A/N: Alright, finally doing this on a Sunday like I usually intend to do… Anywho I'm just going to get right into it, these past couple chapters have been really fun :)

Disclaimer: I do own this computer. But not the rights to this stuff ;p

When This Is Over

The first thing that Nero realized was that all he could taste, all he could smell, all he could feel was wet, slippery, sweet blood. It coated his claws, his face, filled his mouth… He could feel his breath coming in quick, rapid pants, feel something pulse in his claws… something with a distinctly different texture, still coated in silky blood, wrapped around the claws of the other hand. His wings braced against yet something else… he blinked, once, twice, a third time before any of his vision seemed to cooperate with him, some of the red haze fading to the back of mind. He froze.

The sight that fell before him had him wishing to return to the sweet red oblivion that he'd just emerged from. His eyes drifted down and he felt his throat catch as Katherine's heart gave one last weak pulse around his fingers before it stilled. Nero remained motionless like that for a moment before slowly pulling his arm from her chest, his other hand freeing itself from her long hair. Her body lay there, lifeless, for what felt like an eternity before the tiny messengers reached up from the ground to grasp and pull her body into the aether. Nero fell back onto his rear, staring at his hands as though they didn't belong to him, this was nothing like Triggering… what had happened…? When he Triggered he may not have as much control of his demonic instincts but he was aware… As he watched his demonic features slowly faded, leaving his human hands stained in red and gore from his friend caked under his fingernails. He knew he was on the verge of hyperventilating but didn't care, what had happened?! The last thing he could remember was taking a bullet from Lady Maria… where was she? He looked rapidly around the room, seeing the platinum hair and dark clothes splayed off to the side, a large pool of crimson swiftly drying around her. He stumbled over to the corpse and the feeling of inhabiting a nightmare didn't fade, the taste, the coating of copper in his mouth suddenly made awful sense as he saw the mangled mess that Maria's throat had become. A trembling hand reached to his mouth and touched the sticky mess… As a demon hunter and a partial devil himself, he was no stranger to the taste of blood, most of the time he'd even admit to the fact that he found it rather pleasant; all the same his stomach lurched and Nero braced himself against a bookshelf as he retched, feeling no better once his stomach was empty. Why couldn't he remember what happened? He made a point of not looking at the mess he'd made on the floor and instead wandered over to the stairs and sat down, taking deep breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth…

"I gather that the beast has returned to sleep?" Katherine's voice was smooth and calm as it always was, but in that moment it seemed louder than anything Nero could remember. He looked up at her, she'd pulled the mask away from her face and those red eyes were as cryptic as ever.

"What the fuck happened Katherine?" he asked. She sighed and took a seat next to him.

"The fight… was going poorly-"

"Yeah I got that part, I thought we were going to turn it around until she shot me in the head then…" he tried and failed to look at the mess that he was, some back part of his mind told him that he looked ridiculous with the entire front of his shirt torn off.

"I thought you were going to die." she said simply, leveling her gaze at him. He met her eyes and snorted

"I've been shot in the head before Katherine, takes more than that to put me down. 'Sides, thought you said I was a capital 'H' Hunter like you, shouldn't I just come back at the lantern?" the thought of dying and returning was still unsettling but right now it seemed the better alternative to whatever had just happened.

"I… was uncertain if that would work…. She didn't just shoot you, she eviscerated you, there was so much blood on the ground… I didn't stop to think… there… there wasn't enough time…" the way that the words uncharacteristically tumbled out, rapid and nearly overlapping one another had the partial devil nervous.

"What did you do Katherine…?" he asked slowly, rising to his feet when she didn't answer right away. He went down several steps so he could meet her downturned gaze. "What did you do?" he repeated.

"I did the only thing that I thought would work, I gave you an injection of Yharnam Blood. Someone of Cainhurst decent. I didn't know that you would react… so strongly to it." she shivered, looking away from him then a tension in her posture almost as though she expected him to be angry. Which… he was but… he was more mortified than anything.

"You… gave me the blood that… the stuff that you're addicted to?" he was having a hard time processing the whole thing.

"Yes. I am sorry for this, it is not at all what I had intended."

"You're sorry? I'm the one who…" he trailed off, not wanting to think about the feeling of her heart pulsing in his hand…

"You were blood drunk, not entirely in control of your actions, I do not blame you for what was initially my mistake." she said, reaching out and touching his hand, she didn't appear bothered by the fact that it was her own blood that coated it.

"No, no, when I Trigger I'm not entirely in control, this… this was something else… I… I don't even remember what I did Katherine. Shit!" he swore, pacing up and then down the stairs. "What am I going to do?" Katherine stopped him, grabbing his wrist.

"For now, we fight, continue The Hunt, find our answers. Then, when this is over, we will find a solution."

"I don't think I like that answer." Nero grumbled.

"Do you have a better one?" she asked with a small smile. He sighed

"No…"

"Try not to lose yourself to the bloodlust before then." Katherine said, matter of factly, as though she were giving him a fighting pointer, not reminding him that he might lose his goddamn mind mid-fight. "In the meantime, we should return to the Dream, you appear to need new clothes… and a bath."

"Yeah…" Nero followed her up to the new lantern in the library where they'd fought Lady Maria, at least there were no threats within the Dream…

A/N: Oh Nero you sweet summer child… it's only going to go downhill from here…

Till next time,

-Winged Element