I charged forward, reaching my arm out to shoot a large bolt of red lightning towards Alexander. The bolt turned into over a dozen identical lightning bolts, every single one stabbing Alexander and temporarily pinning him to the wall on the other side of the room.

Once I got close enough to Steve, I subconsciously deactivated the spell making me look like Luke, no longer caring about the consequences.

Once I made it to the one I loved, I dropped to my knees, tears streaming down, before I lifted Steve’s head up so he could see me.

The adrenaline finished fading away, and unimaginable stinging pain covered every part of my body, even more so once the figure with green eyes got closer. Or… was I getting closer to them?

Then, out of nowhere, I felt strangely warm liquids dropping onto my chest, seeping into my wounds and getting oddly tingly. Like… electricity.

When the drops got deeper and deeper into my body, the pain started to lessen. After a few seconds… my vision started returning.

“I-I’m sorry… I s-should’ve been there to save you. I… I d-deserve to be the one who dies. N-Not y-you…”

Rose slowly walked forward, saying quietly “Hey… it’ll… it’ll be okay.”

I ignored her, instead looking to the right of Steve’s dying body. Laying next to him was one of his scabbards, containing a Sword of Creation. I grabbed the scabbard, and slowly unsheathed the scabbard, before tossing it away and holding the grip of the sword with one hand, and the blade with the other.

For the first time ever, the metals of the blade didn’t scare me. For once… I knew what I had to do.

I rotated the tip of the blade to face my heart. At first… I was unafraid. I was without hesitation winding the sword back so I could thrust it through.

But… no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t move it a single inch. Even with me trying my absolute hardest.

Suddenly, Rose rested her hand on my shoulder, and I flinched. Hesitantly, I looked back at her, and she was trying to give as big and brave a smile as possible.

After a long time to think, I handed her the sword, and muttered the words “Kill me. I… can’t do it.”

…

“What?” Rose asked, like she couldn’t hear what I said. But to me, I said it just loud enough.

“Didn’t you hear me?! Please! End my pathetic life!”

No! Rowan! Don’t!

Don’t, please. Even when we were separated, Steve was the only thing keeping me together.

No, he wasn’t. You were. You were using your need to see Steve again to keep moving forward. You just gotta find something new to—

I will NOT replace him!

Rose stood there, looking at… something. I wasn’t sure if it was me or not.

“Please…” I told Rose, “Kill me. I deserve to die.”

“Wait… no. Not yet.” Isabelle stomped to us.

“First, tell me where Luke is!”

Isabelle grabbed my throat, and Rose pulled her away from me, yelling “He already told us! He’ll be back eventually.”

…

“He better.”

Rose gestured Isabelle away, and they engaged in a quiet conversation.

Look. I know you’re hurting… but this stuff happens. You gotta push through. For him.

What do I even have left? Everybody hates me except for my mom… but we never spend time together anymore.

I… I don’t know. But there will always be a reason to push forward. You just gotta have faith…

I finally stopped crying, but that only left the pain to swell.

Life will be… misery without him.

“R-Rowan…” A voice asked weakly.

I spun around, seeing Steve, leaning his head up to look for me.

Almost instantly after I asked that, Rowan was hugging me in the tightest embrace I ever had the pleasure of receiving.

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“Aah! Not so tight!” I yelled, my wounds burning. But not as much as before.

Once Rowan released the hug, I got a good look at his cute, small face, just to confirm he was really here. That’s when I had a sudden realization.

“You… you were here the whole time. You…”

A little surprised, but understanding, Rowan nodded shamefully.

“Isabelle’s gonna kill you,” I informed him, trying to push myself up with my knees, but another soaring sting sped down my skin.

“I-I don’t care. A-As long as I h-have you…” Rowan reached his hand for my cheek, but then pulled it back.

…

“H-How are y-you…”

“I dunno,” I said, shrugging, “Something about your tears… one of the files here said you have magical powers?”

Rowan nodded again.

“Maybe, in your grief, your magic managed to get into your tears and heal me?”

“M-Maybe… I’ve n-never been big on s-science stuff.”

“Heh, I know. But that’s kinda my thing. Meanwhile, you’ve always been better with your emotions.”

“N-Not so sure a-about that… b-but sure…”

The next few seconds were completely silent. It was the first comfortable moment of silence in years.

“W-Wow… I got a l-lot to tell you about.”

Once the pain had almost fully disappeared, I tried pushing myself up again, and succeeded this time, managing to sit up.

“Like what?”

“W-Well, for starters… my f-father’s a Grim Reaper.”

An unstable black lightning shot between our noses, hitting a wall and exploding, shattering everything around it.

We turned to look at where the lightning bolt came from, and saw Alexander, now free from the magical lighting bolts.

“Ahh… good. You’re together again. Was craving a challenge.”

I looked back at the others, then to Rowan again.

“W-What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want them to get hurt trying to help us. Distract him for a minute, I’ll try to convince them to retreat.”

Rowan nodded, then walked to his brother, while I walked to the rest of my unit.

“Got a plan to kick his ass?” Issac asked smugly.

“Yeah. You all start exfiling. We’ll handle him by ourselves.”

“Brother…” I heard Rowan say distantly, followed by something else.

“No. I know you think we’ll just hold you back… but that’s not true. The only way we beat him is if we work together,” Rose said inspirationally.

I grunted.

“Fine. But if any of you get hurt…”

“We won’t,” Dylan reassured me.

Alexander kicked Rowan in the gut, sliding him to my back. In response, Rowan grabbed my wrist and threw me towards his brother, allowing me to unsheathe a sword, call the other from the office, and slice through Alexander’s chest in a downward X.

Alexander tried to counter attack by spinning around to cut through my nearly healed hip, but Isabelle shot her sniper rifle into Alexander’s knee. Then, I kicked Alexander in the face, knocking him down.

Alexander rolled backward, transformed his arm into a hand cannon, and shot an energy blast towards Rose. Rowan leapt in front of her, using his magic to turn the blast into a cluster of bats which began flying wildly around the room.

“Wow. Can’t believe I never believed in magic until now,” Rose quipped.

“Do you have any idea how fucked you all are?! I could kill a thousand of you! The only reason you all stand a chance right now is because of Steve and Rowan!”

As Alexander yelled this, Dylan snuck around him, and then leaped towards his back, stabbing him in the neck with a knife.

“Gah!” Alexander yelled, elbowing Dylan off of him.

I transformed one of my swords into a sniper rifle, activated it’s powers, and shot a bullet straight through Alexander’s chest, and also shooting a grappling hook which locked into Alexander’s insides and pulled me to him.

Once I gained enough speed, I turned my rifle back into a sword, keeping it still activated, and sliced through Alexander’s right arm, splashing oil and blood onto the floor.

“You trying to piss me off?!” Unbeknownst to our opponent, dozens of strands of red electricity rose from the ground, surrounding Alexander’s feet.

Alexander tried to take a step forward, but couldn’t. As he was trapped, I unhooked a grenade from my belt and threw it to Alexander, before shooting an electric dart at the grenade, and slamming my shields into the ground to form a larger shield around Alexander.

The blue electricity seeped completely into the grenade, enhancing it’s power to the point where the grenade’s explosion was the equivalent of a small nuke.

As the smoke fogged up the insides of the shield, Rowan transformed both his left arm into a hand cannon, and the other into a sword. At the same time, Isabelle placed her toolbox on the ground and pulled out a shotgun from it. Then, the toolbox transformed into a fairly large turret, about three-fourths my size.

After a few seconds of silence, Alexander, flying, smashed through the shield, going straight towards me.

Before he could reach me, though, Rowan shot a ball of electricity at him, stunning Alexander as Issac’s metal arm tentacles threw Alexander up in the air and rapidly hit him from all sides.

I reached into my belt, and threw out about 20 dark blue striped disks below Alexander, so when he landed, the disks shocked him with large currents of blue electricity.

See? Teamwork can be helpful. You just gotta let it do it’s thing, Hope said cheerfully.

Alright… maybe you do have a point…

Suddenly, hundreds of small metal spikes shot out from Alexander’s body, moving fast enough that only I could react in time to dodge them. The spikes impaled everybody else except for Issac and Rowan against the walls. Rowan and Issac were merely staggered.

Then, Alexander slammed his chest, making his suit shoot out an EMP in every direction, deactivating my suit and Rowan’s, but not Issac’s.

“Issac!” I commanded, “Get everybody else and go! We’ll do the rest!”

Issac nodded, and sent his many arms to pull the spikes out, releasing our… friends. Then, he tore open a hole in the roof, and carried them out.

“W-Why Alexander? I-I thought we were b-brothers…”

I looked at Alexander, smiling sinisterly as ever, then back to Rowan.

“That’s not Alexander. Not anymore. Knightmare… your father… replaced him, and has seemed to have gained a sort of split personality for each replacement. Except they all know they’re really part of Knightmare.”

Slow clapping mockingly, Alexander said “Wow. What a total fucking nerd. You think you have me all figured out, do you? Well, you don’t even know all you should about this little wimp of a son.”

I stared at Rowan, completely frozen in shock from my revelation.

I ran over to him, and pivoted his head to look at me, asking “What is he talking about?”

“I… Sniffle I-I can’t…” Rowan hung his head low.

“Yes you can. Whatever it is… you… you need to tell me.”

…

Hesitantly, Rowan explained “I-I…”

Suddenly, Rowan closer his eyes, and slowly breathed in through his nose, and out through his mouth.

“M-My father… he t-told me how R-Raen and P-Pemo died. I-I…”

Despite the fact that Alexander was still there, I tried my hardest to wait patiently for Rowan to gain the confidence to confide in me.

“R-Raen… k-killed Pemo.”

Plot twist!