The Silver Paladin

All Good Things

~~~~Keith~~~~

I watched Saoirse stagger back, her hands flying to her chest and stomach.

"Why.... Big brother?" She whispered. I quickly stood up and ran to Saoirse's side, what I saw made my blood run cold.

Shiro had swung his sword with enough force to break Saoirse's armor and cut her once across the stomach and a second time diagonally across the chest.

I can tell her wounds were deep by how much they bled. The blood just kept pouring out of the cuts and the broken armor.

"Saoirse, are you okay?" I asked, almost hitting myself for asking such a stupid question. Of course she wasn't. Her brother just tried to kill her and me.

"I'll be fine." She said back to me, not even looking away from her brother, "The adrenaline is keeping the pain back. For now, let's focus on Takashi."

I nodded and turned back towards Shiro, his eyes wide, but only a little. And his blade was stained with Saoirse's blood as it dripped off the tip.

"How could you stand there after what you did?" I growled, glaring at him, "She's your little sister!"

"If she would've stayed away and given up like I told her to, then I wouldn'thave had to hurt her. Now, I'll finish the job!" Shiro said, lifting his sword and charging at us.

We acted quickly, jumping away to avoid the attack. Saoirse summoned her wings and flew up into the air, while I rolled away and grabbed my blade from the floor.

I heard Shiro's footsteps coming closer to ke and I flipped back to see him running to me with his blade high in the air. I brought my dagger up to my front and blocked Shiro's sword from hitting me.

I was pushed to the floor, struggling to keep Shiro's weapon away from.

I looked up at Shiro with pleading eyes, the light from his blade blinding me slightly from his evil scowl as the blade slowly etched closer to my face.

"Shiro, please." I begged, "You're my brother. I love you."

"Takashi, please!" I heard Saoirse shout from above. She flew down to Shiro's side and tried to pull him off of me, but she wasn't strong enough, especially with all the blood she was losing by the minute.

"Please, Takashi, I can tell that there's a little bit of the real you in there! Don't hurt the ones uou love anymore!" She screamed.

"Get away from me!" Shiro yelled, but he didn't make a move that would let me escape his hold.

Shiro's eyes went wide before narrowing again in anger, "Just let go, Keith." He growled, "You don't have to fight anymore. By now, the team's already gone, too. I saw to it myself."

The blade kept getting closer and closer to my face, I could feel the burning sensation from the heat of his blade scorching my cheek. I grunted at the strain and the pain in my cheek, but just before the blade could make a scratch on me, my instincts kicked in .

I summoned my black bayard and transformed it into another sword.

I whipped the blade around and cut off Shiro's mechanical arm. He screamed in pain, groaning from the loss of his infected arm as he fell to his knees. Saoirse quickly followed Shiro to the floor, wrapping her arms around him just like she used to do when we were younger.

"It's gonna be okay now, big brother." She whispered to him.

He breathed heavily, looking up at me and Saoirse with pain filled eyes.

"Keith... Saoirse..." he whispered. I looked down at his sorrow, then up at Saoirse, who looked like she was about to cry.

All of a sudden, the large generator above us blew up, covering the area with smoke as it began to collapse.