"What do we do now?" I ask quietly as I stare at Ayette's figure, still in disbelief of what just happened.

"We...we'll just have to meet up with the others back at the palace and decide from there," Reine clears her throat and nods.

"Is she going to be okay?" Ciana asks quietly and Mikasa nods.

"Yeah," Mikasa breathes out, "yeah, I think so."

"Come on," I sigh and bend down, picking Ayette up bridal style in my arms, "let's go."

Mikasa places a bubble around Ayette's broken relic and walks out ahead of us with Ciana while Reine walks behind me.

"What happened in there?!" I hear Dimitri shouting from outside as Mikasa and Ciana walk out from the dome, "is that...is that Ayette's relic?"

"It is..." Mikasa trails off wearily.

"Where's Ayette?" Dimitri asks firmly as I step outside.

"She's right here," I say and Dimitri's eyes flicker over to me.

Dimitri's expression falters for a few seconds as he stares at her before his eyes flicker up to my face.

"Is she..." Dimitri starts.

"No," I press my lips together firmly, "she's alive."

"What about Khalida?" Renji asks anxiously as his eyes flicker between all of us.

"Khalida is...gone," Mikasa says with closed eyes and a pained expression.

"What?" Renji's eyebrows furrow in confusion, "what do you mean she's gone?"

"I mean, Khalida is dead," Mikasa grits out.

"What?" Renji's eyes widen, "then who's the new leader?"

"Under normal circumstances, I would say that would be you, Renji," Reine says as she walks passed me, "but in this circumstance...it's not."

"I don't understand," Renji frowns and exchanges a glance with Dimitri, "then who is?"

Renji's eyes trail over to Ayette when he doesn't receive a response before they flicker over to Reine's face.

"You don't mean..." Renji trails off.

"Ayette?" Dimitri's voice comes out hoarse and Reine nods wordlessly.

"Come on," Mikasa says grimly and walks passed the rest of us, "we should get back..."

***

"Wait, slow down," Aidan's eyebrows furrow together as we cram into the medical room in his mansion after arriving and signaling for help, "what happened?"

The medical room consists of two white beds with curtains, a wooden cabinet full of medical supplies with glass making up the door so you can see what's inside, multiple potted plants, a silver cart full of medical supplies, and a first aid kit that's hanging on the wall. I place Ayette down on one of the beds as Aidan stands there looking over her, him having been the one to lead us here. Soon, Eden comes running inside with Nathan, Renee, and Aislinn, followed by Shitau, Kaltrina, and Tsukumi.

"Khalida refused to help us and Ciana confronted her and Ayette defended Ciana," Reine explains as Eden joins Aidan's side and examines Ayette, her eyebrows furrowed in concern, "Khalida then held up Ayette and we tried stopping her and reasoning with her, and Khalida said that this would be her way of helping if we truly wanted it. She sacrificed herself and gave her gifts to Ayette, which shattered her relic in the process."

"Here's the pieces of the relic," Mikasa says and floats the bubble towards Eden, "I managed to save what I could..."

Eden gratefully takes the bubble and opens the cabinet door, placing it on one of the shelves before she shuts the door carefully.

"Is she okay?" Nathan asks worriedly as he hovers over the opposite side of the bed, his brown eyes filled with worry.

"She will be fine," Eden assures everyone, "but...she will need to adapt to becoming an Iegashyia. She will need proper training and time for her to mentally adjust. Could everyone but Gabriel and Reine please leave so I may better focus on helping Ayette? I'll be sure to keep all of you updated once I'm finished here."

"Sorry, but no," Dimitri laughs shortly, "there's not a chance in hell that I'm leaving."

"And there's no way I'm leaving either," Nathan scowls, "she's one of my best friends."

"Alright," Eden smiles sadly and nods in understanding, "but could the rest of you please leave? I promise she'll be alright. I just need more space to focus."

"Including me?" Aidan asks and Eden nods.

"Alright," Aidan sighs and begins ushering everyone aside from me, Reine, Eden, Dimitri, and Nathan out of the room, "let's leave her be."

"It is very heartwarming you refused to leave your love," Eden smiles as she glances over at Dimitri, whose eyebrows raise, "I would do the same for my husband."

"Excuse me?" Dimitri chokes out as Nathan's lips curl up into a smirk while Reine's eyebrows raise and I smile knowingly, "it's...we're not...she's...yeah..."

Eden smiles impishly as she continues checking over Ayette before she leans back and glances around the room, her eyes landing on the first aid kit. Eden's dress swishes against the floor elegantly as she makes her way across the room to the first aid kit and takes it off the wall. Eden makes her way back over to the bed and places the kit down beside Ayette and opens it, revealing a syringe with clear liquid, a bottle of pills, bandages, gauze, tweezers, disinfectant, and a small knife. We watch silently as Eden takes out the syringe and makes her way across the room, this time to the opposite side, and grabs an IV. The wheels on the IV rack roll across the floor as she wheels it over and places it next to Dimitri, who's standing beside Nathan and across from me and Reine.

"Excuse me," Eden gives Dimitri a small smile and he steps aside, giving her room to put the IV in Ayette.

Eden then goes around the bed and to the cabinet, opening the door to grab a heart monitor in the form of a dark grey bracelet with Velcro. She places the band around Ayette's free wrist and pulls out a small monitor that starts beeping upon being placed around Ayette's wrist and turned on. I glance at the screen and furrow my eyebrows in confusion, seeing that it shows her vitals but also shows multiple stats I'm not familiar with.

"Those are Iegashyia vitals," Eden says when she notices my confusion, "they show an Iegashyia's energy count, gift, etc. It also shows what special type of infusion they may need added to their blood if their blood is low due to an accident, wound, or any ailment."

Eden then holds up the syringe she's kept in her hand and raises it for me to see.

"Is that a special infusion?" I ask.

"It's a type of universal Iegashyia infusion that works to help stabilize their systems, no matter what threw it out of place," Eden explains, "it isn't always guaranteed to work, but it works 99.2% of the time, so the rate is fairly high and almost guaranteed. For Ayette, this should help stable out her system from going to human to Iegashyia-human based so quickly."

Eden then injects the liquid into Ayette's arm and Ayette's eyebrows twitch in her sleep. Eden puts the syringe back in the first aid kit before she places the kit on top of the cabinet and opens the cabinet, grabbing Mikasa's bubble out of it gently.

"Ayette should be awake in a few hours. I'll go try to fix this," Eden says with a small smile before she whisks out of the room and leaves the four of us standing there around Ayette.

"Do you think she'll be the same when she wakes up?" Dimitri asks quietly.

"Why, lover boy? Afraid she won't act the same?" Nathan snickers.

"Shut up," Dimitri scowls and shoves Nathan aside, making Nathan laugh.

"In all seriousness," Nathan sighs, "I'm worried about her too, you know."

"You know," Reine starts, looking at her brother, "you have every right to let yourself love someone, Dimitri. If you're really in love with her, there's nothing that should be stopping you from going after what you want."

Dimitri's breath hitches in his throat and he meets Reine's gaze, searching her expression to see if she's lying.

"I mean it," Reine smiles softly.

"Yeah..." Dimitri breathes out and glances away while he rubs the back of his neck before he meets Reine's gaze again and smiles sheepishly, "thanks..."

"Wait," Nathan's eyes widen and he turns to face Dimitri, "dude, do you actually--"

A knock on the wall from outside the medical room cuts Nathan off and we turn to see Mikasa standing outside, smiling sheepishly.

"Um," she starts, her gaze fixated on me, "if now is a good time, we could continue our conversation from earlier."

"Oh, uh," I rub the back of my neck and look at the others to see them looking at me with curious glances before I look back to Mikasa, "yeah...now's fine. Ayette won't be awake for another few hours anyway."

"Alright," Mikasa smiles tiredly before she leaves the doorway and I turn to face the others.

"I guess I'll be going now. I'll see you guys around in a little bit," I say and I receive a few head nods in recognition before I head towards the door and after Mikasa.

Now, time to truly find out all of who I used to be.