An unearthly clamor filled the courtyard as the thrumming of the monarchs' wings mingled with the clanking of the black knight's armor as the plates jostled against one another. Bathed in the red light streaming from the sky above, Tetsuo stood before them like the eclipse of a dying star, his chest heaving and lost in madness.

"This is it!" called Gin. He clenched his teeth and looked straight past the escalating readouts in his mask. "If we want to get back home, we have to take him down! No more hesitation!"

Yoko tore her mask from the bridge of her nose, illuminating her grim expression in a flash of blue as Guinevere appeared beside her.

"I hope that when we see each other again, you can forgive us. But for now, I won't hold back, either."

She looked back over her shoulder at Rin. She stood at a distance, her eyes wide and clutching the grip of her bat with white-knuckles.

"Rin? C'mon, Rin, we gotta do this," she said, trying to elicit some kind of response from her shell-shocked partner, but it was a vain effort. Rin remained rooted to the spot, refusing to tear her eyes away from Tetsuo's. This monster's existence was a betrayal she couldn't rationalize, and although she had been trying, Galahad refused to answer her call.

"This can't be happening…" she whispered.

"Let her be!" Gin shouted. Then, to his sister, he added, "Stay back, and leave this to us. We can take him ourselves."

Tetsuo extended his arm into the swarm of butterflies and clenched his fist.

"Arondight Zero – Blade of the Fool."

Clumps of monarchs burst into gasps of black flame, resolving themselves into the shape of a weapon. The thing was massive, nearly as tall as Tetsuo himself, a hybrid of sword and spear with an elongated grip and a keen-edged blade that shook the ground as it plunged it into the stone beside him. With one hand, he took it by the hilt and leveled it at his foes.

"With this power, I'm taking back my dreams."

With a flick of his wrist, he brought the slab of steel up over his head and swung, releasing a howling, violet beam of light. Yoko and Gin leapt aside just quickly enough to avoid getting split open, but Rin found that she could do nothing but stare as the attack screamed towards her. But before either of her companions could shout for her to move, the beam dissipated, close enough that she could still hear the air humming.

Her pupils dilated, her heart rate spiked, and with a gasp, she tottered backwards and scrambled behind one the fragments of the Caduceus statue, clutching at the front of her shirt.

Gin let out a sigh of his own.

"Stay there!" he shouted from behind one of the other chunks of limestone that littered the hospital courtyard. "Whatever happens, don't move!"

Yoko shot him a skeptical glance.

"You sure that's what you want? If we don't get her to snap out of it-"

"As long as she stays out of the way, she'll be okay," Gin cut in. "Seems like Tetsuo's not going to attack her if he can help it. That plays to our favor, though. It means we can focus on figuring out how to destroy him."

But no sooner had he said this than Tetsuo's blade came down between them, splitting their cover neatly in half.

"What's that? You've been plotting to kill me all this time, and you still don't have a plan? Come on, Gin! Aren't you supposed to be smarter than this?"

"Pellinore!" shouted Gin as he rolled away, "Flash bombs!"

Pellinore's drones darted in front of Tetsuo's visor and unleashed a burst of blinding light. Tetsuo's gauntlet flew to his face as he staggered backwards, allowing Yoko and Gin to sprint across the lawn and dart behind some shrubbery.

"Gah! Face me, you bastard!"

"Do we have a plan?" Yoko whispered. "What's Pellinore say about him?"

Gin answered from behind gritted teeth. "Nothing particularly useful. He's strong, and he doesn't have any weaknesses that we can exploit. Right now, he's fused with Launcelot, so electricity's the only thing that would give us any real advantage."

"Well, we're outta luck there."

"Exactly. I think we're gonna have to play this one by ear and learn what he can do on the fly. But if we're gonna get him to start revealing his tricks, we'll have to apply some pressure. We'll attack separately, and force him to take us two-on-one."

Yoko poked her head around the edge of the bush to peek at Tetsuo, then quickly withdrew it.

"All right then. Now or never!"

With a nod, the two of them summoned their Personas and rolled out from the behind the shrubbery in opposite directions. Shaking the glare from his eyes, Tetsuo turned to face them, leveling his sword.

"There you are!"

With a few precise flicks of his wrist, Tetsuo launched a flurry of beams from his blade as the two Persona users closed in. While Yoko used her agility to dodge Tetsuo's attack, Gin leapt atop Pellinore, using his Persona's blistering speed to weave through the barrage until he found himself opposite his partner.

"Open fire, Pellinore!" he shouted, leaping off his Persona.

Pellinore's drones spun up around it with a deafening buzz and unleased a hailstorm of gunfire. Tetsuo blanched momentarily, raising his blade as a makeshift shield as bullets peppered his exposed armor. Although the shots did little more than annoy him, his sword arm was now occupied, and Yoko seized her chance.

"Now, Guinevere! Torch him!"

A burst of white-hot fire sprang up within the depths of her Persona's stained-glass insides, surging up her torso, through her arms, and erupting from her palms as a ray of searing flames. The spell struck Tetsuo in the side and he let out a cry, clapping a hand to his side and plunging his sword into the ground. As he did, violet sigils etched themselves into the pavement beneath Gin and Yoko's feet. They had barely even noticed before copies of Tetsuo's sword erupted from the sigils' centers, piercing one of Pellinore's drones and nicking Guinevere across the hip.

Yoko withdrew her Persona and let out a yelp as a thin, crimson line spread across her side. Gin pulled back Pellinore as well and bit down hard on his lower lip. Losing one of the drones felt like having his pinky fingers stabbed through. He gave his hands a shake as though it would make the pain ebb faster.

[You alright?] he called to Yoko, using Pellinore to speak directly into her mind. She nodded.

[Yeah. I don't think it was too deep. What now, though? Outranging him doesn't seem like it's gonna work.]

Gin kept his eyes locked on Tetsuo as he watched him wrench his sword out of the ground and round on them again. His mind churned through possibilities as quickly as it could, spurred on by the throbbing in his fingers. One way or another, they would have to create an opening to deal the final blow with their Personas' strongest abilities - either Pellinore's Demon Core or Guinevere's Saint Elmo's Fire. Anything less would be unlikely to do the job.

[If you can draw his attention for a bit, I've got something I can try.]

"Got it. Let's go, Guinevere!"

Yoko pulled her mask off again and Guinevere burst forth, launching a cluster of fireballs that arced through the air and homed in on their target. Undeterred, Tetsuo cut through them with a single upwards swing, extinguishing the flames with the force of air pressure alone as he continued his steady advance. Taking a few deep breaths, Yoko closed the distance between them and swung her weapon at Tetsuo's chin. The head of her morningstar let out a resounding clang as Tetsuo blocked the attack and retaliated with a downward slice.

As they traded blows, Yoko was taken aback by the sheer intensity behind them. Each one stung more than the last, to the point where she could start to feel her shoulder loosening in its socket. It was then that she realized that what she saw reflected in those golden eyes wasn't fury, but fear – the same kind of fear that drives cornered animals to madly fight for their lives. He truly believed that returning to the real world was tantamount to death, and that was a level of desperation neither she nor Gin could hope to match.

Tetsuo raised Arondight high into the air, and slammed it against the stock of her morningstar with all of his might. Although she parried the attack successfully, Yoko felt her arms finally give out, and knew that she wouldn't be able to raise them in time to deflect another.

[Gin! Whatever it is you're doing, you need to do it now!] she silently screamed.

He returned her outcry with a wry smirk, looking past her at the drones he'd attached to Tetsuo's cloak. One thing he'd learned after watching Tetsuo fight so many times was that he had a tendency to get tunnel vision when he felt he had the upper hand. It had been relatively easy to plant Pellinore's drones on his mother's Shadow back in Cloud Eight, so it stood to reason that the same strategy could work again. Once Tetsuo was susceptible to Pellinore's magic, the Demon Core would be able to blow him to pieces.

"Now, Pellinore! Nuke Br-!" he shouted, but he was cut short.

"Arondight One – Gauntlets of the Magician."

Tetsuo's cloak twisted and rippled, morphing into a second set of thick, ghostly arms. In one fluid motion, they scooped the drones into their palms and squeezed. A series of tiny explosions went off from within each tightly-clenched fist, and Gin felt his fingers shatter. His pupils shrunk to the size of pinpricks, and he dropped the ground, howling.

"Gin!"

Yoko dropped back and ran to her partner's side. With his teeth firmly ground together, he cradled one hand in the palm of the other and gingerly began to flex the feeling back into his digits.

Tetsuo sauntered towards them, fixing them with a disdainful glare. Again, he had transformed, abandoning his helm and armor for lighter gear that echoed Kay's appearance. In his palm, Arondight melted into globs of some dark, liquid substance that coated one arm, slithered across his shoulders, and down the other before reshaping itself into a pair of black gauntlets.

He paused, taking a moment to flex his new limbs, watching the violet miasma ebb as it mimicked the contractions of muscle before turning his attention back to them.

"You thought I'd fall for the same trick twice? Do you really think that little of me?" He tilted his head back, and a high-pitched giggle dribbled out. "I won't let you treat me like an afterthought!"

Tetsuo let out a cry and lunged at them with his fists raised.

"Pellinore! Quickly!"

Gin's Persona leapt into action, pulling itself low to the ground and scooping him and Yoko onto its back. Tetsuo's right hooks sunk into the pavement with a meaty crunch, kicking up a spray of asphalt in their wake as Pellinore rocketed away. However, Gin's injuries were taking their toll on his focus and stamina. They only made it as far as the other side of the courtyard before his concentration wavered and Pellinore tumbled out of the air, dumping them unceremoniously onto the lawn.

"Son of a bitch…I got too greedy," Gin groaned as Yoko helped pull him upright again. With a grimace, he looked past her at Tetsuo. He hadn't moved from the spot, keeping both his right fists still firmly embedded into the ground.

"What's he doing?" Yoko wondered aloud, following his line of sight.

"Doesn't matter, this is our chance. This form favors close combat - as long as we keep our distance, we outrange him easily. Now c'mon, let's get moving!"

But as Gin turned to lift his foot and run, he found it numb and impossible to move. His gaze snapped to ground, and he spotted the reason why – both their feet were encased in a thick layer of ice. The crystals sprouted from a line of frost that led all the way across the courtyard and back to the spot where Tetsuo had buried his fists in the earth.

"You can't be serious," seethed Gin.

Having successfully ensnared his foes, Tetsuo straightened up and casually made his way across the pavement with grim purpose.

"What's the matter? Thought I'd be simpler to deal with, didn't you? That's why you strung me along all this time, isn't it? Well, you wouldn't be the first to belittle me like this – but I can at least make sure that you're the last."

As the lithe Shadow drew closer and closer, Gin hooked his hands beneath his knee and pulled in a desperate attempt to wrench himself free, but the ice held firm. With a cry of frustration, he summoned Pellinore and loosed off a volley of energy balls, but the effort failed to slow the enemy. With near unconscious ease, Tetsuo brushed them aside, sending them careening high into the sky where they detonated harmlessly.

"Hey. Knock that off," came Yoko's voice from behind him. In contrast, she sounded surprisingly calm. "Let him get closer."

"What, and let him pulp us?"

Yoko kept staring straight ahead.

"No, no, I've got this. But when I say to, duck."

Tetsuo quickened his stride. Another couple of steps, and he'd be within striking distance. Yoko decided that was close enough.

"Now!" she cried, and Gin brought himself low against the frigid turf.

The lawn exploded into a brilliant display of color as Guinevere unleashed a jet of fire over Gin's head. A screech of frustration and pain tore its way out of Tetsuo's throat as the flames lit him up like dry tinder. He tottered backwards, madly swatting his burning limbs as he tried to extinguish the blaze. Meanwhile, Yoko and Gin pulled themselves free from the softened ice about their feet.

"Brilliant, Yoko! As long as he's fused with Kay, we've got the upper hand! We can finish him here!" shouted Gin over the roar of the fire.

She nodded, but as she was about to give Guinevere the order to release Saint Elmo's Fire, she faltered. She'd incinerated hundreds of Shadows by now without so much as a second thought, but to do it to Tetsuo…as she watched him writhe about in agony, it seemed like a regrettably cruel thing to do. The feeling soon passed, and her determination returned, but it proved to be a fraction of a second too late.

Tetsuo ceased his thrashing and sent them a venomous scowl.

"Stop…stop it! Why can't you just let me have this? Why won't you leave me alone?!"

With a snap of his fingers, his second set of arms shriveled up and disintegrated into a cloud of black smoke, wrapping itself around his body like a shroud, suffocating the flames, and obscuring him in darkness.

"Arondight Nine – Tome of the Hermit."

"Yoko! Don't let him change Personas!" Gin shouted.

The skies parted, and Saint Elmo's Fire pierced the cloud of smoke with a blistering thrum. But when it dissipated, all that remained was a ring of soot.

"Dammit. I let him get away," she swore.

Gin took a step back, and after a peek over his shoulder, brought out Pellinore to initiate a scan of the area.

"Place your back to mine, and keep your head on a swivel. Wherever he's hiding, I'll find him."

While the two of them cast about for their foe, Rin ventured another peek out from behind her hiding place. Cowering like this made her chest twist, but the thought of having to confront and harm Tetsuo continued to hold her hostage. Her nerves, which used to be capable of flinging her into the jaws of mortal danger without a second thought, had left her paralyzed, capable of little else but listening to the cries of pain and anger that rang out around her.

So she listened. And even in her addled state, she came to understand something.

Tetsuo had been telegraphing his abilities with the Arcana of the Tarot. She wasn't entirely sure if the others had caught on, but as eerie silence descended around them, she realized one thing that Gin and Yoko wouldn't – after all, she had gone to Yamamori Manor and infiltrated Cloud Three on her own.

Then, almost by chance, she saw it – a subtle rippling in the air above her companions' heads, a mirage-like shimmering that slowly began to resolve itself into a gaunt, robed figure reading from an open spellbook. Allowing herself a few short, shallow breaths, Rin swallowed her panic and screamed.

"Above you! He's hiding in the shadows!"

Yoko seized Gin around the waist, took him to the ground, and the jaws of the furious, spectral dragon that burst from Tetsuo's fingertips snapped shut around thin air.

Its prey having eluded it, the beast dissolved into a mass of howling spirits. Tetsuo glowered at the two of them, and vanished just as quickly as he'd appeared.

Rin allowed herself a sigh of relief. At least she'd been able to do that much. Still, Gin and Yoko weren't safe just yet.

"Stay in the light!" she called, this time with somewhat more confidence. "He can't stay hidden th-"

"That's enough, Rin."

Even though she couldn't see the hand that rested gingerly on her shoulder, his chill touch closed on her vocal chords like a trap, and she shrank back into herself.

As if in response to her warning, throngs of butterflies rose into the sky, coalescing themselves into a thick cloud that blotted out the scarlet rays above and plunged the courtyard further into darkness.

"Guinevere!" whispered Yoko. The shafts of light emanating from her body helped punch through the murkiness, but any illumination she could provide was limited by the angles of her stained-glass skin. There was still plenty of shadow for Tetsuo to slink around in, and it would only be a matter of time before he managed to weave his way close enough for another strike.

Just then, one of the beams fell across the hazy outline of something in the dark, mere meters to her right.

Before their eyes, the slavering maw of the dragon flew open with a deafening roar, and acting on pure instinct, Yoko and Guinevere shot a jet of flames straight down its throat. The fire's glow reflected in Tetsuo's golden stare for a fraction of a second before he rescinded the dragon and folded back into the gloom once more.

"It's no fun to feel cornered, is it?"

His voice sounded so close; Yoko nearly stumbled right into Gin's back. Then it came again, from a completely different direction.

"Isolated."

"Powerless."

"Trapped like a rat."

"Nowhere to turn."

He was both everywhere and nowhere all at once, seemingly permeating every centimeter of the darkness that surrounded them. Yoko and Guinevere spun around wildly to keep the shadows at bay, but pinning Tetsuo down was like threading a needle with a dart.

Gin, however, had become strangely calm and quiet. He stood there, staring intently into the pitch as streams of data cascaded through his mask's HUD. Finally, he spoke.

"You think living in the Metaverse is going to fix any of that? A cage is still a cage, even if you're the one who decided to lock yourself inside."

"A cage?! I'm freer now than I've ever been before! How can I go back now that I know what that feels like? I can't go back – I'd rather die than go back!"

The air grew heavy, filled with a savage intent that pressed in on them from all sides. Somewhere in the shadows, Tetsuo was conjuring another dragon – they could sense it. But in the face of immediate peril, Gin couldn't help but crack a smile.

"Gotcha."

Pellinore wheeled around and opened fire into the blackness.

Tetsuo's silhouette lit up like a string of lights in the muzzle flash of Pellinore's turrets as a round of gunfire riddled his torso.

"GHHH!" he grunted in surprise. Although the bullets weren't quite capable of piercing him, their impact jerked his limbs around like a ragdoll's, effectively pinning him in place and preventing him from defending himself.

"H-How? How did you know?" he growled.

Gin gave Pellinore's cool, metallic frame an encouraging pat as it continued its oppressive assault.

"On accident, mostly. That drone you speared earlier was still stuck to your weapon. I'd say it's probably wedged between a couple of pages in that book right now," he explained, gesturing to it. He then turned to Yoko. "All yours."

[But stay alert,] he added mentally, [he's gonna try switching Personas again.]

"Right! Guinevere! Unleash Saint Elmo's Fire!"

Just as he'd anticipated, no sooner had Guinevere raised her hands than Tetsuo bellowed:

"Arondight Seven! Cannon of the Justiciar!"

An intense flash of light swallowed him up, and suddenly, Pellinore's shots began to ricochet off their target in dangerous directions.

"Cease fire!"

Tetsuo emerged from the glare as a giant clad in thick, ebon plating. He rolled towards them upon thick greaves soled with grinding, squealing tank treads that cut grooves into the pavement under his impressive weight. Arondight shuddered in Tetsuo's palm, and the tome morphed into Bors's immense spear.

"What gives you the right to do this?!" he spat. With each word, Gin and Yoko could hear his composure erode further and further.

"How can you even begin to judge the choices I've made? If you knew even the slightest thing about what's happened to me, you'd understand!"

Tetsuo twirled Arondight high above his head, and instead of using the spear to thrust, he slammed it against the pavement like a hammer. A bang like a stick of dynamite rang in Gin's ear, and he only narrowly scurried aside. Still, the force of the blow was tremendous, and it shook the ground so badly that he and Yoko nearly lost their footing. Lost in desperate rage, Tetsuo swung at them again and again with the wild abandon of a clumsy child trying to knock nails into a piece of lumber.

"My friends!"

BANG.

"My health!"

BANG.

"MY DAD! If I go back with you, I'm going to lose all of it all over again!"

BANG. The colossal hunk of iron pulverized the stone beneath it, scattering a cloud of dust that stuck to the sweat dripping from Nightmare's faces and stung their eyes.

"You tell me what's fair about any of that?!"

Tetsuo hefted the spear for another swing, and out of the corner of her eye, Yoko noticed something. Some of the mineral specks that hung in the air glittered with a peculiar light from an unknown source – until she glanced up. In the midst of all the commotion, Arondight had unfurled into a cannon without their notice, and a faint glow was welling up from within.

With a scream like a wounded animal, Tetsuo set his sights on Gin and let the cannon drop. The older boy hopped backwards, and the mouth of the barrel fell neatly at his feet. His pupils dilated in the light that swelled up from within, and he realized his mistake at once.

"GIN!"

Yoko acted unconsciously. Guinevere swooped in and knocked Gin aside with as much strength as her fragile frame could muster. The cannon erupted, and Guinevere shattered into a sparkling rain of colored glass. Yoko's eyes rolled up into the back of her head, and she hit the ground like a board, a thin trickle of blood dribbling from her nostrils.

Both Tetsuo and Gin froze, dumbfounded. After a beat, Tetsuo drew himself upright, still staring at Yoko's limp body.

"I only did what I had to. If they didn't want to die, they would've listened. I didn't do anything wrong. I'm in the right. I'm in the right."

Gin found himself robbed of speech. Blood, hot and thick, pounded in his temple, and his throat was suddenly too dry to swallow. Quickly, he crawled over to where Yoko lay and shook her. No response. Then, on the side that faced away from Tetsuo, he subtly took hold of her wrist and felt for a pulse.

[Hey. Stop that, he'll notice.]

Gin had to stop himself from springing backwards in surprise.

[What the…? How did you survive?] he thought.

[Guinevere's still there. She's just…in pieces. Hurts like hell, though.]

Gin nodded. Even from her thoughts, he could sense her struggling to remain conscious.

[You're not going to be able to keep fighting, are you?]

[Not really, no. But I think I've got enough strength left for one more shot of Saint Elmo's. I'll get that armor softened up for you, but you're gonna have to take care of the rest.]

Gin clasped Yoko's hand in his.

[Thank you, Yoko. I won't waste this.]

[Yeah, you'd better not. And don't do anything too stupid, either. Rin wants her brother back in one piece, you know.]

Without responding, Gin let her hand fall. Tearing off his mask once more, he straightened himself up and faced his enemy.

"I'm sorry."

Tetsuo squared his shoulders towards him and brandished Arondight threateningly.

"It's too late for apologies. You've got to go."

"No, no. I'm not apologizing for anything. I'm saying that I feel sorry for you."

He took a deep breath to steady his nerves. In his peripheral vision, a glint of light reflected off of Guinevere's shards as they began to rise into the air, forming a ring around Tetsuo. Beside him, Yoko's jaw clenched imperceptibly. He just had to hold the Shadow's attention a little longer.

"I've never been all that lucky myself, y'know. But I've got someone who depends on me. I've still got things I wanna do with my life. Giving up the way you are just doesn't make sense to me. So yeah, I guess you're right. I really don't understand you at all."

Mentally, Yoko sent him a faint nudge. She was ready.

"But once this is over, I hope you'll at least be able to understand me."

All at once, the scene was set ablaze as the shards of Guinevere ignited like hundreds of little red torches, each one kindling a fraction of the Persona's flame within. As they orbited their target, their intensity grew and grew, building until their blaze reached a hellish crescendo. Beams of fire spewed forth from each pane of glass and struck Tetsuo squarely in his massive breastplate. The metal superheated almost instantly under the infernal onslaught, cycling through a rainbow of colors: yellow, violet, cherry, orange, and finally, near-liquid white.

Driven mad from being cooked in his own armor, Tetsuo frantically began to spray shots into the air to little effect. The pain was becoming far too great, and the pieces of Guinevere were far too many. Then, to Gin's horror, Tetsuo began to compose himself - just enough to train Arondight's barrel on him.

"You…" he snarled in hysteria, "you think have me trapped? This is far from over, Gin!"

Gin swallowed, and knew what he had to do.

"Let's go, Pellinore!"

Summoning every ounce of strength that he still possessed, Gin broke into a headlong sprint towards Tetsuo, and Pellinore burst into flight alongside him. When it felt like his legs were about to give out, he flung himself onto his Persona's back, urging him to fly faster and faster until his surroundings became a blur and the wind screamed in his ears and tore at the skin on his face. The radiance building within Tetsuo's cannon was blinding, but Gin kept his eyes wrenched open and fixated on his foe. As they drew closer, the panel on Pellinore's belly slid open, and the Demon Core emerged. He was nearly upon him.

"Now! Flip!"

The cannon fired, and at the same time, Pellinore deftly strafed aside by turning itself upside down. Hanging onto his wing, Gin pulled himself back onto Pellinore's exposed underside, grabbed the Demon Core with his bare hand, and leapt. With nothing but a flood of endorphins and sheer determination shielding him from the impossible pain as the Core burned through the layers of flesh in his palm, Gin thrust his fist through Tetsuo's molten armor and deposited the Demon Core inside.

For a second, their eyes met. Then, Gin kicked himself as far away as he could, rolled over onto his stomach, and scrunched himself up as small as possible.

"Why? I'm not supposed to lo-" was all Tetsuo managed to get out before the world turned a searing blue, and a cascade of explosions swallowed him up.

• • • • •

Once he could no longer feel the heat of the blast wave on the nape of his neck, Gin gingerly uncurled himself from his fetal position, and immediately wished he hadn't. Now that he'd given the potent cocktail of chemicals a chance to leave his bloodstream, he was beginning to feel the intensity of his wounds properly. The burning in his hand was particularly agonizing, to the point where he deliberately avoided looking at it so he wouldn't vomit. It was easily the most pain he'd ever experienced – but more than that, he was completely and utterly exhausted.

Ever so carefully, he pushed himself onto his knees and located Yoko. She was right where he'd left her, and in considerably better condition simply by the virtue of being unconscious already. Gin thought to himself that he'd like nothing more than to join her and wait for Cloud Nine to melt away. But before he could, he had to be sure that it was truly over.

"Tetsuo?" Rin called tentatively, and her pale face poked over the edge of the hunk of limestone.

She was answered by a hoarse, guttural rasp from the center of the courtyard. Following it to its source, she couldn't help but let out a mortified gasp at the sight that met her eyes.

There, kneeling in the middle of a scorched halo of soot with fragments of black armor strewn about him like bits of broken eggshell, was what remained of Tetsuo's Shadow. Thin wisps of purple smoke issued from the severe burns that riddled his mottled flesh, and his limbs hung loosely from his torso like a doll's. Each attempt at breath devolved into a fit of coughing that rattled his entire frame, and gobs of black liquid spilled from his cracked lips. Tetsuo continued to cough and cough until Rin came to realize that wasn't what was happening at all.

He was laughing.

"Heeheehee…you bastard," he croaked, eyes blazing with malice. "We're not finished here! Not yet!"

He attempted to rise to his feet, but his legs wobbled violently and betrayed him. Tetsuo beat his fists against the pavement and rent the air with an anguished scream.

"This world…bends itself to MY WILL! If I want to stand, then I'll STAND! I won't let anything be taken from me! Not by you! Not by fate! Not by ANYTHING! Never again! Never never never NEVER!"

Again, he summoned the strength to push himself upright, and to the twins' shock, he succeeded. He extended his arm, and Arondight leapt into his hand in a rush of black smoke. As he leaned against the blade for support, his expression grew distant.

"Mariko…no, Dojima-chan…I know that I of all people don't have the right to demand this of you, but…I need you...one last time, I need you."

Tetsuo thrust Arondight deeper into the earth and the blade changed forms, taking on a shape reminiscent of Nyneve's sword.

"Arondight Nineteen. Blessing of the Sun."

Tetsuo laboriously lifted the sword above his head, and its blade began to emit a soft, green glow. Gin's eyes widened as he realized what Tetsuo was about to do, but sapped of strength as he was, he was powerless to stop it.

"RIN!" he shouted. "RIN, DON'T LET HIM DO IT!"

His plea fell upon deaf ears. Arondight bathed Tetsuo's battered body in its aura, knitting his cuts, repairing torn muscle, and soothing the burns that canvassed his skin. His wounds healed, Tetsuo let out a long, shuddering breath, and his original armor reappeared in a flash of dark flames. He then rounded on his spent opponents.

"Full marks for effort, Gin. But you should have known better. There are some battles you can't win, no matter how hard you try. In the end, fate is the one force that controls whether we live or die. And here, fate serves me."

With a flourish, Tetsuo buried Arondight in the ground and flung his arms wide. At once, the world around them collapsed, and all light and sound rushed into a single, distant point on the horizon.

"NOW! OUT OF MY SIGHT! MEGIDOLAON!"

The tiny dot of matter split open, releasing a wall of pure energy that stretched into infinity. It advanced at an incredible speed, and Gin's skin began to prickle painfully as though every cell that comprised his being was about to be pulled apart. The readings in his visor overflowed until the HUD flashed red and failed. Beside him, Pellinore's thrusters sputtered and died, and he vanished in a gasp of embers.

He let out a sigh, thinking about what he and Rin would have been doing right now if he'd put his foot down for once and forbid her from signing up for that study.

Who am I kidding? he thought. She'd have gone without me anyways.

The wave of white was so close now – the tingling in his upturned face was unbearable. Gin glanced over at his sister's hiding place. If he was going to die here, he wanted her to be the last thing he remembered.

But she was gone.

A silhouette darted between him and Tetsuo.

It shouted, "STOP IT! THAT'S ENOUGH!" but before he could register what was happening, the light consumed his vision, and he shut his eyes tight.