Chapter...twenty three? Sure. Anyway, I have it up. No one reviewed my clify chapter? Tch :P.

Raine: ... ..

I know, you didn't like it.

Raine: I trust this will corect things?

Umm...About that, hehe...Read on.

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"Raine!" she heard him cry, but she didn't look up. The water below, the rolling waves in the ocean so far down had caught and now held her gaze. The only thing preventing her from slipping was the hold David had on her wrists, both hands pulled behind her back. If he let go, it was over. No second chances like the Aelaes Maer. Between the lethal impact with water from so high up, and the fact that she couldn't swim...She would die. Probably instantly. "Let her go..."

"I'd be glad to." Raine's heart gave a leap as David pushed her a little further over the edge.

"No!" Regal held his ground now, and she knew he felt at a loss. If he came any closer, David was likely to let go. However, he was likely to drop her no matter what...He had said so himeself. Therefore, she had only one thing to tell him...

"Go, Regal."

"Raine..." His tone was almost pure disbelief. "We've been through this already. I will not leave you here."

"David said himself this was...revenge against you for Karla's death. It was an accident, yes...but he's going to let go no matter if you're standing there or not. I don't want you...here...to see it." She squezed her eyes shut, blocking out the sight of the angry waters.

"I admire your wife's ability to resign herself to death. Like Deryn did because of you." David still held her nearly out completely over the ocean, but he was looking at Regal. "Maybe she's right, Bryant. Maybe you don't want to see this - but maybe I didn't want to watch Deryn give up her life, just lie down and die. Maybe I didn't want to see Karla plummet to her death. I had to. And so must you."

Matthew and Eric moved around behind the duke, to block any escape route, though Raine hardly thought that was necessary. Despite her request to have him go, in all truths she knew he wouldn't. "If you're going...to let go, I suggest...you stop talking and do it," she told him, her voice quiet with fatigue and resignation. The feeling of dangling was not pleasant at all...she would rather have the quick death and be done with it.

"I don't take my orders from you, half-elf. I'll drop you off when I'm good. And. Ready to."

"And when is that, after you've had the chance... to torture Regal with the sight of your deranged attempts at revenge? I would rather face death...than allow that to happen." Raine kept her eyes closed, struggling again. This time, though, it wasn't necessarily to get back to Regal. At this point, even falling would be better than knowing Regal was standing there, watching her, feeling so helpless.

"Do you want to die?" asked David, coldly.

"If it means...helping Regal...So be it. I have no regrets...And thus far you have done nothing but talk...You're a coward, afraid to carry out...the threats you have so bravely voiced."

With the hand not keeping her up on the bridge, David pulled her head back by the white tresses, and she winced. "Half-elves should learn to be seen, not heard, Missie. I don't think you quite understand the situation here. You are completely powerless against me in this state. If I let go, your departure from this mortal coil is most assured. You're in no position to show attitude with me. And I mean that quite literally."

"Whether I am, as you say, 'in a position' to do it, or not...Either way, I'm doing it now." She narrowed her now-open eyes, which were directed at the cloudy sky when her head was pulled back like this. "Either let me fall, or let me go...It's your choice. But whatever you're going to do...do it now, rather than running your mouth pointlessly."

"You know killing Raine won't bring either Deryn or Karla Salri back," said Regal, carefully. "Killing another won't solve anything. Perhaps you believe that this will appease your feeling of grief and anger. But it will not." She heard him step forward. "I am the one you blame for this."

"Regal," she warned in a dangerously low tone, one that could intimidate even through the weakness of her voice. She had a feeling she knew what he was thinking, and couldn't let him do it. She couldn't...

But he seemed to ignore her. "If I am the one you hold responsible for their deaths, allow me to take her place. Punish me...Not Raine."

"Regal--" she started again, but David tugged her head back further to silence her.

"I hold both of you responsible in part," said the man. "However, you have been directly involved in both circumstances that surrounded Deryn and Karla's deaths. I want to show you what it feels like to lose someone close to you, Bryant."

"I already do," he said quietly. "But I am willing now to lay my own life down to prevent hers from being taken forcibly. Set her free, David. Allow me to take her place."

"You may be willing, Regal...But I'm not going to let you do it." Her violet blue eyes slipped closed again.

"Raine?" he questioned, obvious confused by her statement.

"Thank you, Regal. For everything...you've done for me. You've saved my life so many times...Maybe I'm just returning the favor. Yes, think of it like that."

"You can't--"

"Please don't blame yourself for any of this...It was not your fault. And please...make sure these three go to prison once more...With a longer sentence." Raine turned her head as much as she could to look at him, and gave him a ghostly smile. "I love you, too, Regal."

He was struck dumb by this, and she knew he was still confused with what she was talking about. But it would all make sense soon enough. Again she closed her eyes, and focused very carefully on drawing enough mana up to do it. She knew that in this position, if David's hold was released she would fall. And she knew that Regal was trying to bargain for her life with his own - whether David would accept it or not, she didn't know. But she wasn't willing to risk it.

So, taking a deep breath, she braced herself for both her next rash action, and what would follow it. "Photon!" she said, as clearly as she could. David gave a strange sound of surprise and pain as the slightly weakened spell made contact with his hand. He let go...and she fell.

With her eyes still closed, she mused over the feeling of falling so far, mused over how, just after being saved from a deadly disease, such a short time later she would die anyway. Ironic, these things.

Somewhere above her, she was aware of a desperate shout. Regal's voice...her name. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she continued to fall freely toward the ocean below, following the same path that Karla had.

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Raine: O.O What...did you do?

Yeah...I thought you might be a bit unhappy with that.

Raine: "A bit unhappy?" That doesn't begin to describe it, child. You've killed me...

How do you know? The fiction isn't over yet. o.O