I just realized that the way I've been writing Kaname or the other Night Class students might be considered bashing? But I'm not doing it intentionally if it seems that way (mostly)! This chapter fought me the entire way. At least half of it was canon!Yuuki getting in the way and being dramatic! I took so long because I kept getting irritated and taking breaks, but I hope I can be excused for my lateness by the length of this chapter? It took thirty pages of my notebook but seems somehow shorter here...

It almost ended on a cliff hanger several times because I got so frustrated, and the ending is plausible, I think, but I dislike it. When you read it I'm sure you'll find why and understand why the next update might take a little longer than usual.

I added and updated bio at the end of this chapter! Seems like an appropriate time for it, and I just finished it, so why not? My next update is going to be an alternative Tenth Night, because I'm not feeling this chapter at all, and based on reader reactions I'll decide which to make official.

Thanks, everyone, for the favs, follows and especially the reviews! Those've been lessening in number but some of you still reviewed! Thanks doubly for that! They make me really excited, happy and motivated.

Vivi Neferatari, no, she'd had her canon hairstyle. That's a funny thought, though!

To the guest who liked the omake, I'm glad you did so!

Minnidog118, moonlightstriking, I can explain Zero! You seem to like how I've altered him from canon!Zero, and I'm glad, but I want to explain it, because I'm happy about how I've rationalized his development.

Canon!Yuuki ignores Zero's personal choices, is repeatedly helpless, "girly" and childish, and has an obvious crush in Kaname. Her personality frequently puts her at odds with Zero and her obliviousness often drops her into dangerous, compromising situations. She also seesaws between relationship extremes with both Zero and Kaname in really obvious ways.

In my story, she's more mature, respectful, observant and she has vastly different relationship dynamics. In canon, one of Zero's "noted traits" is kindness, which I've capitalized on. He hasn't had to hide things from Yuuki for her own good, she isn't obviously infatuated with Kaname and she's closer to him platonically without any complications, so he's less aggressively isolated and he clings to obsessive hatred much less than in canon.

Leia, I see your review! I had to moderate it, apparently. But, anyway. I can't disagree with you about Kaname, but I can say that it's not done maliciously. At least when directed towards Yuuki, but you're not really wrong about how he's acting. I personally think that it's probably a mix of him being socially isolated both as a Legitimate Kuran Kid and when he was Ancestor!Kaname, but he does sort of treat her more like a pet than an equal.

I can neither confirm nor deny Yuuki's plans in detail, and I'm glad you enjoyed the omake! I'm about 70% sure you inspired it.

The Dance Hall is echoing with violin music, Day Class and Night Class students visibly present. The boys all seem to be wearing their school uniforms, and the Day Class girls all seem to be wearing dresses ending at or above their knees. The Night Class girls all wearing fancier, more mature, clingier dresses, and among the students, Yuuki can see the clear divide. There's some mingling as Day Class students work up the courage to ask Night Class students to dance, and Yuuki circles the edge of the room, looking for Zero, Cross or Kaname. Yori had split off from her upon entering the hall to go and work backstage as their class was meant to do, and she would have gone to help if she wasn't meant to be wandering as a guard.

As she turns her head, she can feel Artemis pressing tightly into her skull from where she'd tucked it into the choker around her neck that is conveniently covering her neck wound bandages from the other night. Hiding the rod there isn't very comfortable or subtle, as if she hangs her head, the end might push into sight through the thick curtain of her hair, which she'd left down tonight, though with the hair framing either side of her face pulled back, but it's the only place she could hide it reasonably. When she'd tried to holster it on her leg, it had been too distracting and unfamiliar so it had bothered her balance and stride, as she'd not worn it on her leg in a long time. Attached to her lower left sleeve is the armband marking her as a guardian, which clashes, but is necessary to show that she has an official duty to the dance and is not just slacking in her class duties.

She'd almost hidden the gun in the bow of her dress, but if she were to dance with anyone, that risked the chance of them discovering the weapon.

As she makes her way to the very back, she finally comes across Zero and Cross, both of them together. Cross is dressed rather formally, if a bit old fashioned, his hair pulled back into a neat ponytail. Zero is wearing his uniform, which is standard, and they look very different to each other, as Zero's uniform jacket has the top few buttons undone and the tie is skewed as it normally is.

"Ah, Zero! There you are," Yuuki blinks in relief, approaching them as quickly as she can with the heels she's wearing. They're not very high, but the heels are narrow and this is the first time she's ever worn such shoes. Zero looks at her with surprise and a little confusion when he catches sight of her. "I figured you'd be here before me."

"Wow!" Cross squeals, throwing his hands up to cup his face, his glasses shining brightly as he wiggles ecstatically in place. "Yuuki, you came all dressed up!" He then slides forward, throwing a hand towards her and placing the other against his chest. "Dance with your father later, my daughter!" Cross demands grandly, face flushed.

"Alright…" She agrees warily. "Later, though."

"Yaay!" He cheers and bolts away, towards the back exit of the dance hall. "Later, then!" He calls, waving enthusiastically before disappearing. Yuuki turns her attention back to Zero once he's out of sight, and upon catching sight of his expression, waits patiently for him to speak, looking over his attire once more and kind of wanting to fix his jacket, at least this once.

"When did you have the chance to go and get a dress?" He asks after a brief silence, looking her over once more. "And why that one, specifically?"

"I didn't pick this out, actually," she admits, looking down before looking back at him. "Kaname sent it to me."

"Kuran sent-" Zero scowls. "Why wear it?"

"There's no reason to not wear it," she tells him.

"The hell there isn't a reason to not wear it-"

"Other than it making me uncomfortable about him sending me such a gift, there isn't." Her voice is low so as not to carry, and she's hoping that there hadn't been eavesdroppers hearing that, and thus hurries to end that line of conversation. "Not wearing the dress wasn't an option, Zero. Come here," she beckons him closer, and while he looks reluctant, she approaches. She reaches up, pulling him so he stoops slightly, and she begins to fix his tie, straightening and tightening it before tucking his collar correctly down and doing up the buttons.

Zero's eyes are wide with surprise and confusion, and she huffs a she studies his appearance for a moment, looking over her work.

"It was going to make me angry," she explains as she reaches up to the choker around her neck and undoes part of it, releasing the rose from it's confines and tucking it into Zero's breast pocket, tapping it carefully in place and securing it with the tiny chain in the lapel that she's certain is present for that exact purpose. She pats his chest a final time and steps back with a smile. "All better!"

"How are you still smiling, tonight of all nights?" Zero drawls out eventually, giving her a level look.

"Well," she trails off, smile falling as she tries to understand it for herself, a distant part of her awareness that is set to monitoring her surroundings and her body telling her that Kaname is lurking somewhere nearby and had turned his attention in their direction just as it tells her that she is running out of time. "I'm hoping I might coax a smile out of others by smiling at them, honestly." She tells him before stepping back yet again. "I'm going to go and find Kaname, and thank him for the outfit."

"Yuuki," Zero's voice stops her in her tracks as she turns to make her way away from him. She looks over her shoulder, turning only slightly in his direction. She inclines her head slightly and he meets her eyes. "Don't leave the party."

She offers him a second smile, this one slightly regretful and guilty, and leaves without answering him.

Approaching the milling vampires, Yuuki makes sure to space her steps carefully so as not to trip or stumble. Among the intimidating beings, she can see Senri sitting down against the back wall like a child avoiding a party, and Kain meaning against a pillar near Souen and a few other Night Class students.

Briefly, she contemplates walking past them to the terrace she knows holds Kaname. But to do so would definitely draw attention, because not only is Kaname not actually visibly from inside the hall, but due to the fact that she's pretty sure he's out there alone, she's pretty sure the terrace is "invite only" right now, so at least one vampire would likely try and stop her, causing a scene.

"Kain," she calls for the orange haired boy's attention. He twitches slightly, looking up and, upon spotting her, inclines his head slightly, waiting. "Is Kaname-nii here tonight?"

"Yeah, he should be out on the terrace by himself about now," he tells her idly, looking over in said terrace's direction. Yuuki nods, thanking him for the answer, and makes her way in that direction. Due to her enhanced awareness, she notices several Night Class students discreetly making way for her, proving her theory in the terrace being "invite only" correct. If she'd gone straight to the terrace, she'd likely have been diverted.

Once outside, she finds Kaname leaning against the railings far to the left of the doors and makes her way in that direction, uneasy about being so isolated in his presence. It's not a welcome feeling, because now that she knows she's related to him, she should feel safer with him, shouldn't she? When she'd been younger, the idea that they might be related had been heartening.

But that isn't the case at all.

"Good evening, Yuuki," Kaname calls, pushing off of the railing. "I'm happy that you're wearing that dress," he smiles at her just slightly, the expression unnatural on his face, disingenuous.

"Ah, thank you for sending it to me. I had originally planned to come in my uniform, but this way I am dressed appropriately for the dance," she thanks with a small, polite bow. When she straightens back up, she catches the tail end of a dark, sour expression before it is cleared away.

"Is something wrong, Yuuki? You seem different," he says out of nowhere, startling her a little. Has my act slipped? "I'm just kidding. You look very pretty in that dress, you know." He pushes away from the railing and approaches her.

"Than-"

"Would you dance with me?" He asks, already taking a hold of one of her hands and lacing the fingers with his. "In return for the dress." She doesn't get a chance to accept or refuse, as, with a serious expression, Kaname wraps an arm around her waist and directs her into a waltz position. Involuntarily, Yuuki feels her skin crawl.

They start to move into a waltz, as expected from the starting pose, and it quickly becomes obvious to Yuuki that Kaname isn't at all following the music that they can very clearly hear. In the midst of a turn, she catches sight of a watchful Zero in her peripheral vision and feels a wave of relief she has to hurriedly mask, and in the back of her mind, her timer ticks ever lower.

"Kaname-nii, why do you keep missing the beat?" She asks as they once again turn before they're meant to do so.

"Because I'm not listening to the music," he tells her, eyes drifting closed and head rolling slightly to the side on his shoulders. "Let's just… Dance slowly. Like we used to do."

The memory is blurry and indistinct, but Yuuki can remember standing on his shoes while he walked her through this very dance.

"... When will you stop treating me like a child?" She manages to ask after a moment of debate with herself, forcing them to go out of sync and stopping the dance.

"I haven't intended to do so," Kaname tells her in a placating tone. Her eyes lift to look at his face, finding a soft expression but inscrutable eyes looking down at her from his greater height.

"Are you sure about that? You send me this dress that makes me look like a child, and… and you tampered with my memories," his eyes widen slightly and in them she can see shock and wariness, but she doesn't allow him to speak, continuing, "making that decision for me, as though I'm a child whose stuck their nose in someone else's business-"

Kaname interrupts the torrent of words by dragging her into a tight hug, his body folding over hers.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to treat you like a child… I just want to protect you," he tells her in a low voice. If she was anyone else, the words might have warmed her, might have lessened any negative feelings she held for him in response to his actions. But she's not anyone else, and they've had a conversation like this before. The exact words of the argument are lost to her, but she remembers wanting to protect herself, to protect him, and the sting of realizing that he hadn't been able to trust her to be strong enough to do so.

She'd forgotten that argument in time, and now it's come back to hurt her. Because he still doesn't trust her to be able to protect and take care of herself, apparently. A lance of emotional pain and a distant, silent keening brings her back to the present despite the overlapping and unwelcome sound of Hio's words coming to haunt her.

"Kill Kuran Kaname. He only lets his guard down around you, so it's something only you can do."

She pushes out of Kaname's grasp and surreptitiously gets free of her heels, a second voice coming to attention as she turns her head just slightly to see Zero momentarily gone from where he'd been watching.

"Time is up." She turns without another word and vaults off the side of the terrace, her dress fluttering up but the length keeping such a thing from hindering her too much in her landing, though that does not save it from minor staining. She does not hear Kaname calling for her or reacting in surprise, which is suspicious but she isn't able to dwell on it.

Running in the direction of the old, abandoned faculty building that had once served as the temporary Moon Dorms, Yuuki can't help but hope that Zero will be tailing her soon, and that when he arrives, it won't be to her dead body, or a body without her inhabiting it.

The old faculty building is... a lot creepier than she'd expected it to be. Without the lights on, and without the distant but present sounds of life, the temperature just as cold as she remembers it to be, it feels legitimately abandoned. As though it is the perfect setting for such an occasion. There's a gaping door she can't remember seeing before in the side of the stairwell, and Yuuki's toes feel like ice as she approaches it and begins to pad down the freezing stone steps into the basement.

Oh. She remembers now. She'd followed Zero down here before.

As she makes it half way down the steps, she hears the door above her close seemingly of it's own accord. It isn't a loud sound, but in the otherwise silence, the quiet click might as well have been a slam.

If it were any other situation, she would hurry down the stairs to just get it over with and preserve her toes as they begin to sting, but she doesn't particularly want to hurry this confrontation along. She can sense Zero approaching, though, perhaps a quarter of the way here, her blood a beacon to her vampire side's senses, so she reluctantly picks up speed as she makes her way downwards. She can't have Zero coming too soon, after all. It might just ruin the plan she has vaguely strung together in her head.

Reaching the bottom, Yuuki can see another set of doors standing wide open, dim light spilling into the otherwise darkness that she hadn't really noticed.

It's the theater area again. The familiarity isn't at all comforting.

She wants to hesitate, to catch her breath completely, to allow Zero to catch up so they can confront Hio together, so she won't have to face this unknown enemy alone. Instead, she reaches up to pull Artemis free, aware that having it sparking would attract attention of the negative kind. She studies the weapon silently before setting it silently down in the middle of the hallway for Zero to collect for her before going forward to enter the theatre.

It's just as gapingly empty as it's meant to be, off white sheets covering what seems to be portraits, boxes, furniture and old props the school had decided not to throw out. Up on the stage area there's a love seat, with Kurenai sitting primly atop it in a lovely deep purple dress, looking like a perfectly posed doll.

It's apparent that they're the only two in the room, with no sign of the accomplice from the other night that Yuuki can sense, though she remains wary as she approaches the awaiting vampire. Zero continues to get closer, though not quite at the halfway point yet.

"So you've decided, huh?" Kurenai asks in a flat tone, not seeming surprised in the least that Yuuki'd come empty handed and alone.

"You gave me a task you knew I couldn't complete, but I've decided that even despite that, I'm going to save Zero," Yuuki says firmly, determination forcibly curbed so that it will be the only thing to show in her eyes.

She doesn't want to expose her trump card prematurely, after all. Especially when she will have only one shot to use it safely, as she only has so much energy available as a human.

"Come here, Yuuki," Kurenai bids with a small, satisfied expression twisting onto her face. Yuuki quietly circles the front of the stage to the stairs, then approaches the vampire, who has a hand extended in a silent demand for her own.

Yuuki places her hand in Kurenai's, palm upwards to bare her wrist to the vampire, but once she has it in her grasp, she only turns the hand gently downwards, curling Yuuki's fingers until her pointer finger is all that remains extended. Kurenai jerks lightly on her hand, and Yuuki follows the silent order obediently, dropping to her knees as Kurenai licks her fingertip daintily and pointlessly.

The vampire's lashes flutter slightly before her head tilts and her eyes meet Yuuki's, which haven't strayed from Kurenai's face at all.

"Do you have something to say?" She inquires in a curious tone, tone deceptively light and eyes blank.

"No, nothing," Yuuki answers after a second, despite her knee jerk reaction to say that Kurenai is not who I came for. Kurenai's eyes narrow slightly on her suddenly otherwise blank face, and her grip turns painful, wrenching Yuuki's hand and wrist around so that Yuuki is forced to go even lower as she tries to keep her wrist unbroken.

"I'm the one who gave Zero despair, and you-?" Kurenai's face twists into a sneer before she clears it away. "You grew up happily, didn't you? Your eyes that look straight into mine... They remind me of Zero-chan's when he was a child." She yanks on Yuuki's still twisted wrist and drags her up to slam against the back of the loveseat, Yuuki following the movement as well as she can so her wrist will not be sprained or shattered.

Kurenai's hands rest on her cheeks as she climbs over one of her legs, a knee landing between both of her own. Yuuki wrestles down her fight or flight instincts, knowing that Kurenai is not going to kill her. She's simply making a point, or simply having fun with Yuuki at said girl's expense, wasting time for a reason she has yet to be told.

"You've been protected so dearly... I'm envious," Kurenai says after a moment of studying her face, voice uncomfortably soft.

"... Envious?" Yuuki can't help but parrot back. "Of me?"

"You think purebloods are happy?" She coos, seemingly rhetorically, because she continues speaking very soon after, not pulling away as she speaks. "That's fine. We made a deal, so I'll tell you how to save Zero."

Somewhere backstage a door opens, and a suppressed presence enters her awareness. The scent of rotting flowers, old blood and freezing air enter her nose as slow, steady footsteps approach, their gait wide. Kurenai finally pulls away to rest her hands instead on Yuuki's shoulders, settling where she'd been straddling Yuuki's leg to instead sit on it.

"Ichiru, those boys withdrew obediently?" Kurenai asks, looking to the side. Yuuki can't help her twitch at the name, an uncomfortable confusion rising up, flitting along her senses. Ichiru? Zero's brother Ichiru? Her eyes jerk in that direction, though the accomplice does not quite enter her field of vision just yet. The figure enters her vision soon enough, though, and despite the domino mask that covers his eyes and upper face, the boy's figure and silver hair are distinctive and familiar.

But Zero said-

"Yes, Shizuka-sama," he says as he enters her field of vision completely.

There's a woman in his arms, with long white hair and pale skin, clothes in an expensive looking kimono, seeming as though she's asleep despite all of Yuuki's senses telling her that she's dead.

"That's my true body," Kurenai reveals close to her ear before pushing away a little more to face Ichiru and her body, not actually getting up from Yuuki as Ichiru approaches. Once he is close enough, Kurenai grabs a hold of the nearest hand, the body inhaling slowly at the contact and opening its eyes, revealing vivid pink irises. "That boy... only has to drink my blood," they say in eerie unison before Kurenai collapses backwards into Yuuki's chest, head dropping on Yuuki's shoulder and nose digging into her neck. Shifting her shoulders slightly so Kurenai collapses instead on her lap, otherwise ignoring the sudden dead weight, Yuuki questions Hio,

"Your blood?"

"Yes. The blood of his Master will prevent Zero from falling to Level E and make him a true vampire," Hio says as Ichiru releases her to stand on her own. She then looks to the tall boy next to her. "Ichiru, take Maria to bed."

Ichiru approaches Yuuki and collects Kurenai's body silently, turning to leave immediately upon having her in his hold. Hio then takes a step forward, sitting down next to Yuuki on the love seat, their knees brushing together.

Yuuki becomes suddenly aware of Zero almost to the building above her and that she had not told Zero about the bare skeleton of her plan.

"We made a deal. Give poor me your blood... I'm being chased, so I need more strength. For that, I need your blood." Hio unties the choker from around her neck, taking the bandages with it, and Yuuki sees her study the bite mark with a little surprise.

"Do you understand what it means for my teeth to sink into you?" Hio asks, her palm flattening over Zero's bite mark on her neck. She doesn't wait for any sort of answer, pulling Yuuki closer to her and bending down closer to her throat, breath inexplicably icy over her skin.

Zero hits the bottom of the stairs, and over the increasingly loud beating of her heart, Yuuki can hear the faintest scrape of metal against stone, indicating that Zero's picked up Artemis as she'd hoped.

Hio's fangs brush against the sensitive skin if her throat, and Yuuki becomes acutely aware, as Zero appears in the doorway of the theatre, that she doesn't have a plan that would truly survive contact. Only a trump card she doesn't know how to play, a vague hope, a desperate kind of fear, and an awakened, restless beast of instinct seething in her subconscious, ready to do something the moment Hio becomes distracted enough and she gets the chance.

Zero's face goes slack with something Yuuki's pretty sure is terror, and Hio pulls away from her neck without drawing any blood at all. Yuuki sees Artemis drop from limp fingers and then his face twists with fury and he lifts his hands, Bloody Rose held in a two-handed grip that she hasn't seen him use since he'd first received the weapon and was still not 100% sure of his aim's reliability.

In that exact instant, Yuuki registers that if Zero somehow manages to kill Hio or shoot her, she will be hurt and Hio could very likely turn to dust.

Including the cure of her blood.

"Get away from Yuuki, Shizuka!" Zero snarls loudly.

Yuuki has less than a second to decide that the chance to save Zero from degradation is worth the terror of turning her back on a vampire, and she stands with arms thrown wide before Hio, her heart in her throat and her lungs somewhere close.

"Yuuki, get out of the way," Zero grinds out, anger apparent but worry clear to her beneath that.

"If you manage to kill her, then you can't be saved!"

"That woman, save me?" Zero scoffs.

"To stop yourself from becoming a Level E, you must drink her blood!" Yuuki insists. "To get her blood, I agreed to give her mine. I told you that. If I'm bitten, I'm sure it would be scary, but I'd be fine." She tries to give him a significant look, trying to remind him that she's not really human and wouldn't lose anything she won't inevitably lose anyway by being bitten by a pureblood.

Well she'd probably go mad with hunger for a little while unless she got blood right away, she and her vampire self had agreed on that point, but that wouldn't be forever and she'd be in no danger of falling to Level E.

Zero starts to walk closer, his eyes locked onto Hio and staying there as he speaks.

"Even if I really do need her blood, I can get it from her once she's on the brink of death," Zero says in a voice that's unsettlingly calm. "Can't I, Shizuka?"

Behind her, she hears Shizuka make a sound of amusement, and Yuuki feels the gaze of a predator that's taking a keen interest as Zero gets even closer, so she hurries forward while she has the chance. Zero snatches a hold of one hand and pulls her even further away from the vampire, keeping aim on Hio with a single hand, but Yuuki doesn't get far before Hio speaks.

"Hello again." Something about her tone of voice has changed and Zero's movements grind to a halt, his face pinched with effort that Yuuki sees no sign of. This close to him, his furious terror is even more obvious to Yuuki.

In the back of her mind, the beast shifts.

Unnoticed by anyone, Yuuki's eyes flash livid scarlet for an instant.

"Are you happy to finally hear the voice of your Master?" Hio laughs as she stands, the sound slick and malicious. Yuuki can hear something metallic nearby, rolling, but she doesn't dare look over and draw Hio's attention to it. "Do you not feel like obeying me? It is because I have returned to my real body, that my voice has the "power" to "bind"."

Zero's hand twitches just slightly around her own, and Yuuki flicks her eyes to jus face, finding his expression absolutely frozen.

"Ah... I have an idea," Hio says silkily, "Hold Yuuki there, will you?" Zero's other hand, empty of Bloody Rose, grabs onto the wrist of her other hand instantly, and a terrible feeling blooms inside of her as she watches Zero's face go completely blank as Hio begins to speak. "You do understand, don't you? The commands given by me, your Master and Parent as a vampire, cannot be disobeyed. Hold her tighter."

Zero's grip twists and her arms are wrenched behind her back, wrists held at an angle that strains her elbows and pulls her shoulders back, resulting in her chest being pushed forward and her neck being bared, loose hair spilling forward.

"You don't have to make Zero restrain me," she says quickly, a sick feeling building the longer Zero is unable to control himself. "I wouldn't struggle while you drink my blood!"

"Stupid girl... This body has been starving for four years. Did you think that only your blood would be enough?" Hio asks Yuuki in a condescending tone, and that terrible feeling gets worse, twisting, consuming...

Hio grabs the back of Zero's head, tilting it back and pulling his tie and collar loose to expose his throat. The scent of blood finds its way into Yuuki's nose, and the expression on Zero's face looks as though he would be crying if he could do so right now. Yuuki can see blood drip down the side of Hio's chin.

"That's enough, I'm right here!" Yuuki's voice is a snarl, and she closes her eyes to hide their no doubt glowing irises as she struggles against Zero's grasp. It's hard to not use her shot of vampiric power to escape and attack Hio, but she doesn't want to risk attacking whilst Zero is under Hio's control and her accomplice is still missing.

Hio pulls away from Zero, swiping the blood from her chin with her fingers and licking it up before turning her attention to Yuuki. Yuuki, eyes still closed, feels fingers trailing across her jaw and then into her hair at the back of her head. Maybe she says something, but Yuuki can't hear it, and she is suddenly released.

Her eyes pop open and she ducks and spins to the side, escaping Hio's grasp immediately. She ducks instinctively, swiping downwards to collect Artemis from where it'd rolled closer during the confrontation. A quick mental check told her that her vampiric self had used what little of an ability it could access to pull the weapon closer.

As if in response to such a thought, Artemis sparks violently but painlessly in her grasp as she extends it. There's a bladed edge on one end, as though Artemis is growing a blade or turning into a sword, but she dismisses it beyond its potential usefulness to focus on the confrontation in front of her.

Zero has a hand on Hio's throat.

"It is pointless, Zero," Hio says blandly as one of Zero's arms falls limply to his side. "You should just stay still like a marionette for now." Yuuki moves closer, steps careful, Artemis held ready to strike the instant that she will be able to do so without catching Zero in the strike.

But unlike before, Zero's previously limp arm lifts and his head drops momentarily, then there's a soft jangle as Zero lifts his head, the chain of Bloody Rose in his teeth and his free hand wrapped around his gun.

"You cannot even put your strength in these fingers on my neck, can you?"

Zero releases the chain and his hand drops limply, as though his strength had failed him. But then Bloody Rose fires, the bullet going through his thigh just above his knee, and Yuuki sees Hio jerk slightly as Zero's fingers tighten around her throat.

"Don't you take anything from me!" Zero shouts before lifting his weapon to fire several shots into the shocked Hio's chest, releasing her after the fifth shot, and the instant there's enough space to do so, Yuuki lashes out, coming in low. The new bladed edge of Artemis impacts with Hio's lower ribs, blood flying and coating it's edge. She flicks it's edge to get the blood off as Artemis sparks angrily at its presence, collapsing it and then re-extending it to ensure it's without blood. The blood is gone from it completely once it's extended, and Yuuki can see the blade at the end is extended even further, looking more like an old fashioned razor more than a sword or spear.

Hio begins to laugh from where she'd stumbled backwards, and Yuuki instinctively sinks down at the somewhat sincere sounding laughter. She throws an arm out as long strips of cloth unravel from her kimono and her hair comes loose. One of the strips flutters over the love seat behind her and when it comes away, the furniture is cut in half. A chill goes down Yuuki's spine.

"You want to kill me, don't you?" Hio asks in a curious tone before it morphs into amusement. "I will not die with this much." Hio smiles at Zero, blood staining her front and dripping from her mouth, eyes more red than pink and glowing brightly.

"No... More.. From... Me..." Zero snarls with similarly red eyes before unleashing a hail of bullets at Hio. She throws an arm, lashing the cloth in her gasp in front of herself and stopping the approaching bullets in their tracks. Yuuki sinks into a lower stance, shifting one knee downwards and Artemis held across herself horizontally as she's prepared to lunge forward and distract Hio so Zero might land a crippling blow and save his life, but it feels as though her blood turns to ice when she overhears Zero's quiet promise.

"I'll finish everything."

There's a distant but loud snarl of denial and Yuuki feels her legs tense out of her control before she restrains it, mind working furiously as she struggles to understand Zero's emphasis and find a way for him to live beyond this fight without eventually devolving into a Level E. She hadn't brought anything to hold blood. Why hadn't she-?

"Let's put an end to this and be at ease, Shizuka.. I've lived only for this day," Zero says in a calm tone that terrifies Yuuki.

"Zero," Yuuki calls, shifting her feet across the ground without actually lifting them and moving closer to her pseudo-brother. Zero actually pauses, which is heartening, but only barely.

"What is it, Yuuki?"

"When you said everything... When this fight is finished, what happens to you, Zero?" She asks carefully, fear of his answer present in her heart for all that she is doing her best to ignore it, a suspicion settling amidst it as her beast falls silent, waiting for Zero's answer as intently as she. Zero doesn't look at her, doesn't answer her.

"There's no need to think deeply about it, am I right, Zero?" Hio calls calmly over the small distance, apparently content to let this conversation play out. Yuuki returns her visual attention back to the pureblood, though she keeps her ears pricked for Zero's possible reply and to hear Hio's insidious words. "What has always been deep down in your heart is the desire to perish with me."

Hio's face softens and it's as beautiful as it is terrible. Yuuki's insides freeze and she can't help her attention from swinging to Zero, studying his cold expression and hoping that he will deny her words. That she's enough of a reason for him to live.

"Yeah, that might be so." Yuuki feels very suddenly simultaneously numb and overwhelmed. Any reaction she might have made, any emotion she might try to understand or utilize, is stomped down when her senses tell her of the arrival of the accomplice's return just as a sword impales through Zero's forearm, going straight through like an arrow, getting halfway through before stopping.

"Shizuka-sama... What are you doing, messing around? It's unnecessary," the male Yuuki abruptly remembers is Zero's supposedly twin brother complains in a somehow disdainfully-respectful tone.

"You are uncalled for," Hio snaps in as genuinely angry a tone as Yuuki has heart from her.

"I understand, but I cannot be convinced with this difference in the ways we are treated," Ichiru says blandly. Yuuki doesn't really understand what he means, but her vampiric senses tell her that Ichiru is human.

Which doesn't make any sense.

"I thought you were already dead, Ichiru," Zero says as he pulls the sword from his arm with a tight expression, apparently not surprised.

"You remember me, huh, dear brother?" Ichiru's voice is mockingly flat, but when he removes the domino mask, Yuuki can see little resemblance between he and Zero, despite their identical faces. "How long are you going to play with Zero, Lady Shizuka? Could it be that you plan to leave the devil spawn as he is? Or... I can't let you die selfishly, it will cause trouble," he says, crossing the room to stand in front of Hio. Said woman makes an irritated sound before walking towards the exit.

"I still have something I should do. You don't have to worry, I don't plan on getting killed," she says in a voice closer to a sigh before vanishing from sight. Zero makes to chase after her, shouting her name, but is intercepted by Ichiru.

"It's horrible to ignore me like that, Zero. Don't you want to talk? It's been a long time, you know?" Yuuki collapses Artemis once more and shifts again.

"Zero?" She questions as Zero steps back from her brother. "Should I...?"

"You're going nowhere," Ichiru snaps at her as Zero twitches a hand to gesture her on. She inhales quickly before using her position to lunge herself forwards swiftly. She gets past Ichiru and there's a shout, but she hears the quick sound of metal against metal, and she is not pursued as she follows the trail of Hio Shizuka's blood.

It leads up the stairs and the footprints become even further defined the further the pureblood goes.

It's Hio's blood... Would collecting it be worth anything? Yuuki contemplates a little frantically, worried that Hio will die before Zero can save himself, trying to think of a way to get her blood to Zero in time.

The trail of blood leads Yuuki to a half open door, and she can hear voices from inside. She twitches as she sees Aidou approaching the door, and her vampire abilities finally find use, flexing and cloaking her from all senses. A quick gauge tells her that she has about five minutes before the ability splutters to nothing.

She's only human, after all.

"Kuran's son..." Hio's voice is a low murmur, and as Yuuki approaches cautiously, she is somehow not surprised that Kaname's has found his way into this mess. "Why are you here?"

"This bedroom... It was the first that I occupied when I entered this school," Kaname's tone carries no hint of inflection to it.

"I see... as for me, there is nobody to disturb me."

"Yeah."

Stopping opposite of Aidou allows her to see into the room, and she sees Hio unwinding herself from her Kimono, and Kaname leaning against a window.

"Let me ask one more time... What brings you to this school?" Hio asks, and Kaname pushes from the window.

"To return a favor, and also because this is an appropriate place to get what I want." Kaname grabs a hold of Hio, then, in a close and intimate hold. His next words are so low she cannot hear them, even with her enhanced hearing.

She doesn't need to hear to know what happens next.

The scent of blood grows thicker in the air, and Kaname's hand erupts from Hio's chest, below her heart, but her chest nonetheless.

Aidou's face is a mix of horror and terror, and while Yuuki wants to feel similarly, this is not the first time she's seen Kaname do something similar. She's dreamt of that first meeting with Kaname, in both nightmares and dreams, enough that his brutality isn't a shock.

Though... Hio will undoubtedly die from this, and Yuuki has yet to have gotten any blood from her.

So, no. Yuuki feels no disgust or horror or even shock, but there is anger and fear present in her. For Zero, at Kaname.

"You don't seem surprised," she can hear Kaname note through the blood rushing in her ears.

"No... I have been thinking of taking your life as well, though by other means," Hio admits. "I was planning to make Yuuki an assassin."

"That was a good plan," Kaname says calmly before his voice drifts beneath her range of hearing once more. When Hio speaks, it's low with resignation but loud enough to hear.

"What a dirty trick... You presumed this would happen and were waiting for an opportunity, weren't you?"

"Yes," Kaname admits to her, resting a cheek on the woman's head as Yuuki's already precarious trust in him shatters and falls away. "It is foolish to try and outwit an unhurt pureblood, after all. Because if purebloods are equal, then a battle would just inflict harm and end up with a stalemate... But I still wanted that pure blood of yours. You needed my own, however, and that is why you tried to make use of Yuuki, am I right?"

"That girl's only value is to make her a "piece"," Hio says in a blandly mocking tone. "I cannot resist any longer. Only death awaits the loser of this game... If you let me live, I will kill that girl one day."

"Shizuka-san... I will take your life, and I will use all of my power to protect Yuuki." Kaname's voice is low, animalistic and terrifying to Yuuki's human instincts. She feels an unwelcome souring feeling in her chest and stomach at Kaname's claim as her vampiric instincts inform her that she's running out of "stealth time".

Shizuka speaks, but it is very low and, as she does, Kaname jerks slightly, Shizuka falling suddenly limp.

The organ Kaname had yanked out of her back ruptures into messy, sickening chunks in Kaname's hand as he catches the falling vampire. Yuuki is almost sick before she gets ahold of herself. Kaname and Hio have a conversation, but Yuuki does not hear it, and Yuuki watches Aidou stumble backwards before turning and running away moments before Kaname exits the room, prompting Yuuki to slip inside, aware that she's running out of time. A moment later, she becomes visible and she approaches Hio quickly as the pureblood lies on the ground.

"Hio, when you die, your blood will all turn to dust, won't it?" Yuuki asks as she drops to the ground and sits on her knees next to the woman's head.

"Yes," she confirms serenely, pink eyes moving to meet Yuuki's own. They widen with sincere surprise upon seeing their current glow. "Are you-?"

"No," she denies with a head shake. "Right now, I'm "human". My vampire self is mostly sealed away."

"Ah, that spell..." Hio sighs in understanding, still studying Yuuki's face. "You're really a pureblood, aren't you?"

"Yes," Yuuki agrees. "Is there any way to preserve some of your blood? For Zero..." she trails off, caught in the woman's demeanor, hoping Hio's dying-good-will will give Yuuki a solution even as she notices the blood on the walls beginning to flake into grains of dust.

"Not beyond drinking my blood... But once it's been consumed, to save Zero, he would have to drink every drop of blood you could offer him," Hio admits to her, apparently deciding to humor her. Yuuki feels despair beginning to clog up her throat. Hio will be dead before Zero gets here, she's sure of that, and Yuuki isn't sure what drinking the woman's blood will do to her whilst she's so human, even if she is only so by a thread.

"Hio- Shizuka. Will you bite me whilst I drink some of your blood?" She offers quickly, impulsively, collecting one of Hio's wrists in her hands, her vampire self rising even more to the surface.

"You want me to...? Oh, I see. If I were to bite you, the seal would break." Hio smiles before breathing in a way similar to a sigh but just slightly less than that. "Alright, prolong my life so that I might do one more thing," Hio agrees placidly, her wrist lifting to grab her head and drag Yuuki down towards her neck and thus her face.

Hio's teeth sink into the column of Yuuki's throat, and Yuuki feels her vampire self dissolve just as her own teeth descend into the pureblood's own throat, opposite Kaname's bite marks.

There's a sense of falling, of drowning, of disappearing as she takes the first swallow in that same instant as she awakens, and Yuuki forces herself past those feelings. She can't linger in such sensations, as there are footsteps approaching quickly... Not that she could exactly move away in time to avoid being seen... She can tell that as long as her thirst takes up so much of her self control.

She feels Hio release her throat, but Yuuki does not do similarly, and Hio does not indicate that she should do so.

She's flung backwards after several swallows, and she hits the wall, dazed and foggy minded, instinct telling her to lunge and bite and consume, but her body is out of her control and her mind is buried beneath previously sealed memories and abilities. So Kaname is my brother. She struggles to suppress everything, and only manages to do so completely when she hears Zero's voice.

"What are you doing, Ichiru...?"

Yuuki blinks glowing ember eyes several times as she brings her attention to her surroundings, and she looks to see Ichiru standing with a fracturing Hio Shizuka in his arms, Zero standing in the doorway of the room.

"You killed her, Zero," Ichiru says in a shell shocked, devastated tone as Hio turns to dust in his arms with a sharp crack. "You, that girl and this academy."

"Girl-?" Zero's attention swings to her and he freezes. "Yuuki?!" Ichiru jumps out of the window and Zero moves to Yuuki's side, ignoring the dust remains of Hio moving in the wind of Ichiru's exit.

Red eyes blink at Zero blankly as he kneels in front of her, speaking, not quite completely present yet, and over Zero's shoulder she sees the door open further and she sees Akatsuki step inside the room. That snaps her to attention and she jerks upright, using Zero's shoulder as a brace and throwing one arm out towards the vampire.

"Cros-" his exclamation is cut short as Yuuki wrenches his consciousness and memory of seeing them from him by instinct alone. Then she droops over Zero's shoulder like a sack of potatoes, still hungering but not wanting to bite him at all, for now at least.

"I'm a vampire now. Shizuka's blood is my own. I'm a cure," she slurs out to Zero. "We need to go. Scene of the crime. Will tell you everything later."

BIO AS OF THE TENTH NIGHT

Name: Yuuki Cross (Kuran)

Age: 16

Height: 5'0", 152 cm

Birthday: December 24th

Moral Alignment: True Neutral

Current Theme Quote: "I decided I was safe. I was strong. I was brave. Nothing could vanquish me." - Cheryl Strayed

Likes: the excitement and adrenaline of a fight, salty food, winning, physical affection, Zero, Yori, being strong, the color purple, protecting her precious people, knowing important information, being trusted

Dislikes: violence just for the sake of violence, bullies, being unnecessarily singled out, being alone for too long, being lied to by people she trusts/trusted, when her precious people are unhappy/hurt, not understanding something, spicy foods, Hio Shizuka, Yagari Toga, secrets being kept from her (especially when they are about her), the idea of Zero falling to Level E

Character Flaws: Sort of impulsive when people she cares about are threatened. Has a fear of abandonment/abandonment issues that makes her more permissive than she actually is. Romantic or intimate-romantic situations make her uncomfortable/anxious and that kind of subtext make her distrustful of the people involved. Usually feels emotions in a more dulled way. Frequently lies to herself about her mental/emotional state and pretends that "everything is alright", compartmentalizing everything and then refusing to acknowledge things until they're starting to overwhelm her.

Past Self: Devoured.

Fact: Yuuki's "vampire side" awakened inside of her when she was very small despite the seal, and gained a sort of sentience from eating the memories of her past self, despite actually being only instinct compressed into a single form. This "vampire side" dissolved when Yuuki became an actual vampire and the instincts had a proper outlet.

Scent: blooming crabapple tree, natural decay, blood, ozone