Disclaimer: Same as Chapter One! Oh yeah, and the title of the chapter is also a title for a Disney show..... Guess I give them credit too.


Chapter Three

"Brotherly Love"

By Magic


Trinity was about ready to scream. In fact, she decided it was the best idea she'd had all day. It had taken two hours for her mom to finally come up with the "perfect" dress to meet her step-brother in. Then her mom told her to take a shower and get her hair all "nice" for dinner. Trinity loved her mom, but she could be such a perfectionist.

She walked, or rather slumped, into the bathroom and filled the tub with hot water. She felt grimy from sword practice and wanted to take a bath. She poured half of the bottle of bubble bath into the tub and watched as the cloud of white fluff slowly rose to the edge of the huge tub. She got in after removing her clothes and sat there for what seemed like half of forever before she finally got to washing her hair.

After she was clean she looked out the window. The sun had long since gone down, and the fake sky was a dark, cobalt blue. My favorite color, Trinity thought as she slid deeper into the tub. Soon she was fast asleep, only to be woken up a half an hour later to a loud thumping noise.

She dried herself and her hair off, deciding that her brother wasn't expected until ten o'clock so she would just put on a pair of shorts and a black shirt. She still wanted to know what the noise was, but she forgot about it when the problem came to her hair. She combed her still damp, dark brown, chin length hair and put it in a half ponytail because it wasn't quite long enough for a full one.

She looked at herself in her vanity mirror. The reflection she saw was a semi-tall girl who looked like she would rather be out climbing trees than sitting at a dinner table. She wasn't cute, but she was best described as a grown up sort of pretty. One that the boys at school hadn't noticed, probably because she wasn't blonde. Her dark brown eyes looked almost black in the dim light next to her pale skin. Trinity groaned as the usual layers on each side of her head fell out of the tight ponytail since they were too short to stay in.

Again her looked into the mirror. It'll have to do, she thought, because I'm not doing anything else with this hair. She got off of the chair and walked out into the hall, shutting her door quietly behind her. She looked around, confused. Usually there was someone running up and down the halls, no matter what time of the night it was. Then she heard the thumping again.

She ran to the window a couple feet away from her and looked outside. What she found there was a large Mobil suit walking on her front lawn. She was so surprised she almost fell over but was supported by the wall so instead she just hit her head hard on the glass window. Suits aren't allowed on this property, she thought, aghast. What the hell?

She ran down the halls looking for someone to talk to, but there was no one to be found. She then walked into the large living room by the front door and found the door open. She walked slowly up to the large windows facing the Winner building and looked into the back yard. The forest was dark and foreboding in the distance. Past the forest there was a large stream that she often would swim in as a child. She was lost in her thoughts when she heard a scream to her right. She quickly turned around and looked down the hall towards her parents quarters. The hall, which was usually lit by thousands of hall lights and chandeliers, was now as dark as the bottom of the ocean.

Trinity walked over to the light switch to turn on the closest light and found that the light wouldn't turn on. She slowly began her way through the long hallway down to her parents' room. Soon she could see the light from their doorway. One of the double doors was swung open and created a beam of light that penetrated the darkness. Trinity walked over to the door and knocked.

First she heard a small gasp, then she heard her mother say calmly," Come in, Trinity."

Trinity walked into the door, ready for what she might find, or maybe not. Her mouth opened wide as she saw the scene that lay before her. Her mother, in her best dress, was being held at gunpoint by her step-brother! She stood there trying to make sense of the picture. Nadir was in his best uniform, standing in a relaxed position. He turned to face her as she walked into the room.

"Hello, Trinity," he said as a smile spread across his all too handsome face. "How nice to see you. I haven't seen you for almost a year now. You really have grown you know. You seem to almost, but not quite, fit that sword that's at your side. Of course, you're still just a child now. Too bad you're life will end soon. Painfully to say the least, but let's get back to the task at hand."

Trinity just stood there, not being able to find the words that would express the feeling she had now. Why? She thought. The words 'fuck you' came to her mind, but her mouth refused to accept them.

By then Nadir interrupted her thoughts. "You must be asking yourself why right now, I would have to guess. Why is my step-brother holding my mother at gunpoint? Well, I'll answer your question for you my dear, dear sister. I knew that you wouldn't fight me unless I had a little weight on my side to make you. And, as you can see, I found that weight. So this is my deal," Nadir said looking from Trinity to her mother," you fight me, or your mother dies." A cruel smile replaced his all too fake 'hello sis' one as he said," oh yes. There is just one tiny catch to this deal. You have to fight with your sword, and it's not fun and games this time, Trinity. It's to the death."

Trinity grabbed for the hilt of her sword instinctively and slide it under Nadir's neck. Her whole body shook with a combination of rage and fear as she attempted to get her emotions in check. The world had gone insane; there was nothing else to it. Her normal life had been shattered into pieces like a mirror after someone takes a hammer to it.

Oceans of blue eyes blinked in amazement, until the eyes turned into reflections of amusement. Nadir scoffed at his younger, step-sisters action. "Would you kill me sister? Could you kill me? No, it seems to me that I still have the weight here because the question is dear Trinity, can you kill anyone?"

"What's happened to you?!" Trinity screamed as her eyes welled with tears, her sword dropping from his neck and to her side as her confusion swelled. It seemed that for a second Nadir's eyes melted if just for a moment. His expression seemed unsure and for an instant he seemed to start lowering the gun from his step-mother's head.

At that moment Trinity heard the sound of a gun going off, the harsh scream of glass breaking, and the sound of a short yet painful scream as Trinity's mother was shot to the ground.

To Trinity it felt like a life time as she spun to watch the blood from her mother splatter on the floor and her mother fall slowly to the ground and land with a dead, empty thud. Her face, dashed with the red blood of her mother, twisted into an expression of complete fear. Nadir growled something under his breath and spun to face Trinity, but she was already running out of the door.

"I will find you and my sorry excuse for a father!" Nadir yelled out after her.

Father? Thought Trinity. Father's still alive? Trinity needed to find him and warn him that his son had a pile of marbles missing. Mother. . . why? Why did he kill you? Why couldn't---WOULDN'T I save you? As Trinity ran down the hallway, all of the lights came back on. She looked around for the person who switched them on and found her step-father running towards her.

"TRINITY!!!" He yelled and he ran to his step-daughter's side.

Before she could really even grasp that her step-dad was even there, he was pulling her towards one of the back doors.

"Mother. . . " Trinity managed to croak out as her father whisked her out of the house.

"I know," was all she got out of her dad. He pulled her onto one of the motorcycles that were used to travel in the forest. "You drive," he said as he handed her the keys to the bike. As she started the bike with shaky hands, her father pulled out his gun and got on behind her. "Go. Now. To the woods."

Trinity had a hard time starting off, but soon they were whizzing towards the tree line up ahead. Glad she was the driver, Trinity couldn't think about what had just happened. Instead she had to keep her eyes on the road ahead. She was an average driver, but this was under weird circumstances so she kept on forgetting what she was doing. Her father, meanwhile, was watching the road behind them with great concern. If he was thinking right, this would not be a simple get away. Nadir would probably get into his suit to hunt them down. They were fighting a losing battle, and he knew it. His only thoughts were to get Trinity to safety.


***


Nadir watched his father and step-sister ride away towards the fores as he flung another asprine into his mouth and crunched noisely. This was going to be easy. Just like shooting fish in a barrel, he thought smiling, then stopped to ponder. Why in the world would you ever do such a thing. I mean really...why would one have fish in a ...oh, never mind!

One of his soldiers came up behind him and saluted. "Your suit is ready to fly, Sir," the soldier said stiffly and sharply.

"Thank you," Nadir said briskly, turning around. "Don't let the others follow; I'm going alone."

"Yes, Sir."

Nadir walked out onto the back lawn and over to his suit that was bent over so he could get in easily. Once inside, he switched the large machine on and looked outside as the house began to fade behind him. Soon this all will be mine, he thought with a smile.

His suit was relatively slow, but it caught up with the small bike in no time. He aimed his gun at the bike, carefully so as not to hurt it's passengers. He was going to enjoy this.


***


They had entered the forest, and now she could hardly see two feet in front of her. I hope that cliff isn't too close, she thought in a semi-panicked mood. This is not good. Trinity heard the large suit behind her and stepped on the gas, but it was no use, the only thing she could hope for was that a sudden meteor was fall from the heavens and hit his suit. She had no such luck as the suit released one single bullet that threw both her and her father from the bike.

The bullet hit the back tire, causing the bike's back to line up with it's front. First, the bike spun to face the forest, and Trinity flew off over the front of it and landed on her shoulder in a pile of leaves. Her father though was tossed off the bike backwards onto his back in the middle of the rode.

Trinity's world was going black. The only thing that kept her awake was the scene of her mother dying being played over and over in her head every time she closed her eyes. Feeling the wet stain of tears surging down her face, she forced herself to stay awake. She slowly got up off the throbbing shoulder and was about to walk to her father when she saw that her brother had beaten her there.

Her father was standing up to face his son face to face. Nadir was standing just a few feet away from him as he got to his feet. The two grown men stood before each other like statues, grand men of different ideals. They seemed to be alone in the world, fighting each other with their gazes, and even though Trinity stood within feet of them, she felt like she had been disconnected from the two.

"Nadir. What have you done? You have killed my wife, taken hold of my house, and now you try to kill your sister and me? What have you become?" Her step-father's eyes glowed with both sadness and hatred as he looked into his son's face. "What has he done to you?!"

"He has done nothing to me that I haven't wanted myself. Don't you understand, father? This is war. I need the power to rule, and to get that from you, you must die. I will be the only one of the family left to take this power, and I will use it to win this war for the grand cause. You never really were my father though, so I feel no sadness in killing you. You gave my sister the only thing that I ever wanted. You disowned me when I began this war. You are not a father, and because of this, I will kill you and you're precious daughter who you don't even have a blood tie with," Nadir said coldly.

"Power? This is all you want?! You're heart and blood has frozen in space. Because of this, you may no longer call yourself my son."

"Fine," Nadir said, taking out his gun, "then good bye, stranger."

"No!!" Trinity yelled as Nadir pulled the trigger. "Father!!"

The great man's body shook once and the once tall standing man stumbled before his own son. Nadir watched the body of his father fall the ground and then turned on his sister.

"Fathers. It seems that more than one father has betrayed their children this night," a slick grin spread over his face.

Trinity just stared at her brother. The pain in her shoulder and her heart was weighing her down. She dropped to her knees, and soon she fell forward as the blackness closed in. Father. . . was the last thought that went through her mind.


***

Trinity woke as she felt a sharp slap across her face. She found herself propped up against a tree and looked down at her feet and saw that to one, there was a rope with a large brick tied to it. She glanced up and was met by the face of her brother.

"You have been sleeping long enough," he told her, "now it is time to see who is stronger."

He yanked her too her feet by pulling on her shoulder. She screamed as pain flooded back from into her body through her bruised shoulder, but soon her was on her feet.

"We will fight here, with swords," Nadir said, pointing to the open area. " The weight on your foot is to keep you from jumping off the edge of the cliff into the river. If you do, you will be pulled down to the bottom and drown."

Trinity gazed around her; the clearing was almost completely clear of anything but grass for about fifty feet. She wouldn't be able to run away because he would be able to shoot her easily. It did not look good.

"Take out you're sword," Nadir said as he took out his and stood next to her," and pick a starting spot."




***


Duo and Quatre had made it to the river finally. They had to walk on foot because there were not trails or roads near it since the river was the only thing that would fit in the small area between two cliff edges. The sides were at least the height of a four-story building. The fall wouldn't kill you, but it would sure hurt, so they decided not to climb the walls and dive off the edge.

Duo had taken off his shoes and was already swimming in the chilly water when he heard a shrill scream from above. He looked up and saw no one. Maybe it was just his imagination. But I could have sworn. . . he just shrugged it off. He had some thinking to do. Whenever he tried to go underwater and swim, he would be reminded on Hildy and would have to come back to the surface gasping for breath.

He was hurt inwardly by the death of his close friend. He just wouldn't show it to the guys. Quatre probably knew how he felt because he had a knack for knowing those kinds of things, but he would keep his mouth shut. Duo just didn't want the other guys knowing he had such deep emotions. The others never showed any emotion hardly at all and Duo kept his in keep by putting a happy-go-lucky mask on every time he felt a different emotion. He turned around to see Quatre cannon ball into the water right next to him and splash Duo with the ice-cold water.

"Take that stinky boy!" Quatre yelled as he swam to the cliff side.

"This means war you know, blondie!" Duo yelled back, swiftly swimming after his blonde friend.


***


Trinity slowly walked over to the edge of the cliff. She felt like her whole body would explode right there and then. She could hardly walk she felt so stiff. She looked over the edge and down into the river. I have a better chance living with the fall than I do fighting him. I can hardly move.

Nadir walked over to Trinity,"So are you ready?"

Trinity just replied,"You know you'll win. I could never kill you. Plus, I can hardly move. Maybe I'll just spare you time and take my chance with the fall." She lifted her middle finger on her right hand up in salute before she swiftly moved over to the edge.

"No!" Nadir screamed,"You coward!" The golden blond rushed as quickly as she neared the edge.

Trinity whirrled around to face him before pushing off with one foot over the edge. "You're wrong." Her dark hair flew around her face as she began to plumit downward, Nadir's scrowling face was the last thing she ever expected to see.

Her body wracked with the jolt as she broke the calm surface and swiftly fell to the bottom of the ten-foot river. She struggled against the weight of the brick, but it was just too heavy; she was doomed. For the second time that day, the blackness was starting to come.

***

Both Quatre and Duo had seen someone fall, but Duo was the faster of the two to swim down after her, silently thanking the fact that becoming a pilot had required extensive swimming lessons. He saw the reason why the person hadn't come back to the surface; he or she was weighed down by a brick tied to their leg.

Duo quickly swam down towards the struggling figure. Soon the person's movements became less frantic. Danmit! That person is dying! Swim faster! Duo thought to himself. He soon reached the body and untied the rope. He lifted the person's body to the surface and soon they broke out of the water.

Duo started swimming towards the shore, carrying the girl's body with him. He set the girl onto the beach and checked to see if the girl was breathing. She was. Her short, brown clung to her white face, her dark eyelashes covering her closes eyes. Then the girls eyes opened slightly, revealing dark brown eyes that matched her wet hair. A small smirk covered her face. "You could've swam faster you know..." Her eyes shut as she slipped into the dream world.

"Do you know who she is?" Duo spun around to face Quatre who was running up to the two on the beach. The blonde pilot just looked the girl once over and slowly nodded. He knelt next to the two and felt for the girl's paulse.

Quatre straightened up and looked around the area. "We should bring her back. Whatever or whoever she was running from probably will search the area for her body after awhile. I just wonder what could have caused her to take that leap."

Duo brushed aside the brown strands of hair that stuck onto her wet face. There were splatters of something that hadn't been fully washed off by the water when she hit it. His hand retracted as he glanced towards Quatre to see if he had noticed; the face of his friend answered his question posotively. It was a stain that Duo had seen all too often; the dark stain that one couldn't ever truly wash away though it's physical appearance had disappeared entirely. Blood.


***