A week has past since Blade showed up at the doorstep, and there was an obvious change coming over him throughout the days. He became more hateful and violent, cold towards the other two. There were times where he and Ryuu had started fighting, and he had even threatened to hurt Rose more than once.

Ryuu had dragged him out to the mountains, hoping he’d be able to get Blade to tell him what was going on.

“Alright, talk,” Ryuu said, stopping in his walk. “What’s going on?”

Blade stopped as well, his back to his brother. “You shouldn’t have been born,” he said coldly.

“What the hell are you talking about?” Ryuu demanded.

“I hate you,” Blade growled.

The two stood there a moment, silence dripping between them. Ryuu couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Blade.

Blade, however, wasn’t about to explain. He whipped around and punched Ryuu hard across the cheek, sending him stumbling to the ground. Ryuu glared up at Blade as he pushed himself up, a small stream of blood forming on his lip. The two stared each other in the eyes, simply standing there for several minutes. Blade shifted into his fighting stance; sliding his left leg back so he had a right leg lead, his left hand level with his belt while his right was out in front and level with his shoulder.

Ryuu also shifted his stance so that he was similar to Blade, only with a left lead instead of a right. The two began to fight, kicks and punches being thrown and blocked. Both sets of dragon wings appeared and they took to the sky.

Ryuu kicked Blade down and took a breath, shooting a stream of fire towards him from his mouth.

Blade reached his hand down and pulled it up again, in a motion that he had been pulling up something from the air. The shadows on the ground below him shot up and created a shield, blocking most of the flames. Some of them flew past it, though, singeing his arms and legs.

They continued fighting, streams of shadows and flames flying everywhere. They went on for hours and the sun was beginning to set, giving Blade the advantage since there were more shadows on the ground. Every now and then he would create a portal from darkness, disappearing into it and reappearing behind Ryuu to attack from behind.

By the time the sun had set and midnight rolled around, both of them were on the ground, struggling to stay on their feet. They were bruised and had cuts, each of them worn out.

“Done yet?” Ryuu asked, trying to catch his breath.

“No way,” Blade replied. He charged at him, his wings beating against the air to gather speed.

As he got closer, Ryuu inhaled deeply and waited. As soon as Blade was close enough, he exhaled, causing a bundle of flames to burst and explode like a bomb around both of them. They each collapsed, many more cuts and scrapes on them along with some burn marks.

Blade’s eyes opened. His whole body ached. His vision was blurry for a moment but soon focused as he lifted a hand and pressed his palm to his forehead. He smelled blood, both his and Ryuu’s. He groaned and sat up, unsure of what just happened.

“What happened…? Ryuu…?” he called, looking over to see Ryuu unconscious on the ground.

--

“What on Earth happened?!” Rose gasped after opening the door.

“Just a little brawl, nothing to worry about,” Ryuu replied. He was leaning against Blade, his arm around his shoulders and vise versa. The two had helped each other down from the mountains and back to the village after Ryuu had woken up.

Rose helped them inside and cleaned up their wounds, bandaging them as well. Sure, she knew Blade had been getting more aggressive, but she didn’t think that would have led to the two of them beating the snot out of each other.

“How did you get burned?” she asked as she sat down on the couch. She didn’t know who had the power of fire.

“That was me,” Ryuu said, raising his hand slightly. “I’m a light/fire mix.”

“Ryuu,” Blade began, staring at the floor. “I don’t remember.”

“Remember what?” Ryuu asked, looking at his brother, almost concerned.

“What just happened, how I got here…” he said slowly. “The last thing I remember is the night I got you out of the castle, every thing after that is a blank. How long has it been since then?”

“A month,” his brother replied, glancing at Rose before looking back at Blade as he bit his lip a little. “You really don’t remember anything after that night?”

Blade shook his head and looked up at Ryuu. “Nothing, it’s just… blank.”

“We’ll figure it out tomorrow,” Rose said, getting to her feet. “You two really need to rest up.”