The Ultima's Sacrifice ~Aarmau AU~

~Convince~

*Play Song*

Aaron grimaces at Kawaii~chan's touch as she dabs some gauze to the deep stab wound on his bare, tan muscular abdomen.

He was sitting up on a hospital bed in the hospital wing of P.H.O.E.N.I.X. base, Kawaii~chan tending to his wounds.

"Sorry, Aaron~kun. I know it hurts, though, lucky for you, as stab wounds go, it's not the worst." Kawaii~chan assures, putting more pressure on the injury.

Aaron doesn't respond, just staring blankly at the floor, his brain dulled by what he had witnessed beforehand.

"You sure...it was her?" Zane tries to confirm, his face showing obvious shock.

Aaron merely acknowledges his comment with a head nod, his gaze not leaving the marble tiles below.

"I also caught a glimpse of her...when she was running off with...Ein." Katelyn manages out, her arms crossed, her voice hoarse.

Word was beginning to spread of Aphmau being alive, shocking the entire facility. With good reason.

"She—stabbed you...she actually stabbed you, Aaron." Zane painfully states, in awe of what he was just learning, Aaron still frozen like a stone.

Katelyn runs a trembling hand through her hair, sifting through her scalp, sweat gathering in the railroad tracks on her forehead.

"And...she kissed Ein—willfully...in front of you." Zane shakes his head slowly, leaning against the wall, massaging his temples with his fingertips.

Aaron doesn't change his answer, allowing only his nods. 

Kawaii~chan finishes patching Aaron up, tying a long piece of gauze around his upper waist, keeping the bandages positioned over his wound.

Aaron thanks Kawaii~chan with as much kindness as he can muster before pulling on a tight black singlet. 

"I just can't wrap my head around it, she's actually...alive. How did she even escape the blast?" Crystal asks, actually, for once, serious.

"If Lucinda really did set up the blast...maybe, just maybe—they never intended to kill Aphmau in the first place..." Garroth muses, Aaron's head shooting up to his comment, his gaze aggressive. 

"Garroth...you better not be..." Violet warns. Everyone's gazes were locked on Aaron's expression, a furious flare growing in his eyes.

"Maybe...you know since Lucinda turned—maybe Aphmau also turned—" Before Garroth could even finish his next word, Aaron, regardless of whatever life-threatening injury he had recently developed, leaped off the hospital bed, his hands quickly and smoothly, holding Garroth halfway up the wall by the cuff of Garroth's shirt, shocking everyone in the room.

"DON'T YOU DARE EVEN THINK IT! She'd never do that, and you know it!" Aaron bellows at Garroth, whose eyes were wide.

Everyone was on their feet, all of them shocked by what they were witnessing, Aaron's nostrils flaming. 

"Aaron! Aaron, let him go! I now know what happened to Aphmau!" Teony shouts, everyone alert because of the current situation, now all of their attention falling onto Teony, including Aaron's.

"I know...everything."

*

"This...is why she stabbed you, Aaron. This...is why she kissed Ein." Teony hands Aaron a small glass vial sparkling with viridescent liquid, gleaming of a painfully familiar color.

Aaron takes it in hand, brushing his thumb over the smooth glass, knitting his eyebrows together, waiting for her to continue to explain, the feeling being mutual to everyone else.

Even though Aaron had apologized, Garroth was still a bit shook, keeping abnormally quiet.

"That is a forever potion. It is as valuable as it is dangerous. You guys found it while exploring Gene's trophy case, and I've been researching and trying for the longest time since to find out what it is...and what it can do." Teony refreshes, standing right up against the long table in the conference room, everyone listening intently.

"What...can it do Teony?" Xio warily asks, everyone looking to Teony, all searching for hope of a reasonable explanation.

"Forever potions can bend another person's will to whatever you want. You can make anyone love you overwhelmingly...or..." Teony starts, but Aaron finishes for her.

"...Or can make you hate another...tremendously." Aaron finally looks up from the vial, his expression once again cold as ice. 

Teony nods, continuing. "From what sources and evidence tell me, Lucinda indeed did set up Aphmau and the "nuke" to be in the same car, so they could send the heat seeker at the car, but what we didn't know that Lucinda did, is that the car Aphmau was driving was designed to throw the driver from the car when a threat reveals itself."

Teony keeps going. "So, when the heat seeker hit, Aphmau was flung from the car, out of everyone's sight, landing somewhere in the forest where some Shadow Knights must have found her and brought her back to the base, healed her of her injuries, then gave her the potion. Making her...the woman you saw yesterday." Teony finishes, the tone in the room unreadable

Everyone in the room was unsure to be overjoyed...

Or depressed...

or both.

"Its just—why would Gene and Ein want Aphmau of all people?" Altzac scratches his head.

"For the same reason Aaron got hurt for the first time ever in the field..." Teony looks to Aaron with pity, maybe half the reason because of his current situation...

And the other half, because of his current expression.

"How are we suppose to fight an angel?"

Have a nice day my crystals!