for Cosmo, because she enjoys my works of fiction and is a great friend!


Prologue

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Ryu dropped to one knee and turned sideways, aiming his sidearm at his brother and firing two shots from his Colt .45. With ease, Nero deflected the bullets with his sword at inhuman speed. Taking a quick step back, Nero conjured an illusionary blade made of ice, and then, two more illusionary blades accompanied the single. With a swipe of hand, the three blades were launched towards the younger twin; all aiming to embed themselves into his lean frame.

With a string of cursing, Ryu got his feet under him and tried his best to counter the ice swords with his dual swords —lucky enough to deflect the first two but not so lucky against the third and final blade of ice— that one blade was fortunate enough to pierce through his right arm; splintering into explosive shards, sending the young man spiraling backwards and onto the cracked cement of the damp rose garden.

"I should've known you were good for nothing!" Called Nero, a tooth grin coloring on his bruised face. "You turned your back on everything we stood for! You betrayed us. You betrayed our family. You betrayed Yin!"

"—Betrayed!?" Ryu snapped, attempting to stand his ground to no avail and falling down to a single knee. He clutched his right arm; the flesh mangled from the explosive, and felt blood seep through fingers. Anger overwhelmed the dark-haired twin that he couldn't form any coherent words.

Nero retained his sickening tooth grin, the tip of his katana scraping against the ground as he slowly approaching his younger brother. "Haha. What's the matter, brother? All talked out? Ooh, are you crying again?"

The rain finally kicked in to drench the Lapierre brothers and the white-rose battlefield with the oldest staring down the youngest...the weakest of the two. He raised his blade above his head, and dropped it down upon the younger like a guillotine; not too heavy, not too light. But the blade didn't get lodged into his brother's skull as he'd hope it would —oh no— instead, Ryu rolled off to the side at an extremely fast pace, and kicked upward. Landing a direct hit against Nero's cheek before swiping his leg back and leaping forward with his fist connecting with the front of his nose.

Nero struggled to keep his balance, using Yukianesa as support. He wiped the blood from his swollen lip with his sleeve whose sharp jaded hues burning hatefully at Ryu.

Ryu too, was glaring at Nero with a pained expression that took over his face. He wiped his face with the sleeve of his leather coat and picked up one of his blades as the one was destroyed by the mini-explosive.

The twins continued the glare-off and awaited for the perfect moment to strike.

A blonde young lady, dressed in gothic Lolita fashion with a cat umbrella over her head, watched as the young men awaited their moment to strike in the midst of her least favorite garden. A murmur escaped her small lips, "What could've been done to avert this crisis?"

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A/N: Well, finally, the revision prologue of the story I started nearly three years ago is finally up...granted it didn't take that long to write it since I've been jumping around with this story and whatnot...well, it's up, and I hold everyone enjoys! Please R&R! :)