Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or DC in way or form.
AN: For those interested in an early read, Chapter 4 has already been uploaded on my discord and the link in on my profile. Just type that without spaces in the join server box. Hope to see you there.
Many Thanks to Lordlexx and Rezurex for the edits done on this chapter, I'd be lost without you guys.
As time went on, his days consisted of sparring with Faora, talking with her, and then sparring with her again. Strangely, no other occupant of the ship had fought or talked with him in the last months, all of them ignoring him like he wasn't even present. He had attempted to put Listening Charms and visual transmitters on Zod and Jax-Ur, but the entrances of every room seemed to negate his magic by simply disrupting or outright damaging the spell at its essence, probably due to the energy fields from the locking mechanisms.
He had used legilimency on Faora everyday since they had changed his living conditions in the hopes of learning more of their plans, but not a single speck of new information came forth. When they were not sparring themselves bloody in the training room, then they were spending almost every waking moment together. They would talk about things ranging from the Kryptonians' conquest over several worlds to how Harry had made a name for himself in the magical world. Faora especially seemed to be interested in the tales of different wars that had happened on Earth, which, considering that she hailed from Krypton, made perfect sense. They both acted to achieve their goals, a lingering touch from Faora here, a blush and stutter from him there, and everything continued like this for the first few weeks, everything going according to what he had thought would happen.
Although, something unexpected did happen over the following months. Bit by bit, thought by thought, Faora's fanaticism towards Zod started to decrease and to his astonishment, her feelings towards him started turning romantic over time. The first time he had felt the genuine affection in her thoughts regarding him, Harry had made an excuse and ran from the room towards his own quarters, before slapping himself silly and checking his own mind to see if he was doing something wrong. The next day he had tentatively reached out to her psyche, scared of what he would find there but in the end, but once again, he found the same thing as the last time, Faora was definitely feeling something for him. And if that wasn't crazy enough…he found that he had also started to enjoy their talks and spars more than he was supposed to, Faora's changing feelings being reflected in her actions and subsequently, in his thoughts too.
As he now sat with his only female companion for the last how many years, Harry couldn't help but feel enraptured with her. It wasn't like the lust and desire he had felt for her when he had first laid his eyes upon her form-fitting suit, which had left nothing to his imagination. Over the time he had known her, Faora had wormed her way into his every waking thought. Harry was smart enough to realize that her looks and his lack of female com-scratch that- any companionship other than the busty Kryptonian played a huge part in that, but there were other reasons too. She was cruel and violent like no other, save perhaps Bellatrix Lestrange—he wasn't able to look at her for Merlin knows how many days after that thought—but she wasn't a brainless, 'yes Master!' type of woman either.
Faora was created and raised to be a soldier of Krypton, but she was also interested in spacefaring and strangely enough,puffskeins, of all the things in the world! When he had described the fluffy and cuddly creatures to her some time ago, she had demanded a conjuration for it, like many other things he had demonstrated. He had immediately conjured two of them for her, the soft blue and stark white creatures bouncing a little in his hands, and they looked around. Faora had, honest to Rao, squealed, reminding him of a certain bombshell Gryffindor with a penchant for Quidditch players. She had almost leaped the remaining distance between them to grab the creatures. In her haste, however, she forgot that puffskeins were terribly fragile creatures and that she was a Kryptonian with much greater strength than a human. The puffskeins had simply exploded into the blood and what little flesh they were made of, their blue blood coating both of them a paintball. After a silence of a few seconds, Harry couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing at the shocked and betrayed look on Faora's face.
"What is so funny about this?" She snapped at him and she sat back and crossed her arms before glaring at him.
"You-You squealed at those fluffy things like a small girl! By Merlin, that was the funniest sight I have ever seen, well, that and the face you made just now." He gasped out between his laughter, his eyes too watered to notice the slap which crashed on his cheek the next second.
"You-how dare you? I certainly didn't-" Faora sputtered in outrage, causing Harry to snort and wave his hand, bringing out his own memories to show the last few seconds in a three-dimensional, third-person point of view without a need for a pensieve. If it wasn't for the fact that he had already erected a shield powerful enough to stop a rampaging erumpent in its tracks, Harry might have very well joined the puffskeins as the bed and wall decor when the memory ended with a high-pitched squeal echoing around them, the sounds effects controlled by his thoughts as he laughed behind the safety of his shield. However, In his haste and hubris, he forgot that Faora was one of the best warriors Krypton had to offer and he was reminded of it painfully as Faora simply stood up and grabbed the bed before flipping it, bringing him down on the ground hard as his back came into contact with the metallic flooring. Before he could get his bearings, a weight landed on his chest causing him to once more lose his breath as Foara's thighs constricted his ribs.
"Now laugh, you H'raka, always moving about the sparring ring and never staying quiet. It's a wonder you can walk through the doors with a head that big." She said as she leaned down to look him in the eyes, the blood still smeared across her form, blue drops splattering on his clothes due to the artificial gravity.
"Well, if this is how you are going to dominate me every time, it is better that I move around constantly." He shrugged, his eyes moving from the black hair falling upon his face to the dark eyes looking down at him. Somehow, they had closed the distance between themselves, Faora no longer upright but leaning towards his face, her tongue wetting her lips once as her eyes met his emerald ones. No longer able to contain himself, Harry closed the remaining distance between him and Faora's delicious-looking pink lips as he leaned up on his elbows.
His mind exploded at the sensation of kissing the woman situated upon him, her lips pliable and soft like nothing else he had even touched or tasted.
Faora didn't waste a single moment as she responded eagerly, their lips moving hard and fast against each other, their kiss hungry and wet like lovers long parted. Faora swiped at his lower lip with her tongue and nipped at it harshly, causing him to open his mouth a little as a groan spilled out of his throat, only to be swallowed by her tongue as she twined it around his own appendage. Their tongues danced together as they tasted and memorized each inch of each other's mouths, the moans let out by one lost in the other. Their make-out session continued uninterrupted over the minutes, with Harry finding a sudden burst of strength and flipping them around to land on the top, his hands tangling in her hair while she scratched at his arms and back, their bodies flush against one another. Harry went on from kissing her lips to pressing his lips at her jawline and her neck, the woman beneath him tilting her head back to give him more access, her wanton moans no longer silenced as they egged him on to kiss and bite more and more.
When he bit at the junction of her neck and collarbone, Faora gave out a particularly throaty moan, making his already hard member twitch even more. With a lustful groan, Harry went up and shoved his tongue into her mouth and ravaged it, not giving her a single moment to respond as he yanked at her hair more harshly than he had ever dared to do with anyone. Soon, the raging inferno of lust inside him cooled down and he lessened the fervor of his kisses until he was just pressed against the buxom Kryptonian. His face settled into the crook of her neck and his hands on either side of her head.
"That...was a-"
"Shh," Faora shushed him as she brought her hand to his cheek and made him look into her black eyes. "It wasn't a mistake at all Harry, we have both been attracted to each other for a long time and besides, I was the one who initiated this."
"I was going to say amazing, I am not dumb enough to term the best kiss of my life as a mistake." Harry huffed as he rolled over and stood up before pulling Faora up.
He almost lost his wits in a mix of horror and disgust when he realized that they had kissed with blood all over them., Voldemort's memories certainly helped in lessening his queasiness to much lesser levels, but he still wasn't depraved enough to get a hard-on from having blood and gore over him. He just silently vanished the mess before sitting on the bed, Faora following a moment later.
Harry, feeling uneasy about the silence, took the first step as he reached for Faora's hand and clasped it lightly, looking for even the minutest of shifts or twitches in her posture to signal her discomfort at his action. When none of it happened, Harry took a breath and spoke.
"Faora…" Dealing with Merlin-be-damned emotions had never been his specialty, thanks to a large tub of fat and grease and the memories of a certain psychotic kleptomaniac being merged with his own. However, knowing the importance of what needed to be said for his own good and Faora, Harry took a deep breath and soldiered on.
"I will be honest with you. I like you a lot, possibly even love you at this point. The thing I am sure about is that I don't regret our kiss, and I don't want whatever this is to stop. I love hearing about your stories of war and Krypton itself. I love spending time with you in any way I can, even when you are breaking me in a new way every third spar. I don't know whether you feel the same about me or not, but I-mmph!"
Harry's rambling was cut off as Faora leaned forwards and pressed her lips on his, with her hand reaching behind him to grasp his neck. His eyes closed of their own accord as he sighed against her lips, a wave of relief and bliss spreading through his body, leaving an electric feeling in its wake. Faora backed off after a few seconds and looked at him with a small smile-smirk of hers before she stood up and left his room, his eyes following her until she wasn't visible. Sighing happily, Harry leaned back into the bed and felt like he was on cloud nine, even his threesome with Gabrielle and Appoline hadn't given him as many jitters and pleasure that this kiss with Faora had done. Lost in his thoughts, Harry never noticed the tear streaking down Faora's face as she had exited the room.
"WHERE IS SHE? I SWEAR IF YO-" His furious tirade was cut off as Zod backhanded him casually like he was swatting a fly out of the air. Spitting out a glob of blood and saliva, Harry glared up at the Kryptonian general as Jax-Ur ran about the operation table, fiddling with a few different instruments, not paying any mind to either one of them.
"Faora was given the orders to seduce you and make you more trusting of us and our race. Unfortunately, she has compromised her loyalty to Krypton and to me. As such, after her presence here during the operation has ensured that your powers will not act up reflexively or unintentionally in any manner, she will be executed and the child that you two have surprisingly conceived will be used to further our research in binding your genome permanently into the Kryptonian race."
When Zod completed his words, horror drowned every other emotion vying for his attention as he caught onto the 'conceived' part.
"You mean...Faora is pregnant? And you mean to kill her and my child? If you even dare to lay a finger on them, Zod, I will flay you alive! I will boil you from inside and make you experience such pain, you will wish that you had been blasted apart with Krypton! Do-" His rageful cries were muffled as Jax dropped a metallic mask on his face and the manacles along his wrists and ankles tightened, plunging needles into his body. Harry saw Faora being brought into the chamber from the slits in his mask, her body bruised, and chained to the ship's droid. He tried escaping his bonds with all of his strength, then he tried using his magic to just break apart the table, but it was all to no avail. The manacles and the binding strips across his body were made of the same technology which had disrupted his magic, and despite his best attempts, he couldn't even move any of them a single inch. His eyes sought out those black gems he had looked into as they had made love, only for closed eyes and a slumped face to greet him as Faora was comatose in her binds, no doubt sedated or beaten into unconsciousness.
And then came the pain as he felt something foreign and utterly alien being pumped into him. He screamed through the mask on his face as he felt the foreign substance permeate through his bones, flow through his blood and drown him in a world of agony unfelt since the Cruciatus from Voldemort himself. After what seemed like hours of exposure to the pain eating him up from inside, the mask and manacles disengaged with a hiss, making him cough as he felt the binds on his chest disappear. His body felt weird to him, as if he was wearing it rather than it being his, his frame was a little bulkier, his eyesight an order of magnitude better than before and his sense of smell so acute that the smell of blood in the air was nearly overwhelming.
'Faora.'
His mind screamed at him immediately, causing the events prior to this injection session to rush to his mind's forefront. His eyes immediately turned towards where he last saw Faora only to find nothing in her place. Worried about his love and their unborn child, Harry tried standing up to find her. Find her and then kill Zod in the most painful way possible, before he felt something plunged into his neck and everything blackened, his knees hitting the floor as he drifted away.
"Are you actually going to kill Faora, General?"
Turning from the collapsed experiment at his feet to Jax-Ur, Zod replied, "No, she is one of the last surviving female Kryptonians and thus her survival is absolutely necessary for a new Krypton to be created. While the next generation can be created with the use of the codex, source material from a female is still required."
"And what of the child she has in her womb?"
"Kill it, I will not risk Faora gaining the powers this human possesses through her contact and blood passage with the fetus. It is barely more than a clump of cells right now, destroy it but preserve the remains for further study."
Nodding at the unconscious wizard at his feet, Zod signaled for the droid to drag him into the prisoner cells, modified by Jax to emit the same type of energy fields constantly which prevented him from using his magic.
"What of the world-engine we found at the Daxam outpost? Can it terraform successfully?" he asked the scientist, causing him to nod as he brought up the schematics of the world-engine, a machine capable of changing the atmosphere, gravity, and the very composition of a world to match Kryptonian living conditions.
"It is in surprisingly good condition considering how long it has sat at that settlement after it was abandoned due to the Council's foolish decision. However, its secondary engine is a completely different story. I was barely able to salvage it, but I managed to attach the components to the Black Zero." The three-dimensional metal structure depicting the modified Black Zero and the world engine's primary engine changed into a spherical world with Black Zero at one end and the world engine at another, with pulses traveling between them through the planet's core.
"The primary engine will send energy into the core and the entire structure of any world we are on, changing the composition of the rocks and liquids at an atomic level according to the samples it has from our homeworld. The secondary engine, which is attached to our ship, will receive the excess energy from the primary's terraforming and transmit it outwards to change the remaining earth and atmosphere in the radius of its capability. The pulse will travel through the ground to the primary engine, and it will create a feedback loop in which the thermal energy of the planet is used to create and transform it into Krypton."
Sensing a 'but' coming from the apprehension on Jax's face, Zod waved his hand and prompted the scientist to continue as he looked out into the cosmos, his face calm and his eyes closed as he felt the yellow radiation soaking into his body, making him hundreds of time more formidable within moments before the wall came between him and the star, once again lowering his abilities.
"We would have to select a world close to a yellow star, since there are very few non-gaseous planets greater than the size of Krypton to terraform successfully. If we do so on a world close to a yellow star, the constant radiation would help us balance out with the many-fold increase in gravity."
"Do so Jax-Ur, also keep the human unconscious at all times, and Faora is to be put into stasis after you have removed the hybrid from her."
Blinking his eyes, Harry looked around himself as his mind shot to awareness. He stood up slowly, glancing around at the wrecked confinement chamber he had been in before his last moments replayed in front of him. His face twisting in pure anger, Harry snapped off the vambraces chaining his wrists together with a single thought before he looked around himself and blasted apart his prison into nothing but scraps as he conjured clothes over his bare form. Flashes of memories from his last time being awake came to him in increasingly fast rushes, his mind working at an almost unbelievable speed. It was when the sunlight struck him that he froze, his aches disappearing immediately, while he almost fell to his knees at the warmth he felt.
Turning his disbelieving gaze to the yellow star in the blue sky with buildings thrown into silhouette, Harry stood up slowly and pinched himself to make sure this wasn't a hallucination. His further thoughts were cut off as a body slammed in front of him with ground-shaking force. Enveloping his hands in lightning, Harry waited for the dust to clear while trying to locate Zod at the same time.
A man clad in red and blue emerged out of the crater, his body bulging with muscles upon muscles, with the symbol of House of El emblazoned upon his chest. Powering down the lightning at the sight of that emblem, Harry spoke.
"I don't suppose you've seen a tall, grim man with short hair around here, have you? He has a strange quirk of having men kneel to him and throwing a fit when people don't address him as General Zod."
The Kryptonian immediately shot towards him with a punch aimed at his head, a punch which Harry caught in his fist, stopping the man right in his tracks. Both of them were looking at his fingers wrapped around the man's fist in disbelief before Harry looked into the blue eyes hovering in front of him
"That's new," he muttered. "And that was rather rude." Harry rebuked the unknown Kryptonian, before slamming him onto the ground with all his might, the force of which the man hit the ground caused a small crater and the sudden violence caused Harry to remember the experiment that was done on him… and by who. Harry turned towards where he sensed Zod and found the General floating in the air, his heavy armor discarded in the favor of a suit with his house's emblem on it. Lightning immediately started crackling over his form as he clenched his fingers, feeling the mountain-shattering force in his fist.
"Where is Faora?" He asked calmly, knowing that Zod would pick it with their presence beneath a yellow star. Ignoring the man groaning behind him, the magical shock working as it was supposed to, paralyzing the man for a few seconds, he started walking towards the General.
"She paid the price for her treachery and failure, she was killed and thrown into a nebula cycles ago. Your child was used to further our research to create the pinnacle of the Kryptonian race as none before did."
Harry apparated with a tremendous roar of rage directly above Zod, the surprised man being barely able to move after the sudden change in air above him when a fist slammed into his head, sending him down towards the ground like a bullet with Harry dropping after him and landing on the surprised man's back with his knees, cracking at least a few ribs and making Zod spit out blood before the General reached behind and with his hands and hurled him into the air and punched him through several buildings. He felt his bones cracking even as he broke through concrete and glass before his momentum was stopped by the ground, his body digging a trench into the road.
He stumbled back to his feet, groaning in pain, and apparated into the air, floating there with naught but his willpower upon the air currents. He felt the sunlight hit his body, the solar energy healing him faster than anything he had ever experienced or known. He was about to apparate towards the General, who was now duking it out with the other Kryptonian when a scream reached his ears.
His eyes widening impossibly wide, Harry turned towards the ruins of Black Zero from where he had escaped and apparated there.
"FAORA!" He shouted as he sped through the wreckage. At the sound of sobbing coming from her, Harry ran towards where he could see a form sitting on the ground. Dropping down beside her, Harry wrapped his arms around the crying woman and hugged her, his worry growing by the second as she didn't even look at him, her eyes fixed upon the ground with tears streaming down her face.
He turned her face towards him, and spoke her name softly as he wiped away her tears. That seemed to get through her as her eyes cleared up and she immediately hugged him hard enough to crack his ribs. Not having the heart to let her go in the slightest when their last memories of each other were equally traumatizing, Harry hugged her just as hard.
"They killed our child Harry! They removed him from me and used him! And when he didn't help them in any way, they dumped him in a star!" Faora whispered to him, her voice dead and angry at the same time. Lacing his fingers through her hair, Harry kissed her on the forehead and simply sat there with her as his eyes watered slightly. It was a scream of rage that pulled them out of their grief momentarily as Zod slammed into the ground a few meters away from them. Unbeknownst to him, His eyes glowed scarlet as his rage went out of control. His promise to Zod from all those years ago came to him and with it came the faceless son he had with Faora. A son who had been killed even before he had been alive. Harry shot a stream of fire towards the downed form of the general, delighting in the man's screams. The already painful magical flames were further enhanced by the hatred and rage flowing through him, so that the normally red flames were now an all-encompassing black.
"You will beg for mercy before I am done with you Zod!" He proclaimed as he walked towards the still screaming man, his flames not letting up for a single moment. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Faora intercepting the other Kryptonian from punching him, the horror and anger on his face reminded of his own face when he had first witnessed Voldemort torturing his followers after his resurrection. Before he could take another step, Faora slammed into him with all the force of a dragon, sending them both crashing into the adjacent building.
"You both will stop trying to kill anyone here on Earth! Faora Hu-Ul, stand down and stop your actions before-'' That was how far he got before Faora flew from the rubble and slammed his fist into his chin, sending, who now he recognized to be the babe who had escaped Zod's clutches on Krypton, Kal-El, into the sky with Faora following after him. Sonic boom after sonic boom shook the air as they battled across the sky, pitting Faora's experience and skill against the years of yellow star exposure Kal-El had been blessed by.
Turning from the sight, Harry spun once again towards Zod, the man now completely healed and flying away from him towards the duo in the sky. Tensing his legs, Harry pushed off the ground, traveling underneath hundreds of feet into the air and clearing the roof of the skyscraper in front of him before he apparated into the air above the battling Kryptonians.
"Faora, get down!" he shouted. Faora flew down immediately, whilst the other two remained ignorant of his presence, so focused on each other they were. Exerting his power, Harry created storm clouds over all of the city, blotting out the sun before he dropped lightning on men below him. With a thunderous boom, Kal-El and Zod were both sent crashing down, with Harry apparating close to their location. Faora came towards him, her eyes glaring towards the smoking form of Zod who stood up shakily, his burns healing at a rapid pace.
"You will all knee-GAGKH!" His tirade was cut off as Harry ran forwards and summoned a pole to his hands before hardening it and slamming it into the General, the pole breaking off against his neck. Before he could take a breath, Kal-El slammed into him, causing Faora to leap forwards and engage Zod.
"Will you fucking stop interfering?" Harry yelled in rage as he punched his opponent and ducked underneath a wild kick before kneeing the man in his stomach, his enhanced strength making him double down and gasp for breath.
"You...will not kill anyone! Zod will return to the Phantom Zone along with everyone who was on that ship!"
Sneering at the boy in front of him, Harry kicked him as hard as he could in the head, making the windows around them break and the road crater from the shockwave, while Kal-El was sent flying back into a building. Ignoring his cracked bones as they healed and righted themselves, Harry turned around only to duck as Faora was sent flying over him, blood streaming from her mouth.
Harry ducked underneath a kick from Zod, and raised his arms above him to prevent the man from driving him into the ground with his downwards swing. The already cratered road completely broke apart at the impact, and he was sent into the sewers along with Zod. His mind working faster than ever, Harry immediately launched lightning in all directions, causing Zod to howl in agony before Harry punched him into the air and then slammed him down. He descended above the gasping man and started punching him as hard as he could, the force enough to send winds buffeting in every direction as he made a mess of Zod's face, only for it to be healed within seconds with the clouds now gone. With a roar of rage, Harry grabbed Zod's head and pushed his fingers into his eyes, the intent of cutting and hearing so powerful that his thumbs sank without any resistance into the eyeballs. Blood streamed down Zod's cheeks, even as he struggled and screamed bloody murder.
He exerted even more force on Zod's skull, a cackle coming from his lips as he felt the bones fracture beneath his fingers. Before he could complete the deed, he felt the air around him shift a split second before he was punched across the road, his barely clothed form rolling and crashing for more than hundreds of meters before he dug his hands and feet into the ground and stopped himself. His eyes spotting the red and blue figure of Kal-El floating in front of him with his eyes glowing red, Harry snarled and started running towards the man. His speed surprised even him for a moment before he slammed into the Kryptonian and punched him rapidly.
"Will-you-fucking-stop-interrupting-me?" He shouted as he finally caused pain to overwhelm Kal-El's mind, his intent to cause only enough pain to prevent movement. However, his irritation and growing anger bled into the magic, causing much more pain than he had intended for the man to suffer. Screaming hoarsely, Superman instinctively flew away from him into the air, trying to get more sunlight than available in the dusty surroundings.
He forgot Kal-El's suffering soon enough when he reflexively caught a punch aimed at his midsection, knowing the only one who would hit him with such force, Harry channeled all of his rage and anger from his memories, even those belonging to Voldemort as he destroyed Zod. He screamed and yelled as his eyes rolled back into his skull, and he scratched out his own eyes to alleviate the pain. For more than five minutes, Zod experienced the burning of his flesh, the breaking of his bones and the boiling of his blood as his regenerative factor immediately righted any injuries he caused himself and also repaired the nerve endings, never letting the pain dull.
Letting up on the torment for a moment, Harry looked at the wrecked man beneath him and felt a vindictive satisfaction the likes of which he had never experienced. His eyes were drawn towards the weakly blinking ones of Zod and he drove into the Kryptonian's mind with all the experience and power of Voldemort and his mind at his disposal. His aim wasn't to find anything in the Kryptonian's mind except for the presence of Jax-Ur, the other man also an equal participant in his child's...murder.
Sneering down at the man beneath his foot, Harry raised his hand in front of him before concentrating on what he wanted. A sword of green light formed in his hands, the form of the Killing Curse had changed from him exerting his will into nothing but death given form. Harry swung the sword and severed the head of Zod, the man's face still in a rictus of pain from his torture. Before he could do anything else, Harry was punched into the sky and he felt his skin burn as he was pushed further and further into the atmosphere. Kal-El came shooting out of the clouds and punched him once, shattering his jaw and making half of his teeth fly out as he was launched toward the Earth. His skin regenerated at a pace much faster than he saw Zod and Kal-El heal before he was once again burned by fiery beams coming from Kal-El's eyes. He was pushed into a truck, the vehicle exploding around him before his feet were grabbed, and he was thrown across the sky towards an open expanse of land. Rolling and flying across the ground, Harry stopped moving when a familiar hand caught him, Foara lifting him with a clear bruise on her face.
"You alright?" He asked with concern, looking towards the last member of the House of El across from him.
"I am fine, what of Zod?" She asked, only for Harry to raise his hand and summon the severed head of Zod to him. Faora took the head from him reverently, her hand lightly passing over the pained face of her former leader for more cycles than she cared to count before she grabbed it and with a scream of pain and rage squashed it like a ripe watermelon, brain matter and bits of bones splattering on both of them, causing him to chuckle as he remembered a similar incident from Merlin knows how long ago.
So lost they were in their reverie and personal revenge, that they never noticed Kal-El disappeared for a moment before returning with something which he threw at them. Harry noticed it coming at them, and thinking of nothing else, he slowed the object in case of it being explosive. Before he could think anything else, a swirl of black and gray enveloped him and Faora and Harry felt himself losing consciousness once again, his arms tightening around his love unconsciously.