The water in the Brimstone Nature Park had finally thawed. It flowed quick and clear, glinting red in the cold winter sunlight. The waterfall at the lake had resumed falling with renewed vigour, filling the air with the sound of crashing water.

Cobalt sat in the cave behind it, watching the deluge through lidded eyes. He couldn't bear the thought of facing Jelli after what happened. Right now someone was covering for his class; he had put in notice for a sick day, and if the dozens of messages from Viola clogging up his inbox were anything to go by, she wasn't happy about this.

But he just couldn't do it. He felt terrible. He hadn't eaten a single thing since the incident, and Cobalt was feeling awful. He felt weak from hunger, but he didn't dare eat anything. It was like nothing was safe to consume anymore.

"Kid?" Lilith asked, sounding just as weak as him.

"Yeah?" he responded, leaning against the rocky wall of the cave.

"You gotta eat something."

"I- I know."

His stomach hurt. The fire had burned down to embers, but the heat had been replaced by an intense agony, like his guts were hollow.

"Kid," the Devil said.

"I said I know."

"I don't want to starve either."

"Nothing'll stay down."

"You don't know that."

He shook his head. It wasn't the stomach pains or the vomiting that he couldn't deal with. It was looking up to see the destroyed look in Jelli's eyes. Cobalt didn't want to have to remember that.

"Could have just been her cooking that-"

"Don't you dare finish that."

The Devil gave an exasperated sigh.

"For the love of... What about the human? Worst comes to worst, surely she could think of something, right?"

Cobalt lifted his sleeve and peered down at his arm. The skin still hadn't fully regrown.

"No," Lilith quickly said, "We're not doing that."

"It worked before."

"I know, but-"

"It kept me on my feet with Delta."

"Kid, it's still a bad idea."

Cobalt wasn't a complete idiot. He knew what all of this meant. His ability to digest actual food had been reduced to nothing, leaving him with only one viable alternative. The Incubus alternative. But he didn't have much of a choice. It was either this or starve.

He bit deep into the flesh of his arm, eliciting a cry of pain from Lilith as he drank from his own veins. There was something about his blood that differed from anyone else's. It was hotter and more acrid; still as delicious as anything else, but it got quite difficult to swallow. He could hear his heartbeat quickening as his hunger was sated, but he knew it wouldn't be enough. Before long, his body would scream for sustenance once more. This was only delaying the inevitable.

Pulling his fangs out before he got too greedy, he applied pressure to the wounds and gasped for breath, trying to calm himself down as life returned to his body.

As Cobalt recovered, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Wincing, he pulled it out and checked his most recent message. It was another text from Alison asking him to come down to the lab, except this one was appended with a statement telling him that she could see him through her security system, and that he had no excuse to turn her down.

Cobalt craned his neck up at the CCTV camera discretely hidden within the rocky wall of the cave, just over by Alison's lab door.

"Fine..." he sighed, heaving himself to his feet.

If it kept his mind off his worsening mental and physical state, then he was up to do anything.

Heaving himself to his feet, Cobalt lurched over to the door and punched in the code. It opened with a hiss, allowing him to descend deeper into the earth. With every step he took, the Incubus leaned his shoulder against the wall, feeling his stomach cramp and burn all the while.

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He stopped for a moment, feeling the world spin all around him.

Cobalt wondered if this was normal for all Incubi. Was it normal for Brass? Was this how he spent his last few weeks as a free man? Barely managing to hold himself together while his stomach urged him to bite lumps out of the first person who passed him by?

No. Probably not. Brass Trayer was stronger than that. Everyone always spoke of how he fought to the last, bravely standing up to Diate even when it seemed like all was lost. Cobalt wasn't ever going to live up to that; it only made sense that he'd be crippled by something like this.

The Incubus stared at his feet, lost in his own thoughts.

"You okay?" Lilith asked in a worried voice.

"I... No. No I'm not. There's been times before when I felt like my world was falling to bits, but... this time feels different. I genuinely feel like I'm at a point of no return."

"You'll bounce back, kid. You're good at that."

"I don't think I will this time. I don't think I have the strength."

"You've got strength aplenty. You took down five Devils almost by yourself."

"That's an Incubus' strength. Not mine."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"Look, I appreciate what you're trying to say. But... just... I don't know. I don't know."

With a shake of his head, he continued down the hall towards the main laboratory.

The makeshift Jump Gate stood completed in the very centre of the chamber, hooked up to hundreds of wires and cables that snaked across the floor. Backup generators and transformers had been heaped onto the various workstations, while the wall of screens displayed a staggering amount of power readouts, informing Cobalt that energy was being siphoned straight from the Brimstone power grid. At the top of the device, the bloodstone spun in its specialised compartment, sparking and jolting erratically.

Alison stood in front of it, her welding goggles covering her eyes as she stared up at the machinery. For once, she looked serious. She clutched a notebook in one hand, and was scrawling down calculations with the other. Inclining her head, she peered back at the Incubus in her midst.

"Hey bluebell," she said, lifting her goggles.

She looked tired, but still excited.

"She's ready," Alison said, kicking the side of the Jump Gate.

Cobalt swallowed hard and nodded.

"What are you planning to do?" he asked, staring up at the machine.

Tossing the notebook aside, she gave him an exhausted smile.

"Hey, do you have one of those charm thingies?" she queried, avoiding the question entirely.

"Of course."

Reaching for his wallet, the Incubus opened it up and produced his Cloaking Charm. It had gone a little dull from lack of use. Strange; barely a year or two ago he would have worn it around his neck constantly.

"Perfect. Second question; are you free right now?"

Cobalt narrowed his eyes.

"What do you need me for?" he asked suspiciously.

The human laughed heartily, but it quickly petered out as she coughed into her hand. Wiping her glove on her coat sleeve, Alison walked up to the Incubus and put a hand on his shoulder.

"One last favour, bluebell. That's all I ask," she breathed in a dead-serious tone.

Cobalt looked up at the Jump Gate.

"You're going back to Earth," he deduced.

"Uh huh."

"And you want me to come with you?"

"That's right. Emotional support, if you wanna call it that."

Glancing down at the Cloaking Charm, the Incubus took a deep breath and motioned for Alison to take a step back. Carefully, he unfurled the pendent and hung it around his neck, bracing himself as the magic activated. A light shimmer swept across his body, turning his blue skin to a more human shade of tan. His demon extremities seemed to blink out of existence before his hair settled to a dark black colour. Clearing his throat, he opened his eyes and squinted at his fingers. The illusory magic made him appear as though he had a regular set of human hands, but he could still feel his claws clash against one another.

"How's this?" he asked, unused to seeing himself as a human after months spent uncloaked.

"Oh wow. If you had been at Sorbonne, you would have been snapped up in an instant. I knew these four girls in one of the biology courses, and man; they had this thing for younger guys. I once heard that-" Alison rambled, staring wide-eyed at him.

"Alison," Cobalt interrupted, giving her a stern glare.

"Sorry, sorry. You just kinda got that boyish innocence look to you. You know, if I didn't know you personally-"

"Alison!"

"Sorry, I'm just nervous!"

Tugging at her coat, she turned to the Jump Gate and began to fiddle with a control panel on its side.

"Look, it's real easy. All we're doing is finding someone and bringing them back here. All I need you to do is keep me from losing my nerve," she said way-too-quickly, tugging at wires and flipping breakers.

A few of the cables around the lab sparked as the bloodstone chamber suddenly lit up. A low hum filled the lab, causing the lights to dim slightly.

"I... I've got a sibling. I left them in Paris last year. I got so caught up in my research and trying to get back at my university that I just... They've got no-one, bluebell. Not since... Not since everything that happened."

The Incubus stared down at his shoes. Alison had always come through for him; it would be downright hypocritical of him to turn her down in her hour of need. Steeling himself, he gave her a nod.

"Alright. So long as we're quick," he said, stepping in front of the Jump Gate.

A small smile broke out across her face.

"Thanks, bluebell. And we'll be quicker than quick; believe me when I say I don't wanna spend any longer back there than we have to."

With a flick of a switch and a pull of a lever, the great machine roared to life. Electrical diodes sparked to life all over its surface as internal turbines spooled up. Scraps of paper and snack wrappers were blustered about the floor, and as the Jump Gate grew louder, Cobalt found himself struggling to keep his footing. The bloodstone suddenly flashed, causing an ugly line of bright red light to split the air within the gate. Alison pumped her fist as she shaking grew more violent, causing the rift to gradually tear itself apart. Reality split into a gaping red wound, shimmering and shaking with light and flashes that hurt to look at.

"You ready?!" she cried, grabbing his wrist.

"Am I what?!" Cobalt responded, unable to hear over the grinding machinery.

"Alright, let's go!"

With that, the intrepid human grabbed her cloaked companion's wrist and dragged him into the portal, much to his alarm. With no time to prepare, Cobalt stumbled forward into the rift, screaming as he hurtled forth into the gap between dimensions.

He was going to be in for one Hell of a landing.