Visul choked back a sob. She sprawled over the ground trembling, unable to lift her limbs-- A gash ran down her arm, and her ankle was bent.

Luz stood over her, large wooden planks in his hand torn from the broken bookshelves, a makeshift shield to defend against the sword Elder Yun wielded.

Blood dripped from the wound at his head, spilling over one eye and leaving him half blinded.

"Vis, Vis! Get up!" Luz urged hastily.

His foot slipped on something warm and wet-- and red--

"Vis, you're losing too much blood!" Luz raised his voice, "wake up!"

"Don't you think you're too distracted in a battle?" Elder Yun warned.

The sword broke through wood, a deep slice running down Luz's arm without mercy-- Luz screamed as he felt flesh tear, nerves rip, and bones sever.

His hand was lopped off at the wrist.

He felt tears coming as his voice escaped in agony through his throat-- he dropped, failing to find balance-- 

"If you would stay still, we would have allowed you a quick and painless death, Luz," Elder Yun warned, "but you insisted to resist, which brought us here."

Luz bit back tears, raising his gaze strongly in spite. His hand gripped at his wound, figuring out ways to stop the bleeding somehow-- he couldn't heal it, he didn't have the time nor ability to--

The tip of the blade aimed at the centre of his eyes.

"You seem like you have much to say, but I'm afraid this is where you die," Elder Yun considered, "the Yun clan have a degree of resistance to the Yunhi, but we are not immune to the blaze. I shall take my leave now."

The Yunhi, Luz noted, the inextinguishable blue fire boasted by the Yun.

There had to be a weakness in this. A way they can win.

Elder Yun saved his sword, eyed the two once more over-- then promptly left through the open window, leaving the twins to die in the inferno-- or from blood loss, whichever came first.

The pain was great and flaring in his hand. He was dizzy, nauseated from the blood the wafted up his senses, the cold that slowly and surely slid through his body, and the acid that seemed to gather in bubbling sears at his wound.

Somehow, some way he could get out of here before he...

ー

"Run, you two!" Ray hushed them, "Luz, please, I'm counting on you, protect your sister, run!"

The twins ran, hand in hand, scampering as quickly as they could, not bothering to hide tracks. Trees rustled behind them, signs of ninja passing in the branches. On foot alone, the twins wouldn't get too far. 

The edge of the mountain sent them into despair as they realized they no longer had any way left to run. Luz covered his sister, begging desperately as he looked around for any hiding spot they could use-- behind them was the sea, and the ninja was nearing them.

Pushed back against the cliff, neither had a leeway to move any longer.

Visul clung to Luz, sobbing, praying--

Her foot slipped in the crack of the cliff.

Luz remembered watching his sister fall to her death that day. the sea swallowed her, the storm only raged on as she fell prey to gravity, much too far from Luz's grasps.

Luz was left alone, and it wouldn't be until three years later that he realized his sister had survived the fall, drifting ashore on the other edge of the island where she would eventually make her way to the mansion she lived from then on.

ー

"Luz..."

His gaze turned sharply.

"...give me your hand," Visul pleaded weakly, one hand reaching as hard as she could toward Luz, "I'll heal it."

Luz leaped for the severed portion of his arm, taking it quickly and swerving it toward Visul so she could begin to mend it from where she was.

Visul grasped it quickly, placing it next to the torn limb-- threads seeped from her fingertips, passing through Luz's flesh thread by thread.

Luz hissed, feeling the treatment sting badly.

"I'll do yours," Luz knew, reaching his safe hand over to Visul's gash. His hand trembled, but he produced a hidden needle from his wrist and began to mend the wound too. "I'm still not as great as you-- sorry."

"That matters not, Luz," Visul groaned out, "we need to stop the bleeding and go after Elder Yun. We have no time to waste on meaningless chatter--"

"It's not meaningless, Visul," Luz sharply retorted, "there are outsiders aiding us at this very moment. We are not alone and you aren't as well."

Visul stopped, shocked.

"Outsiders?" she thought of the red-haired man she had taken care of just before-- "you brought the outsiders into this? What are you thinking, Luz? They have nothing to do with us!"

She got up, enraged. How could Luz have done something like that? This was a battle to the death-- and he brought the outsiders into the issue?

"I wish to say the very same thing!" he snapped back.

His teeth gritted and his anger boiled over. The wound he mended was sealed quickly-- Visul also finished up the mending of the wound in no less than a moment later. It would take another while before they held in place.

"Look, they're outsiders and they were going to be executed like any other that have come before. But then you harbored an outsider in the mansion and got your own ass figured out!" Luz raised his voice, "they caused this and you got them involved in this!"

Visul clicked her tongue.

"I chased him out of the mansion before the villagers got to me!" she yelled back, "I wanted them out of it, I wanted them to survive the island and leave! If the villagers were focused on me, they could get away without ever knowing! Were you not the one to bring them into knowledge of the situation? Don't push the responsibility to me, Luz!"

Luz flinched, the words hitting him hard.

"We won't win without them, Vis," Luz pleaded, "we needed their help and they offered. I took it, Visul, because I thought there was no loss in the decision."

"Those people want to bring me-- bring me away from here. If we won with their help, can we truly say we've defended our honour?" Visul sobbed, "we can't win, Luz. They will bring us away from our home in escape, that is what the red-haired man told me. I would rather die than leave here."

Luz snapped at those words, "Die? Are you so eager to die, Visul?"

"I fight for my home, Luz," Visul raised her tone, "I will not accept help from people who insist on a cowardly retreat for us! I will not run, not anymore!"

Luz sucked in a breath.

"And why exactly are we fighting, Visul?" Luz grabbed her by the collar, "were you waiting here to die? Is that what you wished for yourself, for me?"

Visul shoved Luz's arm aside, sitting up shakily, leaning against a bookshelf for support. She could not stand, but her glare was fierce and true.

Luz stood up, holding on to his previously-severed hand carefully.

"Home," she whispered, tearful, "I thought that if it were here, this mansion, I could die alone if I needed to. I wouldn't have any regrets because I'd die upholding our traditions, Luz."

"Home?" Luz could have laughed, "where exactly is this home you speak of, Visul?"

Visul clenched a fist, angered.

"Mom rests here," she cried, "Dad rests here. Our clan rested here."

Luz gripped his fist hard, "Did you never understand anything Mom taught us? Home isn't where the dead are, it's not where you die," he said, "Home is where you live, Visul!"

He grabs Visul by the collar, holding her close and desperate. 

"Can you truly say you've lived here, Visul?" Luz cried, "You, who was locked in the house all her life; you, who never made a friend or a memory on this island?"

Visul's eyes widened, "Luz... you're not telling me this," she pleaded, "please."

"You've never lived, Visul," Luz choked out the words, "this place, this island isn't your home-- you don't have a home, Visul."

Visul scratched the carpet.

"Get off the island with those outsiders, Vis," Luz muttered, "you don't belong here."