Disclaimer: Trinity Blood is owned by Sunao Yoshida.
Warning: This story is a time travel story which ends up changing the past and creating an au. The story takes place between manga chapter 45 and 46 given Abel and Esther arrive in Istavan right after the events of the Empire ark.
Thank you,
Flame

Tick, tock, tick, tock. The mechanical rhythm of a cloak echoed through a small room. It was punctuated by the scratches of a pen. A soft glow fell over Abel from the flickering light of a candle. Several documents were spread out before him on the small table in his bedchamber.

A bed was tucked in one corner of the space with a wardrobe squeezed in beside it. The desk was place across the room from the wardrobe with only just enough space between the two for someone to stand before the chair. A small gape was between the bed and the draws of the desk.

If Abel had his way, he would have done away with the bed entirely. He only slept in it when exhaustion overcame him. Then woke only hours later from the nightmares which haunted his dreams.

Abel's pen paused. He lifted the document and looked it over. He sighed as he set the pages down. "No, no, no," he mumbled and scratched out what he had written. "That's not believable." He shook his head and lifted a fresh sheet.

The report was over what had transpired while Abel had been in the empire as Esther's guard. It wasn't coming along, to say the least. Yet, reports were rarely easy for him. Not because writing them was hard. No, if he was just writing them for Caterina's eyes alone, this would be a simple task to handle. He had to assume all reports would be handled by other agents within the Papal State Affairs Special Operations Section or AX for short. Thus, Abel had to change how he came off in the report.

Over the years, it had become easier to make them poorly written and a little goofy; yet, it was still hard for him. He had to admit, after centuries of serious reports, this was a challenge that would just keep being challenging.

A sharp knock sounded.

Abel glanced at the clock. It was barely passed one in the morning, not yet time for morning mass. He stood; then purposefully fell as if he had just been woken.

"What?" he grumbled in as tired of a voice as he could manage.

"Father Nightroad, your presence has been requested by Lady Caterina," Tres's emotionless voice sounded through the door.

"Eh? B-but it's barely one!" Abel leapt to his feet and scrambled to the wardrobe. Again, he was pretending to be in a hurry. He was already fully clothed, having never gone to sleep.

"Stop complaining and get out here," a sharp voice sounded through the door.

Abel untied his hair as he moved to the door. He started to gather his hair up as he opened the door, holding the ribbon in his mouth. "What's happening?" he mumbled around the ribbon, slurring his "s" because of it.

Kate shimmered beside Tres, her eyes flashing despite the fact she appeared transparent as a hologram. "Get moving, the others are already on their way."

"Eh?"

Kate vanished.

Tres started down the hall, his steps heavy and giving a soft thud with each step he took.

"W-what?" Abel scrambled after Tres. "What's happening?" He pulled the ribbon tight, feeling several strands of hair falling out and around his face as usual. "It's too early to be awake," the words grabbled into a large yawn.

"I can't answer," Tres stated in his normal emotionless voice.

"Hmm? Why not?" Abel pouted. God, he always felt like such an idiot when talking to others.

"Because he doesn't know," a smooth voice answered in Tres's stead.

Abel grinned. "Morning, Professor." He waved at William. "You know what's going on?"

"I do." The professor bit the stim of his pipe. He entered Caterina's office before Abel could inquire further. So much for that source?

Tres was a step behind William. A small breath escaped Abel and he pushed up his glasses. He entered the office and glanced at those gathered.

Leon was dozing on the couch, one arm wrapped around Esther who looked as if she was ready to fall asleep where she sat as well.

Abel forced a soft, small smile in her direction. He was fighting the urge to frown. Esther wasn't a full agent. He glanced at the room. Everyone else gathered there was an AX agent. Though, now he thought on it, she might have been invited because she was now a Lady Saint.

Almost every agent was there with the exceptions being Hugue, who Abel knew tended to ignore recall orders, and Monica. She made sense given her goal was mainly to kill Caterina and was only restrained by a collar around her neck.

Kaya Syokka, code named Gypsy Queen, rested her elbows on Caterina's desk. Her frame small and almost childish. She was older than the last time Abel seen her. Though, he admitted he hadn't seen much of her over the past three years. The last time he had even seen her was Noelle's funeral. They hadn't spoken. She had left shortly after on another mission.

Kaya was the youngest agent in the room. Her brown hair stuck out from under her white habit, brown, innocent eyes, tracking Abel's every move through the room.

Abel was careful to keep his distance from the girl.

Tres moved to stand on Caterina's other side from where Kaya was. William set the case he had been carrying down before Caterina and turned to her.

"It works," he informed her as well as those assembled.

Abel glanced at Leon who shrugged to show he didn't have a clue as to what was happening either. Abel took another look around the room. No one outside of Caterina and William seemed to know what was happening either. At least he wasn't the only one left out this time.

"What works, Professor?" Leon demanded. "And why the hell wake us over it?"

"Language, Dandelion," Kaya snapped with a glare at him.

Leon shot her a nasty look. "Just—"

"Another piece of lost technology, Professor?" Abel cut in before Leon could snap at Kaya. He would rather avoid a fight when all of them were tired this time. Well, all but him. He was used to working off little to no sleep. The others weren't.

William grinned around his pipe. "Right." His grin was more than a little smug as he patted the case. "This one took me awhile to figure out how to activate it." He opened the case and almost reverently pulled out an old, heavy orb.

Abel stiffened. He recognized what it was at once. It was one of two devices created just over a hundred years after the end of the Terran-Methuselah War. The two of them had been created by a child Abel had once known well. He had sought to change history with them.

Two agents of the empire and Abel, who had been the pope's personal agent back then, had been dispatched to stop the radical group. It had ended with the child's death. Abel had taken one of the orbs to the Vatican while one of the imperial agents had taken the other back to the empire and Seth. Abel had received a message later to never activate the device as it would destroy history as they knew it. As he had been in no position to do so, the thought had never once crossed his mind. Besides living through hell had been bad enough once, he had no desire to repeat it.

"You said it works, William?" Caterina asked. Her gaze had shifted ever so slightly in Abel's direction before she looked back at the professor. "What does it do?"

"Well, that's what's interesting." William tapped the small screen on the device. "It's a time device."

"A what?" Kaya frowned.

"I set it for a few minutes into the past and poof, there I was standing before it a few minutes before I had ever activated it."

"That's insane, Professor," Leon huffed. Though his expression said, "You woke us for this?" he didn't voice the complaint, not before the "stunning" Caterina. His hair wasn't as nice as if he had no time to prepare and look his best before her which pointed to the fact he had been pulled from his room like Abel had been or close to it.

"But it does work," Kaya started, eyeing the device, "we could go back to the human-vampire war and change everything. We could help the people of the past wipe out those blood suckers for good."

"W-what?" Abel stammered. "But we're so close to peace in the now!" he protested. "Caterina," – he turned to Caterina – "you can't be considering this."

Caterina folded her hands before her mouth. "Calm down, Abel, we don't even know if this device could work in such away."

Oh, it could. That had been Valdemar's intent when he had recreated them. Still, intent and functionality were two very different matters. Abel knew they worked as Valdemar had managed to activate them by mistake. It had sent them back a few minutes and that had been a bad enough experience for Abel. It gave him one hell of headache. And this was only transporting his memory into his younger self of a few minutes ago. He didn't want to think what it would be like to physically carry people through time to the past. Let alone how much pain he would be in if his one century old self ended up with memories spanning another eight centuries.

"Um," Esther started from where she sat, "we did just speak with the empress before Istavan." She looked uneasy. "Wouldn't it be wiser to see what the empress does next, Lady Caterina?"

Caterina nodded it would be.

Kaya had picked up the device from where William had set it.

"Careful with that!" William warned.

"What time stamp is this thing even using?" Kaya demanded, staring at the numbers it. "Ah, never mind." She was messing with the settings.

"Kaya," William warned. He made to take the device from her.

Kaya danced out of his way. "I just want to see how far back this goes." A small smile was on her face. She was counting as she went. "Eight-hundred fifty, Eight-hundred fifty-one, Eight-hundred fifty-two, Eight-hundred fifty-three, Eight-hundred fifty-four, Eight-hundred fifty-five—Hey!" She cut off as Leon lunged at her. The two fell to the ground.

Abel leapt forward, reaching for the device. It struck the ground. White-light erupted through the space, filling the entire room. Pain lanced through Abel's skull. The others vanished from around him, lost in the haze of pure, blinding agony.

x – Seth – x

"You two brought help I see," Seth grinned at Ion and Asthe as they followed Baybars and Mirka into an old room of the palace.

"What is this place?" Ion breathed as he turned around, staring at the walls lined with old boxes. Not everything was boxed up though, a few items were out on shelves.

"This is what remains from the first two generations of the empire," Seth informed the boy. "Be careful and don't activate something in here without asking first." She wagged her finger at the boy.

He paled. "Of course not, your Majesty," his voice broke a little, eyes wide as he watched her finger with horror.

Seth giggled a little. "It's just Seth, Ion." She winked at him before she moved further into the room. "I've been looking for something among this mess for a while now and can't seem to locate it. The boxes aren't really organized anymore." She wrinkled her nose a little. Annoyance filled her at how unorganized she had let the room become. So much so she couldn't find the one item she was after.

"What are you looking for, Seth?" Asthe asked as she stepped further into the room.

"I'm looking for something Solomon made for his first wife," she confessed without giving away it had been made for her.

"Don't you keep everything of Solomon's separate from the other founders?" Baybars asked as he moved over to one of the shelves.

Seth nodded. "Yeah, but I searched through everything and they weren't there," Seth huffed a little. It was annoying her she had misplaced the daggers he had so lovingly crafted her when the Terran-Methuselah War had started without having to admit she didn't remember where she had placed them last. "I even checked the weapons storage." She gestured to a door at the end of the room.

"Weapons?" Ion's eyes widened with excitement. "You mean the genetic weapons the five families close to the first emperor held."

"Yeah?" Seth frowned. "What other weapons would I refer to?"

"Is Azul's sword still in there? And the Barvon family sword? Oh, and the Ring of Solomon?" Ion face was flushed with excitement.

Seth sighed. "Yes, those weapons." She moved off into the room.

"Can we see them?" Ion asked as he followed Seth. "I heard the sword of Azul gets passed to each head of my family."

"It is." Seth smiled. "But Mirka doesn't fight with swords and you're not the head of your family yet, Ion."

Ion flushed. "I-I know," he mumbled.

"What are you looking for?" Asthe repeated and tucked a lock of her hair behind an ear. Her hair was short now since the incident a few months ago.

"Daggers, twin daggers," Seth told them. "They'll have been made with the crest of the Nightlord family," she explained. "It's rather embarrassing I misplaced them given we don't have the emperor's sword and only his sister's daggers." Understatement of the last hundred years. How could she have misplaced those weapons out of all the genetic weapons in the empire?! Especially those her beloved had made.

"Should we recheck the weapons?" Ion asked.

Seth scowled. "I already said I looked through them. There are only three in there right now!" She stalked off. "Check the shelves over there." She gestured for Ion to move in one direction. "I'll start closer to the weapons locker with Baybars. Mirka, you can start in the middle. Asthe, take the other side of the room from Ion.

The Duchess of Kiev nodded and head back towards the entrance with a rather disappointed Ion.

Seth shook her head. Now, at least, she knew her holding off on giving Ion Azul's sword had been right. He was far too eager about those weapons. Plus, he was still learning from Baybars how to properly fight.

"He's really not ready," Seth whispered to Baybars as the two of them moved to the back of the room.

"No. And that goes for more than just Azul's sword." Baybars looked at her. "He's not ready for the truth behind the emperor either."

Seth nodded.

She leapt up the shelves to the ones at the highest point. These weren't artifacts she wanted Ion and Asthe to see. They were dangerous. She knelt by the chest and unlocked it. Sure enough, the daggers weren't there.

A small breath escaped her. "I'm sorry, my love, I can't believe I misplaced them." She made to close the chest when a soft clicking started from an orb nestled at the back of the chest. She frowned and lifted the device. Numbers were flying down the screen then started to slow in the eight-hundreds. "Oh, no." Seth set down the orb and screamed. "Everyone out!"

Too late.

Bright, white light erupted through the room.

Seth tumbled from the shelves, trying to shield her eyes. Sheer agony shot through her mind. She couldn't see; couldn't feel beyond the agony. Her head ached; ears rang, blotting out all sounded.

She blinked. The pain ebbed to the back of her mind; yet, remained pulsing through her. She felt something soft under her fingers. Seth blinked back the popping lights before her. She shook her head. The room spun around her.

"Where—" her voice caught. Her eyes locked onto a familiar room, lit by the soft glow of a lamp. It wasn't the empress's bedchambers, rather the apartments she had once shared long ago with her husband.

Her memory started to surface as she looked around the room. Her eyes caught sight of a book which had tumbled to the ground. She shifted and gently lifted the book. The title was worn and written in the old imperial language or UN basic as it had been called originally.

That was right. Seth remembered when she had been reading this story. It had been one of the imperial days when she was waiting up for Solomon to return home from the war front. She really was in the past.

That meant – Seth leapt to her feet. Oh no! She raced towards the door, throwing the book at the end table as she went. Her children were also here then. They were in a room which was currently still under construction.

Seth threw open the door and bolted down the hall. Her heart hammering with fear. Barack always, always had his people searching through the palace in case of threats. If his people ran across those from the future, they were dead. They were so dead. Abel would find them crazy and even she might not be able to help them. It could be taken by her brother as a "Vatican trick."

She whipped around a bend and into the parts of the palace which were still being built. There were a few terran workers there along with methuselah as it was late in the imperial day right then.

"Lady Seth!" one of the workers called after her, voice ringing with worry.

"It's not safe!" another called.

Seth ignored them. She arrived at the room which would one day store pieces of history from this time. She carefully opened the door. Darkness lay beyond the door. Only a thin sliver of light pierced through it from where the door had illuminated.

She slipped into the room and closed the door behind her. The room was thrown into darkness. Her eyes slowly started to adjust.

Cloth covered the scaffolding and plaster was still being smeared on the walls. The room seemed to echo with how empty it was compared to how cramped this room would become in the future. Though, it wasn't completely empty.

Baybars had stood the moment the door had snapped closed. Mirka was sitting up, looking around with a slight frown on her face. Ion had landed close to the door and was rubbing his head as he sat up.

"What happened?" the boy muttered. His voice echoed off the walls. "Where are we?"

Asthe frowned.

"It's not where, but when," Seth voiced from the door.

Ion jumped. "You were over there," – he pointed to the far end of the room – "how did you get over here?"

Seth gave the boy a sad smile. "Let's just say, it's complicated." She moved further into the room. "Was anyone injured?" She looked between Asthe and Ion, carefully drawing in the smells of the room. She didn't scent any blood. This only meant they weren't badly injured.

"But what happened?" Ion asked as he stood. "I don't—Majesty, is this the same room?"

Seth nodded. "It is," she confirmed. "As I said, it's not where we are but when." She moved between the four of them, her gaze skimming them for injury. "When I told you to run, I had just checked on artifacts and other such devices recovered and classified as very dangerous. The one which was activated seems to have been activated by its twin which I know for a fact was taken to the Vatican over six hundred years ago."

"So, it was activated Vatican side?" Mirka asked as she moved to join them.

"Which just leaves the question to as when we are?" Baybars added.

Seth frowned and thought for a moment. "I think we're about eight-hundred fifty years back. I know we're in the middle of the Terran-Methuselah War."

"So, his Majesty the emperor is in charge of the empire at this time," Mirka said. She frowned, eyes worried. "Would he believe you if you told him what happened?"

Seth shrugged. "I honestly don't know." Worry prickled at Seth. She had just been thinking the same thing. "If it was activated Vatican side," she trailed off. Her heart flickered with the thought she had been following. It had been activated Vatican side, was there a chance her brother's memory had shot back through time like hers had? Yet, it would move through time and a further distance of space than hers had.

She shook her head.

"We'll have to see later," she told them. She forced herself to remember the day she had just been going through. It was groggy, but there. "He's," she started in slow tones, "spending today with his sons." She narrowed her eyes a little. Then shook her head. "I don't really want to interrupt them. He only just got back from the front." If she remembered right, Alexander and Athina had rotated out to the front to give both Solomon and Abel a break so all of them could spend time as a family. Solomon had been due back just before sunrise.

Ion blinked. "As in my ancestors?" he asked, voice hushed.

Seth nodded. "Yeah, but they're only kids right now." Warmth filled her at the thought of her little nephews. "I think," she frowned again, "they're seven and four." Yes, they were. Abel had only had them for a year at this point. He had adopted the "Fortuna" brothers, as some people still called them, just off the streets. He had arrived just in time to save Aran's life. Abel hated it when people called his sons the "Fortuna" brothers or boys. They were his sons, not Ron's and Zoe's, his.

"Oh." Ion looked a little crestfallen in the darkness of the room.

A few minutes passed in silence.

Seth shifted, lost in her own thoughts and worries over how to tell her brother about this mess as well as reveal gently to Ion and Asthe she was really Seth Nightlord, the emperor's little sister. Then there was telling them Abel, or Father Abel Nightroad of the Vatican's AX agency, was actually Emperor Abel Nightlord who had sold his freedom for peace. A peace which had lasted with only a few bumps for the better part of eight centuries.

A soft sound from beyond the room greeted Seth. She stiffened as she listened to the voices.

"Yes, Lady Seth ran this way," the voice was saying. It sounded like one of the workers.

"Thank you," a familiar, calm voice replied.

Footsteps echoed down the hall, heading towards the door. Seth's heart raced.

"Hide," she hissed at her children.

"Who's coming?" Ion started to ask.

Baybars placed his hand over the boy's mouth and pulled him behind one of the scaffoldings. There they knelt, hidden in the shadows.

The footsteps paused as the figure no doubt checked for Seth's scent. Then the door opened.

"Seth?" A tall, dark figure stepped into the room. The metal of his military uniform made little noise at the movement.

"Sulayman," Ion hissed. His voice was cut off as Baybars no doubt silenced him once more.

"Solomon!" Seth grinned at her husband, heart hammering with hope he hadn't heard Ion.

Solomon glanced in the direction Ion's voice had come from. The slightest of frowns had appeared on his handsome features.

"I thought you weren't due back until near sunrise?"

"It is sunrise," he stated. He stepped up to Seth. His hand touched her face, the fingers moving in the gentlest of creases. "Who is hiding in the shadows, my love?" His gaze, ever even, was locked onto her own. "And why aren't you concerned about them?"

Of course he had noticed.

So, Seth explained everything which had happened. She didn't go into details on his or even their personal futures. There was no need to cause him pain.

By the end of it, Solomon was frowning, his hand on his chin. "I see." His dark gaze was glazed with thought. "There were many theories on time travel pre-Armageddon, but the UN outlawed full research into the subject." His gaze moved to where the others were still hiding. "You can come out. There is no need to remain hidden when those you're hiding from know where you're at."

Mirka and Baybars appeared first. Baybars was still holding his massive hand over Ion's mouth. Asthe followed, looking a little stunned as her gaze moved over Solomon.

"Now, who is Sulayman?" Solomon asked, his gaze now on Ion.

"No one you need to worry about," Seth spoke in a hurried voice. She shot a glare at Ion which she hoped he would read as "speak and I will tie you up." Solomon really didn't need to know right then they would end up splitting.

"So, you believe we're from the future, Admiral?" Baybars asked, voice polite as he looked at the first head of military affairs.

"It is far from the strangest matter to occur," Solomon gave Baybars one of his slight smiles. It was one of the few emotions he showed often. Though Seth knew a smile could mean very little where her husband was concerned. It didn't mean he was happy. Instead he used a smile to ease back tension people sometimes got when dealing with the "machine admiral" as some of his young subordinates had nicknamed him.

"It is?" Asthe asked with a frown of her own.

Solomon flicked his wrist. He turned to Seth. "We should speak with Barack first before going to his majesty," his spoke formally.

Seth placed her hands on her hips. Her eyes narrowed. She hated it when he spoke to her as if he were her subordinate and not her husband. Though, right then she might have to deal with it so he didn't tell them Abel was the emperor just yet.

"All right," Seth agreed. "He is still refusing to leave the palace so he shouldn't be too hard to find."

Solomon bowed his head. "True." He turned and led the way out of the room.

(Author's Note: Hey guys, this is actually a story I've had on the back burner since before Emperor's Mask. I played with two concepts for this story: one where they went back to the Terran-Methuselah War and the other when they went to Mars. I couldn't make how the people from the future got to Mars work, so, the Terran-Methuselah War won out. Though, sadly, with this version, I only had a rough idea of it whereas the Mars one I had about twenty pages written jumping around with ideas for it.

Also, I forgot my flash drive with Emperor's Mask, Dreams of a Generation, and Dawn of the Empire on it as well as another au story I might never release about Cain. So yeah, new story since I have about 1.2k words already written for EM and 500 for DoaG.

It's also really sad, not every agent makes an appearance or even a mention in the manga or anime. I am speaking of the character Sister Kaya who is a extremely loyal to Caterina and the youngest agent in the AX. She only appears in the novels, even then it's only through being mentioned by Abel.)