Your light in the darkness.

You're still on your knees, looking at the monster, breathing heavily, blood still dripping down your mouth onto the soil below. Commander Rixx stood there, looking over you, his head rotating between Claire and yourself. No words were said as he just waited for your answer. He turns his head away from Claire, focusing on you once more. "Answer." his voice orders with authority "Answer me." he repeats.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!" you turn your head as you see Claire pushing herself up to her feet, leaping forward as she rolls across the ground towards Rixx. In the middle of her roll forward, she grabs a short sword that was on the ground. Out of her tumble she leaps up toward her feet, charging at the monster. You can only stare at your sister, the adrenaline pumping through her veins as she moves with such quickness she evaded the guards standing next to her. The guard next to you, brings his sword up to your neck again, holding it tight, slightly tearing your skin, making sure you can't try anything.

Claire closes the distance almost instantly and goes to slash at Rixx with the short sword, throwing as much power as she can behind her strike, hoping to put an end to this monster of Rathkin.

Rixx saw it coming, with his great-sword in his right hand, still laying behind him, he pulls his right arm forward, easily blocking Claire's slash with the guard of his great-sword. A loud clash of weapons echo through out the area as the blades connect with such ****. Rixx grunts slightly as you can see he's bearing his teeth under his mask. After he blocks the entire blow by bringing his right hand up, his left hand forms a fist, throwing his entire body weight forward. It connects with the side of Claire's face. You hear a loud crack as most likely her cheekbone must have broke. This immediately causes Claire to lose her sword as her body spins around facing your direction now.

Rixx grabs her shoulder as her body turns and brings his foot up to kick behind Claire's knees, forcing her to fall to the ground. He then uses his hand to grab a fistful of her hair, holding it up in the air, forcing Claire to stay kneeling on the ground, her back straightened up, her right cheek already turning black and swelling up, her right eye, completely swollen shut already.

"This is how you repay my kindness" he questions "All those years having you by my side, training with you, watching you become one of the best. Such a waste."

"Rixx!" you shout "Leave her alone, we'll join! Please, we'll join!" you plead

You see him re-position himself, still holding Claire up, but he's rotated his great-sword, the tip of his blade placed directly in the middle of Claire's back. He's holding still, not moving the blade at all, his helmet, just looking at you.

"Rixx! We accept! We accept!! Please! We'll join Rathkin. Just, just don't hurt her!" you beg "Whatever you want. We'll do it." you continue to plead as your head drops down to Claire, looking at your poor sister. Her body, covered in so much blood, half of her face, swelling badly and worst of all, the look she is giving you, her one eye that is opened, glancing at you. Pure defeat. It breaks your heart seeing her like this. You see blood pooling on the ground below her as your eyes move to her leg, still bleeding furiously. You knew she was hurt, but didn't know it was that bad. It's at that point, your eyes shift upwards moving up her torso.

And that's when time stopped. Something was off. Something solid was sticking through her torso. You didn't understand, you didn't know what it was. "That doesn't make any sense..." is all that could run through your head. That is, until dark red liquid started flowing down her stomach onto the ground below.

"What is..." you ponder briefly before you realize the tip of Rixx's great-sword is pierced through her body. You quickly look up towards Claire's face, your eyes going wide with shock, your mouth dropping open in anguish. Her single non-swollen shut eye, looking back at you, the life in it, slowly fading, her soul exiting her body.

"Claire..." you try to say but nothing comes out. Your eyes filling with water. Your lower lip starting to quiver. You couldn't believe it. You didn't think it was real. "No..." is all you could manage to mumble as you shake your head back and forth "Noo..." you mumble again.

You wouldn't accept it, this wasn't happening. You continue to look at Claire, looking at your loving sister, wanting to tell her that everything will be okay. You see a tear roll down her cheek as she gives a small cough, blood flowing out of her mouth. She connects with your eyes once more, giving you a smile, that gorgeous loving smile. That is when you lose it, tears flow down your cheeks as your mouth stays parted. She wants to say something but no words escape. She wanted to speak, but she couldn't. Another tear rolls down her cheek, slowly falling to the ground, mixing with the blood stained soil below. With all the remaining strength she could muster, her lip curled up, giving you a perfect grin, her eye filling to the brim with tears, before she slowly mouthed the words "I love you."

And with that, her eye closed and her head dropped forward as the blade disappeared from her torso, causing her body to fall forward on the dirt below, a pool of blood forming under her.

"Claire...Claire?" your words don't escape your mouth.

"Let him go." the deep voice orders his warriors "Today is not his day to die. He has suffered enough..." you sense a touch of sadness in his normally confident voice. He motions his warriors to release you as his body turns around and starts walking back towards the inner city of Rathkin, his warriors follow shortly behind.

The instant you are released you quickly crawl over to your sister's body on the ground, turning her on her back and pulling her into your body. "Claire...please no." your eyes flushing with tears "Open your eyes...please. Claire. Just open your eyes." snot is falling out of your nose as tears drop down on her body. "Claire. You can't..." you give her a shake, as if you're trying to wake her up "Just...just open your eyes. Claire. Please...you can't leave me. Please." You bring your head down, resting it on her cheek, holding her tight "Claire...." you start weeping heavily as you hold your sister "I...I..." you sniffle hard "You can't...you can't do this to me. You can't leave me. You can't." your body starts shaking uncontrollably "Claire...." you kiss her cheek "I...I...Please..." your voice cracks slightly.

You take a deep breath, sniffling in your nose before you raise your head up high into the air and let loose the loudest guttural scream "Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!" Your body shaking with anger, frustration and sadness. It didn't help though, the pain in your voice still holding strong. You lean forward, embracing Claire once more in your body. "You just...you just can't..." you sniffle again "Claire...you can't leave me...please." your left hand brushes the side of her face, lightly patting her cheek, hoping her eyes will just open "Please...Claire..." you bring your head down, touching your foreheads together "I'm sorry...I"m so sorry..." You continue to hold your sister tight as you weep into her body, the sound of soldiers marching away, quieting in the distance.

Precious moments pass until finally there is nothing but silence. No screams. No battles. No birds in the distance. No wind blowing passed your ears. Just silence as you hold your sister, hugging her as hard as you can, feeling the warmth of her body slowly starting to diminish. You close your eyes once more as tears continue to stream down your face, meshing with the blood and tears of your sister "I love you, Claire. I love you so much..."

On that day, at that precious moment in time, your light in the darkness has faded...