"NO!" cried Bite as Ape slammed into Lord Bryan. Lord Bryan fired off another shot into Ape.

As Lord Bryan pushed Ape's body off of him. Cut stared in absolute horror, his arms slacking for a moment, and then tightening around Thomas' neck. As Cut closed his eyes and prepared to twist, he felt an arm on his shoulder. Turning to see Lucy, he relaxed his grip.

Thomas used the distraction to break free and run forward to his brother, pinning him to the ground.

"Bryan! Stop this!"

"There's no choice Thomas!" cried Lord Bryan as he punched his brother in the face. As Thomas reeled back in pain, Lord Bryan let loose another shot at the charging Bite, clipping him in the side. At the same time, Lord Bryan kicked Thomas in the face, the cracks of the bullet breaking Bite's bone, and his foot Thomas' nose deafening to Lucy. Lord Bryan raised his head and surveyed the scene as Lucy looked around trying to process what had happened. In 10 seconds they had both taken it in. Silence cradled the bleeding Ape. He lay so still Lucy wasn't certain if he was…. Claw was dead. Bite was severely injured from the bullet and the fall when it struck him, but he'd crawled to Claw's side and grabbed her wrist to check for a pulse. Lord Bryan didn't give them a second glance, he could see the bloody remains of where Claw's head had been. Lucy could tell Claw had left them from the way Bite was grasping her wrist and letting his head fall, his body racked with tremors and sobs. Cut was stepping in front of Lucy, preparing for Lord Bryan to use his last two shots from his remaining pistol. Where was Father Pierce? Before she could find him, Lucy's eyes were drawn back to Lord Bryan. He sized up the situation and made his decision. She stared in horror as he lowered his pistol at his own brother's head.

Thomas looked up through the pain and the blood in his face at Lord Bryan.

"Did you ever even care about Kate?" he pleaded.

Lord Bryan thought for just a moment, and then shrugged his shoulders as he pulled back the hammer on his pistol.

"I don't see that it matters."

"Stop NOW!" cried Father Pierce as he strode towards the Lord, the pistol Lucy had slipped him leveled right at Lord Bryan's chest. Father Pierce strode closer and closer, till he was so close neither he or Lord Bryan could possibly miss.

"Last warning Lord Bryan, drop the gun."

"If you had a shot, you would have already used it."

"Of course," replied the Priest as he dropped his gun and grabbed the Lord's hand pointing his gun straight up.

As the Priest and Lord Bryan fought over the gun, Thomas followed them with his eyes, finally regaining enough vision and focus just in time to see it go off. Father Pierce had hoped the bullet would get embedded in the stone, but there must have been some metal in the structure, because the bullet bounced off. As it raced towards the several prostrate figures on the ground, Thomas instincitively flattened himself over Silence and the unconscious Ape, feeling a blazing pain in his side as his warm blood mixed with the rain and the other blood on the floor.

"Now," said Father Pierce, "It'll be over!" Lord Bryan grabbed the Priest's wrist and twisted, spraining it enough to turn the gun into his shoulder and fire. As Father Pierce cried out and fell back, Lord Bryan whirled to his side in time to see Cut rushing towards him with a knife.

"Careful with that knife boy, you may cut yourself."

Cut slashed at the Lord, but he skipped out of the way.

"Isn't that what the girl calls you? Cut? A fitting name. In a way, I gave it to you myself!" he cried pulling his own knife and slashing Cut on the arm. They slashed back and forth, landing and blocking blows, but Cut was stronger than Lord Bryan, who was still bleeding from his knife wound in his back.

Thomas tried to rise to his feet, his body deciding what to do before his mind could, but he stumbled. Belatedly, he realized someone was holding his arm. Looking back he saw the mute girl, Silence, grasping his arm. Her eyes darted from his to the helpless man in her arm. Begging. She was begging him. Thomas tried to pull away. She was still his sister's murderer. They all were, but… he didn't want to be here. He needed to get away, to think, to try to process how his whole world had gone insane in three short minutes. But there was not time to process, for as he turned he saw the village girl Lucy rushing to the bleeding Priest, the man with the strange teeth cradling the corpse of the woman his brother had shot, and the mad man they had hunted grappling with his...brother. The rain continued to pour and the wind to rage. The likelihood that they would all slip on these stones and fall to their deaths seemed to increase with every drop of rain and blood that poured over the tower. Thomas glanced down at the man in Silence's arms. His chest still moved, but his breathing was rattled and faint. It may already be too late. Thomas closed his eyes for one moment. He was to numb to think, to shocked to process, all he could do now was act. Fall back on his instincts and his training. Fall back on what he knew. Opening his eyes, Thomas ripped off his sleeve, and pressed it into the wound on Ape's stomach. Silence stared at him hopefully, questioningly as he told her, "we need to get him downstairs."

Cut prayed Lucy was standing back, or better yet, getting down from the tower. He knew she would want to help, but he couldn't see what she was doing. The wind blew the rain into his face, and the flashing of the lightning just disoriented him instead of illuminating anything. Thankfully, it seemed to be affecting Lord Bryan similarly. Snarling, Cut shoved forward, trying to push Lord Bryan closer to the edge. They had grabbed each other's hands, but every now and then their grips would slip, and one of them would get another slash in on the other's hands and arms.

Cut squeezed Lord Bryan's wrist tighter, hoping to hear the poping sound that would let him know he had broken it, but Lord Bryan leaned his head in closer to make sure Cut could hear him. "Before I kill you, I want you to know, I already have plans for your little friend. Perhaps it'll be a comfort to you to know I won't kill her. No, she'll be easy to manage. Right now, I think I'll continue my transplant experiments. Perhaps I'll use your body parts to replace hers. Then you'll never be separated, in this life or the next!" he cried as he shoved Cut over towards the edge, wresting his wrist away and stabbing his knife into his shoulder. Screaming through the pain, Cut wrapped his hand around the Lord's throat, squeezing with the last of his strength.

"You'll die now! You'll die before you touch her!"

Just then Cut heard Lucy cry out.

"No! Don't!" as a body came flying into them, sending them slipping over the edge. Cut kept his grip on Lord Bryan's throat, determined not to let him breathe again, but he could feel him being wrenched from his grip, pulled away towards the darkness. As the world seemed to spin and blur, the lightning finally illuminated the tower. Bite had crashed into the two of them, gripping Lord Bryan around the waist. He had pushed the Lord over the edge, but the two of them would fall together. Cut thought about letting go of Lord Bryan's throat, his face red and purple with rage and choking, but it was too late. Cut could already fill his feet slipping and his body tottering. He could feel the momentum of Bite's lunge carrying all three of them over the edge and into the whirling darkness below. Into the abyss, into death, and yet Cut was grateful. Grateful Bite had done it, even if it ended all three of their lives. The rest would be safe. Lucy would live, free at last. Perhaps Cut would be free as well. But as he fell, Cut felt arms grab his shirt and pull him back. Voices crying out. As Bite and Lord Bryan fell, Cut tried to watch them, to see Lord Bryan's life end, and to watch for Bite. He could feel his shirt ripping, but the hands had got a grip on his arm now, and pulled him back over. With a thud he fell back into the tower, but he didn't land on stone. He fell on something much softer. Focusing, he looked down... at Lucy.

"Thank God!" she whispered, throwing her arms around his neck and pulling him down closer to her. Cut tried to rise, certain he was crushing her, but she pulled him tighter, and gripped him harder. He struggled slightly, but then finally relented and wrapped his arms around her too. "Thank you," he whispered to her. He felt her sob, and pull him in tighter. "Never let go. Hold me tighter!" she gasped, the sobs coming fast now, and shaking her whole frame. Cut squeezed her tighter, as if he could somehow pull her inside himself or pull himself into her. But he needed to see her. Pulling back slightly, he got his head up, and cradled her bleeding cheek in his hand. Lucy opened her eyes and looked into his. "I love you" he told her. As he said it, he realized it was the first time he'd told her. He'd said as much before, but never just those three words. Lucy had said them to him when she'd been shot, when he'd thought he'd lost her. Now, he knew he had her forever. Lucy looked up at him, her eyes shining. She tilted her face up. Her lips parted slightly. Cut caught his breath. He leaned down. He felt as though all the air had left his lungs. The next moment, their lips touched. In a breathless moment, a warmth spread from their faces to their whole bodies, melting them together, uniting them more than they had every felt before. For the first time, in a long time, they felt whole.

"You two!" cried a voice, jolting them back to the lightning storm in the tower. Looking up, they saw Thomas and Silence lifting a makeshift stretcher with Ape's still form. Thomas cried out to them again. "You two idiots get over here now or we'll never get him down the stairs before he bleeds out!"

Sorry for how late this is. The ending turned out to be much harder than I thought to write. This is the second to last chapter. I will have Chapter 13 posted by Tuesday, if not sooner.

Any reviews or feedback would be appreciated.