"Yukio!" Rin cried out, stretching out an unwavering hand towards his possessed brother. "Yukio! Wake up, damn it! Open your eyes and grab my hand! You're stronger than this, Yukio, so hurry up!"

Inside of himself, Yukio was struggling, similarly reaching towards his brother's outstretched hand, fighting tooth and nail to regain control of his body, the body that he'd sworn to use to protect Rin from the very forces that were consuming him.

Six inches between their fingers...Then three, then two...

They clasped hands, and Yukio's eyes became his own. For just an instant, the two brothers stared at each other, tired but strong, the invisible thread tying them together wound of an unbreakable light that even Satan couldn't touch.

But then it all went wrong. The gun went off. Rin's head shot backwards as he gasped and slowly sank to his knees while all Yukio could do was stare with horrified eyes. Then, "Rin? Rin?" He knelt beside Rin, who was crumpled on the ground, his hands weakly trying to staunch the blood gushing from his abdomen. "Rin? Stop joking around. You can regenerate, you know, so...So stop messing around, Rin. You're the big brother, so why won't you heal already?"

Yukio's head whipped to the side, searching frantically. "Someone! Someone, help me! Rin's...he's not healing! He's bleeding out!"

Mephisto casually sauntered up next to him. "Of course he's not healing. Even though you relieved him of his sacrifice, he still choked up quite a bit of blood. He hasn't even conjured up the lost amount, so how can you expect him to heal? Besides," he continued amiably, gesturing at the gate with a small umbrella.

"Look."

Yukio's head tilted up to see the gate disintegrating from the outside in. "What? What's happening?"

"Since the majority of the blood came from Rin, he has the largest percentage of a tie to the Gehenna Gate, which means he has the most influence over it. What you're observing right now are fluctuations matching Rin's life force."

"So you mean..."

"I mean to say that if Rin were to die, then the gate would close."

Yukio's eyes frantically searched Mephisto's for some kind of joke, already knowing that he would find none. "No! That's not an option! We have to save him! We have to-"

"Look around you, boy," Mephisto whispered, and Yukio turned his head to see Angel and a few other high-ranking exorcists chanting. "You think that they'll allow the demon child to live?"

"I'm half demon too," Yukio argued, his eyes flicking back and forth from his dying brother to Angel, who was raising his sword. "Why don't they just kill both of us?"

"Nonsense. You're Shiro's sensible son, still useful to the organization. But Rin? He's a reckless danger, a pure risk for the Knights, and they don't take lightly to risks. They eliminate them."

"Don't talk about my older brother like that! Rin's not just some variable in their experiment! He's the best older brother in the world," Yukio cried out, turning away from Mephisto. Angel was only a few feet away, his sword held high, ready to come down-

"No!" Yukio shielded Rin's body from the blade, waiting for the bite of the metal to dig into his side, but no pain came. When he looked, Angel's blade was poised three inches above his side.

"Move!" he commanded. "Move in the name of the Knights of the True Cross! Move if you have any exorcist blood in you!"

"No!" Yukio yelled, his face streaming with tears for the first time in years, since he'd become an exorcist to save his brother from the pain of a world he couldn't yet see. "No! I promised to protect him! I won't let you kill-"

"Shh," Rin whispered, his face pale and his eyes narrowed, as though it pained him too much to keep them open. Yukio looked at him in terror, wanting to tell him to be quiet and save his energy, that he, the younger brother, would save him, that it would be okay, but Rin just grinned. "This is my chance to show them all that demons aren't so bad, right? Maybe it's worth it."

"It's not worth it to me!" Yukio protested, by now completely ignoring Angel.

"Dad would think it's worth it," Rin insisted, still grinning that idiotic grin.

"Dad would think you're stupid for throwing your life away!"

"Maybe. But I'm not throwing it away. It's more like recycling." Rin coughed, leaving his lips red with blood. Yukio shifted so he was kneeling on the ground and gently lifted Rin's face onto his lap. "Just...just tell..." He paused to cough; this time, it was worse. The Gehenna Gate shuddered violently along with him. "Tell my friends...that they were the best...friends I ever had. And..."

His head turned to the side as he lost the strength to hold himself up. "You were...the best little brother...anyone could ask for."

"Hey! Don't do this, Rin!" Yukio screamed, wanting to shake Rin but too afraid that his condition would worsen. Not that it can get much worse. "It's my fault. If I hadn't let myself become possessed, I wouldn't have shot you..."

"It's not...your fault."

"Yes it is, Rin! I pulled the trigger!"

Rin just smiled up at the crying Yukio, reaching up a trembling arm to ruffle his hair with his dying affections. "Good luck, little bro."

Then his arm fell and his eyes closed, although his smile stayed for a second before fading away slowly, like that was the last thing that Rin wanted Yukio to remember.