a/n: Feeling the blessings.

"You sure you're okay?"

Rouge turned her head and looked at Amy. The darkness of the tunnel was nothing to her.

The girl looked almost too cheery, but her optimism was readily apparent. The weary smile added to her charm.

"I'm fine."

She stopped and used the nearby wall for support.

"Just watch out for the third rail, hon."

"Yeah. I'll just follow you," Amy said as she placed a hand on Rouge's back.

"Alright."

They walked on. It was deathly silent.

Rouge could see the reason why. There were corpses littering the area around them, up and down the tunnel. All of them headless.

This was his work.

Amy's eyes adjusted and she looked on curiously at the headless corpses. Some of the bodies looked...normal. But maybe just barely.

"Rouge...what do you make of this?"

"Not much," she said tersely.

"You can't be saying that this isn't strange."

"It is, but it's not-"

"It totally is our concern. You know something," she said as her hand traveled up to Rouge's shoulder. The bat shuddered for a moment.

"What if I do?"

"Please, just trust me. I...I have faith in you, you know?"

"In me?"

"You've taken care of me all this time," she said with a smile. "And you have a good heart, I already knew that much. There's something on your mind, I know it. Let's carry that burden together."

"Don't be an idiot," Rouge said with a sigh. "You're still just a kid, Rosie. Way too idealistic."

"Is that so bad?"

"It gets you hurt badly. Look, the fleshbags are thinning out. Must have been herded into here with the train." Amy looked over her shoulder to see that one of the train cars had jumped the tracks. There was space up top, and they both easily jumped up and over.

"Mmph..."

"Rouge?"

She was slow to rise from her crouch. "Not much in the tank. I'm fine, hon. Just gotta..."

"Eat something."

"Yeah."

"No...I meant your affliction," Amy said.

"Don't-"

"Stop hiding it from me. Rouge...I know you've been suffering. That's what this is about, isn't it?"

Rouge blinked and turned her head towards the end of the tunnel. Light shone down from where the streets above had been torn away.

She looked back at Amy, green eyes shining in the dark. A tattered shirt, dirty shorts, and painted toes wet with dirt. She noticed the bat looking at her and smiled soothingly.

"Amy..."

"It's okay, Rouge. Talk to me."

"...I was at the liquor store, you know?" she said, leaning against the overturned subway car and sliding down between the warped tracks. "It just happened all of a sudden. They turned really fast...I was trying to help someone else when one of them bit me in the leg. I got away...but it was scary. Seeing my blood bubble and boil...feeling the panic and pain of it all. And that endless hunger. And then he found me. He didn't look like himself. He was on the edge. All I needed was some blood, you know?"

"Rouge...?"

"Just some blood," she repeated, staring into the distance. "That's what I thought. He cut into his palm and I licked it up. I thought it was enough, and I left. But it came back. It came back and I devoured two people before I got sick all over the side of a car. It's not like...it's different each time, when it happens," she said. "Sometimes you take memories...and other times it's like an essence. I can't control what I take."

Amy thought for a moment. "Like...the soul?"

"Fuck if I know," Rouge said bitterly. "I wish I did. I wish I knew what to do, like he did. I was...a mess when I saw him next. It had only been a few hours, and he changed again. He saw me, what I looked like. I felt like I was going to die. And he...took me in his arms, and I felt warm like the sun was shining down on me. I knew I was dying, and I didn't want to drag anyone in."

"What then?" Amy asked.

"..."

"Rouge?"

"He...used his body. To soothe me. To fill me up. He let me indulge in those desires of mine. And it was supposed to be...it wasn't supposed to turn out like this at all. I wasn't supposed to feel anything but I just took a part of him in me. Not like when I consumed others, this was something else. This was..."

"Love," Amy finished. Rouge looked up at her, eyes filled with sorrow. She nodded slowly.

"Yes. Love. And he never said anything about it. He just let it go, because he was...not the person we remembered. He was making this bigger than himself."

"..."

"You know, don't you..." Rouge stood up. "You figured it out, didn't you? I know you hate me. I know you hate me for giving in to that kind of madness and taking...something that you wanted so badly. But he saved...my life. I didn't want to die. I was so scared."

"...even now?"

"Huh?"

Amy stood in front of Rouge, the light from the sun at her back.

"Even now...are you scared?"

"I-I don't know..."

Amy drew the knife from her back pocket. Rouge relaxed herself and leaned back against the metal of the train car roof. She waited for it, for that to rain down on her.

"Me too."

Rouge stared at Amy, confused. She raised the knife and slowly cut into two of her fingers. Blood seeped from them, tinged a metallic pink.

She stepped forward and dropped the knife, placing a hand on Rouge's cheek. Her fingers slowly slid between her parted lips, and Rouge found herself licking at the droplets with her tongue. She could feel the crippling hunger fade with each taste. Amy looked at her affectionately, slowly pulling her fingers from the bat's mouth.

"I could never hate you. Not if he loves you so. Not if he would give up himself for you."

"Amy..."

"Me too, Rouge. You can have a part of me, too. And we can make the hunger go away," Amy said sweetly.

"You don't have to..."

"I know. I know that it doesn't have to be this way. I know many things, Rouge."

The light gathered around her form as Rouge looked on.

"Not just you...but closer to him as well," she said gently.

The light was brighter. Their hands joined together.

A slow pause and their lips met.

Suddenly the light was blinding.

Just as suddenly, it all disappeared.

The sound of harsh, stuffy breathing.

Rouge felt herself floating in the darkness.

The masked one reached out and pulled her towards earth.

She felt warm and safe. She snuggled into the masked girl's chest.

"Was it such a selfish wish?"

"It doesn't matter. All I can do is grant it to you."

"What about you?"

"That doesn't matter either. Do you understand, Rouge? This is what it means to be a saviour. Don't you dare walk this path...I'll kill you myself if you do. If you see her...and if she's well enough. Do the right thing."

"Let her save you."