Chapter 13: Bittersweet Condition

Dimitri 1's POV

That asshole with the crowbar didn't see the pocket knife I had with me coming for him. He grunted as he tried to reach for the blade stuck in his back as Dimitri 2 tried to get Cody, but his 'dad' was quick to notice him and shove him away. He swung his hand behind himself and just ripped the knife out as he turned to face us.

"You goddamn little mutts are gonna pay for that." He snarled, gripping the knife in hand and approaching us. Cody was so close yet so far with this annoying barrier of a human in the way. We growled in response, trying to look as menacing as possible. Then, he quickly rushed at me with the knife out to stab me but I just managed to back-step and just miss the knife. Dimitri 3 tried to jump him but he easily managed to rip him off and throw him aside, keeping Dimitri 2 in a headlock, so I lunged forward and just managed to bite him in the leg, making him yell out in pain before kicking at me, managing to hit me once, causing me to let go and get kicked away from him. This gave Dimitri 3 an opening however so he rammed into his side at full force, Cody's dad losing his grip of Dimitri 2 as a result. Dimitri 2 quickly grabbed the knife from him and plunged it into his thigh, making him yell in agony again and nearly collapse to the ground. Clutching my stomach, I swung my leg up to kick Cody's dad in the face but he just grabbed it before it could make contact and he swung me onto the ground and pinned the crowbar against my neck, choking me. My two bros grabbed his arms and tried to pull him back but he was stronger than we thought and my gasps were air were getting weaker. Dimitri 2 and 3 were starting to panic when they saw my face start to turn purple so Dimitri 3 immediately grabbed a nearby trash can and slammed it onto the human's head. He clutched his head and let me go, leaving me on the ground, coughing and heaving as I slowly reached for the crowbar. I slowly stood up, crowbar in hand and before he could look up at me, I swung as hard as possible, striking him right in the head.

Cody's dad fell right onto the ground and briefly tried to get back up to take us on, but he collapsed back down, finally unconscious. I panted, rubbing my neck and still coughing slightly as Dimitri 2 and 3 rushed to my aid. God, that asshole wasn't easy at all but at least he was finally done with. Suddenly, I tensed up in fright, having almost forgotten about our human brother as I rushed to Cody and knelt down to him and gently shook him.

"O-Okay, Cody. We took care of your dad, you can wake up now." I urged the kid to get up, hoping he would hear me. He didn't even make a single sound in response. I kept shaking him. "Come on, bro, you were supposed to live safe and sound with us, remember?" I asked him, still shaking his limp little body. Still nothing came from him. "Okay, this isn't funny anymore, Cody, you can wake up now!" I practically demanded, starting to panic. I could tell my other two twins were getting just as worried. "Cody, for god's sake, please just wake up!" My eyes were getting hazy as I started to beg Cody to wake up, to at least show us that he was okay.

"Cody, if you're dead, I swear I'll kill you!" My entire body was quivering and I felt one of my bro's hands on my shoulder.

"D-Dimitri-"

"NO! HE'S NOT DEAD!" I snapped at him, tears finally running down my cheeks in denial.

"CODY! YOU WAKE UP RIGHT THIS SECOND!" I screamed desperately. I just wanted our human brother back. Please… Please just wake up.

"I'M SORRY I WAS SO HORRIBLE TO YOU! I'LL NEVER TREAT YOU BADLY AGAIN! Just… please… PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE NOT DEAD!" I finally sobbed on the spot, holding Cody close to me. Why was I such a jerk to him? Why did me and my bros have to treat him like crap?

...Why did that bastard have to try and kill him?

I felt my brothers gently hug me close, sniffling as well and feeling the same remorse for how we all treated him as we finally heard the distant sirens of an ambulance.

...Cody. We're so sorry…

Dolly's POV

Uuugh… What happened…? It feels like a truck just hit me square in the head. I slowly blinked to see a light above me on a white ceiling. The throbbing pain in my head from when Cody's dad hit me with that crowbar was still present, I reached a hand to my head and felt the familiar texture of gauze. Slowly getting up, I saw rows of empty beds next to me and like the ceiling, the walls were also white, save for some pinboards with sheets of paper on them. Looking to my left and seeing an IV stand confirmed to me that I was somewhere in a hospital and I must've been treated for my inju-…

...Cody! I recalled back to before I blacked out where his jerk excuse for a dad smacked him pretty hard on the head. Was he okay? Were the doctors still treating him?! I ripped the IV needle out of my wrist and rushed to the doors and swung them open to find the last thing I was expecting to see.

Cody was standing in the middle of the hallway in front of me, his back facing me. I just couldn't believe it. He was okay! I didn't even breathe once before running straight for my little human bro and hugging him tightly from behind.

"Cody, you're okay! I can't believe you're actually okay!" I exclaimed in relief until I noticed that Cody hadn't hugged me back. "...Cody? It's me, Dolly. Your big sis." I reminded him, getting worried that the whack to his head may have given him amnesia.

"Big sis? Really?" Cody mumbled sarcastically, his back still facing me. "If you were my big sister, then why did you let dad kill me?" I blinked in horror at what he just said. How was I even seeing him if he was dead? "C-Cody, I don't understand." I replied as he grunted.

"Of course you don't. You don't get it at all. You were too weak to save me from him." Cody was hitting me hard with those responses, my face creasing in despair before I finally made him turn around only to immediately scream in terror at his face.

Cody's forehead was completely missing. It was like his head had been smashed open like a watermelon. Shards of skull and brain matter leaking from his open wound as he stared at me blankly, a drip of blood running from his slightly open mouth.

"...Why, Dolly? Why say that you loved me when you didn't even save me…?" I was shaking at the sight before me until I finally saw something appear behind him. A silhouette of a human skeleton shrouded in a black fog holding something in it's bony hands staring at me with red glowing eyes as it raised it's hands to reveal a long stick with a blade at the end and then I realised what he was going to do him.

"N-NO! WAIT!" I protested, rushing to stop him from striking Cody, but the ground suddenly cracked and fell apart below me, revealing nothing but pitch black darkness below me. I tried to cling onto the edges as much as possible, reaching one hand out to Cody.

"C-Cody…! Help me!" Cody did nothing. He only stood there and said one last thing to me, sounding like he was possessed.

"Goodbye, Dolly..."

And with a quick slash, the blade went straight through him, cutting him in two as he disintegrated into black ashes, the skeleton vanishing with him and I finally lost my grip, plummeting into the dark depths.

"NO! CODY! HELP ME, PLEASE!" I screamed out for my human brother, still thinking I was falling into nothing until I felt someone shake me accompanied by a voice.

"Dolly, wake up!"

I yelped and sat upright, panting heavily as my eyes darted around to see I was back in the room I had woken up in. Only this time, Dylan was sat at my side, holding my shoulders. A tear ran down my face as I looked at him. "D-Dylan…?" He looked at me worriedly before rubbing my arms to calm me down.

"...It was only a bad dream." I sighed in relief briefly before remembering where I actually was. "W-Where's Cody?! I have to…!" Just like in my dream, I removed the IV needle and rushed out of the room, Dylan running after me. "Dolly, you're still injured!" He called after me, but I just kept running. "Forget that, I have to know if Cody is okay!"

Delilah's POV

"Cody's fighting hard." That's what the doctor told me after they had just finished operating on him. "His arm was bruised and he's lost a concerning amount of blood from internal head injuries. We stitched them up, but there was some haemorrhaging in his brain. His condition thankfully isn't too critical." I tried to keep my composure as best I could as I heard what he said. I usually wasn't this prone to possibly breaking down when dealing with patients with similar conditions… but this was Cody. One of my own children. One that I failed to protect from his own horrible excuse of a father. My thoughts were dashed when I heard two pairs of fast footsteps rush to me and I turned to see Dolly and Dylan, both with very worried looks on their faces. "Mom! Where's Cody?! Is he okay?!" Dolly spat at me desperately as I held her shoulders to try and ease her. "He's alright, sweetheart… The doctors were able to patch him up and..." I blinked as I turned back to the doctor, having a feeling he had something else to say. He read my expression and nodded before continuing.

"We may know more in perhaps a few hours or the next day… But if he doesn't show signs of regaining consciousness by then. Then I'm afraid..."

"Y-You mean he could die…?" Dylan asked, both him and Dolly looked absolutely frightened at the possible conclusion. The doctor pressed the rim of his glasses against his own face before finishing.

"We don't know anything for sure yet."

He then left, presumably to run some possible tests on his current state. Dolly and Dylan were the first ones to approach the window of the ICU and silently look through to see Cody in a hospital bed. Medical tubes attached to his head and body, the beeping of a heart monitor faintly heard from inside the room. The silence from Dylan didn't last long as he crumpled down to the floor and sobbed.

"It's all my fault! I should've stayed awake and kept an eye on him!" He cried out in despair. I just wanted to comfort him, but Dolly already did that, looking like she was about to cry as well.

"N-No, Dylan… It's mine. If I had just stayed home, I could've stopped his dad from..." Her words fell as she finally started to weep audibly but by a landslide, Dylan's bawling was more louder and remorseful but I could tell they felt the same amount of guilt. "P-Please don't… It's gonna be alright..." I tried to reassure my two teen pups, holding them close to me, tears were now threatening to leave my face.

Cody… Please stay strong for us…

Dylan's POV

I don't know how long I cried for. It feels like hours. Dolly and I were now waiting at a bench opposite of the viewing window, both our heads staring miserably at the floor. Neither of us could bare to look at Cody in his current state without possibly bursting to tears again. All of our siblings were with us too, waiting and hoping for Cody to wake up. The Triple D, Dizzy, Dee Dee and Da Vinci in particular stood at the window, not uttering a single word, but I could tell what they were all feeling.

"Dylan…? Is Cody ever going to wake up…?" I glanced up to see Destiny looking back at me. The fur on her cheeks wet with tears. I didn't know how to answer, given what the doctor told us. All I could do was try to stammer out an answer and all I could muster was:

"J-Just… stay strong..." Destiny turned around to face me, her face now looking hopeless. "H-How?! How can I stay strong when I'm seeing our little brother like this?! W-What if he stays like this and never wakes up?! He's only ten years old, he's never even had a chance to fully live yet!" She yelled at me through flowing tears before finally howling in despair, her hands covering her face as she fell to her knees. I didn't even hesitate to run over to her and hug her tightly as she continued to sob for Cody. Destiny's crying made me feel even worse about myself for neglecting Cody, even if mum said it was an accident and Dolly instead blames herself. ...I guess we're just both to blame. In the end, all I could utter out was two words:

"...I'm sorry."

…

"...Hey. I didn't come at a bad time, did I?" I blinked as I heard a voice near us. This voice… it sounded so familiar. We all looked up to see the one person we'd never expect to see again. A teenage human boy in a long white collar shirt with a black tie, black skin tight pants and red sneakers and most recognisably, a red coat and long beige hair.

"Hey Dylan. It's been a while." I slowly stood up in disbelief as did Dolly. Our brothers and sisters having the same look on their faces.

"...Hunter."

It was a half-hour or so later when we were given the "okay" to come into Cody's recovery room. Hunter stood by Cody's side, looking at him sympathetically.

"...Hey buddy. I don't know what you went through. Nor do I think I want to know what it was. But just know that your family's here with you, waiting for you to wake up. So keep fighting for them, okay? I think you'd be a cool friend." He quietly said to Cody as mum placed a hand on his shoulder. "Thank you, Hunter… I'm sure Cody would love to be friends with you too." She said, sniffling a little.

The next thing we all heard however, has to be the worst thing we ever heard in our lives. It started with faint quick footsteps getting closer to the ICU and then several doctors ran in with some medical equipment. I ushered our brothers and sisters outside, Hunter joining us to give the doctors space so they could work on Cody, and that's when I heard the very thing that made my heart drop.

"His condition is deteriorating! We need to stabilise his heart rate before it crashes!" One of the doctors urged, using the equipment they had on him as quickly as possible, the heart monitor's beeps getting slower and slower as Dizzy suddenly tried to rush in, only for Dee Dee to hold her back.

"NO! STOP IT! YOU'RE KILLING HIM!" Dizzy screamed out to the doctors as she tried to struggle out of Dee Dee's arms, Hunter rushing to help the latter.

"D-Dizzy, don't! Please!" Dee Dee begged, trying to hold back sobs as she held her sister back from trying to get to Cody. The situation was getting intense for me, I felt like I was going to collapse. With Cruella's descendant, we were very lucky that everyone made it out alive. But now, it really did feel like we were actually going to lose a part of our family… I knelt down, clutching my head as Dizzy's distressed screams echoed in my head, hearing her call out once more.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE! CODYYYYYYYYYY!"