Author's Notes: Things aren't as simple as just fighting the Jabberwocky, Zelos and Fang! BAHHAH. Mainly because I love this story and I want to pad it with as much plot as my little brain with allow. Enjoy the newest installment.

Fang sneered, "It smells in here," he couldn't help but complain to Zelos who stood by his side with his white cloth burqa covering his entire face with the exception of his eyes.

Zelos looked up at him and sighed, "I know," he seemed sympathetic to Fang's distaste for once. The old witch-doctor's potion shop always smelled like shit. If he hadn't needed the potion badly enough, he wouldn't be forcing either of them into the building though.

The walls were dark, probably dirty but in this light it could have been paint. Zelos made a move to step forward and his breath cut off when his boot made contact with something soft, squishy, and that squeaked in surprise when he touched it.

"Rats too?" Fang's nose was scrunched up and he pulled up his shirt collar over his nose.

"Of course. Nothing here is fun or easy anymore," Zelos commented and he motioned for Fang to follow him up to the counter.

Step after step on the cobbled, filthy floors gave Zelos the unbelievable urge to go take a bath. He reached the counter that was made from a deep dark mahogany. His hands lifted so he could set them on the wood but he stopped himself and decided to put them on his hips instead so he'd have one less thing to clean later.

Behind the counter, the woman sat. She was hunched over and mumbling to herself. Before the take over of King Dickhead, the potion makers had been normal. Now they were all freaks and witches. It made Zelos's skin crawl to even go near a potion shop anymore. That was one of the main reasons he'd stopped fighting. He couldn't stand visiting these little shacks that were located in the dirtiest alley of the city. Right now, they were in Palmacosta again and they were stocking up for the big battle.

They were getting ready for the Jabberwocky.

Zelos made a face at the word entering his mind. It wasn't a Jabberwocky- it was a dragon. Fang's references to Earthen culture were starting to rub off on him.

"Excuse me?" Fang spoke up first at seeing Zelos was in his own little world currently.

The woman hunched forward more and started mumbling even louder.

Zelos grinded his teeth, "Yo!" he removed one hand from his hip and slammed a fist on the counter to get her attention. "We're here for some potion," he informed the woman in a loud and mighty tone. Fang looked at him with an unsure expression. He wasn't sure this was the way to go about getting the woman's attention.

She slowly stood up and swaggered over to the counter. "If you were to not fight, you would not need to use the potion," her voice croaked.

Fang took a step back and behind Zelos for some reason he couldn't comprehend beyond instinct.

The masked redhead crossed his arms, "Then you'd have no business, lady."

She smiled at them to reveal a golden front tooth. Fang's head reeled back and he squinted to see if he was seeing it right. Yeah, he was. One gold tooth and the rest were rotten and black.

"I suppose you're right, young man," she said. "What potions do you require?" she added.

Zelos pulled out a slip of paper and set it on the counter, "Ten of everything on that list," he ordered.

She picked it up and examined it, "Can you afford these potions and gels, boy?" she asked him, leaning over the counter to examine Zelos's cerulean eyes which narrowed as the woman got closer.

"Yes."

Her head tilted to one side and her black matted hair dropped over one shoulder, "How?"

"I'm a leprechaun and I just visited my rainbow," Zelos snapped.

"Does it really matter how we got the money? Money is money, right?" Fang asked.

She looked at Fang before her eyes went to his back which appeared hunched due to his wings. Zelos had given him a cloak to wear to cover the wings that worked pretty well. "You… You don't belong here, child," she hissed with an evil smile on her lips.

"Hellooooooooo!" Zelos waved his arms in the air dramatically as he leered at the witch, "I don't know if you understand but I'm kind of on a tight schedule. So can you get me the potions or not? If you can't, I want out of this stink-hole."

She looked at Zelos and smiled, "I have what you need," and she laughed a little cackle before going to the back room to retrieve their supplies.

Zelos turned and looked around the room. Fang frowned, "After here we go to M-" Zelos cut Fang off with a silent look of 'shut the hell up'. "… My mom's house?" Fang finished lamely.

Zelos nodded, "Yeah. We just have to get this stuff because your mom is crazy and large and might sit on us. Thus crippling our frail insignificant bodies," he told Fang.

Fang smirked at their little coded sentences, feeling a little like James Bond, and he looked in the direction where the woman had gone.

"I didn't know you had money," Fang whispered to Zelos.

Zelos's mask tightened as he broke into a silent grin. Fang's stomach seemed to fall open and do a flip as he felt a bad feeling jump him. Zelos wasn't telling him everything.

Like, how Zelos had absolutely no money on him and he was going to take the supplies and run like a bat out of hell.

The woman shuffled back into the room with a large bag. Zelos smiled at her, "Thank you so much," he said in a sugary tone. Then he grabbed the bag, pushed her up against a wall, and darted out of the building. Fang stood there for a second before realizing he should probably follow his mentor and he turned, scrambling to catch up with Zelos.

Zelos ran out the back alley. His white boots hit the ground in a quick rhythm before they cut off completely as he leapt up and took off into the air. Fang scowled, "A little warning would have been nice!" he barked up at Zelos, as he tried to tear off his cloak.

Zelos was hovering behind a roof to keep covered from view, but the brightness of his wings made it hard to stay hidden for very long. "Hurry up!" the older man snapped back.

"I'm trying!"

"TRY HARDER!"

Why was this cloak so hard to maneuver? Fang grunted, now just ripping at the cloth to get it off his body so he could follow Zelos. "Damn it!" he exclaimed, only half-way off with the clothes.

Looking up to see if Zelos was still in his covered spot, he saw nobody there.

No bright light from the wings and no silhouette from the shadows and contours of his slim body.

Had Zelos just completely deserted him?

Fang felt the bottom of his stomach drop, "Zelos?" he called out, helplessly tugging at the clothes has much as he could.

His breath hitched when he felt a needle pierce his neck. Legs wobbled beneath him and he vaguely felt the sensation of his knees slamming into hard concrete.

As the darkness began to consume him once more, Fang repeated the name of his only friend in all of the fucked up world he was stuck in. The friend who'd just deserted him.

"Zelos…"