The smile faded slowly, leaving him cold and aching in its wake. Nigredo’s reaction was unlike anything he had expected, the naked fear evident in his brother’s body language almost inciting a sympathetic flinch in Jr. himself. He wanted to make a show of glancing around, trying to find the source of this terror, and found he couldn’t stomach the pretenses; he knew the source, even without understanding why. Hurt but still determined, he was about to approach and reach out to Nigredo, just let this be real, I’ll deal with the rest later, when Albedo stepped forward. The sight was so surreal — Albedo protecting Nigredo from Jr. — that he couldn’t help but stare at his twin in open confusion and shock. Something strange, stranger than waking up in a broken down, lifeless city, was happening here. The seeds of doubt were firmly planted now and his inability to reconcile his brothers’ reactions became the first hard evidence that no, perhaps this wasn’t real, perhaps it was a dream, a nightmare.

Jr.’s eyes darted between them, the same hopeful longing driving his frantic heartbeat, before settling his gaze on his twin with a look that was near pleading. “Albedo,” he said, no longer interested in joking about the eccentric outfits they wore. Shaken and uncertain, he said his twin’s name again, and this time it was a question, an appeal for answers.

Is this how it felt? he wondered. That moment when someone dear to you inexplicably pulled away?

He had no idea what was happening, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to let history repeat itself.