Maybe Restrictor thought it was a joke for he chuckled. When in the past umpteen years have I joked? Every threat I made against Restrictor was no joke, but a promise. Anyways, the girl just stood there with a hint of fear on her stone face. A gloved index finger was wrapped around the trigger, but her tendons would not pull her finger in for a deadly shot. What was she waiting for? "Shoot! Carry it out!" I ordered at her.

She still did not shoot. The shudder in her shoulders suggested that she was still trying to build up the courage to carry out my order. It was rather a simple order: shoot Restrictor in the head. At the same time, as I was pondering and getting angry on her hesitation, I felt for her and pitied her. She was the newest tsviet and yet I had given her orders to assassinate her "superior". This would prove her true strength.

However, not everything had gone as planned. Her slight hesitation proved pivotal in this desperate situation. That falter caused Restrictor to have the upperhand. He teleported behind the girl and side kicked her square in the stomach. As she fell to the ground with a small cry, Restrictor whipped out his long, massive hand gun and aimed it her head. Yeah…he really cared about his tsviets alright.

She struggled to stand but the pain from taking a full blow from Restrictor was too much. Shaking my head slightly, I knew I would have to intervene if I was to salvage our plan. Teal mako energy burst from my body, heightening my senses. The rush tensed my muscles for action. I dashed forward at cheetah speed…I'll take that back: maybe faster than the speed of sound.

"Wha-? You…stop it!" Restrictor yelled with fear and rage dripping from his voice. His hand thrust out at me. He was known for his mastery of using materia. It showed in the immense bolt of lightning that he thrust into my stomach. I was not one for expressing the pain I'm in, but that doesn't mean I like pain. That lightning bolt was no exception. It jolted through every crevice of my body and threatened to shut it down. Oh no it won't!

"Let me join you, Restrictor?" I thrust that mocking question in his face to let him taste the poison of the words. As if I would join him. I managed to straighten up. A grin fell across my lips. "Heh, you'll be goner if your restriction is getting weak." He gave me a defiant growl that might have said, "yeah right". Then again, it could be just frustration that I was getting into his grill rather than he into mine.

As we strugged against each other, blade on blade, he figured that my will was overcoming his strength as my blades edged towards his neck. Once again, the coward thrust a bolt of lightning into my body. It wasn't nearly as powerful as the previous, but boy did it burn! I recovered quickly and resumed my shove. I noticed over Restrictor's shoulder that the girl had gotten to her feet and her gun was in hand again.

"Come on! Now's the time!" I growled authoritatively, but not cruelly. "Carry it out!" I heard the bark of her gun and felt a bullet whiz by my ear. She had missed, but it wasn't because of her marksmanship. She always had perfect aim. Restrictor had moved behind me in hopes to use me as a human shield. Like I said. This man was such a coward.

However, in his distraction with the girl, he failed to prepare himself for my strike. My foot came up and knocked him clear away from me. The kick wasn't exactly my most powerful, but who made it law that you have exert huge amounts of force anyways? Well, it did it's job as it threw him off balance. As he staggered back like one who has had too much wine, I could imagine that behind the metal of his mask, he was grimacing and grunting.

I whirled around like a tornado and drew Heaven and Earth. They sang in melody and harmony again. If I had a chance, I might just draw and sheathe my two children over and over again just to hear that eerie prelude. Their song in battle was even more mysterious, but there was something about that first note that send my blood burning through my veins.

The Twins crashed downed against Restrictor's gunblade with an intensity that would have easily sliced through had his blade not been made of adamant steel. The tungsten blade edges of my swords were far stronger than regular steel, but not enough to take on his emperor grade metal. What a shame.

The girl was back on her feet and with an emotionless fire, she dashed toward Restrictor. Upon her confession to me earlier about her younger sister, I knew there was no price she wouldn't pay as well to see Restrictor at her feet. She flew in with a kick aimed at his spine. All her training hadn't gone to waste. It landed perfectly.

Had my brother been here, this fight would have been long over. However, he was restrained and heavily chained up once again. It was okay. His burning fire had already seeped into me and now I fought with the strength of not just me, but he as well. It was comforting as if he were here. Even so, this new tsviet was not bad.

With grace and swiftness of the wolf innate of my brother, I guided my swords up in an arc cleaner than the rainbow and with a speed dwarfing that of sound. Their edges met steel armor and sliced right through. Yes! My first true hit to this monster. Adrenaline rushed like wildfire through my blood and I became even fiercer. I had to keep going. That wound from which Restrictor's blood was now seeping was not enough to break free my spirit that was chained within the life of the man before me. To free it, I would have to kill him. This was no surprise. I had been plotting this battle for a long, long time.

Grunts of pain came from Restrictor and he raised his blade to ward off my next blow aimed straight at his head. Yet, the wound was enough to damage his guard. He crashed forward violently just as the new tsviet's leg came down from delivering th blow. I smiled at her in approval though she shrank away. Had I given her a sadistic glare? I didn't think I did.

Restrictor's breathing deepened and roughened as though he was furious. In fact, he was wheezing a bit. No grace was present in the manner of which he got to one knee. It was possible that Earth, in her airy meekness, had cut deeper than her brother and grazed Restrictor's intercostal muscles. this could be to our advantage. His masked face turned away from me and attempted to look behind him. "Impossible," he gasped. It was more of a whisper as to not embarrass himself with a degrading term, but it had already been heard one who would blackmail him with it if he was going to live another day. Restrictor brought himself roughly to his feet and lashed out with his blade. "Don't underestimate me!"

And, for the first time, a tsviet was struck by Restrictor for one purpose: death. The girl's tiny waist was ornamented with a terrible bauble. Restrictor's blade seemed to be swallowed by her stomach and he back spat it out with her own blood as well. She didn't scream. she didn't moan. She didn't even open her mouth. Silent as a lamb, she gazed down at the blade intruding her body and then sadly up at Restrictor. In his careless apathy for one of his tsiviets, Restrictor tossed her body away.

"Go, my brother. Free us," Nero's voice rang in my head. Heaven and Earth surged with excitement and my body was overwhelmed with raging power. The time had finally come to exploit the innermost desire in my heart. For years I thought this desire was revenge. I then thought it was for power. But it wasn't.

The sound of flesh being pierced is a sound that I cringed at for every time, it meant another soldier had met his or her end for little to no reason. But oh, this sound suddenly became sweet. Heaven and Earth sang in a finale of fortissimo and climax as they gave their best and all. The only music I had heard in the past nine years were fanfares and scores to hail the all "powerful" Restrictor. But this moment proved that the sweetest music to my ears and soul was the metallic cry of swords.

Heaven buried his fang into Restrictor's heart; Earth, his spine.

The man's body froze for a moment and then was overcome with a jagged shudder. I could hear his teeth clack lazily agaisnt each otehr as shock raged into his body. Like a vampire, my eyes widened at the sight of his blood running down my swords. The feel was like new rain on a parched land. His head turned slowly with a twitch that spoke of fear. "But if...you do this...your virus will..."

I jerked roughly on my blades causing him to groan and choke out. Blood began dripping from his mask. "Stop talking nonsense," I warned vehemently. I jerked my blades even more, disembowling him further. "Aren't you the one who said," I began. I turned both blades outward as if carving stone. Yes, I was carving his stone heart out. "'Death is always with you as long as you are in DG'?" He had said those words to me on my third day in Deepground and I buried them so that one day, I could regurgitate them and throw out the audacity and coldness at him tenfold. His very words sunk in as his breath drew in sharply. That last, short breath fell away from his mouth as his form fell away from my bloodied swords.

I cannot begin to describe that moment and what it felt like as I, azul, and Rosso laughed the fantasy away. The fantasy of freedom floated away as the reality of freedom settled like a sweet mist. The moment was glorious and as my voice in laughter grew louder and more passionate with my fellow tsviets, the wings of my spirit unfurled for the first time in nine years.

Nero, now we are free.