Chapter 15: Betrayal of the Kin

Now that we're caught up, back to the present day.

Alex and Rena, face to face, in this school gym.

Behind Alex stood Sara with her dual revolvers and injured Alden hanging on Shinonome's shoulders, Rena stood at the opposite side with her foot on Akindele's corpse.

"Hello....Brother."

Alex said nothing as he seethes in anger.

"How long has it been?...a year and six months?...and you look at you, all healed up." Rena said calmly while agitating him.

Getting a bad feeling about this, Sara tries to dissuade him.

"Alex, it's not safe, we must leave."

"Then go." Alex replies, not letting go his rage.

"What about you?!!!"

"You promised me my revenge..." He said as he pulls out his scythe and enters his combat stance.

"...and you have given."

Rena laughs at it before she puts her hand on her sword and gripped it and enters her Iaido stance.

"Then come take it. After all, it's what you do."

Sara hesitates for moment, this is exactly what happens with Akindele and he never made it out alive. But still, she needs to get the boss out so she carries Alden to the other side as she and Shinonome ran to the exit.

The two twins standoff felt like an eternity, one with the intent to kill and one with the intent to toy.

Then finally the twins dashed to each other and clashed their blades.

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(Sara POV)

Shinonome and I carried the boss all the way while I use my free hand to shoot enemies coming our way.

I knew Alex wouldn't come back to us since he's done so much for our revolution and he got opportunity for his revenge, in a sense, the deal was done.

But still, I can't just leave him.

When we reached the car, I tucked the boss in and grabbed my two revolvers.

"I'm going back for him." I said.

"Go back and you'll also be killed!!!" Shinonome said.

"I don't care Yuka!!! We can't just leave him." I argue.

"Sara!" the boss called out me.

I looked at him then he gave me an approval.

"Get him out of there and don't die."

I nodded as I sprinted back to save my friend.

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(Third person POV)

Alex was knocked backwards then landed on his feet, then he raised his scythe up to block an incoming attack in a nick of time, he rolled and jumped away to gain some distance.

From the looks of it, Alex was struggling while Rena stood there unfazed.

"Are you alright brother? You're beginning to look worse for wear." Rena mocked as it anger Alex more.

"SHUT UP!!!"

Alex charged in with a swing only to be parried to the side, he swings again to the opposite side but she dodged it, then he goes for a strike but she parries it again and jumped back.

"You know, you were given power but I'm not seeing you using it other than take people's lives since Hollow Hills, now I only wanted to be powerful as you." Rena said, frustrating Alex more.

He ran towards her and kept swinging and slashing.

"So you betrayed me, left me for dead so you could ONE UP ME?!!!" Alex roared as she dodged and parried all of his attacks and then she blocked his last attack and locking blades again.

"Really brother? I know it was you who destroyed our hometown and slaughtered everyone. Not that I blame you after what they did to us, but you're not exactly innocent either."

"Don't put this on me! YOU'LL DIE A TRAITOR'S DEATH!!!" Alex snarled as his voice start to get distorted.

She sensed something was wrong, his eyes became pitch black and his irises glowing red as he pushes Rena off, he looks at her brother and she smiles at the sight.

"Ah! so that's your dark power, born from wrath, let's see if it is as feared as I heard!" she challenges him as she runs at him.

He roars in rage as he jumps high up, which she does the same so the two were locked into aerial combat. Rena smiles as he starts to get more aggressive.

He swings two times which she parries, swings horizontally only to for her to dodge and roundhouse kicked him to the ground. He recovers and rolled to the side to avoid Rena attack as she lands. He then dashes forward and attempts to hit her but she ducked and blocked the incoming scythe then punched Alex in the face, stunning him as she takes this opportunity to slice his leg.

Alex reacts in pain and tries to slash her overhead but she grabs the scythe and ran her sword on his stomach, cutting him. She then kicked his wounded leg which caused him to scream.

He pushed through the pain and tries to slash at her but he missed and stabbed him, again.

"Here we are again, the image where I stabbed you in the back. Only this time you see it coming." She trailed off.

Alex struggles in pain as he turns his scythe into mid length and tries to strike at Rena but she pulls the sword out before he take a full swing and he collapsed the ground.

Rena stands there watching him but she feels something slide down her cheek, she brought her finger to her cheek to know what it was. And seeing it she noticed it was blood. She had a small cut on her cheek, but still it let out a small drop of blood. Rena doesn't seem surprised at this.

"Disappointing" she stated

Alex can only grunt with his red rage-filled eyes peering at her, she didn't change her expression even when he's glaring at her.

"Your power is supposedly unmatched, basking the powers of death. Why do you not use it? Is it because you loathed it so much?."

Alex stayed silent which Rena took it as a yes.

"Hmph! If this is all you want to muster, then I may as well leave you for dead again." Rena said as she brought up sword and ignited it with flames to stab Alex, but she was interrupted by whizzing bullets.

She jumps back and saw Sara shooting at her, she uses her sword to block the bullets and Sara throws out a smoke grenade and it spreads out, covering the entire gym.

When the smoke clears, both Alex and the shooter were already gone.

"Alright then, run brother." Rena trailed off then she puts her hand on the cut of her cheek.

"It seems I'm not yet powerful enough, but until then, you better step it up a notch or you die by my hand."

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Shinonome drove off as fast as she could, with Alden with an injured leg and Sara tending to Alex, who seems to have lost consciousness.

The three knew their recent successes were too good to be true, they let their guard down and for that, they lost two of their people and their base or rather, home.

Could the resistance recover from this?