Cain stared at the screen in disbelief, his hand clasped over his mouth as the image of death and destruction flashed before his wide eyes. How could something of this scale happen on Earth? Nuclear weapons, famine, disease, war, overpopulation... The planet was dying, and there was not a single thing he could do about it all the way out here on the Red Planet. His shoulders sagged and tears brimmed his eyes as he watched the broadcast, but this was not quite live feed. Messages from Earth, even now, took a little less than fifteen minutes to reach them, and this news broadcast had been recorded and sent to them by some of Dr. Putzkammer's subordinates. Cain had only just found it attached to an email from the head German member from the UN on his computer five minutes ago. He gripped his arms and shuddered in horror at the gruesome images before him of the dead and dying; he'd never seen so much death in one place before, and all of this sudden exposure was making him nauseous. How horrid...

Cain turned away and left is room as quickly as possible, leaving the message to play because he couldn't bear looking at it any longer. He let out a particularly loud sob as he rounded the corner, and nearly bumped into his brother, who had looked up to see who had made the sound.

"Cain? What is it?"

"Abel... Did... Did you see the message they sent us...?" he sniffed, trying to clear his nose a little. He heard his twin's deep, sad sigh, and Abel nodded,

"Yes..."

"They need help, and we can't do anything... Can we?" Abel shook his head,

"Not all the way out here, no..." he was surprisingly level-headed considering the true gravitation of this situation, but he'd always been like that. He wasn't affected with emotions nearly as much as Cain. "I think this is something we just have to let go. It was bound to happen sooner or later, because..." he took a deep breath, as if he had wanted to say this for a long time, but hadn't found the courage to do so until now, "Because human beings are naturally violent. They'll do anything to kill each other, or to see others killed. In a crisis... They're more likely to revert to primitive acts..."

"But I thought you said we were human too? Don't you believe that?" Cain looked up at him, removing his glasses and wiping his eyes. Again, Abel sighed, slow and deep, closing his eyes as his breath escaped him.

"Cain, I... I really don't know anymore. I don't think we ever really were completely human, and we never will be. Just like I can hardly believe that there's a divine being watching me right now, all the way out here, who I'll be damned by if I don't continue to do as I'm told... Lilith is religious... Lilith believes us to be human... It's all her... All her..." his voice faded and he turned his back to Cain.

"But... I thought you loved her?"

"I... God, I do... So much, but... Sometimes I don't feel like we were meant to be. Sure, I have feelings for her, but would she even pass me a glance if she knew that she hasn't completely changed my beliefs? I know my purpose in life was to kill, to be a weapon of war, and I know I can choose not to kill, but I feel compelled to do just that," he chuckled softly, but there was no happiness in it, "Love is ridiculous... Cain, do you think it's making me stupid?" he turned back around, "Because I'm seeing less and less of what I don't like in them, the humans, every day. I think it's blinding me, but it would kill me to lose her." Cain remained silent. He was happy for Abel, that was true, but what Abel said about his own nature was also true. Humans were evil and corrupt, Cain knew it, but didn't base all of his opinion on simply that. Abel did. He'd never forgive them, or, he'd try not to, but with Lilith around... Who knew?

He'd been seeing less and less of his brother alone lately, as he was always with her, and yes, he was jealous, but he kept it bitten back. Lilith didn't even feel the same for Abel, and Cain's twin was always trying to impress her. He never told Abel how he felt out of fear of hurting him, and now, even though their conversation was completely serious, he was happy to be alone with Abel for the first time in a while.

Abel sighed at Cain's lack of response, and glanced out the window. The night sky was clouded red, the wind howling outside and kicking up rusty dust, and Abel shivered.

"What a horrible place to live... It's so barren..." Facing the east, they could see the pair of roughly shaped moons—Phobos and Deimos—close to the horizon. The day could be quite beautiful, as could the night, whenever they were lucky enough to not have one of these dreadful sandstorms. Regardless, because of the red surface of Mars, plus the floating dust, the sky was a rather lovely rose during the day, but sadly, no one could ever go outside. After all, the atmosphere of this planet was unbreathable. The carbon dioxide content was far too high to be safe.

Cain touched Abel's arm, "Come on, let's get something to eat. I'm sure Seth and Lilith are waiting for us." With a nod, the brothers left their outside view, and headed down the bright white hallway, toward their dining room.

"Seth, come have some dinner," the brothers heard Lilith prod gently, and the girl bounced away from the window to take her seat beside Cain's chair as he lowered himself into it. Lilith smiled at the girl, and noticed Abel staring at his brother with a frown on his face. Cain glanced up at him, his brows knit in confusion, and he saw Lilith's hand come to rest on Abel's own, jerking him back to reality. She gave him one of her looks, the one that told him not to worry himself so much, but he couldn't help it. Cain felt a slight pang of guilt at the knowledge that his previous silence must have unsettled his brother. Nonetheless, Abel smiled, tucking a loose strand of his shoulder length silver hair behind his ear.

Cain finished first, and got up from the table to go to his room, where he was currently conducting some sort of experiment that he would not yet tell them about. Abel was just glad he was doing something constructive with his time, and not worrying about Abel like he had seemed to be doing a lot lately. Cain locked the door, heading to the desk in the corner of his room, which was littered with dozens of papers, all containing technical sketches and measurements. What he wouldn't tell them was that he had planned to help the remaining Terran when they were returned to Earth, should they do it in his life time. He planned to bring them back to their previous state of wealth and prosperity, using the technology he had learned about a few years ago; he loved to read, and had found that inventing new ways to bring the Terran back to order was quite easy for him to do. That, and he knew it would please his siblings.

He was currently working on his latest invention, one that would completely eliminate the need for nuclear power ever again. By utilizing more natural resources, such energy could be easily obtained. The sun, for example, was many times more powerful in the dark depths of space than it was on Earth, so to use the radiation it emitted by satellite would remove the danger a nuclear plant on Earth brought on. After seeing what such power was capable of, nuclear power was the last thing the Terran should return to; it created too much hazardous waste that they couldn't do anything with.

All was going well for him as he worked, examining his blueprints and sketches over and over, and he had even experimented with certain chemicals, inputting his information into his computer. He was so very busy, he hadn't noticed the blinking red light attached to the ledge beneath his desk by a piece of pallid-colored putty. He continued to work as normal, shuffling between his computer, his desk, and the sketches on the wall.

"Hmmm…" Cain puzzled over his sketches, "Maybe if I..." he flopped down in a swivel chair, crossing his legs and folding his arms, his brow wrinkled. He sighed, and his eyes traveled across the wall. A blond brow raised. "Huh?" he rose, and knelt to examine the blinking red light below his desk. He gasped, and made a mad dash for his bedroom door. He panicked when the door would not open, jiggling the handle. Of all times it could get stuck! He swore, and let out a cry of distress, frantically tapping the call button on his golden ear cuff, and ran to the other side of the room to the emergency exit. "OPEN, DAMN IT!" he howled, and turned to look frantically for another way out.

"Yes, Cain, what is it?" Abel's voice sounded in his ear.

"ABEL, HEL—!" The explosion that rocked his room slammed him against the wall with bone-crushing force, and he fell limp and dizzy when the back of his skull struck the steel wall behind him, blood now smeared across the once pristine white paint. He'd heard shattering bone in more than one place, and the pain made his eyes water and the world spin, but he couldn't move or cry out. His ears were ringing, his vision foggy and would not clear even as he blinked. Concussed and shell-shocked, body and skull aching, he heard and saw nothing until Abel burst into the room and ran to him, tapping his cheek with an open hand to try and bring him to attention. He was shouting something, and Cain gazed at him blankly, seeing his distraught expression, his frantic yells strangely muffled as if they were under water. It also occurred to Cain that he must still be standing, as Abel wasn't kneeling or squatting, but how could that be? Cain couldn't even feel his feet, and he was so dizzy, standing was surely out of the question.

"God, God NO!" Abel screamed, and clapped his hand to his ear, tapping his ear piece, "Seth! Lilith! Please, get down here!" He glanced back at Cain, "Cain!" he cupped his chin in both hands, "Cain, can you hear me?!"

"Yes..." came his soft response, "Abel... Under my desk... There was a bomb..."

"A bomb?"

"Yes... Ah..." he grimaced.

"Pl-please, Cain, d-d-don't move. Just stay... Oh... Ohhh, God..." he was shaking, and he bit his lip, his eyes welling up.

"Abel... I'll be all right... Probably... Just a concussion... A few breaks..." He tried to chuckle, but moaned again when he was wracked with pain.

"N-no... No, Cain... You won't... You won't... D-damn it..." he shook his head, and let out a soft sob.

"What...? What do you mean...? It's just... A little head bang..." he tried to move, just a little, to show him it was going to be all right, and cried out as a horrible pain wrenched at him again, more intense than before. "Ah! Ahhh, what's going on?! God, oh..." he groaned, gasping, shuddering as the pain struck him with hammer blows with each breath. Tears streamed down his brother's face. Abel tapped his ear piece with jittery fingers, hardly able to speak.

"Seth! L-Lilith! PLEASE! God, NOO!" he moaned through his sobs, then looked up at Cain, "C-Cain... Give me... Your hands... B-both of them..." Cain did, crying out and making Abel flinch and whine softly. Abel took his hands, clasping one tightly, and bringing the other to rest over Cain's own abdomen. In the center of his stomach, where his navel would have been, was a protruding chunk of metal that had once been his bed frame, staking him to the wall. Cain's eyes widened.

"A-Abel... Abel... A-am I... Am I going to die...?"

"No... No, you won't die... You won't... Y-you won't..." he bowed his head, and rested it against Cain's shoulder just as he heard the fleeting footsteps of two women, one grown the other a teenager. Cain glanced in their direction, his eyes the only part of him that shifted. Cold was creeping in on him, and darkness into his eyes, but he refused to close them. He wanted to sleep, but knew he shouldn't. The look on the womens' faces told him that his wound really was more horrific than he would ever know just from touching it. Lilith was a doctor... She'd know what to do...

And there was someone else with her, following closely behind. A man, one who was definitely familiar to him. He was thin and white-haired, bespectacled, and with a stooping posture; the result of leaning over countless experiments. He remembered then hospital room when he was just a teenage boy, the soup and the nice nurse... It was Dr. Putzkammer. His expression wasn't nearly as concerned as Cain thought it should be, either... In fact... He looked almost joyous. Abel glared at him.

"My, my... It looks like you've gotten yourself into somesing awful, Krusnik 01..." Abel stepped back as red-haired Lilith came to Cain, and looked him over hurriedly, examining what would surely be a gaping wound in his stomach.

"H-how... How does it look...?" his voice was growing fainter and fainter by the minute. Lilith pulled away, and looked up at him, stroking his cheek like a loving mother.

"Cain... How do your legs feel?"

"I-I can't feel them a-at all... Why?" Her eyes closed, and she nodded.

"L-Lilith... Can we save him?" Abel muttered. He was currently kneeling beside Seth, who was hugging him tightly and hiding her face in his shoulder, not wanting to see or smell the horrifying atmosphere of the room. Lilith looked at Abel, glanced back at Cain, and stroked his blond hair gently.

"I'm sorry... So sorry... Cain..." her voice broke, and she stepped away. Cain's expression became anguished, and his siblings started to sob quietly, holding onto each other for dear life.

"I... I don't want to die... I don't... No! I don't want to die yet! I DON'T WANT TO DIE!" he screamed, and Seth clamped her hands over her ears to block out his despairing cries. Dr. Putzkammer sighed impatiently, and that caught Abel's attention. He gently released Seth, and rose, flinching as Cain cried out sorrowfully again.

"Doctor..." he muttered, and Putzkammer turned.

"Yes? Vat is it—Grck!" Abel grasped him forcefully around the throat and shoved him brutally against the wall.

"YOU did this, DIDN'T YOU?!"

"Abel, don't!" Lilith grabbed his arm, and Seth was there to help her, only to be pushed back and Abel's grip tightened.

"No, he's... Absolutely correct... Zhe bomb vas my idea... But..." he gasped a few times, "You vouldn't... Have agreed... Ozervise... I vant to continue... Zhe experimentation..." Abel blanched.

"All this to EXPERIMENT on us?! THERE'S NO WAY IN HELL I'LL LET YOU DO IT TO HIM!"

"Zh-zhen... He'll die..." Abel's grip lessened significantly, and he looked to his brother, who was growing limp and drowsy, the hand that was touching the steel projection now languid and not holding fast. "But... If you allow me... To inject him vis zhe nanomachines again... a-and complete... zhe transformation... He von't."

"You are a lowlife bastard..." Abel spat, "We're human too, DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?" Putzkammer flinched, "NOT LAB EXPERIMENTS!"

"Abel, please stop. He'll help him." Seth's tiny voice sounded near his elbow. He turned, his eyes wide and teeth clenched with rage, glancing at the figure of Cain, whose eyes were drooping with exhaustion. He didn't want to lose his brother... He set the doctor down gently, reluctantly releasing him.

"Fine," Abel muttered. He stepped away, but he watched Putzkammer warily, ready to throttle him if he felt the need to do so. Putzkammer gave a short nod to Seth, and she took off down the hall. Abel growled, and shot a dark glare at the older man, clearly accusing Putzkammer of corrupting his sister, but the other man ignored Abel completely, staring placidly at the door until Seth returned to them. She came with a shiny, silver syringe, the gage of the needle rather large, and the glass chamber was filled with a thick, dark substance that sloshed around sluggishly like syrup. She knelt beside Cain's limp form, and stuck the needle in his thigh with practiced ease, making Abel's expression all the more sour, and she gave the injection, handing the needle back to the doctor when she was finished.

"Very good. Now, ve must get zhe sree of you to separate laboratories, and denn... Ve shall see." He smiled widely.