Chapter Twenty-One: "In a Sea of Night"
Darkness. Light. Darkness... a rushing roar pounding in his ears. A hundred fists pounding his body with watery knuckles. The force of it pushed the air from his lungs. But there wasn't any more air to be found. Just choking oblivion.
Zero surfaced, thrown up by the force of the water more than by any attempt of his own. His limbs were still hardly working and the current was brutal. He gasped automatically for air. Dark water was everywhere, rushing, tumbling. He saw something that looked like Kaname's dark head bob up a few feet away, but then it was gone again, and the water sucked him back under into a sea of dense, silt-filled water as dark as night, through which even his vampire eyes could see almost nothing. The river rushed forcefully into his mouth and nose, trying to suffocate him.
Kaname did not know what way was up. The water engulfed him, spinning him around weightlessly in its grip. When the wave had hit, it was like a wall of bricks falling on them. He felt stunned and disorientated and deeply, completely drained. He had no strength to even fight for the surface. Some hard, sharp object slammed into his side as the flood rushed them along and he grimaced in pain. Half a second later, something else hit him, much larger and more dangerous. The flood water threw him against an uprooted tree that was similarly being carried along inside its deadly clutches. The broken tree limbs scratched and clawed at the pureblood like living things as the tree rolled in the water, tangling and ensnaring him in its branches.
Kaname kicked and struggled against the snarl, but he had no leverage and he was so weak, his struggles did little. Everything was dark, heavy, rushing weightlessness. The tree simply rolled with him, rolling over him, dragging him around, tangling him deeper. The pureblood still had no sense of direction, no idea what way the surface lay. His tortured lungs burned for air and his head swam. Normally, Kaname could hold his breath and stay under water for a very long time without problem, but there was nothing normal about his current state. He was drained, and lacking a good portion of his strength. He was frighteningly vulnerable, and as the pressure in his chest built to critical he felt an unfamiliar panic clawing at the back of his mind.
No. Focus. Panicking will not increase your chances of survival...
Air. He needed air... he had to get to the surface... He thrashed and struggled harder, but that only made his lungs burn more painfully, flashes of light beginning to pop and explode behind his wavering vision. He was trapped, and he had not the strength to struggle free against the current. Kaname realized with numb shock that he was drowning. It was a pathetic way for a pureblood to die. He'd probably be the only one in history to be taken out by something as trite as a natural disaster. The irony was somewhat lost on him at the moment though as his abused body screamed desperately for oxygen, panic suffusing him despite knowing he had to stay calm.
Zero broke the surface again and he choked for air, coughing up water and thrashing with disjointed kicks and strokes to try and keep his head above water. Moving still felt rather like trying to manipulate a marionette. He pulled the strings, but his limbs jerked in response a few moments later, and sometimes in unexpected ways. He was both drained and yet too full at the same time as his body continued struggling to process the power Kaname had stored in him. His mind felt like it had been dragged across sharp coral and his body was still reeling from the strain of what he had done. Even as he struggled though, his motions were starting to become more coherent and controlled again. As luck would have it, the two factors that would normally disable him on their own, were working together to momentarily offer him some stability. The fact that so much of the power in him had been expended helped cushion the overload he was dealing with, and at the fact that his body was unused to having this much vampire power to begin with meant that he was recharging and healing faster than normal. It was a false sense of strength; a fake adrenaline high caused by his body's overloaded and mixed up inner circuitry, but right now it gave him the ability to keep struggling back to the surface as current after current tried to drag him down.
It was ironic, really. For so long he'd felt like he was literally the walking dead in every way that truly mattered. Twice now, he had seriously considered ending his life in water. Now... he was fighting that very thing in a desperate attempt to stay alive. Because... Zero realized suddenly... he very much wanted to live. He didn't just not want to die, he wantedto live. There were people he didn't want to not see again. There were people who might care if he didn't come back. And there was one person in particular for whom Zero wanted very much to survive.
No, damn it! This is not my time! I'm not going! He shouted in mental defiance against the river as it pulled him down again with cold, clammy fingers. A sandbag shot by him in the current, clipping his elbow and making his arm and fingers tingle numbly, but he continued to struggle until he could break the surface yet again.
He looked around, trying to find Kaname, but he couldn't see him. He couldn't see anything but the rushing water and the vague impression of the grey landscape blurring past. He unconsciously stretched out mentally. They had been so joined a few moments ago that it was simply instinctive. Zero slammed into a wall of dark panic that iced immediately through his body.
Kaname was in trouble. He was drowning. Zero didn't know where he was, but he could feel the other vampire's fear. Panic clutching at his own heart now; the ex-human floundered as he tried to get his bearings. He dove under the dark water, straining to see, straining to find a pureblood needle in a very wet haystack.
Kaname felt his forward motion brutally checked with a bone-crunching jar as he and the tree slammed up against something hard and immovable under the water. He couldn't know it, but he'd hit the side of the now submerged levee. The ruthless current forced him down into the depths, almost to the very bottom as it swirled and churned, leaping its banks and flowing well over the former barrier.
Zero hit something under the water, hard. He almost cried out and very narrowly kept himself from inhaling a lungful of water in the process. He couldn't see what the current had pushed him against, but it felt strange and plastic under his hands... bags? Sand bags? The levee, perhaps? He didn't know, but whatever it was had checked his forward motion and he clung to it, unwilling to surface despite the ache in his lungs because he knew if he let go he'd be ripped forward again. And something... something was telling him he needed to go down.
It was his hunter senses, picking up on the presence of a vampire nearby, but Zero hardly had time to realize that. He simply went with his instincts and dived. Deeper... deeper...
Kaname found that everything had suddenly gone very calm. The water still battered and punched at him, but the awareness of it was fading. A strange, hazy lead filled his mind, blanketing his fear as consciousness started to waver and fail. He knew he was dying, but there wasn't anything he could do. The pressure and the pain were unbearable. He couldn't hold his breath anymore. The force of the river stripped it from him and he felt the dark water start to flood into him.
Suddenly there was a flash of silver before his dimming eyes. He felt something soft digging into his arms and shoulders, tearing at his shirt and grasping at him. It was neither the river nor the tree. The wavering smears of color before his eyes coalesced into a face... a familiar face. It was Zero. Strengthened by a faint ray of hope, Kaname struggled to hold on a little longer, struggled to keep the water out. His hands fumbled, scrabbling numbly against Zero's arms as the hunter tried to pull him free of the tangle of tree limbs.
Zero's lungs burned, but he dare not let go or give into his growing desperation for air. The sheer weakness he could feel in Kaname's grip was terrifying. Through the swirling darkness, he could just see the pureblood's face a few inches from his own, and he could see he didn't have much time. Kaname had already been down here far too long.
Desperately, Zero clawed at the tree branches, tugging at Kaname and trying to keep from getting dragged away from him by the current. Please... help me... give me strength... Zero silently begged anyone who might be listening, fingers slipping and sliding in the water as he struggled to hold onto Kaname.
Zero's desperate motions made the tree shift a little. The current caught at it, rotating the tree and slamming both Zero and Kaname painfully into the side of the levee... but at the same time, it also tore the pureblood free. Suddenly weightless again, Zero struggled to hold to Kaname's shirt as he clawed for the surface, or what he hoped was the surface.
A dark head and a silver head broke clear of the churning froth, both gasping and choking desperately for air. Zero clung stubbornly to Kaname, pushing him up in the water, trying to keep his chin above the surface even though it caused him to go under himself. Kaname spit up water, gagging and retching urgently even as the rushing flow threatened to pull him back down. He could do little more than hold tight to Zero as the hunter did his best to support him until with ragged heaves he was finally able to start forcing air into his lungs again.
They were free-flowing with the current once more and Zero looked around desperately for some way to get off this wild ride. The river was wide and the current rough. The sides seemed impossibly out of reach in their weakened states. The small burst of energy the hunter had had was fading fast and a frightening deadness was coming over his weary, overstressed limbs as if his body was in danger of simply shutting down. Suddenly, a dark shape loomed menacingly behind them as another uprooted tree, this one partially submerged on the surface of the water, hurtled towards them.
"Look out!" Zero just had time to warn. He tugged the weakened pureblood he was supporting in close against him, turning in the water so that he was protecting Kaname with his body as the thick tree-trunk slammed into them with the force of the river behind it. Zero felt blinding pain shoot through him as the hard trunk glanced off back, the rough bark tearing through his shirt and the broken branches swinging like clubs.
Kaname felt the impact through Zero's body, heard the hunter's soft, agonized cry, before the current and the jar of the impact tore them from each other's grasp and the pureblood was suddenly free floating again in the churning water. He went under, struggled weakly for the surface... made it... only to be sucked down again. When he finally rushed up once more, he looked around desperately for the hunter.
"Zero? ZERO!" he screamed the other's name, water slapping into his mouth and making him choke. His heart was thudding in his chest. There was blood in the rain lashed air, Zero's blood. Where was he? "ZERO!"
Finally he saw him, a dirty splash of pale color amidst the floating debris around them. Zero was floating face down, being tugged about by the current like a rag-doll. Kaname struggled towards him, clawing at the water. He was so weak... but somehow, he managed to catch hold of the hunter and turn him over. Zero's eyes were closed, blood seeped from a gash across his temple, even as it continued to be washed away by the river.
"Zero!" Kaname shook him, but he couldn't get a response. Wrapping his arms around the hunter, he held Zero's back to his chest, letting the hunter's head rest on his shoulder, tipped back so as to hopefully keep it as clear of the water as possible. He kicked as rhythmically as his worn, screaming body allowed, fighting only to keep both their heads above water now and to avoid the swirling debris and ruin around them. Other than that, he could do nothing but cling to Zero, holding him protectively as the flood continued to carry them both downstream.
The river was merciless. Debris bobbed, rushed, scraped and jostled around them and the water was freezing cold. Kaname's hands felt numb as they maintained their death grip on Zero. He was so tired. He wanted to pass out. Dangerous grey miasmas danced before his eyes. His whole world narrowed down to the hunter in his arms. Nothing else mattered... nothing else could exist. Only one thought could exist in his raw, drained mind... never, never let him go.
Hazily, Kaname's mind registered that either he was losing body heat fast, or the temperature of the water was becoming even colder than before. It was also slowing some, making it mildly easier to stay afloat.
As if from a great distance, the pureblood thought he heard voices shouting his name. Several voices. Urgent, almost panicked. The river spun him around so he was facing the same direction as the flow of the water, and he suddenly saw familiar shapes ahead downstream.
A thick wall of ice was forming a partial dam across the rushing stream, channeling the water through a narrow gap. Ice spread away from the dam in sheets on the surface of the river as if it were part of a glacial lake. Chunks and icebergs broke off at regular intervals, whipping away downstream with the rest of the debris, but the ice simply kept re-forming itself. Aido was standing in the shallower part of the frozen river, up to his waist, both hands plunged into the water. It was obvious the ice was his doing.
Ruka stood beside him, also in the water. She was using wind to whip the water up into the air, against Aido's ice dam, enabling him to freeze it in place and keep strengthening the structure.
Kain and Takuma were further out, nearly in the center of the stream. They were on the far end of the ice wall, near the gap where the water was being allowed through. If the water was not allowed to continue flowing, it would have overwhelmed Aido's dam in a matter of moments. The rapidly flowing river was too large, and moving too fast to freeze solid.
Kain had one hand firmly frozen into his cousin's wall of ice, providing them with an anchor. He grasped Takuma's arm tightly with his other hand, so that the two of them formed a living chain. They were battered roughly by the water, but they held their ground, watching carefully as the river rushed Kaname and Zero towards them, predictably funneling the pureblood and the ex-human towards the gap in the dam.
Aido felt like his veins were turning to ice as he let his power flow out of him in larger quantities than he had ever summoned it before. The river and the rain was constantly washing away and destroying his handiwork, so he had to just as constantly rebuild it, making sure it kept a firm hold all the way to the bottom of the riverbed. Any breach would create a dangerous undertow that might very possibly sweep Kaname and Zero under the ice instead of directing them towards the gap where Takuma and Kain waited for them.
He could have forced the ice up into the air by himself, but it was a lot easier with Ruka helping him, and it was easier to maintain the ice with her blowing freezing air across it, creating a forced convection and keeping it cold for as long as possible under the dissolving effects of the current. For once, the two of them worked in perfect tandem. Still concentrating, Ruka laid an unusually gentle and supportive hand on Aido's shoulder. The young blonde was starting to tremble slightly, although he seemed to be concentrating far too deeply to notice. "I see them, Hanabusa," she murmured. "Just keep it up a little longer."
Aido wanted badly to turn and look, but he dare not take his concentration off the ice. He was wearying from this effort and could afford no mistakes now.
Everything that had happened since the horrible moment the four nobles saw Kaname and Zero disappear under the descending wall of water seemed like a disjointed blur. It had only been a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. They had been forced to run for their lives to keep from being caught in the immediate flow of the flood as the levee was breached. Aido had almost run towards the approaching water, but Kain had dragged him away. They would do no good to anyone if they got themselves unnecessarily pummeled or drown.
Even with their speed they were still caught by the edge of the flood and there had been a few uncertain, wet, alarming moments until they had managed to pull clear. The next immediate concern was trying to find Kaname and Zero, who could have been anywhere by that time.
Ruka had spotted them from a distance and shouted, pointing them out to the others at about the moment when Zero had pulled Kaname up to the surface, semi-conscious from being trapped against the levee. For a heartbeat they'd seen the hunter struggling to keep Kaname's head above the water, then they'd lost sight of them again as the pair was continually dunked, getting lost in the ragged sea of debris and black water.
Realizing that following their first instincts and throwing themselves willy-nilly into the water to try and find their floundering friends was hardly the best way to help them, the four vampires had pushed their unnatural speed, outrunning the flood downstream and quickly throwing up this safety net to catch the pureblood and the ex-human when they reached this point.
Kain's hand burned with cold numbness where it was encased in the ice and his arm and shoulder were badly bruised and sprained from the way the current was whipping him back and forth, but he continued holding tightly to Takuma, anchoring the other vampire as the slightly older noble stretched towards where Kaname and Zero were now rapidly hurtling towards them.
Takuma felt like he had so much water in his lungs now he could turn into a fish as he bobbed madly in the current, kept from being swept away only by the mutual death grip that he and Kain had on one another. But his focus was wholly on the figures before him. The current was carrying them farther out towards the center of the gap than he would have liked, and he stretched further, letting his hand slide dangerously down Kain's arm until the two vampires were only clasping each other by the wrists.
Ruka sent a strong blast of wind roaring in from the opposite direction, shoving Kaname and Zero sideways, back into a safer trajectory.
All of this was happening rather fast and for once, Kaname felt that he was moving incredibly slow, processing the events around him with all the speed of a turtle on valium. He barely had time to take in the wall of ice and the figures arrayed around it before the current and the wind felt like it was tearing them in opposite directions, jostling them about. He clung to Zero with all the failing strength that remained in his body, refusing to let the turbulence take him away.
The freezing water was starting to quicken as it dragged them towards the gap in the dam, spinning Kaname around like a top and making his already dizzy head whirl nauseatingly. Suddenly he hit something, something warm and soft. Strong arms wrapped around him tightly, grabbing both he and Zero as Takuma caught them.
Kain strained with all his might to keep from losing his grip on Takuma's hand as Kaname and Zero's weight was suddenly added to that of the other noble. His shoulder wrenched painfully and there was a sickening popping sound as it dislocated, followed by agony. Gritting his teeth, and refusing to give into the pain, he managed to drag all three of them back against the wall of the ice dam, hauling them out of the worst of the current and into the sluggish, more frozen waters.
Aido and Ruka were there now, dripping wet and running lightly across the ice, which Aido extended around them as they moved. They had to be quick. Aido reached for Kaname, trying to pull him out of the water, but the pureblood balked and Aido understood. Quickly changing tactics, he reached for Zero instead, taking the limp ex-human from Kaname's arms and hauling him quickly up onto the ice. Takuma pushed Kaname up onto the ice shelf, scrambling up behind him. Kain used his own flame powers to melt his hand free of the wall. His other arm was all but useless and he floundered for a moment, before Ruka, kneeling dangerously on the edge, quickly grabbed his good arm and helped him up as well.
Then they were all running as the ice began to groan and crack under their feet. Aido was doing the best he could, but the river was going to win any minute now. The blonde carried Zero over his shoulder, running quickly for the shore. Takuma looped his arm under Kaname's shoulders and half helped, half dragged him swiftly in the same direction, with Kain and Ruka right behind.
The ice was cracking and buckling now, breaking off in huge chunks as the water began to erode and wash away the main foundations of the dam. They reached the shore not a moment too soon as the ice finally broke free right behind them, the wall going to pieces and the surface ice breaking apart into jagged floes that hurtled away down river.
Aido's legs buckled and he dropped to his knees on the soggy, muddy earth, just managing not to lose hold of the person he was carrying. He eased Zero down onto the ground on his back. The blonde's hand was trembling and freezing cold as he touched the hunter's neck, seeking a pulse. He hoped it was his own exhaustion that was keeping him from finding one. Clammy fingers of worry wrapped tight around his spine.
He pressed his hand over Zero's heart, feeling for a beat or a breath... there was neither. Oh God... no, do not let this be happening. "Damn it, Zero!" he muttered urgently, tipping the hunter's head back to try and clear his airway and desperately attempting to force his weary mind to remember what he ought to do. Damn it, damn it, damn it! CPR... were you supposed to press and then breath, or breathe and then press? He knew this...
Kaname stumbled to the earth the minute they were on safe ground. He literally could not support himself anymore and he sagged in Takuma's grip as he slid down. Takuma kept his friend from simply falling and cushioned the slide, kneeling down beside the pureblood. Something was wrong. Something was really, really wrong with the pureblood. Something more than just being drained beyond belief. Takuma could tell by touching him, could tell by looking at him. It was terrifying, actually. It was as if Kaname had somehow faded to a shadow of himself. The innate sense that instantly identified a pureblood to other vampires was eerily dim and translucent.
Takuma laid a comforting, steadying hand on his friend's shoulder. Kaname... what have you done?
Kaname's head was spinning; it was all he could do to not pass out as he lay on the ground on his side. He gasped raggedly for breath, trembling almost uncontrollably. He was freezing, the drizzling rain like icy, stabbing needles on his agonizingly cold body.
"Takuma!" Aido's slightly panicked voice jerked Takuma's attention unwillingly away from the pureblood. Aido was kneeling over Zero, alternately pumping his chest and breathing into his mouth. The hunter was very, very still.
Takuma was torn for a moment, but Kaname pushed at him weakly. "Go! Go!" The pureblood was almost too weak to lift his head, but he managed to enough to see that Aido was trying to help Zero. Zero... concern and fear washed through Kaname, but he was too weakened, his body couldn't handle the additional emotional strain and it nearly gave out on him. A swirling curtain of black that wasn't quite unconsciousness descended. He was still aware, but barely, his muddled mind reeling. So cold... he was so cold... shivering helplessly, the pureblood unconsciously curled into a fetal position on the wet earth.
Takuma transferred quickly to Zero's side, kneeling beside Aido. He understood at once why Aido was panicking. Zero wasn't responding to CPR. He wasn't breathing and there was no heartbeat. Takuma gave a quick nod, understanding what Aido wanted him to do. Takuma had done it before; he only hoped it could help now.
Aido reluctantly pulled away from Zero to keep from getting zapped as Takuma placed one hand high on Zero's chest and one on his ribs, ready to try to electrically shock the hunter's heart back to life like a defibrillator.
Aido was confused. Zero's vitals, or rather, his complete lack of them, read that the ex-human was in deep trouble. Yet Zero's body felt weirdly and inexplicably strong on some level he couldn't quite pinpoint. That made no sense whatsoever, considering that for all intents and purposes, unless they could restart his heart and his breathing... the ex-human was dead.
Kaname suddenly felt strange but welcome warmth start to flood his freezing body, calming his trembling a little. Kain was crouching behind him. The vampire's dislocated arm still hung useless at his side, but Kain's good hand rested on the side of Kaname's shoulder, softly infusing the pureblood's weakened body with warmth through a very careful application of his abilities.
Ruka pulled Kaname's head gently into her lap, smoothing his dark hair back from his face and trying not to tremble herself as she started to actually get a look at what a mess the pureblood was. He was bleeding from multiple cuts and gashes to his face, his arms, his torso... the debris in the water had obviously done a real number on him. He felt so very... wrong.
The soothing touches of both vampires and the feeling of safety they evoked was comforting in Kaname's semi-lucid state. Dimly, he was aware that he was extremely lucky to hold the loyalty and friendship of people like these. A pureblood as weakened and defenseless as he was right now could easily have been seen as temptingly irresistible prey by other vampires. But not these vampires... they wanted only to save him.
Takuma's gaze held Aido for a moment, then flittered quickly to Kaname and back before he bent to his task. Zero's body arched under his hands as he let electricity flow into him in a measured burst. Come on, Zero... fight... come on...
Aido got the message and quickly turned to check on Kaname. He was heartbroken and horrified by what he saw. Now that he'd been out of the water a minute or two, the blood from Kaname's wounds was having a chance to make itself known, oozing from cuts and gashes with that disturbingly intoxicating scent. Right now, all it did was frighten Aido. Because Kaname shouldn't still be bleeding like that. He didn't appear to be healing at all.
Kaname was all but oblivious to the sting of his own wounds. His barely conscious mind was spinning with only one fear, one worry... there was only one mind he kept reaching out for... but he couldn't find him. "Zero..." he moaned in the faintest hint of a whisper.
The four nobles did not know what had happened between the pureblood and the hunter since the last time they had seen them, but whatever problems they had been having were obviously seriously moot at this point.
Ruka's gaze shifted from Kaname, to Zero, then up to Kain, unusually soft anguish on her face. She would probably never really like the hunter, but she had seen him pull Kaname out of the water. Seen him struggling to hold the pureblood up even as he was going under. That meant something to her. That meant he was okay in her book. She couldn't help hoping he would be all right.
As he moved closer, for the first time Aido perceived the same wrongness about Kaname that the others had already felt. He scrambled the rest of the way over quickly, wondering what could possibly have done this to the pureblood... no injury could have had this kind of effect, surely...? As the blonde's fingers brushed Kaname's temple with a hesitant, feather light touch... he felt his gut suddenly curdle in understanding.
Under his touch... Kaname's body felt inexplicably weak, where Zero's had felt improbably strong. Oh crap. Aido swallowed against a tight knot of apprehension and dread in his throat. Still crouching in front of the nearly unresponsive pureblood, his gaze shot back to where Takuma was still working over Zero.
Zero's body arched again under Takuma's hands, but the drawn, worried look in the noble's green eyes said that things were not going well. Zero still wasn't responding. His heart had been still almost a whole two minutes now, and who knew how long before they got him out of the water he had stopped breathing? The clock was ticking down fast on how long they had left to try to resuscitate him before the effort became useless. A vampire body could heal a lot... but not if it stayed dead too long, or began turning to dust. Ex-humans were especially prone to simply disintegrating upon death or mortal injury. It was a miracle Zero was holding out as well as he was, but perhaps... an explainable one.
"Where is it...?" Aido murmured, quickly scrambling back to Zero on hands and knees and looking him over. He tugged the ex-human's torn shirt open a little, then tilted his head from side to side, checking the vital power areas where you would place a... there. There it was.
Behind Zero's ear, hidden by his dripping silver hair, Aido found the small, distinctive shape of the Kuran rose... unmistakably, Kaname's blood seal. The area around it was reddened and the seal itself was actually hot to the touch when Aido's fingertips brushed it lightly.
Takuma was looking at Aido like the other vampire was slightly insane when he first came over... until he saw what he had found. "Is that...?"
Aido nodded. "Kaname's put a blood seal on him. God... I've never seen one so strong," he whispered in a vaguely mixed jumble of horror and awe. "He must have put half his power in there, at least."
Kain's head came up sharply. He still had his hand on Kaname's arm, keeping the trembling pureblood warm. "They were bridging... back at the levee, they must have been bridging," he murmured in shock, only fully understanding now, the brief, amazing glimpse he had seen before their shield fell. "Kaname would have had to transfer power..."
"But he can't get it back..." Ruka's eyes widened in horror. "If Kiriyu dies, he'll never get it back." Kaname would be left permanently crippled like this... it was unthinkable.
Takuma had the feeling that if Zero died, it wouldn't matter... because he very much feared they would lose the pureblood anyway, but he didn't say so. Truth was, right now, the excess power stored in Zero's body was probably the only thing keeping it whole as his heart stubbornly refused to resume beating and the time for reasonable hope expired.
Kaname stirred, dragging himself back towards fuller consciousness as Ruka's words penetrated the darkness around him with a sickening stab. Die... Kiriyu... Zero... why were they talking about him dying...?
With inhuman effort, the pureblood dragged his eyes open. Everything was blurry and out of focus, but he saw Zero's outline on the ground a few feet away, two blonde heads of different shades bending over him. In his current state, and with their distinctive locks slicked flat to their heads and darkened by the rain, Kaname couldn't decipher which one was Aido and which one was Takuma.
Kaname started to force himself up onto one elbow and Ruka and Kain caught at him gently, wanting him to save his strength... but Kaname resisted and they ceded to his wishes immediately. The pureblood was trying to drag himself closer to the others so the two nobles aided him as gently as they could, helping him half crawl the short distance to Zero's side. Aido moved automatically out of the way as Kaname's hand sought Zero's chest. Takuma had been continuing to automatically administer CPR, despite knowing it was doing no good, but he too retreated a little now, rocking back on his heels. He was desperate to save Zero... but their options were growing bleak.
The rain had tapered to a mere sporadic drizzle now, but it felt very much like it was still pouring in all their hearts.
"Takuma! Hey! Takuma!"
Takuma rose quickly and turned towards the sound of his name, and the familiar voice that had called it. He saw Shiki and Rima running towards them through the thinning drizzle, splashing through puddles. The two models were frowning as they arrived, taking in the scene before them. "What...?"
But Takuma hushed them and quickly, explanations would have to come later. He trusted both of them enough to know that they would do whatever they could even without knowing the full situation. He held out his hand towards Shiki. "Senri, do you have your cell with you? I need it, quick!" Takuma's had been wrecked when they were caught by the tail end of the flood, and he knew the other three didn't have theirs with them.
Shiki swiftly dug in his pocket under his poncho and handed the small, sleek red phone over to Takuma. His and Rima's gazes were frozen in horror on Kaname and Zero. What in heaven's name was going on?
Kaname barely registered the newcomers. He didn't care who was present or who was watching, he wanted nothing more than to curl up beside Zero and just sleep forever. But there was a terrifying deadness in the hunter's body as his hand rested on the still chest... a disturbing lack of life. It was enough to jolt Kaname further aware.
"Zero..." he murmured softly once more, fear and anguish clear in his dark eyes now, and painful for everyone present to witness. Bone deep horror flooded the pureblood's reeling body. Zero was dead. Zero was dead...
No! No that couldn't be true! He would know if he died, he would feel their bond snap... Zero still had to be in there, his body just wasn't responding... there had to be a chance still...
Automatically, Kaname's trembling fingers weakly sought the side of Zero's neck, pressing against the blood seal. Maybe he just needed more... if I can just give him more... but the truth was, Kaname had nothing left to give.
Aido grabbed Kaname's hand and pulled it away from Zero's neck, knowing what the pureblood was doing and knowing that he could not spare anything more. In his condition, it would kill him.
"No! You can't..." he rasped miserably, eyes stinging and burning. He shouldn't be holding Kaname's arm like that, shouldn't be telling him what he could or couldn't do... but Aido had always been stupid enough to do what he shouldn't. He wasn't about to change that now, when it mattered.
"Let me go!" Kaname rasped in frustrated desperation with all the command he could muster. He was too weak to pull his hand away and to his horror he discovered he was too weak to force the others to obey him either.
"Please, you can't... you'll die..." Aido begged, still holding Kaname's wrist, unable to care about the dangerous line he was walking. "It won't help him!"
"Ai..do..." Kaname forced out with effort. He wanted to be angry, but he couldn't find the strength. Desperation trumped all as his gaze caught that of the other vampire, trying to get him to understand that he had to try... he had to do something. "Please... Don't..."
Aido's heart broke and yet swelled with determination at the same time. "I won't..." he interrupted, promising it with a catch in his voice. He didn't want Kaname to finish. Even without pureblood power, he knew he couldn't resist Kaname's pleas, but he also could not let the pureblood do want he wanted to do. "I won't let him die, Kaname-sama..." the honorific sounded like an endearment in his soft, serious tone. Aido didn't know what he could do... but he would do something. He would do anything. I won't let either of you die.
"Help is on the way," Takuma said as he knelt down beside the others again, passing Shiki back his cell phone. "I've got a helicopter en-route. They should be here in a few minutes and we can get them out of here," he nodded towards Kaname and Zero.
"We'll get him help, Kaname. It will be okay," Takuma murmured reassuringly to his friend, even though he very much feared he was lying.
They needed to get Zero help and fast. A real team of vampire doctors with the right equipment might yet possibly save him... but all of them knew the unspoken reality. By the time the chopper got there, picked up the wounded vampires and carried them off to a medical facility... Zero would have been dead too long to bring back. Already the pale tint of his skin was starting to turn bluish and no doubt tissue and brain damage that for a human would be irreparable had set in. A vampire still had a chance... but he had to have help right now. Not fifteen or twenty minutes from now. Immediately.
Suddenly a desperate idea lodged itself in Aido's brain and he released Kaname's hand, shifting swiftly to kneel by Zero's head. Sitting cross-legged, he pulled the hunter's wet upper body into his lap. He placed a hand on either side of the ex-human's head, cradling it between them. Closing his eyes, Aido concentrated... hard.
Slowly... Zero's internal temperature started plummeting. His wet hair and clothes became hard as iron as the moisture in them froze solid. A thin, silver sheen of ice began to form on his increasingly pale skin, added to by the lightly drizzling rain which froze upon contact with the ex-human's super-chilled body. Combined with the color of his hair, it made him look like a delicate silver statue molded from glass.
Kaname had struggled up to one elbow again and was staring at them both, his eyes fixed unblinking upon Zero's still, gracefully frost laced features. He looked like some kind of ice-prince out of a fairytale. It was fascinating, mesmerizing, and terrifying to witness, but he understood what Aido was doing. He was trying to buy Zero time... time to get him the help they could not provide here.
With careful precision, Aido lowered the hunter's body temperature until it was hovering right around –196 degrees Celsius. The optimal temperature for cryonic preservation. Zero's metal piercings were bitterly cold under his palm, the hunter's body freezing against his legs, but Aido was focused very much outside himself at the moment. He was already tired and this wasn't easy. Although it required less strength, in some ways, it was also harder than the raw power needed to maintain the ice dam a few minutes ago. Because this required much more finesse and an incredibly minute level of control. He had to cool Zero rapidly, but not too rapidly. If the freezing rate exceeded the osmotic loss of water in the extracellular space, it would cause the hunter's cells to burst. He had to be careful not to allow ice crystals to form inside the hunter's tissues or blood vessels, and he had to be careful to control everything so precisely that he did not freeze Zero to the wet ground he was lying on, at least, not in a significant manner that would hinder his being moved.
Only because Zero was a vampire, and only because Aido knew he had a huge amount of Kaname's power bound to him, did the blond think this had half a chance of working. Otherwise, the risk that he might not survive the freezing or the eventual thawing process was very high. But preserving Zero in stasis until he could be helped was about the only option they had.
Hesitantly, Kaname reached out and brushed Zero's cold, frozen cheek lightly with the back of his fingers. He shivered. It was wildly disturbing to feel the hunter's skin so cold and hard, so unlike the soft, warm, supple way it usually felt under his touch...
Aido's head slid down as he hunched over Zero. His forehead touched the ex-human's and remained there. He was no longer aware of anything else as he maintained the careful balance of temperature in every area of the other vampire's body. His focus was so intense it was almost consuming him, but he could and he would hold it for as long as necessary.
In the distance, they could hear the whine of helicopter blades slicing through the air towards their location. Kaname remained unmoving on the ground, almost as still as the frozen hunter beside him and the blonde vampire who held him. Ice had formed on Aido's skin now too where he was touching the hunter, small, silver ribbons of frost lacing between them.
Kain moved over to silently stand behind his cousin, laying a light hand on the younger vampire's shoulder. He of all of them realized how hard a task this was. Aido's body was freezing under his hand and he carefully extended warmth into it, just enough to touch Aido, not enough to transfer to Kiriyu or disturb his cousin's work. Aido would need to keep physical contact with Zero until they were safely into a doctor's care.
Takuma pulled off his rain coat and his sweater, not caring about the drizzle that was still falling. Kneeling once more, he wrapped both around Kaname. The pureblood looked like he was sliding into shock, glassy gaze still fixed on Zero, but only minimally responsive to the world around him.
Kaname curled just slightly into the relatively dry warmth of the garments wrapped around him. He was dimly aware of the sound of the chopper putting down nearby. "Takuma..." he whispered faintly, making the other vampire bend close to hear the words.
"Can't... go with them..." he murmured in the same weak whisper. "You, protect... them..."
Takuma understood. Kaname could not go to a vampire hospital, despite his deplorable condition. He could not be examined by doctors outside of an environment that he could carefully control; he could not let others see him this way. It was different than merely being injured... anyone who examined him would know that he was severely lacking in strength... and word of this could not be allowed to spread. He might as well paint a giant target on his back.
"Kain and Ruka will protect them," he said quietly, his gaze sliding to the two vampires in question, who both returned a serious nod. Ruka stood at once and moved to join Kain beside Zero's and Aido's still forms. Takuma brushed his cheek in a tender, brotherly gesture against his friend's cold, wet hair as he shifted the other vampire carefully. "And I will protect you," he whispered, holding Kaname wrapped in his coat and lifting the pureblood into his arms. "No one will see you," he promised, understanding how important that was to Kaname.
The pureblood should have been offended at the notion of being protected, but the truth was, right now he knew he needed it. He had not the strength to get out of here on his own. He barely had the strength to keep his eyes open any longer. He ached to go with Zero, to stay near him... but it could not be. Darkness was hedging in again, too strong for him to fight it. As Takuma rapidly carried him away, keeping the pureblood's head and identity protectively hidden from view, Kaname's last memory was a glimpse of Ruka, Shiki and Rima helping several newcomers lift Zero onto a stretcher while Kain helped Aido to his feet, supporting his stumbling cousin so that Aido could keep his hands pressed to Zero's chest, never breaking contact as they moved rapidly towards the waiting chopper.