Seth slapped herself as she listened to the Abels constant bickering. They had just returned to the ship and already they were at each others neck. It was worse then when he argued with Cain. They hadn't started fighting seriously yet, but being as they both had the crusnik nano machines, it would be a very destructive battle if they ever decided to go all out. At this point she was just about ready to tell everyone that they were the same person to at least shut the older one up.
One of the boys suddenly made a snappy retort which was quickly followed up by another.
Aghhhh! Abel Nightroad was ten years older then her and here he was, arguing with someone that wasn't even half his age! And here was this younger version of Abel who constantly- Gah! Boys were so- agh! Seth screamed to herself. Her thoughts were echoed by a few curses coming from the priest Abel, which resulted in a long stream of curses from Nightlord. What was this? A swearing contest?
"I thought priests weren't supposed to swear!" Nightlord growled, apparently out of breath.
"It's not swearing. It's creative gibberish," Nightroad growled back.
"As if! Those are ancient languages you moron. Even if its gibberish to these humans it was still written in dictionaries!"
"I thought you said you couldn't speak any ancient languages," Asthe butted in. She crossed her arms over her chest as she glared at Nightroad, demanding an explanation.
"When did I say that? I learned a little from the university of Rome," Nightroad grinned sheepishly.
"I might not be an expert in universities but I'm pretty sure Rome never taught any dead languages," Leon said. His eyebrows knit together as he thought on this.
"Swearing and lying. Wow, you must be the worst priest ever."
Seth groaned as they again went into a full blown swear war. They even had the audacity to describe a few things she would rather not have thought or known about. The three other people in the room gapped at the two of them as they spoke in languages they never heard before, along with a few that they recognized but seemed to be a different version.
"That's not even a word! You just put two words together!"
"Oh, that's very enlightening! Don't you think I know that, mentard?"
"Congrats, you just made another word. Are you planing to write a book out of them?" Nightroad said sarcastically.
"Would you two shut up?" Seth roared. She stomped up to her older and older younger brother. "You're acting like a child! You're what? 976 years old?" She growled at Nightroad then turned her hateful gaze on Nightlord. "And you, stop provoking him! Do you know how silly the two of you look? For crying out loud, you're arguing with yourself!"
Both Abels stopped mid sentence at Seth's rant. Seth had never gotten that mad before, and even when she did get mad it was never toward them. Not even Lilith got that mad.
"But he's not me," they both said in unison, despite their similar thoughts on Seth's anger issues.
"He wears glasses," Nightlord added as Nightroad said, "his hair is short."
"Fine, you want to play like that? Why don't we take those dumb glasses off and cut your hair, Father Nightroad. I'm sure the two of you will both be enlightened as to how similar the two of you are."
"Why do I need to all that while he doesn't need to do anything? Why can't we put him in a wig and make him wear glasses?" Nightroad questioned.
Huffing, Seth reached over the table and grabbed Nightroad's glasses, then placed them firmly on Nightlord's nose. Her actions were followed by a few gasps from those in the room as they saw more of the similarities between the two. But she wasn't aiming for their spectators to notice the similarities, she was aiming for the two Abels.
"Do I need to have you guys switch clothing as well?" Seth asked. She swatting away Nightlord's hand when he tried pulling the glasses away.
They both glared at each other, both of them squinting. Nightroad, because he was not supposed to have good eye sight, and Nightlord because he couldn't see through the thick glass.
"Now he's just a big blur," they both bit out, bitterly. One of them lying while the other was telling the truth.
"You two really look alike," Esther commented. "And you even seem alike, personality wise… or at least when the two of you are together the two of you seem almost the same."
"Want to know our secret?" Nightlord asked, finally managing to take off the glasses. Nightroad opened his mouth and was ready to spring at him if he dared tell the truth. But then he closed it, deciding the people in the room were never going to believe him, since Nightlord was royalty and he obviously wasn't. After all, what kind of emperor of the methuselah empire would become a priest? "He's actually my grandson, and we don't see eye to eye on a lot of things," he gave them a wide grin.
"But you never had kids," Asthe said, quickly finding the fault in his lie.
"Now you're the one who's lying," Nightroad chided. "The truth is I'm really the older version of him, and for some reason I just can't seem to get along with my younger self."
His answer caused everyone except the crusniks to burst out laughing. Clutching his stomach, Leon managed a choked response. "That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard come out of your mouth, Four-eyes."
"There's no way the two of you are the same person!" Asthe laughed, for once loosing all of her usual regal manners. "If you were I don't think you would be arguing with him 24/7." Wiping a tear away she asked, "so if you really are the first and only emperor then why are you with the vatican?"
"To force peace between the humans and methuselah," Nightlord answered, also getting in on the act. Seth found herself rolling her eyes. They were actually working together on telling the truth, but in a way that would make the other's think they were lying.
"No, actually it was because I couldn't handle Seth becoming so much like Lillith," Nightroad said, and the two Abel shared a rare laugh, while Asthe growled at Nightroad for talking poorly about Seth. Although it was complement to Seth, to Asthe it seemed like a negative comment because of the way Nightroad had come across saying it, and also because she didn't know who Lilith was.
"Okay, prove it to me by activating my spear," Asthe challenged, with smirk. She passed him the Sword of Gae Bolg. A quick frown crossed Nightroad face as he took the rod.
"Sure no problem. Could you do the honors?" Nightroad asked. He extending the handle of the rod so both he and Nightlord could touch it. As soon as Nightlord's fingers touched it he activated it.
"That's cheating," Asthe huffed.
"What's wrong with me asking my younger self for help?" Nightroad countered.
Seth sighed. At least they were getting along… for now. "Okay now can we please get back to business?" Both Abel's gave her a questioning look. "The note." Seth resisted the urge the yell.
"Oh that. It wasn't a really a note," Nightlord yawned.
"It was part of the blueprints though," Nightroad said.
"Yeah, It seems as though Cain's to lazy to make his own activation key for a machine he's trying to create… Actually he lost his wallet."
"Apparently we need to build it to destroy the death machine he's making, otherwise it's going to activating and attack a few countries.
"We just need to make sure Cain doesn't get his hands on it, once we build it. Otherwise he'll be able to activate his machine."
"Oh and, Cain wants us to attend the Londinium festival tomorrow," Nightroad ended.
"How do you know that?" Esther asked.
"Because the note said to stick around, and the only reason why any tourist would want to stick around after seeing the sights of Albion, is to watch a festival," Nightroad answered.
And despite all their arguing they still managed to talk to each other about the notes. That was just weird, Seth sighed. They even had everything planned out, by the looks of it.
"Can I have my glasses back now?" Nightroad asked, opening his hand.
"I don't know how you can see through those," Nightlord huffed as he tossed them to Nightroad, who slipped them on.
"They aren't that bad once you get used to them," Nightroad said with a shrug.
"One minute you're yelling and the next you two are talking together like old friends," Leon commented.
"Like we said, we're the same person," they both said in a serious tone. "Just kidding," they chuckled.
"I would rather die then be related to him, let alone being the same person," Nightlord said as Nightroad just nodded in agreement.
Getting up, Nightroad said, "Lets go scope out the city before the festival tomorrow." Nodding, Nightlord got up and followed him out of the ship.
"I'm confused," Esther admitted. "I've never seen father Nightroad act that way before. He's never argued with anyone before, and now he's arguing with Nightlord, whose an emperor."
"We all are, Senorita," Leon said, swinging an arm over her slender shoulders. "And I still haven't gotten him back for pranking me."
A wicked grin crossed Asthe's face as she and Leon shared a look. Seth had a small smirk on her face, but she had no intention of helping the man with his revenge on her brother… but that didn't mean she was going to tell him. Esther on the other hand, was the only one who actually looked worried for Nightroad.
(Next day)
"Find anything?" Nightroad whispered. He came up behind another man and reached into his pocket, drawing out his wallet. After making sure nothing of importance was in it, he carefully slipped it back into the man's pocket.
"Just cash, cash, and more cash," Nightlord yawned. "I really don't think this is what Cain meant when he said he lost his wallet." He swiftly snatched a wallet from someone who was running past him, flipped through it, then put it back before the person noticed it was missing.
Back at the UN, Cain was always in charge of their money. However he was a very careless treasurer since he constantly lost his wallet and thus Abel had brought it upon himself to replace what his brother had lost or forgotten by stealing from other people. The word 'money' or 'wallet' coming from Cain's mouth, usually meant, 'Abel, I need you to get some cash for us.'
They both sighed as a small parade marched down the main street. Albion's anthem was being blasted through the speakers as people began to break out dancing and singing. All the shops that were open began putting up 'sale' signs. Both Abel weaved their way in and out of the crowd. The Methuselah, crusnik and two other humans quietly followed behind them but they weren't as swift as the two Abel's.
The two of them glanced at each other before both turning in opposite directions.
"You're almost too good at that," Asthe hissed from her position behind Nightroad, who just nodded in response. "Are you sure you're going to find the next clue by pickpocketing?" again Abel nodded as nudged his way through the crowd. "Are you even listening to me?"
Nightroad nodded again and put a hand to his radio. "Find-"
"Anything?" an irritated voice interrupted. Nightroad could almost see the face Nightlord was making right now. "No, I didn't. How many more times are you going to ask? Each time is going to be the same. My answer is "NO!" If I find something I'll call you!" The line went silent, indicating he had turned off his radio.
Nightroad resisted the urge to growl since Asthe was staring at him, but for some reason she had a smirk on her face. "What? Do I have something on my face," he asked, even though he was sure that wasn't the case, but he wiped it anyway.
"Oh, it's nothing tovarish," Asthe responded. Using the same technique Abel had used, she began snatching people's wallets. He was so going to get it once they returned to ship. The traps she and Leon had set up were genius.
As they walked through the crowd something attracted Nightroad's eye. Looking up, he hissed under his breath. What the hell did that kid think he was doing? 'I'll call you he says. So, something which causes him to activate the crusnik and started flying in front of the public isn't worth reporting to me?' Nightroad put the items he was holding back where they belonged and headed in the direction Nightlord had gone.
Asthe grabbed him by the wrist.
"Where are you going? We still haven't gone through these people yet," she jabbed a thumb at the small cluster of people.
"Bathroom," Nightroad quickly answered. He tugged his wrist from Asthe's grip and made his way through the crowd. Behind him, he could hear the light tapping of Asthe's foot steps as she followed him, yelling at him that he was going the wrong way.
Nightroad made a sharp turn, hoping Asthe would loose track of him. Entering the dark ally way he slipped off his outer cassock. Muttered his ritual words, "crusnik 02 power out put to 80% activate." Black wings unfurled from his back and he took flight.
Following Nightlord's scent. He made sure to stay behind the buildings so those watching the parade wouldn't see him. Halfway across the city Abel noticed a figure dressed in green followed by a man in black and a female in white. Slowing his pace, Nightroad allowed them to pass him before landing and deactivating the crusnik.
"Where have you been?" Leon panted when he noticed Nightroad following them.
"Trying to catch up with you guys. Let me guess, Nightlord took off?"
Leon grunted in response as the four of them rounded a corner. "He started chasing someone and we lost him but then Seth told us to follow her," Leon updated.
Lengthening his short strides, Nightroad easily passed the humans and caught up with Seth. As they neared the place Nightlord had landed a strange feeling blanketed Nightroad. Something was wrong, he could just feel it. But somehow it felt good at the same time, relaxed even, it almost made him feel like he was drunk… if you call feeling drunk good, that is.
Nightroad stumbled over his own feet, as he felt his own strength being sapped from him. When he jumped up he felt normal, his strength was back but for some reason his hands had become slightly paler then they should have been, and he could have sworn he had suddenly gained x-ray vision.
Catching up to Seth, out of breath, Nighroad huffed, "Nightlord's in danger."
A/N: I haven't ended a chapter with a cliffhanger in such a long time.
R&R
