Jesse fell to their knees next to Aiden. He was still bloody, but in the light that wasn't red but instead purple and blue and green and white and a million colors all at once, it somehow looked a little better- though Jesse could see that the damage to his stomach was anything but better than what it looked like before.

Still. This amount of light made it more handleable.

They looked up at Aiden anxiously, trying to make eye contact with him. "Hey, Aiden? Stay awake, okay?"

He scowled at them. "What, you think I can-" He winced. "- can take a nap through my stomach being on fire?"

"I dunno what you sleep through," Jesse told him honestly, beginning to rummage through their little green backpack to find the bandages. Please don't let the bandages be wet, please don't let them have gotten wet, please, please...

Thankfully, the bag, while a little wet, didn't actually soak through to the inside, so the bandages were intact and dry.

They hastily pulled the roll of bandages out and started to wrap them around Aiden's midriff, trying to keep their touch light so that they didn't press down on his wounds and make him wince.

From his hissing and winces, they weren't doing a great job. But it was at least keeping him relatively alert.

"I'm sorry," they told him as they looped it around and had to lean closer to him so that they didn't fumble the bandages and drop it in the pool of water and ended up prodding him, which made him clench his eyes shut and hiss in pain.

After a few minutes, they had to wrap the bandages a bit more tightly, which made Aiden gasp and suck in a short breath, the half-demon trying to stay still and avoid jostling his wounds even more. Jesse was almost certain they could see his intestines.

They managed, through some gargantuan effort, not to throw up on Aiden.

"I'm sorry," they repeated.

Aiden was watching them through pained red eyes, teeth gritted so tightly that at one point when Jesse got closer to him, they could hear his ragged breathing and his teeth squeaking from where they were clenched together.

They gave the bandages another weak tug, to keep the blood from leaking out, but they weren't a medical professional and they ruefully noticed that the bandages were already staining red, soaking dark red like a sponge.

Aiden actually cried out weakly this time, instantly clamping his jaw shut to avoid making another sound.

"I'm sorry!"

"Quit apologizing, for Pete's sake!" he snapped back, "just finish wrapping the-"

Jesse tugged the bandage around, and he bit back a rather violent swear, tears involuntarily streaming down his face. "God."

"Do you have a God here?" They looked up at him. Keep him talking.

Keep him talking because otherwise Aiden will fall asleep, he will fall into unconsciousness, and Jesse didn't know if they would be able to ever wake him up again.

"We're demons. Do you think we have God here?" Aiden grimaced, trying not to continue crying.

His breathing was still ragged, but at least the acidity in his voice towards Jesse hadn't faded.

They'd never thought they'd be so glad to hear someone sniping at them.

"Closest thing we've got is the lords, but even then they're more like human kings than anything else." He shifted, keeping a wary eye on the dragon.

The dragon had its head raised above the water, keeping purple, reptilian eyes fixed on Aiden. It was wrapped around Jesse, otherwise.

Jesse got the feeling it wasn't really fond of him.

Reuben snuffled, doing his best to help with not falling into the pool of water that Jesse was sitting in. They were getting a little chilly, actually.

Hopefully that would help keep Aiden present.

"I got that feeling, yeah... what's the favorite flower in your garden? You've got a lot," they asked, finishing up the bandage and quickly fixing it so that it wouldn't slip loose with a pin or two. It was already starting to soak through with blood.

Despite the scowl on Aiden's face, he did actually seem to consider the question for a few moments, through the daze of pain.

After a few minutes, long enough that Jesse actually had to poke him and make him swat them off with a weak grumble, he finally spoke again. "Hm... I guess blood flowers."

"Why blood flowers?"

He scowled at them as they tried to figure out what you did when someone's stomach was practically shredded open. It's not like they could just Google the answer. "Because I like them."

"Okay, but why?"

He huffed, wincing slightly as the exhale apparently caused his stomach to twinge in pain. His red eyes were glazed over with agony, if the way his face was tight despite the faint scowl on it was any indication. "They can actually be a good blood replenisher if you eat them- some magic thing."

"Then I sure wish we had some here," Jesse mumbled, trying to smile past the worried little knot in their chest.

Aiden might've actually smiled at that, but before they could double-check or even ask he was grimacing in pain again, eyes a little dull from pain. "They-"

He winced again. "They also smell like... they smell like... like ink on paper."

"You like that smell?" Jesse asked, putting their palm against his chest and trying to feel for a heartbeat. There wasn't one, and they almost panicked before remembering that he actually didn't have his heart, so it made sense that he wouldn't have a heartbeat. His chest was rising and falling, at least.

Just not enough.

"Ye... yeah." His ragged breathing was faint, shallow; it sounded like any second it could stop and then Jesse wouldn't be sitting with Aiden anymore, they would be sitting with a corpse on the floor sitting in a pool of water with bloodstained bandages and dead eyes. "L... Lukas writes sometimes."

Jesse filed that note away mentally. It made sense. He did seem like the kind of person to enjoy writing, honestly. "Yeah?"

"Ye... yeah..." Aiden trailed off, and Jesse looked up at him to see that his eyes had fluttered mostly shut, a hint of his red iris peering out from under his eyelid.

"Aiden?" They touched his shoulder and gave him a little shake, trying to keep him alert.

They expected him to scowl at them and open his eyes (well, eye, he was wearing an eyepatch) and scowl at them and ask them 'what?' in the sharpest voice he could use- which he seemed to like reserving just for Jesse, but honestly right now they'd rather hear that than watch him fade away.

What they did not expect was for him to loll slightly, head dropping so that his chin was resting against his chest. His eyes were still half-closed, dull with pain and barely conscious.

"Aiden?" Jesse shook him, panic welling up in them like tears in someone's eyes. "Aiden!"

His head lolled again, lips parted slightly. The bandages were soaked through already, dark red in the light, and Jesse desperately pressed their face to his chest to test his breathing. His chest barely rose and fell, hiccuping and trembling with each shallow, fragile inhale.

Dying.

He was dying.

And Jesse was doing nothing.

They could do nothing, it wasn't like this was something they could fix, but god, they wished they could, because they didn't want Aiden to die.

Sure, he snapped at them and glared at them and he didn't want them there, but he was Lukas and Maya and Gill and heck, Petra's friend, he had given his heart away to get some wish that Jesse didn't know-

They couldn't just let him die.

But here he was.

And there they were.

Absolutely useless.

"Jesse?"

Jesse's head snapped up, searching Aiden's unconscious face, but his eyes were still half-shut and dazed with pain, and the voice hadn't been his anyway, and it had been farther away- farther above them, actually, distant and echoing in the expansive, lit cavern.

But it was familiar.

Jesse tilted their head back, searching the cavern for the source of the voice, and not one minute later, they found it, teetering on the brink of the light of the cavern and the darkness of the caves beyond it.

Relief seeped into them, because now things would be okay, now maybe Aiden would be okay and he wouldn't just die on them.

Maybe, just maybe, Aiden would be alright.

"Lukas!"


A/N: Oof. Nope. Aiden's not doing great.

Sorry the chapters are shorter now. It is making it easier for me to write, though.

I am a phone. Reviews are my battery. Thank you for recharging me.

Responses to reviews!

TheAmberShadow: Nah, Bendy wouldn't come after me. I haven't completed the Ink Machine yet. / Of course, I wouldn't leave you high and dry after such a nice pun. / Well, he's not there yet xD / me, but I wrote it xD

CrazyNinjagoFan1: Hehe, yeah. Jesse's good at that. / Indeed she has!

ThinMintE: It can be harder than shown here, though xD / The crystals are... well, actually, those show up in a later chapter, so we'll talk about it then xD / Well xD

LegendEmpress: Hehe, that's good xD / Aw, thank you. / Ye! / Apparently xD

MixedUpSoul5588: Basically Jesse's general aura is positive good vibes xD / Thank you!

Guest: I'm really glad you enjoy it! I liked leaving them up to the reader to decide; they can be a girl, a guy, or enby. It's fun writing the Ocelots!

Guest: It's up to the reader; since all of the Jesses have dark hair.

Guest: Is that a Black Butler thing? I didn't know xD

Guest: Indeed xD

LemonsAndMelons: Interesting theory xD

Darkbeast Dend: No, they're just kinda like those minerals you see in cave walls. The End Crystals are... elsewhere xD

Guest: I'm glad I was able to achieve this! xD

Guest: Thank you! I'm glad you enjoy it!

Guest: Hehe, no, it's accurate xD

Guest: It is a pretty creepy incubus, yes xD

That's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!

x.X. A.L. X.x