A lonely Shadow

Cassie gripped the blade in her arms tightly, dismissing her rapier. Her decision would change everything, if she decided to truly go through with it, Nephis didn't know what she'd do. Cassie had given her the faint embers of humanity that Sunny had turned into flames, she was the tether that bound her to it all.

She couldn't lose Cassie.

Turning around, Nephis attempted to blitz towards Cassie to stop her from doing anything stupid but before she could Sunny appeared in front of her, scythe extended. Nephis didn't need to turn around to know she had been surrounded, Saint's piercing red eyes practically boring holes into her.

Yet she couldn't give up here, summoning a sword, she batted away Sunny's scythe however his arm extended and grasped her by the throat. In one fluid motion, Sunny had pressed the blade of his scythe against her neck, kicking out both of her feet to bring her to the floor.

Nephis moved to speak, to attempt to plead with Sunny to stop in his madness however Sunny's hand snaked its way around her and placed itself on her mouth. He gently pulled her head backwards, so she was forced to look into his eyes, Sunny placed a single finger over his mouth before guiding her head back to Cassie.

Sunny wanted to see Cassie's choice up close and personal, he allowed Saint to restrain Nephis with nightmare lurking in her shadow ready to put her to sleep on a moments notice. As he slowly paced towards Cassie with his hands in his pockets, soon enough, he was next to her, staring her dead in the eyes as she held the blade in her hands.

"Think about all the lives you've taken for Nephis sake, what's one more added to the list? You know I can't lie; you know there's no way to snake out of a promise that direct. So, make a choice. Your life, or Nephis."

Turning around, Sunny took a few steps forward before crouching down to meet Nephis at eye level. "If it were me up here, do you think you'd give your life for me? Surely not." Pausing, Sunny's sickening grin grew further, as his onyx eyes flashed red with madness.

"If it were you up there, would you take your life for Cassie, answer me!" he roared as he studied Nephis expression intently. There was a time in his life where he would be willing to die for Nephis sake, there was a time where he'd die for Cassie's sake too. That time was gone now, all that was left is to see if they cared for each other as much as he cared for them.

Cassie's hands continued to tremble as tears began cascading from her eyes. "Don't make me do this, don't make me have to choose again." Her voice came out in a broken and stutter filled cacophony of noises as she locked eyes with Sunny. Who tilted his head to the side in curiosity.

"I wonder, did you cry like this when you left me? If it's dying, you're worried about, don't worry about that. Trust me, I've died thousands of times. I've had my head bitten off, I've been burned, I've been run through with spears, I've been tortured, I've had my heart ripped clean out my body. Your death will be swift and...a little painful."

A hand extended, he placed his hand on Cassie's head as he once did before, his smile faintly resembling the ones he used to give her in the forgotten shore, but without nearly as much warmth. "These type of choices, ones where people like me force people like you to do things you don't want. They're because you're weak, pathetic and useless."

Sunny sighed and lowered himself to the floor before turning to Nephis once more. "Nephis, do you think we would have had to hurt each other like that if this witch was strong enough to intervene? Do you think we would have had to fight if she was strong enough to tell us the future, which was her only use anyway!"

Steps, imperceptible steps. The art of moving silently was something Cassie had mastered throughout her years of existence, after all, her aspect worked the best when nobody recognised how much of a threat she could be. Slowly but surely, Cassie made her way behind Sunny, till she was almost inches away from his back.

She had moved so imperceptibly that even Nephis mind didn't register her presence, she held Sunny's blade of shadows in one hand and her rapier in the other. Sunny had his back turned to her whistling a tune as he prepared for Cassie to give her answer, and it seemed even he didn't notice her presence.

In one deft movement, Cassie moved down and slit his throat.

Sunny's eyes flashed open as he felt the blade pass his skin. Just as imperceptibly as Cassie had moved, a smirk flashed on his face. Nephis eyes widened in horror as Saint and Nightmare disappeared from her side in an instant, she moved to Sunny's side to heal him however Cassie stepped between them.

"No!" She couldn't let this go on any further. She knew she had wronged Sunny, but she had to, letting him live any further would only allow him to suffer more mental torture than he had already been going through, and drag Nephis down the pit of the abyss with him too.

Nephis brandished her blade dangerously, her eyes flashing with fury as her lips parted. "Cassie, I'm saying this for all the times we have shared together. If you don't step away from him now, I will kill you." Despite this, Cassie remained firm. She knew Sunny wouldn't die immediately; all she needed to do was stall till he suffered enough damage for it to become irreparable.

She wondered what Sunny was thinking of her in his last moments, Cassie had already accepted she was a horrible, odious and unforgivable human. She was fine with Nephis killing her once Sunny had died but leaving Sunny and Nephis alive would only spell suffering for both.

Nephis swung her sword, Cassie met it with her rapier as they engaged in a furious onslaught of blows. Despite Nephis superior skill, her mind was in too much turmoil to fight properly, a fact that Cassie had been doing her due diligence in taking advantage of. Even in Nephis dishevelled state, she was still far stronger than Cassie. Every swing of her blade sent Cassie skidding across the ground as her arms trembled.

Soon enough, Nephis had disarmed Cassie. Staring down at her broken and wounded form with tears cascading from her eyes, her hands trembled as she prepared to do the unthinkable. Cassie knew she had stalled enough, there was no point in resisting further, and then, it happened.

Her eyes widened, her mouth parting in a silent scream as colour drained itself out of her face. Sunny's body was slowly raising itself back to his feet as he stretched his neck and ran his finger over the dried blood that had formed on it. In a moment, he was at Cassie's side, with one deft movement, four of her fingers had been removed from her right palm.

Nephis was too shocked to move, so Sunny did the moving for her. Kneeling down, he watched indifferently as Cassie screamed in terror upon realising that the man she had to kill was in fact alive and well in front of her.

"It's a neat trick really, did you really think that you could kill me, while holding one of my shadow bound weapons? Of course I could see you the entire time you dumb fucking wench! And further, it'll take a far deeper cut than that to kill me. My body is quite particular on the occasions where I can bleed out."

Grabbing Cassie by the hair, he looked up and studied Nephis for a moment. She was willing to kill Cassie for what she had done, it was strange. Sunny didn't particularly know how to feel so he turned his attention back to Cassie once more. "Shall I gut you? Nephis is here, she can save you!"

Shoving her towards Nephis, Sunny mock chanted. "Save me Nephis! Save me! You fucking leech bastard. Be lucky you aren't dead; I don't take kindly to people who backstab me twice."

With that, Sunny disappeared into the shadows. Likely making his return to the barracks or wherever the wind took him. Nephis could only stare with an empty expression at Cassie before her hand twitched. She felt it too, instinctively she wanted to heal Cassie however every part of her knew it felt wrong.

Despite it, she grabbed Cassie's missing fingers before pressing them against the stumps where they should have once been. The process was rough and painful, she didn't particularly care to be kind to Cassie right now. Soon enough, her healing flames passed over the two separated pieces of flesh and connected them together once more.

Before waiting for Cassie to say a word, she turned around and bolted off into the distance. She needed to clear her head, think about what had just happened between the three.