Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Micah hummed as he scrolled through the databases. He was given the task to help sort out the Magic/Myths section of the databanks. That’s when he noticed something off.

There was a large chunk of it that was just gone.

It wasn’t as if there were empty files or slots. The whole section of where the data files should’ve been was literally blank.

Micah’s brows furrowed together as he went to search any recent history in that section to see that could have altered anything.

Weird.

The most recent change in this databank section was the addition to Fae Food (courtesy of Lila). The second mistake recent change was the deletion of a total of eight massive files.

That was over a decade ago.

”Huh, that’s weird.” Micah muttered. He clicked on the deletion note it hopes of some way to reverse and go back to see the files. The best he got was screenshots of tagged off documents with the title reading ‘Mission:Mirror’. Even that was better than nothing he supposed.

He was quick to download the screenshots. He then decided to call it a day and leave the files alone. Now he was getting ready to do some research on whatever ‘Mission:Mirror’ was.

///

“Hey Micah, you good?”

He snapped out of his reading as he heard a familiar voice echo in the library.

”Oh, hey Michelle.”

The other agent chuckled as she sat next to him, peering over to see what book he was reading. “Huh, what’s that?”

Micah shrugged. “I was looking through some of the Magic/Myths data files when I found a very big and empty spot. When I went to check what that was about, it gave me these screenshots.” He showed his laptop with four badly rendered in screenshots. They were partially blacked out, but Micah managed to edit it around to help remove some of the black marks.

”Mission:Mirror?” Michelle read aloud.

”Yea, had no idea about what that was.” Micah remarked. “Then I remembered about a story I heard a while back. Do you know what Mirror Caves are?”

Michelle raised an eyebrow and shook her head. She could tell Micah was getting ready to go on a word splurge and braced herself to be sitting for a while.

”Apparently these Mirror Caves are actually giant reflective stones that have been clustered into caverns. They have been thought to be impossible to mine out. Some believe that the stones could lead to other realms or dimension. Nothing has been recorded as it being true. The most they have is that people have been reported to talk about it after entering the caverns. Some say that the stones have very specific requirements to meet if you even want a chance to go through one.”

Micah took a deep breath while Michelle rubbed his back. “Good story bro. Breathe next time.”

The Nelson in green gave a nod before turning his attention to the book he was reading. “My question is what this mission is and why its data files were wiped from the databanks.”

Michelle continued to stare at the screenshots, struggling to read the squiggly lines of text. All she got was the date and the name.

”Micah, how much of the document did you read?” She asked slowly.

”I only read through the first paragraph and anything highlighted.” He responded, though he wasn’t really looking at her.

”Micah… this was written a couple weeks before she disappeared.”

”What?” He quickly swiped the laptop out of her hands and stared at the top of the document. Sure enough, there was the date. The name was completely blacked out. The black scribbles looked almost aggressive.

”Let me see that real quick.” Michelle huffed as she took the laptop back and read through the screenshot.

On the screenshots were lots of scribbled words in pencil in the margins. Most of them were note corrections, though some were also commenting on the notes taken. Michelle slowly picked out some and read them out loud.

”On the text it says that the rocks were impossible to mine, but the pencil notes say that they did manage to chip one. When they did chip the rock though, it stopped glowing?”

”Shouldn’t the person taking notes know about all the details?” Micah asked, mainly to himself.

”Yea… and there’s just a lot of arrows pointing at words and saying wrong.” Michelle pointed out. “Either the note taker is really bad or the pencil person had much more they wanted to say.”

Micah grimaced at the thought. “That doesn’t sound scary at all.” He grumbled something as he stretched in his seat. “I still don’t know who would delete the Mirror Cave files in the databank. Heck, why would they do that?!”

”Usually that means the person wants to hide stuff.” Michelle huffed, crossing her arms together.

”That still doesn’t explain.” Micah groaned. “For all we know, maybe the deletion was accidental! But no one here would know. Most likely they won’t tell us about it even if they did know.”

Michelle sighed as she propped her chin on her hand. “The more I read this, the more I think that something had gone really bad before or after the notes had been taken.”

”Why’d you say that?” Micah would raise an eyebrow.

Michelle struggled to find the right words. “I mean, the blacked out lines looked like an angry person did it. They are definitely not straight lines now are they?”

”I guess not.” Micah mumbled, slowly getting what Michelle was getting to.

”I have a feeling that whoever this pencil person was, they knew stuff that the notes person didn’t want others to know.” Michelle explained. “Pencil person wanted to add it and fix the notes. Maybe pencil person and notes person got into an argument before?”

”That would explain the angry lines I guess.” Micah would chuckle dryly. He then turned back to the book and pointed at a line of text. “It says here that there are barely any known Raelos recorded to have these Mirror Caves. There are a few still on here though.”

”List them.” Michelle opened up a free tab on Micah’s laptop. “Maybe we can look them up.”

Micah nodded and listed the ten recorded Raelos that were in the book.

”Lyxm 9364?”

”. . . No result.”

”Weird. How about Hylempto 104?”

”Also… no result.”

This pattern was only broken by three Raelos that did have any result pop up. Micah, baffled at this result, went through the list four more times.

”Okay… so Helecat, Jxy 538, and Ivonrang 4477 were the only Raelos to pop up?” Micah asked for the third time.

”Yes!” Michelle exclaimed, now getting a bit exasperated.

”Sorry.” Micah mumbled at Michelle’s snapping. “I- It just doesn’t make sense. Seven of the ten Raelos have nothing? No search result or anything? It can’t just- wipe off the face of space!”

”Unless it was removed entirely.” Michelle said at the end.

Micah froze at that possibility. “B-But the Sky Plague can’t do that can it now?”

Michelle’s lips tightened into a line. Micah was right about that but that was the only explanation that seemed reasonable. She was about to speak up when she heard Micah’s phone ringing. He quickly picked it up.

”Micah here… uh huh, aright. Coming.”

”What’s that about?” Michelle asked as she watched Micah seemingly start packing up.

”Shiloh has a new mission for us to get to.”

“Oh, am I part of it?”

”I guess?”

”Alright.”

Chapter Text

Shiloh stared at the distress signal beeping on the screen. Her face furrowed into a frown the longer she looked.

”How are we supposed to get in?” She asked, turning to the one sitting at the screen.

”I’m not sure.” Josiah muttered, scratching the back of his head. “Usually a distress signal shouldn’t even be able to bypass a Temporal Loop on it. Whatever Raelo that is, it’s a weird one alright.”

Shiloh huffed and put her hands on her hips. “Well, if a distress signal managed to breach the Temporal Loop and reach us, then it’s definitely in trouble. We can’t just leave it there.”

Josiah had a look on his face that Shiloh had never seen before. “I know… but if there’s a Temporal Loop on a Raelo, then shouldn’t we be worried? For all we know, maybe it’s a good thing if there’s a Temporal Loop there.”

The Nelson in purple shook her head. “But what if the distress signal is there because they need help to get rid of the Temporal Loop?” A pause of silence hung between the two siblings before the younger one spoke up again. “I say we go and check it out.”

Josiah shook his head. He had no reason to say no. The two left the room to call for the others.

The Nelson in black couldn’t shake off a weird gut feeling he had though. Something was definitely off.

///

The team (consisting with Shiloh, Elijah, Micah, Judah, Michelle, Gala, Josiah, and Daniel) had managed to break past the Temporal Loop, which appeared to be rather weak in the first place. Immediately everyone’s attention was brought to the giant mouth that led to a dark cave. The rest of the Raelo appeared to be just fields of grass as far as the eye could see. It was unnerving to see how empty this Raelo was. The agents looked confused but slowly made their way down into the cave.

What they weren’t expecting was to see giant reflective crystals to be what made up most of the cave.

The deeper the team went, the brighter the cave got. It appeared that the reflective stones were emitting light of some sort.

”Mirror Caves… I’ve read of these before.” Micah mumbled under his breath as his hands glided across the smooth surface of stone.

”Really? What’s that all about?” Judah asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

Micah hesitated before speaking. “Apparently these reflective stones are ‘mirrors’,” Micah put air-quotes around, “To different Realms. Not Raelos. Realms. If you find one that meets whatever mysterious requirements it has, you can go through it and into the Mirror Realm.” The Nelson in green gave a long sigh as he put his hands on his hips. ‘I’m not sure what Mirror Realms can be though. Maybe your imagination? But these were supposed to be myths.”

Judah’s eyes quickly lit up hearing what his older brother said. He instantly started patting the mirror rocks, hoping to somehow get it. “I have a feeling that getting into these mirror realms would be a lot easier than this.”

Micah rolled his eyes. “It’s a high possibility that we would not be able to even find one rock to get into because we have no idea what the requirements are to get into them! For all we know, one of the mirror rock’s requirements is that we can’t be Nelsons!”

Judah gave a pouty face and ignored his older brother. He was quick to continue patting the rocks. Micah shook his head and turned around to see what Shiloh and the others were up to before hearing a joyous shout from the Nelson in orange. “I FOUND ONE!”

Micah quickly whipped around and sprinted to his brother. It wasn’t long for the others to come check in. Judah’s eyes were wide in excitement as his arm was inside one of the mirror rocks. “No way!”

Elijah grabbed Josiah by the shoulders. “Dude! Do you know how crazy this is?!”

Josiah pulled out his tracker for the distress signal. “I-It’s coming from there…” he turned to his sister to see her equally as excited as Judah. A soft and tired smile formed on Josiah’s face. He had never seen such child-like joy on Shiloh in a long while. “I guess we should go in huh?”

///

Gala helped Josiah through the mirror rock. Josiah blinked a couple of times before his eyes adjusted.

They were standing in the same cave, though this time nearer to the cave’s entrance. When they walked out of the cave, they were in front of a village. Definitely different from what they saw before.

”Hello?” Daniel called out, hoping for the villagers to notice.

They definitely noticed them. They immediately gasped and sprinted into their homes. They didn’t even seem to try and fight them. Daniel’s face furrowed into one of confusion as he turned to see his other teammates.

”That is… definitely weird.” Shiloh muttered.

”I don’t like this.” Gala huffed. “We should leave soon.”

”Aw come in!” Judah whined. “We just got here! And the distress signal is stronger here too. Right Josiah?”

Josiah turned to see his younger brother. “Yea… awfully strong here. But it’s not getting any stronger.” He waved the device around, hoping to pick up a better signal. “In fact, the signal gets weaker the closer we get to the village. If the village didn’t call, then who did?”

The group suddenly flinched feeling a whoosh of wind behind them. The group whipped around to see a cloaked figure standing in front of them. They held a glowing staff in hand and slowly pointed it to the team. Elijah was quick to step up and in front of all them. He pulled out his own blaster and aimed it at the cloaked figure.

”Who are you?”

A pause hung as the cloaked figure seemed confused. They slowly lowered their arm and removed the hood.

”Oh… this is awkward.”

”TWO SHILOHS?!”

The Shiloh in the cloak tilted her head, face confused. “You… oh. Oh!” Her face quickly lit up. “You must have picked up on our distress signal haven’t you!”

Shiloh sputtered for a moment. “Y-Yea? I-I mean- wait- uh- hang on, how the heck did your distress signal reach us from across the Mirror Realms?”

The Shiloh in the cloak shook her head. “Follow me.”

Chapter Text

The group followed the cloaked Shiloh down into the woods, far away from the village. Everyone was buzzing with whispers of excitement. This find was legendary! There would be so much more research to find from here.

Yet the most research-savvy Nelson was having none of it.

”Don’t you find it weird Micah?” He asked, leaning to his brother in green. “How would a distress signal be able to breach past a Temporal Loop, let alone a whole different Realm?”

The Nelson in green shrugged. “I dunno. Haven’t read about Mirror Caves that often.”

Josiah only grumbled. He hadn’t realized the group had stopped walking until he bumped into Gala. He gave a small apology but she didn’t even react to him. He then looked up and saw what had everyone’s attention.

The M.O.M Agency.

Usually this wouldn’t have stunned the Nelsons too much. The reason as to why they were so stunned was just because how the entrance was practically the entire face of the stone cliff.

”Shiloh Nelson, Falcon Code 8.” Shiloh in the cloak spoke into what appeared to be a speaker of sorts. The giant, black, metallic doors slowly creaked open. The agents had to cover their face with how much wind suddenly blew out of the doors.

They were quick to walk in and follow the other Shiloh. The Agency definitely had a different feel to what their Agency had.

Everything was stone walls with lights lining the bottom. There were the same black metallic doors on either side of the stone walls. The main entryway was really just one long hall lit with lights. They also noted just how empty the hall was, though they assumed that the other people were in the rooms on either side.

”Welcome Code Mauve. Please scan.”

The group stared as the cloaked Shiloh scanned her eye. With that, the metal grate of a door opened and the group got in. They watched her jot a couple of buttons before the platform under them suddenly jolted. They gave a small yelp of surprise before realizing that they were on a lift bringing them even more underground.

”Does this lift go up as well?” Judah asked curiously.

”Yea, but only for authorized personnel.” She replied. 

Judah gave a small nod before looking out of the lift and gasping.

So this was where everyone was.

The underground was brightly lit with multiple bridges and pathways intersecting over a large cavern. There were hundreds of agents and staff running around and busy with work. Michelle would note how everyone was either clad in black, browns, and whites; she felt like her and the others stuck out like a bright and cartoony sore thumb. In the giant pit was what appeared to be a glowing rainbow crystal.

”Woah… what is that?” Josiah asked.

”Our power source.” O!Shiloh explained. “Now where’s… ah, Judah!”

A taller boy clad in black with orange accents approached the group. Immediately Judah gave a small gasp and leaned to his sister. “Dude, why is he so much more cooler than me?!”

Shiloh raised an eyebrow before fully understanding what her brother meant. She hated to admit this, but the other Judah did seem much more cooler and more like his age.

”Hey there!” O!Judah greeted, his voice noticeably deeper. “You must before from the other side of the Mirror Caves right?”

Shiloh flinched as she heard the Judah next to her clear his throat. “That’s right-.” He pounded a fist to his chest, making his voice drop a bit. “Y-Yup!”

O!Judah raised an eyebrow with a small chuckle. “I-I’m sorry, how old are you again? Like, 17 or 18?”

”Y-Yea?” Judah stuttered, his shoulders slowly slumping down.

”Mm… Am I really like that?” He asked, turning to his sister.

”Nah, I bet that’s how people their age act on their side.” She assured. “And I mean, by their outfits it definitely explains too.”

At this, Elijah took offense. “Hey, what does that mean?”

O!Shiloh looked over and waved a hand with a light chuckle. “Sorry, that might’ve sounded rude. But like, look at your outfits. Agents shouldn’t be wearing such bright clothes if they’re on a mission right? No worries, it’s not like you’re going on missions anytime soon.”

”Excuse me?” Josiah snapped.

”Nothing.” O!Judah smiled a bit too brightly.

Elijah mumbled as he looked down at the ground. O!Shiloh then turned to O!Judah and whispered something.

The other gave a nod and led the group of colorful agents to a guest room of sorts. “You can stay here for the time being! If ya need anything, buzz that button. Micah or Elijah will come help ya then.”

The moment O!Judah left, the group went into an outburst of sudden commotion.

”How is he so cool?!” Judah exclaimed, whining to the Nelson in green. “Like- raghhhh…”

”Hate to say it, but you’re right Judah.” Gala huffed, crossing her arms together.

”Wha-?! Aw come on!”

Josiah suddenly spoke up loudly. “I say we leave and don’t come back.”

”What? Why?” Shiloh pulled the Nelson in black to the side. “They still need our help.”

”Yea, but there are so many reasons why we shouldn’t trust them. One, they haven’t told us about what the distress signal is for. Two, they obviously seem fine in their base here. And three, I just don’t trust this place! I already tried to convince you about the Temporal Loop.”

”But we can’t just leave them trapped here!” Shiloh exclaimed. “They’ll explain eventually, I’m sure of it.”

Josiah shook his head with a sigh. “Look, Shiloh, I know you and it’s great that you want to help anyone and everyone. But right now, I think we shouldn’t if we want to be safe as well.”

Shiloh’s face furrowed into a frown. “I…”

Daniel, who had been silent this whole time, finally spoke up as he pressed the buzzer. “Hey, whoever is going to come up, I have a few questions.”

A few minutes later, two agents clad in black with glowing blue and green accents walked in. The first thing everyone noticed about them was how they had matching scars on their face.

”You must be the Nelsons from the other side.” O!Elijah chuckled. “I heard some of you have a few questions yea?”

Daniel nodded before speaking. “How long are we going to be staying here for?”

O!Elijah tilted his head. “I’m not so sure… gonna have to ask Shiloh about that.”

”And what is the distress signal about?” Josiah asked, a hidden snap to his voice.

”Well, it’s mainly to find someone to help us get the Temporal Loop off.” O!Elijah explained, completely cutting off O!Micah from speaking. “But Shiloh and Josiah are mainly the ones that are doing it.”

Michelle’s face furrowed as she watched O!Micah glancing off to the side and mimicking what his brother was saying. It wasn’t just for fun either. She decided to ask her own question. “Is it okay if we walk around and explore your base a bit?”

O!Elijah turned to O!Micah. The Nelson in black and green shrugged. “Sure I guess. Just don’t go snooping into any room you shouldn’t.” O!Elijah said the last bit in a weird way that the others didn’t like.

”Why do you even have a Temporal Loop set in the first place?” Gala asked.

O!Elijah rolled his eyes. “That Malduum had to set it on us. Didn’t even bother to come down to fight us when we challenged him to. He’s weak and pathetic I tell you.”

Micah raised an eyebrow. “Sure Malduum’s annoying, but isn’t calling him weak and pathetic a bit much?”

”I mean, it’s true though.” O!Micah finally spoke. The others were a bit stunned with how raspy his voice was. O!Elijah snapped his head, giving O!Micah a mean glare. “Sorry…”

The two agents watched as the more colorful ones decided whether they wanted to go explore or stay in the room.

Chapter Text

Michelle, Micah, and Daniel went to the upper levels. They were curious about the areas around the glowing pit and coincidentally bumped into the other Michelle and Daniel.

”Ah! Didn’t expect to see you guys.” O!Michelle chuckled as she turned to see the others. “Whatcha need?”

”Honestly we’re just exploring.” Micah chuckled sheepishly. He watched as the two Daniels seemed busy with their own conversation and decided to stick  talking with the Michelles.

”Oh, he speaks with you?” O!Michelle remarked, seemingly surprised.

Michelle looked confused at the statement. “Yea..? Your Micah doesn’t?”

O!Michelle looked like she just realized what she said. “O-Oh. He does. H-He doesn’t speak much though.”

Meanwhile with the Daniels, O!Daniel was certainly surprised seeing his other counterpart here. “Aren’t you supposed to be in your age group of agents?”

Daniel gave an awkward chuckle and waved a hand. “Nah, ever since I came back from trying to find Mom they set me with my siblings. Thought it would be better to have an older agent watch over them right?”

Hearing ‘Mom’ left O!Michelle and O!Daniel stunned to say the least. O!Daniel stuttered for words. “I’m sorry, Mom?”

O!Michelle huffed as she crossed her arms. “Damn, they really do have it better there huh?”

Micah’s face furrowed into a frown. ”What does that mean?”

O!Daniel hesitated. “Well, uh, our Mom is dead.”

///

Judah and Elijah remained in the room with O!Elijah and O!Micah watching them.

”What do you guys do for family time?” Judah asked, trying to fill the void of silence.

”Oh, whatcha mean by that?” O!Elijah raised an eyebrow.

”Like, movie, snacks, and game time?” Judah would chuckle nervously.

The two Nelsons clad in black looked at each other before looking back at Judah. O!Elijah then responded. “We don’t really do that. Unless you count missions. I mean, we barely even do missions together ever since Josiah decided to trap himself in that damn hellhole.”

Judah’s face warped into on of mild concern.

”So… how did you get those scars?” Elijah asked, covering up the tension in the air.

O!Elijah’s hand traced the scar that dragged from the bottom of his right eye and down his cheek. “Oh, got it during a fight in one of my missions. I’m surprised your Elijah doesn’t have any, uh, visible injuries considering how violent his missions should be.”

Judah turned to his brother in confusion. Elijah realized what his other version meant. “Oh, I haven’t done a mission in my age group yet.”

O!Elijah gave a slow nod. “Huh.”

”What about Micah’s scar?” Judah asked, pointing at the other Nelson who had been awfully quiet. O!Micah’s was basically O!Elijah’s scar but on the left.

”Well-.”

“Oh, same reason as me.” O!Elijah quickly interjected his brother. Judah and Elijah fell silent as they watched O!Micah silently snap.

”I can talk for myself.” He hissed through gritted teeth. O!Micah was quick to put one foot in front of his brother, his back now facing Elijah and Judah. He held one shaky finger up, pointing at his brother’s chest.

”Yea, but I can explain faster.” The other Nelson chuckled, almost matter-of-factly.

O!Micah scowled and dragged his brother outside of the room, presumably for a talk.

Now, Elijah and Judah weren’t one to eavesdrop. But this time they felt like they were obliged to seeing how upset O!Micah appeared to be. Elijah pressed his ear to the door as he listened for their muffled voices outside.

”What has gotten into you today? In fact, this whole week you’ve been on my nerves.”

”Oh I’m sorry Mr. Perfect. Some people actually do want to talk and say the real story.”

”Oh hush it green bean. You’re going to spoil everything if you tried to speak. Even when you don’t speak you somehow ruin stuff.”

”Well I’m sorry if I actually have morals unlike you! Psycho.”

”Excuse me?! You better watch your damn mouth Micah Nelson.”

”Oh don’t even think about full-naming me!”

Elijah fell silent as he heard some grunts and a thump. His eyes widened as he slowly backed away from the door. Judah was about to ask his brother what happened when the two other Nelsons walk back in.

O!Elijah had an unnerving smile while O!Micah stood behind him, face sullen and a cut lip. “Sorry about that.”

Judah gave a slow nod before asking one last question. “Well, we should leave soon right? The others on the other side will start to worry for us.”

”Oh don’t worry!” O!Elijah was quick to assure the two. “One minute here is like an hour back on the other sides. That’s the time rule with all Realms in Mirror Caves.”

”And how do you know about that exactly?” Elijah asked.

”Oh, we brute forced the Mirror Caves.” O!Elijah said a bit too calmly.

O!Micah was about to speak before O!Judah walked in. “Oh, how are the other agents doing?”

”We’re good!” Elijah quickly spoke up.

O!Judah nodded with a smile. He then turned to his brother in black and blue, placing a hand on his shoulders. O!Judah whispered something to O!Elijah. Whatever he said only made O!Elijah smile bigger, though the others could tell it was more of an angry smile.

”No need to worry bro, we’ll be there shortly.” O!Elijah let out a forced chuckle as he roughly patted the Nelson in black and orange on the back. O!Judah gave a sharp nod and walked out.

///

Shiloh, Gala, and Josiah headed down to the Pit where they spotted O!Josiah fiddling with a couple of knobs on a dashboard. Josiah suddenly realized what Judah meant when he said their other counterparts seemed much cooler. O!Josiah just oozed coolness and a certain air of confidence that he could never have.

”Hey there!” Shiloh grinned as she caught O!Josiah’s attention.

”Oh, hi I guess.” He huffed, not really paying attention to them.

”I wonder where the other Gala is.” Gala mumbled to herself.

Hearing Gala’s voice immediately got O!Josiah’s attention. He stared at Gala for a solid minute before blinking. “What is she doing here?”

Shiloh couldn’t tell if O!Josiah was stunned, hurt, angry, or all of that mushed into one. “S-She joined us. What’s up with that?”

O!Josiah’s face had an unreadable expression the longer he stared at Gala. Gala shifted uncomfortably as she waited for the other Josiah’s answer.

”She left.” He replied simply after an uncomfortably long silence.

Shiloh and Gala decided not to prod him further, though Josiah had other ideas. “Anyways, what’s up with this rock?”

O!Josiah would look to see his other self pointing at the massive, glowing, rainbow rock that was in the center of the Pit. “Oh. It’s mainly our energy source. We’ve been trying to figure out how it works.”

Gala’s grew curious and she leaned closer to the dashboard. “What’s this for?”

”Power management.” O!Josiah huffed, his voice sounding like he was slowly getting irritated. “Sorry, can you leave? I’m still working here.”

The three gave a nod and left, though Gala couldn’t help but feel that O!Josiah was hiding something else about what happened to O!Gala.

///

The group returned back to the room they were staying at. By then, O!Micah and O!Elijah had left.

”Something is really wrong about this place.” Elijah whispered to Josiah, pulling him to the side. “The other Micah and Elijah, for one, don’t seem on good terms with each other.”

”Tell me about it!” The Nelson in black exclaimed in a whisper. “I’ve been saying that this whole time!”

The group’s attention turned to see Micah and Daniel silent. Michelle wrung her hands as she sat by the Nelson in green. Gala, confused, asked the two what happened.

”Well… we learned a lot of new stuff.” Michelle spoke, trying to keep her voice steady.

”Like what?” Elijah asked slowly.

Daniel took a deep breath as he ran a hand through his hair. “Well, Mom in this place is uh… well… dead.”

Everyone went silent as the words were spoken.

”Dead?” Shiloh asked slowly, hoping she heard wrong.

”Yep.” Micah replied, popping the ‘p’ at the end. He looked like he wanted to add something at the end but stopped himself.

”That’s new…” Josiah mumbled as he sat down on one of the beds. “Now I really want to get out of here.”

”I don’t think they’ll want us leaving any time soon.” Elijah remarked. “Shiloh seems to be in charge in their side and even she’s not telling them what’s going on.”

”Ough, I don’t like this.” Judah mumbled, rubbing his arms as if he was cold.

Shiloh shook her head. “This feels so… wrong.”

”What feels so wrong?”

All the agents froze hearing O!Judah’s voice at the entrance of the room’s door.

Chapter Text

O!Judah stared at the group, juice box in hand and a suspicious look on his face. He scanned the agents before locking eyes with Daniel. “You… come with me.”

Daniel’s face furrowed into a frown as he turned to the other agents. “Why do I need to go?”

”Oh, cuz Shiloh wants to show you the upstairs!” O!Judah chuckled a bit too sweetly. “And since you’re the oldest here, she thought it would be fitting for you to be the one to come up.”

Daniel gave a slow nod. “Sure…”

The two left, leaving the rest in the room.

”Alright guys, we’re gonna get out of here.” Josiah instructed.

”How?” Gala hissed. “There’s no way for us to get out. We don’t any of the exit codes in the first place!”

Elijah sputtered, having to form the words in his head. “We can guess their codes! From what I got, their codes are basically matching to what color we have. For example, other Shiloh’s code is Code Mauve.”

Micah’s face furrowed into a frown. “But we can’t just like- keep guessing random colors now can we?”

”But it’s worth the shot.” Shiloh said, her voice laced with determination.

”Heck, if we can guess the code, we could even go upstairs to the upper levels and fetch Daniel!” Michelle gasped.

”Yea… that might actually be a good idea.” Josiah mumbled. “This place is real sketchy.”

The group slowly started their way towards where the lift was. They made sure none of the other agents noticed them leaving before getting to the lift’s entrance.

”We can’t all go at the same time.” Elijah pointed out. “If we all do, they’ll definitely suspect us. Heck, they might even follow us back to the caves!”

Micah’s mind snapped to what he remembered reading about the Mirror Caves. “The Mirror stones cannot be broken.” His eyes darted to the glowing rock that was in the Pit. “That energy cannot be stopped…”

Gala raised an eyebrow. “What are you thinking?”

He shook his head. “I have an idea. Gala, Josiah, follow me.”

The two other agents looked at each other, unsure, but followed anyways. The three went down to the Pit and got O!Josiah’s attention.

”Hey.” Micah tapped the other’s shoulder. “We need your help.”

O!Josiah stared at the three for a moment as he set down the clipboard. He seemed rather cautious as he looked around him to make sure no one was listening in on him. “Whatcha need?”

Micah huffed. “We need you to give us a chunk of your power source.”

”What?” O!Josiah shook his head, face contorted to confusion. “Why the heck would you need it?”

Gala suddenly interrupted the Nelson in green. “Hang on. This power source is from O’Lindor isn’t it?”

O!Josiah flinched. “Yea… how’d you know?”

Gala hesitated to answer for a moment. “In O’Lindor, these power sources are usually only gifted to people for a massive bargain. What bargain did you have to offer that made them what to give you this?”

O!Josiah looked guilty, staring at the ground. “We… uh…” He shook his head, attempting to shift the topic. “Never mind that, why do you need a chunk of it?”

Josiah then spoke up. “We want to leave. We want to go back home. Surely you can let us do this right?”

”That still doesn’t explain why you need the chunk.”

Micah then started to explain. “The Mirror Caves are indestructible. This power source cannot be completely contained. If we use this power and compress it enough next to the Mirror Caves, surely it can damage it right?”

“You’re… planning on exploding the caves when you leave?” O!Josiah said slowly.

”Yes.” Josiah said firmly, finally catching on to what his brother was planning. “We can’t risk you guys following back. Surely you can understand that right?”

O!Josiah looked at the three before giving a sigh of defeat. “Fine. Just… step back please.” The three took a couple steps back as O!Josiah kneeled by the glowing rock. He took out a small chisel and hit a crack a good amount of times before a chunk the size of a tennis ball fell into his hand. He stared at it before turning and handing it to Micah. “Take care of it.”

Micah raised an eyebrow but gave a slow nod. “Yea…”

The three were about to go up before he pulled his other counterpart, staring at him dead in the eyes. “Protect Gala for me will you?”

Josiah only stared at himself, confusion on his face. “Yea..?”

”Please. Promise it to me.” O!Josiah said, barely above a whisper. “I can’t fail her again.”

Josiah froze. “W-What… I-I mean, yea, totally.”

‘O!Josiah let out a soft sight as he let go of his other self. He watched as the three went up and he went back to work.

///

While the others waited for Micah, Gala, and Josiah, they heard O!Daniel and O!Michelle talking. The group fell silent as they listened in.

”You are not going up there!” O!Michelle’s rung clearly with that familiar snap when she was determined to state her point.

“I can and I will. You don’t know what is up there. I’ll be fine.” O!Daniel’s voice followed.

”No you don’t know what’s up there!” The group flinched as they heard what would be O!Michelle stomping her foot down.

“If you did, then you’d know why the hell Micah and Elijah have been like that! They went up and they knew what was up there! Why do you think Elijah’s been like this the whole time?! A-And Micah! Your own brother can’t speak properly nor even want to! I don’t even know how to help him and that is terrifying for me! Hell, Judah is practically a different person and you know just how messed up he is and Josiah-.”

”Michelle-.”

“You’re the only sane one here right now!” There was a pause. It seemed as though O!Daniel was not expecting to hear that. “I-I can’t have you ending up like them either.”

O!Michelle sounded like she was at the verge of tears as they heard O!Daniel letting out a groan. “I… alright. Fine. I won’t go up. But only because I don’t want you getting even more mad at me.”

The group froze as the two turned the corner. O!Michelle and O!Daniel stared at the group for a while, unsure what to do.

”I assume you have a… pass to leave?” O!Daniel asked slowly.

”Yea!” Elijah assured before cringing at his voice crack. He cringed even more when Micah, Josiah, and Gala returned to the group.

”Alright,-“ Micah stopped mid-sentence as he realized what an awkward situation he was in. “Heeeeeey Michelle… Daniel… whatcha guys-.”

”Where are you going?”

The group froze and slowly turned around to see O!Micah and O!Elijah staring down at them. In the other Elijah’s hand was a glowing blue and black staff. He looked terrifying with the small smile and head tilted to the side. O!Micah only stood behind his brother.

”We’re leaving.” Shiloh stated firmly, finally snapping out of her frightened trance. “We’re done being forced to stay here for no reason.”

O!Elijah let out a low chuckle as he swung his staff around. “Now that‘s the problem; you won’t.”

The group got ready to fight before seeing O!Micah suddenly stepping up in front of them, facing his brother down. “I’m done having to lie to them. I’m not letting you get away with this now.” His voice was certainly much mire distinct from the other Micah now that they all heard it clearly for the first time.

“Really?” O!Elijah grumbled, a hidden fury bubbling under his voice. “Only now you will after all the other times? Fine. We can do it the hard way.” He huffed as he angrily yanked out his blaster.

O!Micah gave a scowl as he pulled out his own staff. He swung it, activating the green glow and making it even longer. “Was always planning on that.” He turned to the others. “Run.”

The group was quick to scramble as they heard the two other start to fight and laser pulses from O!Elijah’s blaster. O!Daniel forced the group into the lift along with O!Michelle.

”Okay, let’s go.” O!Michelle huffed as she, Josiah, Gala, and Micah stepped out of the lift. When she turned back, she saw O!Daniel shutting the lift’s door. “Daniel, what are you doing?!”

”I’m sorry Michelle.” He sighed. “I have to go up.”

”You don’t have to come with us.” Shiloh put in.

”No. I need to go up.” O!Daniel said firmly. Elijah guessed there was something more to what the other Daniel was implying.

O!Michelle shook her head, refusing to believe what was going to happen. Judah stared down as heard O!Michelle’s desperate shouts for O!Daniel back. The desperation in O!Michelle’s voice left a chill down Elijah’s spine. This certainly left one big question in the other agents’ heads.

What was so bad upstairs?

Chapter Text

O!Michelle stared up at where the lift had gone. She gave a low growl and nearly punched the wall if it wasn’t for Micah grabbed her.

”Michelle, calm down!” Micah exclaimed as he yanked her to look at him.

O!Michelle stared back at him, blue eyes wide and unblinking. Micah didn’t know what to do as he saw tears welling in her eyes. “Oh Micah… I haven’t heard that voice in ages.”

”Wha…?”

She shook her head and wriggled out of his grasp. “Right. You guys are leaving.” O!Michelle huffed as they started out of the hall. They were now standing just outside of the entrance way of the agency. She then stared at the energy rock in Josiah’s hand. “What are you doing with that?”

”Exploding the Mirror Caves with it.” Micah said simply.

O!Michelle fell silent as she wiggled her shoulders out of Micah’s grip. “You- wha- no! Y-You can’t do that!”

”Why not?” Josiah asked, tilting his head.

O!Michelle took the rock out of the other Nelson’s hand. “This is a very volatile energy source. One wrong move and ka-boom. You’ll have no chance getting back to your side.”

”But it’s worth the risk.”

The group flinched seeing O!Josiah suddenly appear behind them.

”Oh, so now you decide to leave that hole of yours.” O!Michelle grumbled as she rolled her eyes. “How convenient.”

The other Josiah ignored O!Michelle’s remark. “My question is, how the heck do you know about this energy source in the first place?”

Micah hesitated. “I remember reading about something similar to it in some files.”

O!Michelle suddenly interrupted, facing O!Josiah with a mean glare. “No, first you’re going to explain why the hell you’re bothering to help now. Only after I stopped trying to get you to help me do you suddenly have words to say!”

O!Josiah roughly yanked O!Michelle to the side. His voice wavered in a hissed whisper. “Look; we are on a time crunch right now and we cannot waste our time fighting. As we speak, Micah is stalling Elijah long enough and you know how hard that already is.”

”I deserve answers at the least!” O!Michelle exclaimed, flinging her hands up in the air. “I’ve been sticking by all of your sides since we got stuck here. I could’ve left at any time I wanted, especially after Micah and Elijah came back down from upstairs.”

”So sorry to interrupt.” Michelle chuckled nervously as she stepped in between the two. “Can we just… I don’t know, find out what the heck upstairs is about?!”

O!Michelle and O!Josiah looked at each other.

”Well…”

///

Shiloh stared at the ceiling of the upstairs. The place was dark and the stone walls of the area were a dark blue-ish green. There was barely any light that filtered through the holes on the stone ceiling. The leaves casted a weird shadow onto the ground.

”Hey, what’s this?“

Shiloh’s attention turned to the Nelson in blue. Elijah stood by a giant desk with a small lamp illuminating it as well as it could. There were stacks of papers and files, some crumpled on the floor and some just scattered. Most of them had sticky notes on them while others had giant parts of the text blacked out rather roughly. On the wall that was being mainly illuminated by the light seeping through the ceiling, papers were plastered on messily. Some were blacked out, some had bright red marker on it and marking certain things. Some had sticky notes and pencil markings trying to correct stuff.

Judah was too distracted staring at the trinkets that hung from the ceiling. The trinkets were tied with brown worn string and swivelled ever so slightly with the breeze. Some were just giant glass balls colored in blues and greens and oranges. Some were golden pieces, none like artefacts, but still gorgeous nonetheless. One trinket that really caught Judah’s interest was what appeared to be a statuette of someone. Its eyes were small blue crystals that shone when it hit a spot of light just right. If anything, the upstairs looked more like a magical collector’s hide out.

”What… is all this?” Shiloh asked as she turned to face the other Daniel.

It seemed as though O!Daniel wasn’t expecting to see such trinkets upstairs either. He was entranced with the trinkets hanging on the ceiling before feeling Elijah tapping him on the shoulder.

”What documents are these?” The Nelson in blue handed the blacked out documents to the older Nelson. “I feel like you would know… yea?”

O!Daniel stared at the documents in confusion. “Why are these blacked out…? If they were not needed, they would have been trashed by now.”

”What’s up with this statuette by the way?” Judah asked innocently, pointing at it.

”What the-?” O!Daniel gasped seeing at what Judah was pointing at. He shoved the documents back into Elijah’s hands. “What’s it doing here?”

Shiloh’s eyes slowly drifted off to see another section of the cavern. She saw a colored glow and called for the others to follow. They soon stood in front of what appeared to be multiple versions of the Arxis, each colored individually except for yellow. Yellow was the only color missing.

”Woah… how did they build so many?” Elijah mumbled. “Don’t they take years to… Daniel? You good?”

O!Daniel seemed horrified as he stared at the sight before him. “No way… I…” Words seemed to get caught in his throat before flinching as Judah stood by his side. 

“What are these stones?” The Nelson in orange pointed at the glowing stones that were placed in front of the Arxis Gates. Each were colored, matching with the color of the energy that was being formed in the Arxis Gates itself.

///

“Portal Keys.”

”You’ve heard of them before?”

Micah stammered, shaking his head. “Once again, only read them from a couple of documents and files I found.”

O!Michelle raised an eyebrow as she folded her arms against her chest. “You keep bringing up about these documents you have read but you never actually told us what they are.”

”Yea…” Josiah said slowly, slowly looking at his brother. “I never thought that you would be the kind to read up about this sort of stuff on your off-periods.”

Micah’s lips tightened to a line. “Okay well, maybe I can show it to you once we get back to our side of the Realms alright?”

Josiah gave a small nod before Michelle spoke up. “What is with these Portal Keys?”

O!Josiah took a deep breath, almost as if he had to get himself prepared to explain. “These Portal Keys are extremely powerful and easily explosive. But the only way to actually fuel it and stock it up with energy in the first place is to-.”

”-To absorb the energy from any weaker Raelos or Realms.” O!Michelle and Micah said at the same time.

”Micah!” Michelle gasped, snapping her fingers. “That’s what we were trying to figure out what the blacked out pieces said on the document!”

Josiah groaned. “Aw come on, Michelle knows about the documents but not me?!”

///

Judah was about to poke one of the stones when a hiss echoed in the cave. The four were quick to hide in the shadows and peer over. There they spotted O!Shiloh standing in front of what appeared to be Malduum tied to a chair. O!Mary stood a few paces behind O!Shiloh with O!David by her side.

”Once again,” O!Shiloh paced in front of the disheveled blonde, something in her hand that the others couldn’t make out. “What’s the code for the Temporal Loop?”

Malduum leaned towards her and spoke through gritted teeth. “I’m. Not. Telling.” The group had to stifle their gasps as they heard Malduum shout in pain from being whacked with whatever O!Shiloh was holding. “Why must you be so stubborn?”

Malduum took a couple of shallow breaths. “Because I know what you want to do and I can not let that happen to all the other Raelos. It’s even luckier that the Temporal Loop managed to leak through the Mirror Caves and block off all- ARGH!”

O!Shiloh cut him off from talking any further with another sharp hit. The hit echoed in the area, leaving everyone upstairs frozen to spot. “Take him away. Maybe he just needs to think about it more.”

O!Shiloh started making her way to the lift when O!David pulled her to the side. “Shiloh, do you really think this is-.”

”Of course I think this is necessary.” O!Shiloh snapped, nearly threatening to hit him.

O!David didn’t flinch, he only stared her down more. “I’m warning you.”

The Nelson in purple only rolled her eyes as the two walked into the lift to go down. Judah, Elijah, Shiloh, and O!Daniel then followed where O!Mary started to escort Malduum over to what appeared to be the holding cells. Malduum gave a soft grumble as O!Mary opened the door for him to go in.

”I’m so sorry…” The blonde Nelson muttered, shaking her head as she stared into the small peephole of the cell’s door. “Why… why won’t you just tell her? It’s worse seeing you getting hurt more and more each time.”

Malduum gave a weak chuckle as his forehead rested on the bars. “Darling, I rather take all that and keep you safe rather than let myself get away scot-free and you having to watch your siblings make their own downfall.”

O!Mary gave a groan. “No… no that still doesn’t sit right with me!” She started pacing on the spot. “Please don’t do this. I’m sure we could so something!”

Malduum hummed quietly as he reached his hand out through the bars to hold the blonde Nelson’s hand. “I will be alright. I’m still not dead hmm?” O!Mary only gave a small whine, seemingly reluctant to leave Malduum.

”I suppose I should go now…” She mumbled as she slowly dragged her feet away from the cell door.

The four watched as O!Mary made her way to the lift. Once they confirmed that she was gone, they were quick to head to the cells.

”Malduum?!” O!Daniel exclaimed, keeping his voice low. “You were here the whole time?”

Malduum was certainly startled seeing the four agents. “W-What are you- I- Shiloh?”

”I’m a different Shiloh.” She said awkwardly. “We came in from the Mirror Caves.”

Malduum’s face dropped hearing that. “No no no NO!”

Chapter Text

Shiloh raised an eyebrow, startled by Malduum’s sudden freak out. The blonde started pacing on his side, running his hand through his matted hair and rambling to himself in a frantic daze. He then gave a sharp gasp and his hands were quick to grab the metal bars. “I failed. I failed them all. No, no I can’t fail! No no no no no no…”

Elijah yelped as he saw Malduum look like he’d go insane soon. “Daniel! D-Daniel! Go get Mary!”

O!Daniel gave a confused expression but went along with it. Meanwhile, Judah wandered around for a bit, hoping to find his brother in one of the other cells. Elijah was the one to start talking with Malduum.

”What are you doing here?” The Nelson in blue asked. “And why are you so worried about us being here?”

Malduum sputtered for words, his mind failing to form coherent thoughts to say into sentences. “I- well- you-.”

”Take a deep breath Malduum.” O!Mary suddenly appeared behind the two other agents. Malduum’s grip on the metal bars was iron tight as he stared at the other Nelson approaching.

Elijah and Shiloh took a step back as they watched O!Mary and Malduum bicker for a moment. O!Daniel stood further back, his arms folded and a skeptical look on his face. Malduum gave a defeated sigh, his head hanging low. “Yes dear…”

”Excuse me. Dear?” O!Daniel was suddenly way more concerned than skeptical.

Shiloh quickly interrupted, hoping to drive O!Daniel away from questioning about the other blonde calling O!Mary ‘dear’. “Never mind that! We still don’t know why you’ve been acting so upset!”

”Because you’re not supposed to be here!” Malduum exclaimed, his voice tired. “I-I tried to stop them, I really did! The Temporal Loop should’ve worked but yet they- they still got through a-and-.”

”Malduum, breathe.” O!Mary had to remind him once again.

Malduum took a couple short breaths before continuing. “You s-saw those copies of the Arxis Gate right? The ones colored with different energy signatures and Portal Keys?”

”Yea..?” Shiloh replied slowly. She was particularly focused on the fact that this Malduum seemed to want to help the others out.

”Was there an empty Arxis Gate?” He asked, his voice now trembling to stop himself from screeching. “Particularly an empty yellow one?”

”Yes.” Elijah nodded firmly. “Why are you being so scared over this?”

”Because that determines whether I actually stopped them or not.” Malduum snapped. “I can’t fail this. If I fail this, I fail everyone. I cannot do that.”

”Fail everyone?” O!Daniel exclaimed. “What the hell does that mean?!”

”He doesn’t want Shiloh to get her way.” O!Mary spoke to her brother, eerily calm as she looked at him. “Because he knows what Shiloh is planning on doing.”

The ambience in the cavern went still. Shiloh and Elijah looked at each other with concern. What was so concerning that made the others go silent? O!Daniel stared at his sister, unsure what she meant. O!Mary let out a soft sigh as she dusted her lab coat down and stared at her feet. Malduum sank to the floor of his cell, his face etched with the look of defeat.

”We haven’t fail yet.” Shiloh finally spoke up. “If what I’m guessing is correct, you’re telling me that we have to somehow do something with the Arxis Gates and get out of here before other Shiloh executes her plan.”

Malduum gave a nod. “Other Shiloh has done this to many other versions of herself and her team. How do you think those Portal Keys stocked their energy in the first place?”

Elijah’s expression dropped to one of terror. “Did she…?”

”Not… exactly.” Malduum muttered as he scratched the back of his neck. “Well... actually yea she basically did. She even did it in front of my face.”

”That’s horrible!” Shiloh gasped, taking a step back. “Why would she do that?!”

Malduum stared at the group, his eyes darting all over the place as he thought about what he should say. “Portal Keys need an insane amount of energy to charge up and use it, let alone attempt to use it to go across Mirror Caves.”

”Those Arxis Gates lead to different Realms?!” Elijah stared at the blonde, eyes wide. “How the heck did she do that?!”

”Using the life force of the other variants of herself and her team helps with how the Arxis Gates work and activate.” O!Mary explained. “And since the other variants of herself and her teams were from the other side of the same Raelo, she can now access to different sides.”

Elijah stared at the Nelson in white. “I’m so sorry, I got none of that.”

Shiloh sighed and pulled her brother to get his attention. ”Because other Shiloh used variants of herself to charge up the Arxis Gates, that means she can now just teleport into other dimensions.”

”Oh no… that is really bad.” Elijah mumbled. “Then why does she need so many? Surely just one or even two should be enough right?”

”That’s where you get it wrong.” O!Mary sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

///

“Shiloh, we’ve tried everything.” O!David hissed to his younger sister. “There’s going to be a point where you’re going to have to question about whether you actually know what you’re doing.”

O!Shiloh stopped in the hall and turned to her brother. “You really think it’s just about her?”

The other Nelson stared at her for a moment, straightening his stance. “Shiloh. What are you planning on now?”

The Nelson in purple only gave a small and innocent shrug. “Something I’d like to call a surprise.”

“Shiloh.” O!David’s voice dropped. “You can’t be serious. What are you going to do with the Arxis Gates?”

”Well-.”

The two Nelsons froze seeing O!Micah standing on top of O!Elijah down with his staff pinning his brother’s hand down. The Nelson in blue was thrashing around and shouting stuff at the Nelson in green. O!Micah stared at him unfazed, his steely eyes staring down with laser focus. O!Elijah spotted his older brother and younger sister standing behind O!Micah and shouted for them.

”SHILOH! DAVID! GET MICAH OFF ME! HE’S GONE MAD!”

The Nelson in green turned to stare at his other siblings. For once, both O!Shiloh and O!David looked startled. They had never seen their brother in green looking so scary. The fact he was towering over O!Elijah, the one Nelson considered to be the best fighter among the siblings, was also rather terrifying for the two.

“So Micah… what happened?” O!David asked slowly. He noted how the stone walls had been cracked and chipped, some parts having burn marks even. “What… fight would have to happen for this much damage..?”

O!Micah’s eyes darted to the mentioned spot that O!David was pointing to. “Elijah wanted to fight me.”

”OTHER WAY AROUND EXCUSE ME!” O!Elijah corrected.

O!Shiloh noticed the blaster on the ground and slowly pieced together what happened. “So Micah, what were you fighting about that made Elijah have to fight dirty?”

O!Elijah let out a low growl while O!Micah gave a smug smirk. “Elijah didn’t want me to-.”

”HE LET THE OTHERS OUT!” O!Elijah shouted frantically.

O!Micah froze as his older brother shouted that. O!Shiloh stared at O!Micah, an unreadable expression on her face. Was it anger, confusion, puzzlement, or a terrible mix of all? All O!Micah knew was that he was not going to be let off the hook so quickly. He slowly got off his brother while keeping eye contact with his younger sister. O!Elijah was quick to get off the ground and dust himself off. He then whacked his brother on the head hard, a scowl on his face.

O!David’s eyes darted from her brothers to his sister. “Shiloh, what are you going to do?”

O!Shiloh had a smug smirk on her face. “Nothing. Judah has it covered.”

O!Micah’s face furrowed into one of confusion. The longer he thought about it, the more he realised what the Nelson in purple meant. “No. Shiloh you did NOT!”

The Nelson in green nearly darted for the door had it not been for O!Elijah yanking him back violently and shoving his head to the sharp stone wall. “Not so fast you little pest.”

O!Micah gave a growl before a loud yell echoed in the base.

///

Judah had completely drifted off from whatever conversation the others were having and was just checking for each cell to find his older brother.

”Daniel…” He hummed as he looked in. He started to grow uneasy as he saw just how many of them had skeletons shackled to the wall. He grew even more uneasy with how many actually had people inside.

”Judah..?” Judah looked around as he heard the familiar voice ever so softly.

”Daniel!” The Nelson in orange gasped as he approached the cell his brother was in.

”JUDAH WAIT!”

The Nelson in orange whipped around to see everyone calling for him, a mortified look on their faces. Judah raised an eyebrow before looking down at his feet. There laid a thin wire that he had stepped on.

”And he takes the bait hook, line and sinker!” An all too happy voice echoed loudly above them. The whole cavern was lit red and sirens started to blast. All the members looked up to see if they could see the source of the voice. “Man, it’s always the orange guy that does this move. Maybe Shiloh was wrong about you guys being the best.”

“Excuse me?!” Elijah exclaimed, throughly offended at the remark both for his younger brother’s sake and for himself.

“I mean, every single Judah but me seems to be a bit off in the head.” O!Judah cackled.

”Judah?!” O!Daniel exclaimed in pure confusion. He turned to see O!Mary, though she looked like she could pass out at any moment. “Is that you?!”

”Yes indeed my brother!” O!Judah chuckled, his voice sounding more like an carnival announcer. In a way, this only made Shiloh and Elijah even more uneasy. “Kinda disappointed in you Daniel and Mary. I thought you guys were supposed to help family. Not turn on us along with Micah and Michelle and Josiah even.”

O!Daniel’s shoulders dropped slightly. “W-What..?”

There was a long sigh made by the other Judah. “Pity you guys took so long to figure out. Especially you other Shiloh. Thought you were the smartest right? But I guess it wasn’t that bad cause now I get to show you my game that I finally perfected!”

“Game?!” Shiloh shouted infuriated. “What kind of game do you think would be good for this time now?!”

There was a pause of radio static before it was cut by O!Judah’s unhinged laughter. It was loud and staticky, almost making him sound like he had gone insane. “Any game can work! You just got to be in the right spirit my dear sister! My favorite,” His voice dropped suddenly, “Is a game called fox hunts the hare.”

The group whipped around to hear the cells suddenly creak open. The inmates in the cells looked deranged and ready to get anyone in their paths. Daniel’s and Malduum’s cells also opened up, allowing Daniel to embrace Judah and for O!Mary to help Malduum to his feet. The ceiling then opened up to reveal droids dropping down, landing right in front of the agents. Once again, O!Judah’s maniacal laughter cackled through the cavern.

“Shiloh told me something was gonna happen! But now I get to watch it!” O!Judah squealed in twisted delight. The other agents looked at each other as they watched the droids slowly activate, the screens as their face glowing red.

Shiloh’s breath picked up as the sirens started to blast louder and the blinding red lights started to grow even brighter. This could not be happening, this had to be a lie, this had to! The only thing that snapped her out of her panicked trance was O!Judah’s voice slicing through the blaring sirens.

“Have fun~.”

Chapter Text

Shiloh was quick to start sprinting, the others right behind her. The only reason why she could still run as fast as she could was just because of pure fear and adrenaline. She didn’t even dare turn to look back to see how close the others were to her. She could hear shouts, both from the prisoners and the agents. She skidded past the Arxis Gates and crashed to the lift’s door. She jammed buttons to open the lift but it appeared to not be functioning.

“We need another way out!” Shiloh shouted, her voice barely going above the other voices and the blaring sounds of the sirens. 

“Better get ready to climb!” O!Daniel shouted back as he started climbing up the vines that had overgrown the cavern’s wall.

Judah and Shiloh were quick to follow. O!Mary was helping Malduum up as he seemed too exhausted to climb by himself. When Shiloh managed to squeeze through the cavern roof’s holes, she looked down to see Elijah scrambling for the documents.

“ELIJAH! LEAVE THEM!” Shiloh screamed as she watched the droids getting closer to the Nelson in blue.

Elijah shouted something back at her, but her ears were ringing and could hear nothing that he said. By the time he started climbing up the vines, the droids were in range and started blasting at him. If it wasn’t for Judah pulling him up, Elijah would’ve been fried to a crisp.

”TO THE CAVES!” Shiloh shouted as she started sprinting. Elijah and Judah were quick to follow. O!Daniel yelled something about fetching the others to come follow.

///

“What the hell is that?” O!Michelle muttered as she heard sirens blaring above them.

Gala’s eyes widened in horror as she started frantically patting Josiah’s shoulder and pointing up to the top of the stone cliff. The Nelson in black looked up to see an army of droids suddenly flying up while O!Daniel ran down towards the group down at the base of the cliff.

”RUN!” Was all O!Daniel screamed before sprinting past them. 

Everyone started sprinting as fast as they could to the Mirror Caves and ignoring the sounds around them; all they had to do was survive at this point.

“ELIJAH!” Shiloh shouted as she started running alongside the Nelson in blue. “Why would you take the documents?!”

”We might need them!” He shouted back before tripping over the tangling roots of the forest trees.

Shiloh helped him up and they continued to run towards the caves. The two were suddenly blasted back and seemed as though they had been teleported all the way back to the top of the stone cliff.

///

“Where’s Shiloh and Elijah?!” Micah asked as he pulled Daniel to the side.

”What?! They’re not here?!” The other Nelson exclaimed. He frantically whipped around to see no sight of the Nelson in blue or the one in purple. “Where did they go?!”

”Never mind that!” O!Josiah hissed as he handed chips of the glowing stone to the other agents. “Shove these all around the Mirror Cave! Make sure none of them are completely buried!”

O!Michelle spotted O!Mary and Malduum starting to make their way towards them and a look of confusion was on her face. “Mary? Malduum? What are you doing here?”

“Trying to help you guys!” Malduum snapped. “Where’s Shiloh and Elijah?!”

”I don’t know!” Judah yelped. “They never came!”

Malduum’s face dropped to one of dread. “Oh no.”

///

Shiloh and Elijah struggled to their feet to see none other than O!Judah standing before them, a wide and toothy smile on his face. His hands were behind his back and he seemed like he was holding something. “Hello there!”

The Nelson in blue scowled. He stared daggers into O!Judah’s eyes as he spoke. “What do you want? Do you think this is all some sick and twisted game?”

The Nelson in orange gave a wheezing laugh. “No no no silly! This game is fair and square!”

Shiloh hesitated. What if he was only acting like this because he was forced to? Maybe she could help him. “Judah, you can help us. You don’t have to listen to what your Shiloh tells you to do.”

At this, O!Judah’s face dropped and Shiloh could see the exhaustion on his face. He gave a soft sigh and stared off to the side. “No one’s ever… told me that. I really don’t know. I… I doubt she would let me.”

A soft smile formed on Shiloh’s face. She extended a hand to the Nelson in orange. “Come on, we can help.”

Elijah stared at O!Judah who was hesitant to take the younger Nelson’s hand. There was a pause as the three stood in the clearing. “Shiloh. He’s-.”

The two would flinch as he suddenly poofed behind the two. A sharp cackle would piece the air as Elijah and Shiloh turned to see him. “Was that what you wanted to hear? Boy! You two really are gullible huh?”

Shiloh took a step back and stared at O!Judah. “Y-You can’t be serious.” She hated to admit, but he really had her hoping for a second.

”I’m so totally serious!” O!Judah grinned, his eyes looking like a madman’s. He began to circle the two, a deranged look in his eye. “What? You thought I had some sob story to tell you to explain why I’m like this? Oh no way! I’m nothing like any of those other orange Nelsons who call themselves Judah.” O!Judah waved around his teleporter gun as he spoke. Ah, that’s was what was behind his back. “I’m certainly surprised to say the least! Shiloh Nelson, the younger one in the family yet the leader of the pack.”

She would yelp as he teleported closer to her face. “Who thought she would be so weak?”

Elijah gave a low growl and lunged for the Nelson in orange. O!Judah was quick to teleport behind the Nelson in blue, snickering as if he was looking down at his older brother. “And Elijah Nelson, the brawler of the family. Lemme guess, all brawn no brain?”

”Excuse me?” Elijah hissed, grabbing O!Judah by his collar.

”Whaaaaat? Did I hit on a nerve?” The Nelson in orange gave a shit-eating grin as he teleported out of Elijah’s grasp. “No worries, I was only joking.”

Shiloh shook her head, ignoring the multiple voices in her head shouting at her what to do. “Please, you have to let us leave! You don’t know what your Shiloh is planning on doing!”

O!Judah gave a belittling ‘aww’ as he heard Shiloh’s voice cracking in desperation to convince him. “That’s where you get it wrong my dear sister!” She’d give a frown as he booped her on the nose. “Unlike your Judah where he’s the class clown of your team and is as dense as a brick, I’m Shiloh’s second hand in command. I know everything that she plans.” He said the last bit rather proudly, even putting a hand on his hand with a chuffed expression on his face.

”So you choose to work with her and try her plans?!” Elijah exclaimed in disbelief. “She’s taking innocent lives of copies of her family to fuel whatever she’s thinking about!”

“So what?” O!Judah shrugged as he teleported behind the two agents once again. “It’s not like it’s hurting anyone.”

Shiloh stared at him, disgusted for him to even think that. “I can’t believe you.”

”Aw boo hoo,” O!Judah mocked before teleporting behind Shiloh. “GO CRY ABOUT IT!”

The Nelson in purple yelped in surprise and yanked out a hidden knife she had in her pant pocket. She held it up in front of her, pointing it to O!Judah. “What is wrong with you?!”

O!Judah snickered seeing how much her hands were trembling. He started circling the two again, this time crouching low and looking like he’d pounce on them at any moment. “Whatcha gonna do huh?”

His voice would continue to rise as he started teleporting around even faster. “Slice me? Dice me? Peel me?”

He’d continued to teleport around the two agents, quickly disorienting them. “So many options to choose from!” He’d lunge at Shiloh and spin her. He held her in a chokehold and held her knife to her throat.

”Elijah do something!” She’d scream, terrified at what could happen.

”Yea Elijah!” O!Judah spat, a giant and toothy smile still plastered on his face. “Do something!”

The Nelson in blue quickly whipped out his blaster and shot O!Judah right in the face. The Nelson in orange shrieked as he fell to the ground, his hand covering his face. “YOU CHEATER! YOU DIRTY CHEATER! YOU’RE NO BETTER THAN HIM! YOU’RE NO BETTER THAN ANY OTHER ELIJAH!”

Shiloh dove for the teleporter gun that O!Judah had thrown to the side. She quickly looked to Elijah and the two teleported off, leaving a cursing and screaming O!Judah alone.

”CHEATER! YOU DIRTY CHEATER!”

///

Elijah and Shiloh warped to the entrance of the Mirror Caves. However, the others did not cheer when they saw Shiloh and Elijah teleport in front of them. Their relief was short lived as they heard someone clearing their throat behind them.

”Where do you think you’re going?”

Elijah and Shiloh turned around to see O!Shiloh staring them down. Her arms were crossed and there seemed to be a whole army of droids behind her. There were a couple agents behind her as well, but for the most part, it was just her and O!David along with the droids. Shiloh took a step back as she stood beside Michelle. “We’re leaving, we won’t let you get away with whatever plan you have to do with us.”

”How noble.” O!Shiloh taunted dryly, a hint of sarcastic underlying in her remark. “Unfortunately, I can’t let you leave.”

Michelle shook her head. “No! We have our own lives to live through! What plan do you even have if your mom is dead?!”

Silence hung in the air, leaving Michelle’s words hanging too. O!Shiloh took a long and deep sigh before cracking her neck. “So it seems as though Daniel has already told you.”

O!Daniel sputtered. “Why would you say that?”

The Nelson in purple shrugged. “Well, I only know a few people who know about my plan. David’s been with me this whole time. Mary has practically no guts to tell anyone, and Judah is right here.” The group would see O!Judah suddenly land by the help of a droid. “That just leaves you.” She’d point at her older brother, a small but noticeable smirk in her face. O!Daniel’s face was one of furyShiloh had never seen on any Nelsons face before. “And you know what we do to traitors right? Here we have Exhibit A.”

O!Michelle and O!Josiah looked at each other before looking and seeing who was “Exhibit A”. O!Micah gave a soft grunt as he was kicked out front, a smug looking O!Elijah holding his hands back. The Nelson in green had cuts and bruising on his face, the most prominent feature on him was a big bloody nose with blood dripping down. His breathing was hoarse as he could barely lift his head up to look at the people in front of him. O!Michelle gave a small yet horrified gasp as O!Josiah pulled her in.

”Why would you do that?!” Micah snapped, staring at O!Shiloh with a fury in his eyes. “How could you do that to your own brother?!”

”Actually I did it.” O!Elijah snickered proudly.

”That doesn’t make it any better.” Micah hissed back through gritted teeth.

Chapter Text

Shiloh shook her head. “This is so messed up! What are you even trying to do by ruining other lives?!”

The other Shiloh gave a short scoff and rolled her eyes. “Clearly we are not the same. Why should I bother answering you?” She motioned to the glowing shards that were in the ground. Micah and Michelle had to admit they hadn’t done the best job in hiding them. “What? Were you planning on blowing up the cave? That’s real stupid if you ask me. Droids, start gathering them.”

The moment the other Shiloh said that, Micah knew they were going to have to do their backup plan. He looked over to O!Josiah and gave a quick nod. The other Josiah took a deep breath. “Actually, you’d be right. Sorry sis.”

”Wha-.”

O!Josiah smashed his foot down on one of the glowing shards, sending a massive shockwave. The shockwave from that one shard caused a domino effect, causing all the other shards to start exploding.

In an instant, the whole place was brought to chaos. Shiloh and her team rushed into the cave in hopes of finding the right Mirror Cave to return home. O!Josiah, O!Michelle, O!Micah, and O!Daniel were quick to fight off whatever Droids and agents who were chasing down for the others. O!Elijah had gone into combat, leaving O!Shiloh and O!Judah to chase the agents in the cave. O!David was quick to pull Malduum and O!Mary to the side.

”Which one is it?!” Elijah shouted as he banged his fist on each giant Mirror Rock he could.

”I DON’T KNOW!” Judah screeched.

Everything was in a frenzy before there was a hopeful shout from Micah’s side. In an instant, all the agents were over to the Nelson in green. O!Michelle and O!Josiah ran over to them and helped them off from the droids that were storming over to them.

”We got your back!” O!Michelle shouted over to them. “Just go!”

Josiah gave a short nod. He then looked down to see his other self with a robotic leg. “WHAT?!”

O!Josiah rolled his eyes. “How do you think I stepped on the shard without loosing a leg?”

It was just Shiloh trying to get into the Mirror Cave when she felt an arm yank her back. She gave a sharp yell as she turned to see her other self growling. “You are NOT ruining this for me! I’m so close to finishing my plan!”

Shiloh shook her head and yanked her arm away from her other self. She could hear her scream as she tumbled on the other side of the Cave. With the help of Micah and Daniel helping her up, the agents sprinted out of the collapsing cave before they all tumbled into the grass field before them. There was one final explosion, leaving the Mirror Cave into nothing but glittering ruins.

///

“NO!”

O!Michelle took the core of the glowing power stone that the Nelson in black held. She buried it right next to the Mirror Stone the agents had jumped in. In an instant, the stone exploded, sending a massive shockwave. O!Josiah had to yank his younger sister out of the cave and dove out. Everyone covered their heads as debris flew around them. After a painfully long minute, everyone slowly started to their feet.

O!Elijah looked around to see practically all the Droids destroyed and a few unconscious agents on the ground. He then looked before him to see the giant mound of glittering rubble that was the Mirror Cave before.

”I-It’s gone…” He mumbled under his breath. The Nelson in blue seemed as though he was in a trance.

He looked to his side to see the Nelson in green lying on the ground, O!Michelle by his side. O!Elijah slowly approached the two, though the agent in pink stared daggers at him. “What do you want?” She snapped sharply.

O!Elijah fumbled for words. “Is… Is he alright?”

O!Michelle raised an eyebrow. “He is… why are you asking?”

The Nelson in the blue muttered something before turning to see O!Shiloh shouting at O!Josiah and O!Judah.

”What the hell is wrong with you?!” She screamed, jabbing a finger at her older brother. She wasn’t at the verge of tears, but her whole “calm and cold” demeanor had certainly changed. “You were supposed to help ME!”

”I can’t help you if it means taking out the lives of our other selves!” The Nelson in black shouted back.

O!Judah just stood behind his older brother, his hands balled into fists. “We were so close…”

At that, the Nelson in black whipped around to face his younger brother. “Do you even know what you were doing?!”

”Of course I did!” O!Judah snapped back.

”Then you were willing to kill off better versions of ourselves to get to your twisted goal?!” The older Nelson spat.

The Nelson in orange blinked a couple times at O!Josiah’s remark. “You thought they were the better versions?”

O!Shiloh gave a scowl and shoved O!Judah behind her. “The point is that you went against my orders!”

”When did we ever say you were the official leader then?” O!Michelle suddenly spoke, venom dripping in her words.

O!Shiloh took a step back, blue eyes wide with fury. “You dare question me?”

”Uh, yea?” The agent in pink stood up and slowly walked towards the younger agent. “If anything, you shouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for your ‘special treatment’. Hell, we wouldn’t have had Malduum following us if it wasn’t for you joining the mission here!”

The other agents only stood by watching in silence. The Nelson in purple looked around for at least one of the agents to back her up, but they all seemed too scared to even look at her in the eyes. O!Shiloh scowled, jabbing a finger to O!Michelle’s chest. “You don’t have any say in this Michelle. You are even lucky I’m still sparing you for this mission.”

”What are you sparing me from?!” She yelled. “You keep tapping about your mission to finding your mom when you know she’s dead?!”

”She’s NOT dead!” O!Shiloh yelled back, her angry facade finally cracking with tears welling in her eyes. “She’s not until I say so! All the other versions have their moms still alive and missing!”

”But have you considered that we are the worst reality?” O!Elijah finally spoke up.

The moment the Nelson in blue said that, O!Shiloh gave a small and terrified gasp. “No. No no no no no! W-We can’t! H-Have you seen t-the others?! We are definitely better than them, we have to!”

O!Elijah had to grab his sister by the shoulders and look her in the eyes. “Shiloh. You can’t keep thinking that anymore.”

O!Shiloh only stared at her brother, fury radiating off her like a storm. She took a deep breath and spoke through gritted teeth. The Nelson in blue could hear her voice cracking as she spoke. “What are you talking about Elijah?”

“I’m saying that you need to accept that continuing Mom’s plan will never work.”

///

The agents on the other side of the Mirror Realm had no time to breathe as they sprinted out of the cave. They just barely made it out when they heard the cave collapse.

”I-… Is it gone?” Micah stuttered. “Forever?”

“I guess so…” Josiah drawled as he stared the rubble.

There was no cheering or applause or anything. Just silence as the agents stood in the grassy field of nothing.

Chapter Text

Daniel stared at the files in the computer. It had been around a week since the Mirror Cave incident, yet there were weird energy frequencies being read from the Raelo. The crew had been keeping an eye on the Raelo as well as strengthening the Temporal Loop that was set on the place. Daniel decided to read up on Mirror Caves out of curiosity.

”Fae Myths… Legend of the Holstisce… Ikuro Blade Stories… Ah ha!” The blonde Nelson chuckled as he clicked on an unnamed file.

Ever since he had arrived back to the agency, he had decided to study up on what there Mirror Caves were. He had never heard or even known about them until now, but he had a hunch as to why this knowledge would have been hidden for so long.

Mom.

It wasn’t too big of surprise that Mom was quite secretive to magical stuff and rarely allowed any of her children to know things she didn’t want them to know, though Daniel didn’t know why his mom would think that having knowledge of the Mirror Caves was dangerous enough for her to delete its data files. Micah also wasn’t helping Daniel’s suspicions. The younger Nelson in green had been acting all antsy after the agents returned back to the agency. Micah continued to hole himself in his room after meal times and had no sign to stopping soon.

”Mmm… blacked out as well…”

Daniel mused as he scrolled through the document. Sure enough, these documents were also blacked out on certain spots. Daniel’s brow furrowed in annoyance as he continued to rummage through the document, hoping for something of use.

He sighed as pushed himself away from the desk. He drummed his fingers on the desk as he tried to come up with an idea or a solution to read these documents.

”Blacked out spots, some attempt to delete knowledge of Mirror Caves, and random notes on the margins?” Daniel grumbled to himself. He squinted at the document before he jolted up with a gasp. Elijah still had those documents he had snatched from the other side of the Mirror Realm and Micah had the other documents he had beforehand. He quickly scrambled off his chair and made a beeline to his two younger brothers.

///

Micah stared at the documents and gave a loud groan; he had been stumped on the same part ever since he returned back to the agency.

He had asked Elijah for the documents he had snatched the moment he and the Nelson in blue were in private. Elijah happily gave it to his younger brother, though he did take it back after a while. Micah didn’t really care since he had made a digital scan of the documents anyways.

He sighed as he, once again, held up the copies of the documents up to each other and compared the two. He specifically stared at the blacked out parts of each document. He had made a theory about these two documents lining up and filling blank spots. In a way, he was right but not right enough.

”There’s a third part missing.”

Micah’s eyes widened as he said that to himself. This was huge. If this was true, then there must have been a third person that was involved with these documents about the Mirror Caves. His hand went down his face as he thought through this new theory. A third person? That would be crazy.

”MICAH!”

The Nelson in green gave a loud yelp and swung around in his chair to see his older brother standing at the door. Daniel’s eyes were wide while Elijah, standing behind the blonde Nelson, looked confused and stunned.

”What?”

”Come with me!”

”Why?”

”You’ll see.”

///

The three boys went back to the computer Daniel was at. He then turned to the Nelson in blue.

”Elijah, did you bring those papers you snatched from the Mirror Realm?” Daniel asked firmly as he searched for something on the computer.

Elijah fumbled around in his pants pocket and pulled out a wad of folded documents. He gave a sheepish chuckle when the two brothers saw the state of the papers. The Nelson in blue was quick to attempt and straighten out the folds in the papers before setting it on the desk. Daniel was quick to take the documents before turning to Micah.

”Can you send me those blacked out files you found when you were sorting out the data files?”

Micah raised an eyebrow before hesitantly sending the files to Daniel. The two younger Nelsons watched as Daniel opened all the two digital files while looking at the wad of papers Elijah had given him. Elijah peered over Daniel’s shoulder curiously, trying to figure out what his brother was seeing. Micah seemed to catch onto what Daniel was trying to do.

”I knew it! There was a third perspective!” The Nelson in green would exclaim.

”What are you guys even trying to do?” Elijah would ask. Neither brother heard Elijah as the two were too busy chattering about the theory they both had. All the Nelson in blue did was pout behind them.

”Two Moms?”

”Alright what is going on?!” Elijah snapped, finally fed up with being left in the dark. “Two Moms?! What does that mean?!”

Micah sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Well, when I was sorting the data files, I found an empty section which I assumed had been deleted. Then I found these files that were blacked out and had scans of angry notes written in the margins of the document. The notes on the document and the notes in the margin made me think as if it was a conversation between the two people.”

Daniel would add on. “Those papers that you had taken, Elijah, also seem to have filled the empty gaps of this document I have found as well!”

Elijah would raise an eyebrow. “… And?”

The blonde Nelson took a deep breath, preparing himself to explain. “My best guess is that Mom must have made contact through the Mirror Realms and attempted to try sharing notes and research about the Mirror Realms with her other versions. However! She ended up finding out that one of her versions was evil and ended up having to sever ties with the Mirror Realms and destroyed as much evidence about them as she could, both to save her and the others from the evil version.”

”That would explain why the other us wanted to activate all the Arxis Portals!” Elijah and Micah gasped at the same time.

All three Nelsons cheered with the situation finally solved.