago, Durandal's dive*

"I'm not a monster!"

"Amusing that you and your younger self claim that! You should know better number 666! Muhahahaha" He sniffed at Jr.'s hair. Drinking in his smell, enjoying his hopeless fight against the strong grip.

"What must I see? Without your guns and your fiery power you really seem like a normal boy. Fragile, pathetic and vulnerable. A tiny powerless shrimp. You are no fun without putting up a real fight, senseless to spend more time standing here like this. You heart is maybe not weak enough right now to let me in, but fortunately you brought everything I need with you."

He grabbed inside Jr.'s pockets and drew the injector out of it. Placing it carefully between his teeth, he reached for the necklace that was still around the neck of the unwillingly kicking redhead. With a swift movement he got the little ampule out of the pendant and inserted it into the injector.

Slowly he placed the, from the wind now freezing cold, metal tip against Jr.'s neck. The boy-framed man could feel how the needle went through his skin inside his flesh. Pushing the ice-like poison inside his system.

Jr.'s head felt heavier and he could almost watch how the cold crept inside his body. This time the drug didn't grant him oblivion, but would more likely lead to his death if he was being, half-naked as he was, in the wind for much longer.

His limbs wouldn't move no more, when the grinning man threw the injector away and begun to caress the trapped boy's body again. Jr. twitched when the claws scratched over his abdomen.

"Ready number 666? Or do you want me to say "Rubedo"? Ahaha Did I ever tell you how much I like your body? It reminds me of all the wonderful URTV's that once existed. Their fair hair was so lovely. Their simple minds so full of corners were I could hide. Yours was nice as well, but I got sick of watching you. You never tried to fulfill your mission. The same that I had, actually. Now I will carry out, what you would never be able to do. Now take in a deep breath, Rubedo!"

The imposter's hand returned to Jr.' back and rested on the left side of the boy's shoulder blades. With a strong motion the monster trust his hand trough Jr.'s ribcage, destroyed his heart and made its way through the front.

...

The last thing Junior remembered, was the all consuming pain, that ate away his last defense. His mind and soul crying out for help, that would not come.

Darkness overcame him...

At the same time Albedo awoke with a scream. Sweating and heavily breathing he had his right hand on his left side. Tears running down his cheek, knowing that half of him had just died.

...

The fake Albedo's image changed. It grew and bend, only using the human frame as an orientation to not dissolve into nothingness. White hair turned black and amethyst eyes shone white and endless out of the black shadow. Like two pits of pain and fear.

The shadow bedded the bleeding URTV inside the snow, causing crimson drops to stain the pure white.

He couldn't believe it, he had reached his goal.

His host had surrendered and now he was the new master of the body.

Now he could start his plan to clean the universe from U-DO. All he needed was the blonde-haired URTV's.

To get those, he would need Dimitri Yuriev's research data to reproduce them.

When he had learned about his fathers death, he had been angry, but when he had found out later, that Yuriev had survived by clinging to number 669's body, he had formed a new plan.

He was still surprised that number 666 hadn't felt the scientist's aura inside Nigredo. Maybe the struggle with his own demon had drained Rubedo too much to fell anything besides his own pain.

Whatever the reason had been, now he had to put his plan into action. He moved over Jr.'s body, rested there and concentrated himself for a second.

Then he dipped his substance carefully inside the opened chest, filling the wound and becoming one with the flesh and muscles of his brother.

…

*Fifth Jerusalem, Durandal, present*

"Initializing emergency dive shutdown." Came the computer generated voice over the speakers. The entire system had shut down the power. The little red alarm light, working it's hardest before, had been blown.

The boy sat up inside the device and rubbed the left side of his chest.

Then he got up and walked over to the automatically opening door straight into the hallway. There he paused for a moment and looked back to the diving machine. When the door closed behind him his eyes fell on his right hand.

The tattoo greeted him like an old friend. Promising him a world, that would be reborn from the ashes.

Starting anew from nothingness:

0 0 0

End chapter 6

How was it? Surprising? Obvious? :) Hope to have given you some entertainment! Chapter 7 in work process.

Little translation: Schatten sei mein Bruder = Shadow be my brother