Hello! Sorry that I have left you guys hanging for so long. Haha this chapter is the second last, and yes…its another cliffhanger. Haha. Well, I was planning for this to be the last chapter, but the fight scene ran on its own course, so I decided to end at the next chapter. Haha. Yeap.

Oh here's a notice for you all. snow-angel-anna has discontinued her HoroOC, and she's currently working on a GetBackers fic. It's a KazukiOC, and she has posted her first chapter. You guys go support her if you have the time k? Haha and I posted a GetBackers oneshot too, so go read it if you wanna!

Oh and the reason why I chose the number three for the barrier, is NOT because its Ren's favourite number. In the Catholic bible (I'm not sure about the rest), three is a number of completeness. The Holy TRInity, and such all point towards that meaning. So effectively, three is a powerful number. Oh and besides, a triangle is one of the more stable and balanced shapes right?

And in case you don't remember, Heartblade is made of 5 swords locked together. The five swords are Tsubasa, Phoenix Flame, Murasame, Dark Entity and Ancient Warrior. Yeap I've arranged them in order of strength.

Note: A fallen-angel is NOT a devil. Its just an angel that has fallen to disgrace and has been sent to Earth as a punishment. At least, that's how I'm using the term in this story. Yea. So its not evil. Its as human as any of us, other than the fact that it has enhanced abilities.

Enjoy! Tell me what you think of it k?

Chapter 20- Overwhelming Power

Ren stared in amazement as a pair of wings emerged from Lyn's back. A pair of white feathered wings, surrounded by a pulsing golden light.

"I'm not that silly…" She told him with a grin, pointing to her wings with her thumb. Ren blinked in surprise, standing in a stunned silence for a second before realising what she was talking about. Her wings were not real. Instead, they were a product of oversoul.

Of course! How could he have forgotten? Archangel was a winged angel-warrior, meaning he had three mediums. The first was Lyn's sword, Heartblade. The second was the light of the sun. And the third, was a feather.

"Not just any feather." Lyn commented, as if able to read his mind. "It must be a perfect feather, one without a single flaw, and one of pure white. After all, an angel's wings are totally white."

"Stay back. I have to do this alone. This is my fight, and I'm not going to drag anyone into this." Lyn muttered, wiping the grin off her face as she turned to Shinn.

"These wings give me increased mobility. That should at least increase my chances of success." Lyn told Shinn, as she flew up into the air. Shinn smirked in reply.

Shinn's smirk slowly grew into an evil smile, and then into a laugh. "You underestimate me, my dear sister. Have you forgotten that I, too, have a spirit?"

"Fallen-angel! Oversoul!"

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Ren stared at the two people before him intently. Was this really destiny? The two were siblings, yet while they both held the power of an angel, one was that of a fallen angel. It was equivalent to the battle of light against dark.

He looked at Shinn curiously, waiting to see what a fallen-angel's wings would be like. But no wings emerged.

Shinn dashed towards Ren, and smirked at his stunned expression. "A fallen-angel is one that has lost its wings. But it still maintains a speed above that of an ordinary mortal. With this speed, I can kill you anytime."

"Not if I can help it!" Lyn shouted, streaking down towards Shinn, her wings folded at her side and Heartblade held with its tip pointing towards him. He smirked and sprinted away. "You can't even touch me now."

Lyn heaved a small sigh of relief. She had been hoping that her attack would miss. All she had needed was for him to get away from Ren.

"You will not harm a hair on my friends' heads as long as I am alive!" She shouted as she unlocked Tsubasa from Heartblade and let it drop to the ground. Tsubasa pierced the ground with the momentum it had gotten when she had dropped it from the air, and it stood upright, tip buried in the ground.

Lyn knew she was taking a risk, but to her, it was a necessary risk. If she succeeded, they would all get out of this alive, including Shinn. If she failed…she would rather die than have to kill her own brother.

Lyn flew towards Shinn with her remaining swords locked together. This attack she was planning was unlike anything she had ever tried before, although she remembered Kenshin having taught it to her.

From what she could remember, even Kenshin took a long time to prepare this attack. But it was a chance she had to take. Only one thing worried her…

I have never been able to execute this attack successfully.

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Kaede gritted her teeth as her attack missed again. She turned behind to see Lyn locked sword to sword with Shinn, and she bit her lip as she turned just in time to block an attack from her opponent.

Knowing Lyn, she probably wanted to handle this all by herself. Kaede chanced another look towards that battle, and her suspicions were confirmed. Ren was standing by the side, simply watching, which meant that Lyn had told him not to interfere.

"Watch out!" She turned around to see spirit of fire intercept a oversouled shuriken which had been flying for her heart.

"Thanks…" She told Hao with a weak smile, and he shook his head. "Its fine. Just be careful. Its no use worrying about Lyn right now. She has her reasons. Just focus on the battle at hand. Especially since Hui isn't doing a thing."

Kaede looked towards where Hao was pointing, and saw the truth in his words. Hui was just sitting on the ground, her face stunned and her body quivering with shock.

Maybe the shock of this would help Hui to wake up and realise the wrong in her actions. It was a cruel thought, but sometimes, people needed to have a near-death experience to wake them up.

"Her life is probably flashing past before her eyes now. So we had better do something to make sure that it stays that way. We don't want her life to flash past our eyes now, do we?" Hao commented with a smirk, and Kaede looked up at him in surprise.

"You still consider her your sister, don't you? And we can't let your sister die." He told her with an encouraging smile, and she nodded gratefully.

She did disapprove of Hui's behaviour, especially with Ren. But she couldn't blame Hui wholly. She had been brought up to think that way by that woman. She just had to be taught to see beyond her comfort zone.

Kaede sensed a projectile approaching her from behind, and she quickly ducked. As she did so, she noticed a shuriken flying towards Hui.

Kaede willed Hui to dodge, but Hui simply stared at the incoming weapon, eyes widening in fear but not making any attempt to move.

Kaede fired her own projectile to deflect the shuriken, and at the same time, spirit of fire's hand zoomed in to block the attack. Kaede glanced at Hao and smiled thankfully.

I'm glad he understands how I feel about this whole thing, and that he supports me.

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Lyn gritted her teeth as her muscles strained to push Shinn's broadsword back. She had never been able to beat him when it came to strength, so she had trained her speed. That was why she had trained herself to fight using two swords.

To her, strength didn't matter as much as speed. She didn't mind losing some force from her attacks if she could overwhelm her opponent with speed.

But now that Shinn had used oversoul, she lost to him even in speed.

If only she could figure out what his medium was. She couldn't see any aura of oversoul.

Shinn suddenly pulled back, causing Lyn to stumble forward with the momentum from the force she had been exerting. He smirked and slashed upwards, sending Lyn flying backwards. He ran after her, and held the tip of his broadsword against the tender skin of her throat.

"Still too weak, sister. That was the first time I 'killed' you. I won't hold back next time."

He lifted his broadsword from her throat and took a step back. Lyn pushed herself up and narrowed her eyes at the evil smirk on his face.

Her eyes widened in fear when she saw Ren running towards Shinn, Horaiken held at the ready. She ran towards him and sent Horaiken flying from Ren's hands with a swing of Heartblade,

Ren stared at Lyn in shock. What was Lyn trying to prove? Her life had been in danger back there. "I told you not to interfere in this fight!" Lyn growled harshly, her face hard.

Lyn saw confusion growing in Ren's eyes, and her face softened. "Look. I know what I'm trying to do. I just want to try ending this my way." She told him in a gentler voice, but that only added to his confusion.

Lyn shook her head and flashed Ren a grin before she turned around to face Shinn. "You don't have to hold back this time! Because I won't fall for the same attack twice!" She shouted, flying away from Ren and towards where she had been locked in combat with Shinn before.

Shinn dashed towards Lyn, stopping beside Ren for a second. "Did you seriously think I was unaware of your presence?" Shinn dashed away before Ren could even open his mouth, and Ren turned around to see Lyn locked in combat with Shinn once again.

The Gods decreed it, we will both lose something dear

And…

There by the ruins, one of us will KO.

What had those two lines in the riddle meant?

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Lyn knocked Shinn's broadsword back, then quickly flew up into the air and unlocked Murasame from Heartblade, dropping it about a metre and a half to the side of where Tsubasa was already embedded in the ground.

Lyn closed her eyes and took a deep breath, then opened them and unlocked Ancient Warrior from Heartblade, leaving Phoenix Flame and Dark Entity locked together. She needed to start using double swords if she wanted to complete the attack she was preparing.

Just then, something about Shinn's sword caught her eye. The large blade was surrounded by a darkness that seemed to be eating up the light around it. It was as if it was trying to suck away all the light in the world.

And suddenly, it seemed to her as if the broadsword was fading away, and taking its place was a wickedly curved scimitar. The broadsword seemed to be shifting, so quickly it gave her a migraine.

"Shinn…?" Lyn whispered fearfully, wondering what was going on. There seemed to be a growing smirk on his face.

"Thank you for lending your weapon to me, master…" Shinn whispered, then looked up at Lyn, his eyes overpowered by shadow.

Shinn lifted his sword, and to Lyn's horror, it was now a black scimitar which gave out a darkness that filled her with despair, a darkness so bleak it seemed to suck all the joy out of her life and left her an empty, shriveled shell.

I…can't give up.
I must not give in to the darkness…
I must hold on to life!

But its surrounding me…swallowing me…
Help me! Someone! Anyone!
Help? I thought I wasn't going to depend on anyone?
I thought I was not going to drag anyone into MY fight?

I'm falling…The darkness is overwhelming.
I see his face…that evil smirk, but I can't bring myself to hate him.
I'm falling further…is this fight impossible?
Was I doomed to failure from the start?
Is opposing the prophecies really such an unreachable aim?

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Ren's eyes widened in horror as Lyn sank to her knees, her eyes blank. From the start, he had been praying so hard that she would make it through this battle. And seeing how she had been holding back, as if afraid to hurt Shinn, had worried him further. Of course it would. While she was hesitating, Shinn had no qualms whatsoever of hurting her.

Ren glanced towards Shinn, and saw that he was holding a black scimitar instead of the broadsword he had used previously. Shinn was smirking down at Lyn's rapidly weakening body.

"Lyn!" Ren cried in fear as he ran towards her and scooped her limp body into his arms.

Any normal person would have found Lyn's state disconcerting. Although she seemed to be in a trance-like state, her eyes were wide open, but they were blank, void of any emotion.

But Ren couldn't care less. All he noticed was Lyn's shortening breath, her weakening pulse and slowing heartbeat.

The only thought running through his head was that the one person he treasured the most was dying in his arms.

See you guys at the next chapter!