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Asher's eyes flickered back and forth between the wall of shimmering green flames and the disturbing pair in front of him. If Fox-Face wouldn't let go of his barrier, they would have to take him out, and quickly. But as damaged as the fox looked, he wouldn’t be a pushover. And there was Fangs to consider too. Asher had a feeling he would never even let them get to Foxy. Fucking kiss-ass.

We’re all gonna bite it.

Asher looked to José, who was still holding on to his arm, even though Asher could stand without his support now. The ground hadn’t stopped vibrating, but the world had stopped spinning. José had a frown etched deeply into his face. Like so often, Asher had no idea what was going on in his head.

“You won't let us go?” José directed his question at Foxy.

“Never.” Foxy’s tone remained unchanged.

José nodded in grim determination.

He has a plan. But what?

The grip on Asher’s arm tightened, and he felt himself pulled closer. José whispered words into his ears, spoken so fast he had trouble following. Or maybe that was because he couldn't believe what he was hearing. His whole body cramped up listening, fighting the order he was being given. “You wait right here,” José said. “And once the green flames are gone, you run. Don't stop until you're out of this fortress. Whatever happens, don't turn around, don't stop and don't come back.”

“You can’t,” Asher said. “Don’t do that.” José couldn’t sacrifice himself. He couldn’t. But it was exactly the sort of thing the stubborn bastard would do. Asher gaped at him, and José put one very short kiss on his lips. A contact far too short to be satisfying.

“Sorry.” José let go without giving Asher a chance to try and hold him back.

Asher raised one hand to his lips. His fingers were trembling with the effort to refuse the order, but in the end, his body would win over his mind. As always. “At least do it right!” The words spilled from his lips. “If you have to kiss me at least fucking do it right!”

“Next time.” José never broke his stride toward the enemies, who had assumed a fighting stance.

“Get back here!” Asher shouted. “Are you out of your fucking mind?!” José could never take them on. Asher tried to move his feet, take a step toward José, run to him, drag him away somewhere, he didn’t know where. It didn’t matter because he couldn’t move.

Taking a deep breath, Asher tried to draw on his magic, but there was nothing left. He’d given it all to José. And now he was fucking useless.

He wasn’t supposed to be the one who got out alone. José couldn’t just turn that around; he couldn’t.

“Don’t you dare fucking die on me.”

José pretended like he didn’t even hear him.

***

“You really think you can take me on?” Ketsu asked.

José didn’t reply. He was too busy blocking out Asher in the background and figuring out how he was going to get through this. The plan didn’t include beating Ketsu. One moment of distraction. That was all he needed. Those flames had to go. The magic flowing through his veins was Asher’s, and he was going to use it to get him out.

He let small flames appear all over his body, just enough to burn everything he touched. One deep breath, and he charged at the fox.

He tackled Ketsu to the floor.

“Get off!” Ketsu snarled, pushing against him with unexpected strength. The air smelled like burned skin, but the fox’s efforts didn’t lessen. He had limped, though. He had a weak point.

José rammed his knee into Ketsu's right leg. Fox-Face cried out. A dark smile graced José's lips. “Payback’s a bitch.”

Someone gripped him from behind and threw him to the floor. The vampire, no doubt, come to protect his boss. Didn't matter. Asher ran. José chalked one point up for himself, although he had no idea how to proceed from here.

“The dragon,” Ketsu hissed. “Bring him back.”

The hell you will.

“I'm taking care of him first,” Ruigi said.
Hah
. Didn't want to leave his boss alone with the dangerous fire elf, did he?

José stood up and prepared himself, letting the fire on his skin go out to reserve energy. By the sound of his breathing, he located Ruigi just three, maybe four feet in front of himself. José took a step back.

The vampire didn't have to touch to attack, but this time, he did. Ruigi came flying at him and shoved him back against the cold stone wall. Gathering his strength, José moved to push him off. But he didn’t think to protect his neck.

Once he felt the vampire’s teeth on his skin, he knew he was done for.

Ruigi drank very little of his blood before he tossed him aside like a wormy apple. “You don’t taste good,” he said, kneeling down next to him.

José couldn’t move, even as he heard the sound of metal being unsheathed.
Natural sedative
. Unfortunately, the knowledge of what was happening to him didn’t help him evade it. His heartbeat drummed in his ears louder than the noise the collapsing building made. Then, for a second, the whole scene seemed muted. A stabbing pain shot through him, spread from his chest and took over his entire body until there was no other sensation left.

“Sorry. We all have people to protect.”

José gasped as the ability to breathe returned to him, although breathing only aggravated the wound further. Ruigi removed the blade from his body in one swift movement, tearing a cry from José that he didn’t recognize as his own until Ruigi withdrew and he felt his own blood seep into his shirt.

It’s over.

It hit him just like that. There was no getting out of it this time. Asher would be so pissed at him.

Apparently, Ruigi wrote him off, too, because he got up again and walked back to the fox. The fox who was still set on getting Asher. José had to keep him here somehow, if only for a little while longer. It was the last thing he could do for Asher after ignoring his wishes. Not that he regretted it. Honestly he'd never had a choice. When he thought of that little idiot and all they’d been through, he couldn't help but want to protect him. It was just who he was. Too fucking nice, as Asher put it. But when he remembered the way Asher had felt in his arms the one time he’d let him hold him, José knew he was doing the right thing.

Which included not letting the bloodsucker and Fox-Face walk away. He would not let them escape this. Because of those bastards he couldn't go back to his family, hug his sister, or his mom, or listen to his little brother rave about Pokémon.

He'd never get to give Asher that kiss he'd demanded and tell him that it was okay, ask him to be his boyfriend and show him what a real relationship could be like.

The vampire and the fox had taken that from him, and if he could just move, he would never let them kill another person again.

They were talking to each other; nobody was paying attention to the dying elf. Gathering all the strength that hadn't bled out of his body yet, José raised his hand. Taking one last breath, he channeled all the magic he had left, all that Asher had given him, into one attack, and hurled it where he knew it would hurt both of them.

He targeted Ketsu.

Chapter 29 - Breaking Down

Even as Ketsu saw the blast, he couldn’t evade it. The fire spread out into a hundred little daggers of flame, and his injured leg slowed him down. He was going to be hit. Until Ruigi jumped in front of him.

The heat of the attack engulfed Ketsu as they burned the body before him.

Ruigi didn’t cry out once. He fell to the floor and rolled over the ground until the small flames went out. Eventually he lay on his back, eyes closed and unmoving, like the elf in the corner who should be dead by now.

All clothes had been burned off Ruigi’s chest; only scraps of it stuck to dead skin. His face was bright red but didn’t look as badly burned as the rest of him. That had to hurt, yet Ruigi had taken the pain willingly—for him.

Wondering whether he had passed out, Ketsu knelt beside him. If someone had asked him whether he thought Ruigi would die for him, he would have said yes, he expected all his soldiers to protect him. But his soldiers had abandoned him and there was no higher cause to die for now. Seeing his childhood friend defeated before him, there was no denying it. All his struggles had come to this: losing everything and achieving nothing.

“Why did you do it?”

Why the backstabbing? Why the sacrifice?

Ketsu fisted his hand in Ruigi's black hair. Some of that had been burned, too.

Ruigi looked at him, dark eyes hanging on to his. What was he seeing, though? Something that made him cling to consciousness.

“Get out,” Ruigi said.

Ketsu shook his head. There was nothing out there for him; Ruigi had made sure of that. Everything that had meant anything to him was going down with this fortress.

“Why did you do it?” he asked again. Looking at Ruigi, watching his chest rise and fall like every breath was an act of labor, whisked him back to the time he'd watched his girlfriend die. He was as helpless now as he was then.

“Because I love you. I always have.”

“I know.” It had been clear in Ruigi’s mind. Ketsu had guessed for a while that Ruigi had a bit of an infatuation with him, but he hadn’t anticipated how bad it was. The only reason he’d missed it was because his mind had been occupied with other things. He'd been so possessed by the idea of changing the world that now his army was gone, he was filled with a sense of emptiness.

“You can't always save the people you love."

“No one could have saved Laika. But,” Ruigi stopped speaking for a second to clench his eyes shut, “I saw what that did to you. I knew I would do anything to protect the person I love.”

Ketsu opened his mouth to respond, to tell him what a fool he was, but the words wouldn't come. Because he understood. Love made people do crazy things.

“Just get out.” Ruigi’s voice was getting softer. He was close to slipping.

“Oh no,” Ketsu said, “you're not getting out of this so easily.” Ruigi wasn't reacting, but Ketsu had made up his mind. He leaned over Ruigi, ran his thumb over his lips to open his mouth and kissed him.

***

Ruigi wasn’t too sure what was happening when he felt Ketsu’s lips on his, keeping him awake. Or maybe he was already asleep. He’d had dreams that went something like this. Dreams normally didn’t hurt though.

The pain receded, slowly, replaced by the sensation of Ketsu's tongue against his and the pleasure spreading from his mouth to every cell of his body. Ketsu needed to get out, not kiss him, but Ruigi couldn’t help but hang on to this. He’d lost count of all the years he’d waited for some sign of affection from his friend.

This wasn’t just a kiss goodbye, though. He wasn’t imagining his wounds getting better. Ketsu was transferring life energy to him.
Shit.
Ruigi pushed him off.

“Are you out of your mind?” That could have killed him! If Ruigi hadn’t realized what he was doing…

“You're not dying like this,” Ketsu muttered, lying on the floor next to him, his face pale, but still managing a glare. “I'll kill you myself.”

A silver glow enveloped Ketsu’s body as he changed into his fox-form, all out of energy to sustain his more human form.

Ruigi sat and checked himself quickly. He wasn't completely healed, but he would survive. Ketsu had saved him. For the first time in his life, he dared to reach out and pet the fox by his side. He ignored the resulting growl.

***

Asher couldn’t stop his feet. Didn’t know whether he was even going in the right direction, but there was no stopping. The words of the order still echoed in his ears as he cursed being so fucking useless at a time like this.

José had better meet him outside, he’d better!

A part of the ceiling came down and Asher jumped to the right to avoid it. Then he continued his sprint. He felt that his partner was already out of magic, but otherwise silence reigned over their link. Before, rage had flared up shortly. Where that had gone, Asher didn’t know. Wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Windows lit up the path in front of him. He’d reached the ground floor. The windows were barred, but an exit had to be close. Seeing the world outside felt weird. People stood staring at the fortress. Curious onlookers and soldiers who had fled the building.

Nobody paid attention to Asher when he made it through the front gate and looked back at the collapsing building. Finally, his feet stopped running, but they wouldn’t let him take one step back toward the fortress.

“Fuck!”

His outcry drew some looks from the other people. Fuck them. Who cared about them when José was still somewhere inside that damn building?

Another curse escaped Asher as the second tower came down.

People made “Oooh” and “Aaaah” sounds beside him. Fucktards. Some sobbed as the fortress crumbled, and those grated on Asher’s nerves even more.

“They say the general hasn’t come out,” someone whispered. Someone broke down crying.

“Let’s hope he dies in there,” an old feline woman said, shaking a stick at the fortress. “For all of our sons!”