WHAT AILS YOU [VAMPIRE] [MXM] ✓

33: END LIKE THIS

When Kita moves to get up, he gets a shooting pain in his side. He looks down to find that a piece of Alexis' cage—a bent part of metal—has penetrated his abdominal area. It's not in there super deep, since he only landed partially on it. It's still hurts a lot, and he reaches up to grasp the area in pain.

The sudden move scares Cordelia away, and Kita winces and makes noises of pain while he removes the piece from his skin. The area instantly starts healing, though it's a slow process due to his weakened state.

"Kita," Kita hears, and he turns to find Alexis crouching next to him. Cage bars separate them, but Kita moves closer. He does so slowly while wincing in pain, but he is eventually able to position himself right outside Alexis' cage. Kita leans his head against one of the bars, and Alexis reaches out to touch the blood still leaking from his eye. "Are you okay?"

Kita nods, too exhausted to talk right now. Well, it's not just exhaustion. Or maybe it is, just with a lot of things contributing to it. He's tired, he's stressed, he's worried... and as minute after minute passes, he loses more and more hope. They can't give up, though, right? They can't just let Evander take the power he wants.

"Promise me you won't fight him, okay?" Alexis says, but Kita isn't looking at him. Now that he's sitting up, he's starting to scan the area for where Evander went. Before, the guy was across the platform, daring Kita to physically stand. Now, Kita can't even see that far through his blurry vision.

Kita doesn't reply to that, because despite how weak he is... he still has to try. If he doesn't, then Evander is about to level this whole empire, and most of the vampire population. Kita used to think that would be for the best—Alexis, too. Every citizen in Amarath would have agreed, in fact, since it's just part of their culture to hate vampires.

However, something's changed. It's not just because Kita himself is now one, it also has to do with the things he has seen. Kita can tell how much Lyra cares for her people. He's watched them—how normal and human-like they are. They care for each other, they have jobs, they have feelings and emotions and families. They're not what Kita has always been taught they were.

Now, they need to handle the current situation like they should've from the beginning, from the death of the emperor that started all of this. They need to not judge all, because of the actions of few.

Evander may be awful, but it's become clear that he's pretty alone in that.

"I have to try," Kita tells him, and it crosses his mind that he could try to break Alexis out, but due to Marshmallow damaging the cage, that's looking unlikely. The corners and door are folded in on themselves, leaving Alexis without much room. Before Kita can try to get up, he watches a bird land on his knee, only a small distance from his face. She just stares at him, and Kita is unsure what she wants him to do right now. Fix her friend? But—

Kita pauses, turning his head to look at the feral dragon in the corner. When they saw her earlier, down by the dungeons, he remembers her eyes being a dark color. He's not sure exactly what color, but they definitely weren't this bright gold. When he looks at her skin, he can see that yellow veins stand out in certain areas. This wasn't the case before.

Did Evander inject her with something? That's the only thing that would make sense, that would explain why she's so aggressive when she'd previously been happily catching up with Cordelia.

If he injected her with a substance to make her more aggressive, then there's got to be one that will return her to normal, right? Somewhere around here? There's no way this is just supposed to wear off, it would be irresponsible to purposely make such a destructive animal so dangerous without a way to counteract it.