The rain pouring down on us was deafening and blinding. I know he still stood in front of me, and yet, I couldn’t see or converse with him clearly, just like how it always was.

“Is this what you think she wants?!  It’s not-”

“Shut up.” His sword cut through the rain toward my neck.

I raised mine and blocked his attack again. “This won’t change anything! No matter how much you sacrificed-”

“No matter how much I sacrificed, I will never regret it. This is for-”

“-the greater good?!” Upon twirling my sword, I shifted the center of my gravity to strike at his blindspot. “Nothing is ever worth it for the greater good!”

Instead of dodging, he used his inhuman hand to grab my sword and halted the attack. “If I stop, then everything we did will be for nothing.”

“There has to be another way! There must be! The world is full of possibilities, and that hand you’re using to hold my sword right now is something neither of us thought was possible before!”

“I believed the same, once upon a time.” His grip on the sword tightened more and more.

Sh- I poured all my strength into my arms and successfully pulled my sword away from him. Although there was no crack on it yet, I could feel the integrity of the blade had weakened.

“I refuse to believe this is the only solution to our mission! To everyone’s mission!” There was warmth streaming down my cheeks. 

The glare he shot at me was as cold as the raindrops. He entered into another stance and prepared to strike again.

As my hand swung toward the ground, the tip of my blade scraped the ground. “I know about The Sin, Joseph.”

He froze. How could he not?

“Do you really think you can hide it from me and Mary, Joseph? We have been through life and death since the day we met. Do-”

He zipped through the air like the lightning bolt landed next to us toward me. I tried to dodge it, but I was a second too late as he slashed past my chest.

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“You-”

“Are you going to tell me I don’t understand?! Fuck you!” This time, it was me who grabbed his blade, though on the back, as I pulled him closer to me.

I threw away my sword, snatched his collar, and headbutted him as hard as I could. 

He promptly swung his sword to me, causing me to let it go and leaped backward. Pursing his lips, he used his right hand to hold his forehead while looking at me with a bitter expression.

“They aren’t worth your sacrifice! They will never, EVER thank you or acknowledge what you did for them! Please, Joseph. How can you say you’re doing this for everyone when everyone includes the three of us? What about our happiness? Our love?”

“SHUT UP!”

There was pain and anger in his eyes as he stared at me.

“This is my decision! I’m sick of seeing the suffering I know I can prevent. This,” He raised his inhuman arm and continued with a trembling voice, “This will bring me peace. My suffering for the happiness of everyone else will finally put the guilt inside my heart to rest.”

“You don’t know that!” I sobbed. “Even if you assume that it does what you think it does, they will never change without the experience of making mistakes! They will stay the same way until extinction comes for them! Is that what you call living?!”

“Always playing the devil’s advocate, Matthew. I always hated that Mary would side with you more often than with me. Your ideals are self-centered and short-sighted. Can you not see that, if I don’t have this arm, there will be many, many more suffering that we cannot prevent until all of us withered away into nothingness? Wouldn’t it be better this way if all three of us are destined to live till the end of time?”

“I can’t live without you, Joseph!” My voice trembled. “Mary can’t live without you. We aren’t their parents or their creators! Our oath to protect them was born from our desire to see them happy, not restricting them into choices that we subjectively believe will be good for them! Just because something doesn’t last as long as us doesn’t make it any less beautiful! They are wonderful because of what they are. Taking that away from them, even if it meant they wouldn’t suffer as much or at all, will only ensure all happiness they experience will never be genuine again. They will never shake away the feeling that something was taken away from them. Is that what you want?” 

“Pick up your blade.”

“Joseph-”

“Pick. Up. Your. Blade.”

“The only constant in this universe is change. Going against the flow will only bring more chaos.”

“You have your truth, I have mine. I’m willing to suffer and die for our cause. Are you?”

I closed my eyes and let out a heavy sigh. The weight of my blade was felt as I kneeled to grab it.

“When I defeat you, we’ll find another way. Together.”

“I won’t lose, not when I have the weight of my world on my back.”

I readied my stance as did he. 

“Ashes to ashes.”

“Dust to dust.”

Both of us charged toward each other at the same time with sorrowful grin.

I love you, Joseph. I love you too much.