From here on out, we're making our way towards the ending (even though this is the mark of the second half of the fic, chapter-wise), and things are going to get a little hectic and maybe confusing - if anyone is left confused or anything, please don't hesitate to let me know! I'll explain everything right away!

Warning: This chapter shows attempted suicide along with some "background" characters committing suicide in the flashback below.

Chapter 10

In which the Phi who has snuck into the research facility is actually the "other" Phi.

She comes home from the market one day to find him hunched over his desk in his room. Delta is normally never in here, especially not since Left was killed, since they used to share this room. His door is wide open, which prompts her to enter unannounced. She lets out a sigh that is slightly exasperated but confused. "What are you writing, Delta?"

Upon hearing her voice, he turns his head and looks in some sort of sad surprise. He shuts the flap of the notebook closed and leaves it on the table. "Oh." He rises up from his seat and smiles. "Hello, Phi." He leans down to embrace her small figure tightly, which leaves her confused. "I've missed you so much," he murmurs softly.

"Hello, brother." She blinks. "What's going on? You're hugging me as if I have been gone for years, when I only just saw you this morning."

He doesn't answer, but turns to stare at the photo of a blond, teenage boy, an innocent, kind boy whose life was taken away from them too early.

Left died 4 years ago, but a day does not go by that Delta takes a moment in the day to pay his respects to the photo of the boy on his desk. Phi doesn't believe in God, — since their foster father, the researcher who found them, is one of the rare members of their society who believes in the power of science over prayer — but, sometimes, when Phi sees Delta pay his respects, she says a quick prayer for Left's soul to rest in peace, since the boy was probably the most religious out of the three children, and followed his mother's religion.

His eyes wander down, slightly sheepish. "Well, I've been lonely without you or Left . . ."

"Oh, Delta," Phi sighs sadly, frowning. "Left, I understand, but I've only been gone for a few hours."

He gives her a despondent smile — empty and hollow like his purplish gray eyes. "Yes, but I have to leave now, too, so I'll be lonely without you."

Phi furrows her eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean? Where are you going? Father said you and I were going to be educated here. You can't go somewhere else — father has already prepared for our admission here in the United States!" They were very fortunate that they were well off during this economic drought of sorts, where beggars scattered across the streets.

"No, Phi . . ." His eyes flicker to the Metamec clock on the desk, that he brought from their home in Germany, and then looks back at her with sad eyes. "I'll be gone for a few hours." He leans down to kiss Phi's forehead in farewell, and then turns on his heels and runs off.

"Wait, Delta!" she cries out, and chases after him. Delta rarely ever kisses her forehead, so this feels like he's saying goodbye.

She manages to track him down to the train station near her house, but feels her heart stop beating for the moment that he walks onto the tracks.

"No, Delta!" The train is coming; she can hear its horn blare loudly in her ears. He doesn't close his eyes as he waits for the train to reach him.

There are a few others, a few meters behind him, also awaiting death, which tugs painfully at Phi's heart. This is nothing out of the ordinary, at least, for the past three years or so: people would commonly throw themselves in front of an incoming train, weary and unable to continue their life of destitute. Though Phi wants more than nothing to save them as well, her first priority is her twin brother. Her legs push her faster — thank god that her father and mother allow her to wear pants — towards Delta.

"Delta!" she screeches, as she finally reaches him and yanks him by the shoulders off the track. "Are you out of your mind?! What the fuck were you thinking?!" She begins to weep, as the cries and screams of those ending their lives grow louder . . . and then suddenly stop as the train screeches with the sound of its breaks. That could have been him, she thinks repeatedly to herself. "You can't leave me alone! Left is gone, but I won't let you go anywhere, either." Her shoulders shake as the sobs wrack uncontrollably through her body "Why would you try do that to me!?"

"Phi!" Delta looks so dazed and disoriented, as if he has woken up from a nap. Suddenly, he appears to be a different then he was a moment ago. "I-I . . . I don't know what happened, Phi." He grasps her shoulders, and looks on to where the train has stopped. He shakes his head and grabs her wrist, tugging it with his hand. Tears are in his eyes, too. "I want to go home, Phi. Let's go home, please," he begs in an unsteady voice. "I need to get away from here."

That night, he doesn't come out of his room, and Phi doesn't feel the need to tell their foster parents when they question his absence at dinner — they have already suffered so much after Left's death that Phi does not want to break their heart by telling them their other son almost tried to kill himself — or perhaps, maybe he tried to jump his consciousness like Phi had the feeling she was able to . . .

No, that doesn't seem right to Phi.

There were certain secrets kept between the two of them — secrets of their powers. Though Left knew about Delta's mind reading, along with Phi, he did not know that Phi has had this feeling for such a long time that she has the ability to jump between alternate timelines, along with waking up some mornings to strange flashes of her in other universes, trying to . . . SHIFT, as her "dreams" have called it.

For a while, she believed that maybe Delta, too, could jump. But the twins have already tried to make him jump, using the information that Phi just happened to always know in her mind, and it has never worked. Delta has always urged her to try, too, but she has always been against it, in fear of never being able to have her consciousness return to her current body and timeline.

But if Delta had tried once more to SHIFT, it would make sense as to why he'd be a little dazed after Phi saved him from the train. Why would he risk his life by throwing himself in front of train instead of asking Phi, however, to endanger his life?

Either he knew for a fact that he would be able to SHIFT, or that Phi would come after him and save him.

. . . Or maybe, both.

So, instead of telling her parents anything, she claims that he hasn't been feeling well, and she brings food up to his room, with the intention of asking him if he tried to jump. She is surprised to see him calm, less shaken up then before, and notices the notebook in his hand that he was writing on before, along with the music box birdcage he was sent with when transported to 1904 with Phi (which, unbeknownst to her, Delta plans to sell tomorrow at a specific pawn shop near the research center that holds the transporter, where their father works). Instinctively, she reaches up to trace along the edge of her brooch, which causes him to smile — the asshole is probably reading her mind, again.

"I'm glad to see you're feeling better," she tells him.

"Yes . . . Phi, I'm sorry for what I did back there. I don't know what I was thinking, truthfully. I was being quite foolish."

Phi gives him a look of sympathetically as she tucks a loose strand of her red hair behind her ear.. "I know it's hard to move on from Left's death. We all loved him and miss him dearly, but, Delta, we have to stay strong for the two people who gave us life and raised us. They took care of us and did everything they could to make sure we were never sad, and now, it's our turn. Mother and Father already lost one child, so do not let them experience that pain, again. Instead, we should work to fill their lives with as much happiness as we can."

He nods. "I agree. I'm sorry to have been so selfish."

Phi shakes her head to refute his words, but he turns his face away, effectively making her realize that this part of the conversation is over.

"I promise I'll do whatever I can to make sure Mother, Father, and you, Phi, never have to face any troubles in your lives," he vows, reaching over to grasp his sister's hand and squeeze it gently.

Suddenly, without her own accord, she feels her hand squeeze his back.

She widens her eyes in shock and immediately retracts her hand from his — did he just control her actions? Stunned, she whips her head up to Delta, who looks pleased.

"What the fuck was that?" she shrieks.

"I think that was . . . I-I think I can Mind Hack." Though hesitant in his words, he is completely honest with her, like he has always promised to be.

She stares at her hand, which suddenly feels very tingly. "Mind Hack?"

"Controlling someone's actions. It can be a useful tool if I can track down Left's killers — "

"No!" she cries. "Delta, please do not misuse it! It's frightening and wrong!" This was exactly why she did not wish to attempt to SHIFT, and didn't want him to either. A thought unexpectedly occurs to her, then. What if his attempt today had something to do with saving Left, or finding or punishing his killers? "Delta . . . promise me, you won't misuse you power to Mind Hack."

He looks down, but doesn't answer back.

She is unable to fall asleep when she goes to bed later on, but it's not just because her hand trembles for the rest of the night.

The next morning, he disappears before Phi can remember to ask him about the contents of his notebook, and does not return until later that evening for dinner, returning with flowers he had picked for Mother, making Phi immediately forget what she wanted to ask him.

.

"Yes, a part of my motives was to see you, Sophia." It's strange to hear the man she grew up with address her by her new, self-chosen name. He chuckles, most likely having read her mind. "Even in your new identity, you kept your old self. In Sophia, there is Phi." He smirks. "And you didn't even try to be subtle; you made the pronunciation as 'so-fy-a,' instead of the customary pronunciation of 'so-fy-a.' You made it that way so you could stay true to your real identity — while trying to make sure she was not able to figure out who you really are. Tu fui, ego eris — quite literally."

She doesn't answer him, only glowering at him. "Yes, I changed my name so that she would not know who I am. But, please, get to the point, Delta."

He laughs cheerfully, almost like his conscious is really still is 20, Phi notices. "You haven't changed, at all. Still calm on the outside, but ever-so impatient inside." An irritated Sophia is about to talk, or, more than likely, yell at him, but he speaks. "Well, Sophia, though I wished to see you, I really came here with the intent to meet our parents, along with the little Phi you raised."

She turns to his face to sharply glare at him. "Leave her alone, Delta," she warns through gritted teeth, hands balled into fists at her sides.

His face grows solemn. "Listen, Phi, I have to meet her. I have to meet them . . . I've been given a chance to unite with them since my birth, and you have a chance to meet them, too. You can do whatever your heart desires, but I'm not going to let this chance go to waste."

"Delta, you — "

"Gran!"