Damien's eyes widened in shock. Kitty and Claire stood at the bottom of the balcony, staring at him with sorrow.
How had it all come to this?
"How did you know where I was?" Damien asked in a gentle but surprised voice.
"The chip in your neck." Claire said. "They're tracking you."
Astonished, Damien touched his neck. He must not have known that they tagged him. He was most likely sedated when it happened, though he would have felt a slight pain when he woke up.
There was a purple-haired man with bandages around his arms standing next to him. Claire had told Kitty this was Karuki, Damien's guardian demon.
"Why are you here?" Kitty asked Damien.
Instead of answering, Damien turned to Karuki with a nervous look. Kitty frowned.
"Did he make you do this?"
Karuki glared daggers at Kitty. "Who the fuck are you?"
"I'm Levi, Damien's friend." Kitty replied calmly, though he was still scowling. "I'm worried about him, and I know you are, too."
Orange eyes went wide, and a deeper glare was sent Kitty's way. "Don't try and get in my head, pretty boy." Karuki snarled. "I'm helping him."
"Helping him do what?"
"Getting revenge, of course." Karuki tapped the book in his hand. "We're blowing up the world."
Kitty's attention turned to Damien. He looked so nervous, so unsure about what he was doing. His head was down, his eyes trained on the console. He didn't want to do this. It was clear as day. He was too kind, too selfless to do something so destructive.
His motives had become horribly clear. Claire had told Kitty about his childhood on the way there. He had suffered terrible abuse, physical and mental from his mother and sexual from his step-father. Damien endured terrible pain and humiliation because of them. And he wasn't the only one. His step-father kidnapped children and forced them into prostitution to pay for his lavish lifestyle. He would kill the parents and smuggle the child to his house.
The boy under the bed, Daisuke, was one of these children. He was Damien's only support during this hellish time. He was his only ray of hope. After a while, all the children had succumbed to disease or starvation, and it was only Damien and Daisuke left. Daisuke couldn't take anymore and killed himself by slitting his wrists. This was when Damien snapped. Karuki offered Damien a way out. He told him he could avenge Daisuke if he let him take over. Damien agreed, and Karuki possessed him and slaughtered Damien's mother and step-father, as well as all the staff in the house. Claire only survived because she hid in the closet. Dana, who was 11 at the time, managed to escape somehow, so she was also spared.
He was in emotional turmoil, still bearing the trauma from this awful time. He lost respect for himself, and for Claire, who he blamed for not saving him when he needed her. She told Kitty she wanted to help him and the other children. She made a plan to escape with them. Damien's step-father essentially held him hostage, threatening to kill him if Claire took any of them away. He was notorious in the criminal underworld. He had acquaintances all over the world. They could never escape, never hide. He would always track them down and finish them all off. She had no choice but to let it happen. She stayed by him, though. She tended to his wounds, snuck food to the other children even though his mother beat her for doing so, and made sure they all stayed alive and had support. But she failed them. They died. She still held onto that guilt even to this day.
Kitty gazed up at Damien. "I know what happened to you, and I know how much you're hurting." His voice was wobbling, and he tried his best to control it. "But this isn't going to solve anything."
The tears in Damien's eyes were visible even from such a distance. He was watching Kitty, as if he had been looking for someone to confirm his anxieties.
"If you do this, you won't just be killing the people who hurt you. You'll be killing us, too, and Richard and Carrie." Kitty said. "You won't die, but you'll be left on Earth with no one around. You'll be stuck on an empty, burnt planet, lonely." He stared Damien right in the eye. "Do you really want that? All of us dead and you all alone?"
His words finally reached Damien. The tears spilled down, and he suppressed a sob with his hand over his mouth. He shook his head to confirm that Kitty was right.
Next to him, Karuki was boiling with rage. He tore the manual in half and threw it. "Fuck this." He muttered, before turning into purple smoke and shooting into Damien's nose.
Damien coughed and spluttered, then slumped over. Before Kitty could go up and check that he was alright, he stood up straight. But his eyes were different. They were glaring, bright orange and snake-like. Just like Karuki's.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that Karuki had possessed Damien. And he wouldn't surrender nicely. Kitty knew he'd have to fight him.
Luckily, Kitty had undergone secret training. After the Dante incident, he feared he would be a burden to the team and could become a hostage for the enemy. So he asked Gabriel to help him get stronger. He helped him utilise his power as a hybrid, super strength, to become useful to the team.
His punch could shatter a brick wall, so he had to be careful not to hurt Damien. If he only put 20% of his strength into the attack, it wouldn't cause too much damage.
Karuki, in Damien's body, leapt down from the balcony and swung at Kitty. Kitty swerved out of the way and grabbed his arm. Making sure not to use his full body weight, he lifted Karuki into the air and threw him to the ground. Karuki winced, which make Kitty fear he had hurt Damien. But he wasn't down for long.
Even though it was Karuki who was attacking, he was able to use Damien's powers while possessing him. Karuki grumbled and sprang to his feet. Two blobs of shadow appeared in his hands and became war fans, Damien's signature weapon.
Karuki rushed at Kitty and swung the fan in his left hand. Kitty raised his arms to shield himself. He felt deep slashes on the backs of his arms where the fan had swiped him. It hurt, but he didn't put his arms down. If he did, they would cut somewhere more vital, possibly his throat.
Claire shouted Kitty's name in horror and was about to leap in and help him.
"No!" Kitty shouted and gritted his teeth. "Don't intervene. I know how to help him. Trust me."
With great reluctance, Claire nodded and agreed. Kitty didn't want her getting involved. He didn't want her getting hurt. It was true, he did know how to help, but it was a dangerous method. It was like getting close to a vicious tiger with a thorn in his paw. Deadly, but necessary.
Dissatisfied with being a scratching post, Kitty ducked down as fast as he could and dove head-first into Karuki's gut. He knocked him down and pinned him to the floor.
"Dimmy, please listen to me." He begged. "You have to fight back."
His pleas fell on deaf ears. Damien wasn't in control right now. He probably couldn't even hear Kitty from inside the depths of his own mind.
With a ferocious growl from Karuki, Damien's shadow tentacles burst out of his back, tips as sharp as a needle. They made a beeline for Kitty. Karuki must have intended to stab him with them.
Kitty threw himself to the side to avoid them. They continued after him while he was on the floor, but he rolled left and right to avoid them. It was too dangerous to grab them. They would have sliced his hands. All he could do was keep moving so they couldn't get him.
Now that Kitty was no longer on top of him, Karuki scrambled to his feet, muttering obscenities and threats. His arms rose into the air, and shadows burst from out of the concrete floor along with the movement.
Before Kitty could run away from them, three more shadows came out from behind him and wrapped around him. They began constricting, squeezing him to the point that he couldn't breathe. Every exhale made the shadows tighter. He was beginning to panic.
"You know your problem?" Karuki snarled. "You're making Damien weak with all this 'peace and love' bullshit. The only way you can survive is by being ruthless, uncaring. You act like a sissy, you get slaughtered."
A new wave of motivation washed over Kitty. He was going to prove Karuki wrong. He was going to save Damien with this "peace and love" bullshit. Summoning up all his strength, Kitty pulled against the shadows and tore through them. They disappeared as he fought with them, and he was free.
Karuki hadn't expected that. He also didn't expect Kitty to come running at him at top speed. He didn't have time to react when Kitty grabbed onto him. But he wasn't attacking. He was hugging him.
"Please, Dimmy." Kitty said, tearful. "I'm sorry for everything you've been through. But I promise I'll never let anyone hurt you again. So please, come back to me."
Orange eyes stared at Kitty in absolute astonishment. He didn't move for a while. Then, purple smoke burst out Damien's mouth, and he collapsed in Kitty's arms.
Karuki, in his usual form, materialised near them. He frowned and crossed his arms. "Do you really mean that? You'll look after him?"
"Yes." Kitty smiled. "I promise I'll always be here for him. If I break it, you have permission to kill me."
At first, Karuki looked shocked. But then he started laughing, more joyful than threatening. "I'll hold you to that!"
Kitty couldn't help but giggle himself. Claire stood by, shaking her head with a small smile on her face.
Purple smoke appeared around Karuki, and he vanished just as Damien woke up. Kitty held him steady and grinned in relief.
Damien rubbed his eyes and glanced around with a scowl. Tired confusion filled his face. His eyes widened when he remembered what had happened.
"Where's Karuki?" He asked in a panic. "Did he set off the bombs? Oh God, I can't handle a nuclear apocalypse!"
Kitty laughed and hugged Damien tight. "It's fine. Everything will be fine."
After a moment of bewilderment, Damien smiled and hugged back. "You saved me?"
"Yep! We're even." Kitty pulled back with a smile. "You saved me, and I've saved you. Now we can save and protect each other unconditionally."
Damien stared at Kitty in shock. He inhaled, tears gathering in his eyes again, and hugged Kitty. "Thank you."
☽☾
An hour later, Kitty, Claire and Damien arrived back at the hospital.
There was a huge fuss when they entered. Damien received a lecture from the nurses, who seemed more worried than angry. He accepted his talking-to with a face full of shame.
"I'm sorry." He muttered when it was over. "I fully understand if you won't have me back."
"We never said that." The nurse replied. "As long as you never do this again, you can come back. We never abandon a patient, no matter what they do." She paused and blinked. "Well, within reason."
Damien grinned and thanked them. As he went back to his room, he turned and waved to Kitty and Claire. "Bye, Levi. Hope you don't miss me too much."
Kitty giggled. "See you soon! I love you!" His face went bright red when he realised what he said. "I mean as a friend! Only a friend, of course!"
He got a laugh from Damien as a response. "Love you, too." He then turned to Claire and smiled. "Bye, mom."
Claire gasped in surprise before bursting into joyful tears. She waved as Damien left. She turned to Kitty and whispered with a grin, "He called me mom!"
Kitty grinned and hugged Claire. In his heart, he believed everything was going to be fine after all.