Yugo woke up slowly. His brain was muddled, his head felt like there was a gigantic drum pounding away inside of it, and his eyes hurt. He tried to open his eyes. They opened easily enough, but all that he saw were the wakfu currents running through things. He had finally reached stage four. Blindness. But at least he could still see wakfu. He hadn't known that he'd still be able to see wakfu. He'd assumed that he'd be completely blind. At least he could still see, for now at least.

Yugo sat up. Adamaï and Az were at his side in less than a second. Az was chirping frantically, while Adamaï seemed to be close to doing the same, despite being in dragon form. "Guys, settle down. I'm fine." It was meant to be reassuring, but Adamaï just started to panic more. Yugo sighed. Reaching forwards, he pulled his dragon brother into a tight hug. "I'm fine, Ad." He whispered to the distressed dragon.

Slowly, Adamaï relaxed. Yugo slowly pulled back, studying his brother's face through wakfu. He tried to memorize as much as possible, just in case he loses his ability to see wakfu as well as the ability to see. If nothing else, he wanted to remember his brother's face.

"I'm fine, Ad." He repeated. "I simply reached the next stage in this disease." Adamaï opened his mouth, looked at Yugo, and shut it again. "...I don't even want to know..." He muttered. Yugo smiled. "Good choice, Ad. I'm still pretty confused about it myself, you know." He pulled the dragon back in for another hug. This time, neither of them let go.

He really was. He wasn't sure how Qilby could make portals, or how Nox was still alive, or why they were helping him. It could be guilt, but he didn't think so. So why? Last time he'd checked, they'd both hated Yugo. They might just be trying to give him a comfortable death, but he'd died many many times before from much worse things than this, although he could only recall a few in any detail more than general shapes and impressions, and they'd never helped him before. So why now? Was it because he was a child? No, because he'd died as a child before. Something about being eaten by a giant flying monkey and they hadn't managed to get to him in time. He'd lasted for a few days after they'd found him before finally dying, his body horrendously disfigured by the monkey's teeth and stomach acid.

Yugo was having trouble feeling. It was becoming a struggle to stay bright and happy. His worry, his joy, his excitement, his determination, it was all fading away. He knew that he should feel these things, but it was so hard.

"It's because your wings are amplifiers. That also means that they amplify emotions. When an Eliatrope damages their wings, they begin to lose some of their ability to feel. It usually starts with their emotions. Then pain, usually. So if you stop feeling pain, it's because your wings are damaged." Qilby said in Yugo's mind, somehow knowing the perfect time to show up. Yugo looked down at Adamaï sadly. "He doesn't know, does he," Qilby stated sadly. Yugo shook his head. "No. I've never shown anybody but you my wings." Qilby's voice felt sad. "You don't have much more time, you know. It's a matter of months now. At the end... you'll be happy to go. Being inside the Dofus is actually quite soothing and relaxing. It actually doesn't erase your memory. That's the birth that does that. It's actually a lot like sleeping, and you dream of those that you were closest to, particularly your sibling."

"And best of all, it doesn't hurt inside the Dofus. It's a time to relax and heal, a time of rebirth. And once your sibling joins you, it's the most wonderful sensation in the world. If I could, I would spend all my time there with my sister." Qilby continued.

Yugo hugged Adamaï tighter."I don't want to leave him. Isn't there a cure?" He asked desperately. Qilby's silence was an answer all on its own. Yugo looked down at his brother.

"Believe me, Yugo, if there was a cure then I'd give it to you. But the most that we could ever do was ease their suffering. Even I, who kept all of my memories, do not know what the cure is." Qilby said sadly. "Nox is here too. He says that he owes you a favor. He appears to have grown attached. That's both good and bad. Good, because Nox protects what is his to the end, but bad, because Nox tends to go overboard. Like, suck-all-the-wakfu-out-of-the-world overboard. He's one protective daddy."

Yugo blinked, surprised."What?" Qilby's voice had a shrug in it. "As I said, Nox is a really protective parent. All that stuff with the sucking-all-of-the-wakfu-out-of-the-world thing was actually just him trying to protect his kids. He goes a little overboard with that kind of stuff." Qilby stopped for a moment, before continuing brightly. "And he's decided to unofficially adopt you! And since he and I and kinda married, then we have joint custody of you!" Yugo's mind stopped at one thing. "Wait... You and Nox are married?!" Qilby chuckled."After you sent me to the white dimension for the second time, I met Nox for the first time. We hit it off pretty quickly. We're not officially married, but we do consider ourselves to be married." Yugo frowned. "So... you and Nox... are actually... married?!" He buried his head in his hands. "This world has been really messed up lately." He muttered into his arms. First he'd been kidnapped by Nox and Qilby, who were supposed to be dead and trapped, respectively, then they had been nice to him, then they'd started taking care of him, then they decided to adopt him, and then he'd discovered that they were married. He hadn't even known that two people of the same gender could get married.

He sighed. "This is really, really, really, really, really, messed up, but I'm just going to go with it. I'd rather keep my sanity a little bit longer."

.oOo.

And he slowly got used to it. Nox's overprotectiveness and Qilby's support, their marriage and him being blind. Adamaï's hovering and Az's sudden tendency to follow him around everywhere. The world had gone absolutely nuts lately, but he adapted and went on. This was probably going to continue all the way until his death.

Nobody but his family knew that he was dying. Ami and Eva and Dally and Ruel were all very close friends of his, but lately they'd begun spending more time together without him. Adamaï's sudden overprotectiveness and hovering made them feel uncomfortable, so they drifted away. Dally and Evangeline were trying to start a family. They weren't officially married, but they were going for kids anyway. Amalia dove into her duties as a princess, making more and more decisions on her own and trying to help her kingdom. Ruel was scheming to get more money, as usual, Junior at his side.

Alibert was coming up to help Yugo. He'd been told that his son was sick. He hadn't been given any details yet. Yugo would reveal his secret to him and Adamaï together. He'd be arriving very soon.

He swallowed nervously at the thought. He'd kept his secret ever since his birth, fourteen years ago now, and now he was going to reveal it to the two people that he cared about the most. Sure, he liked Amalia, but these two were his family and she was always too busy to spend any time with him anymore.

"Later," they'd always tell him. He wanted to scream at them, "I don't have a later! I'm dying!" But they'd never hear him. Right now, they were all wrapped up in their new lives. And he couldn't blame them. Who would want to spend time with a sick, dying child when they could be working with life instead?

They all knew that he was sick, but that was the extent of it. They knew that there was no cure, and they were working hard to find one, but they thought that it was a simple sickness. They didn't know that he was dying.

The door opened. Yugo looked up, expecting Alibert or Adamaï, but instead, Evangelyne stepped through, looking nervous, hands behind her back like she was gripping something. He sat up, surprised. He had been leaning against the headboard like he usually did. "Eva? What are you doing here?" He asked. She blushed, stepping forwards. "Well... Dally and I... we realized that we've been kinda neglecting you. We know that you're sick, so... um..." She pulled out a large bunch of flowers. "To brighten up your room. I mean, it is rather plain in here..." She trailed off, embarrassed. Yugo smiled at her, delighted. "Thanks, Eva. It means a lot. Really."

She smiled shyly and moved to his bed to put the flowers in the vase. "We just kinda looked around and realized that while we were so busy trying to build ourselves a life, you were stuck in here, sick." She hesitated. "Is...is there really no cure?" She asked slowly. Yugo nodded. "No cure. Never was. It's a pretty rare disease apparently. On our home planet, there was rarely more than one person on the entire planet with the disease, and even that one was rarely there. It's very rare and very hard to get."

Eva nodded slowly. Then she asked the one question that nobody else had ever thought to ask. "Are you okay?" And Yugo looked at her, and he shook his head. "No. I'm not." And he revealed his secret to her. "I'm dying, Eva."

Her eyes widened. Whatever she had been expecting, it had not been that. "Oh..." She closed the distance between her and Yugo with a mother's speed and embraced him gently. He began to cry. "I'm scared, Eva, I'm scared, I'm scared..." And she patted his back and whispered sweet nothings in his ear, caring for the boy that, although he was much more mature and smart than most children, was still a child. And he cried and cried and cried, cried out all of his confusion and hurt onto the woman that had always been the closest thing to a mother for him. And the nineteen-year-old woman sat with him and let him cry out all of his fears.

Finally, Yugo heaved one last, shuddering breath and pulled back. "Thanks, Eva." He whispered. She pulled back too, and she smiled tenderly at the dying Eliatrope. "I'm sorry for leaving you for so long," she whispered, "But I'm not leaving again."

True to her word, she called Dally, and they moved in right next door to Yugo. He'd been given a small hut so that he could rest without having to live in the hospital. Evangelyne pleaded pregnancy, and she was given a hut that somehow managed to be right next to Yugo's. And she did this in less than a hour. She promised to come and visit every single day at least once.

"Why did you say you were pregnant?" Yugo asked her afterwards, puzzled. She smiled tenderly down at her belly. "Because I am." She said. "The Eniripsa said it's twins, a boy and a girl. I don't know how she knows this early, since they were conceived less than a week ago, but she's already calculating personalities. She's really good at her job."

Yugo stared at her in wonder. "Can...can I see them?" He asked. He had seen the little lives inside of her, but he had thought that he was seeing things.

Instead of answering, she took his hand and placed it on her belly. He had to resist the urge to search through her.

It was as if she knew what he was thinking. "Go ahead, Yugo. Feel them. They are your little siblings, right?" Yugo looked up at her in surprise. "Siblings?" She smiled down at him. "Me and Dally talked about it, and we decided to adopt you... if you're willing, of course." She added the last bit on hastily. Yugo watched her in wonder. "Of... of course. I always did see you as a mom, you know."

He carefully sent little tendrils of wakfu into her belly and twined them around the children. They were still embryos, curled around themselves with gills and tails. But they were alive and full of life. They shone brightly. "The girl will be like Dally. Hotheaded, brave, probably a redhead. Strong and fast, but also smart and tactical. She'll be a wonderful fighter, and a determined one at that." He paused; thought. "The boy will be more like you. Probably blond, cautious, smart, proud, and slightly mischeivous as well. He'll almost always follow the rules because that's what he'll believe in, and he'll be very accurate with a bow, almost as good as his mother."

He looked up at Evangelyne, easily picking out her bright wakfu from the dim wakfu of the plant walls. "They're going to be wonderful children."

Eva could easily pick out the wistfulness in his voice. Sadness struck her, and she threw caution to the winds. "Tell you what," she said impulsively, "You can be the first to touch them. Nobody else can even touch them before you, not even me or Dally, okay? So you've gotta survive that long. Got it?" At Yugo's stunned nod, she grinned, nodding once to herself. "Good."

She stood up. "I'll go tell Dally, okay? Just shout if you need me." Yugo watched her go. As she reached the door, he called out. "Wait!" She turned back. "Yes?"

Yugo looked down, embarrassed. "Thank you, Mom. " He whispered. She looked surprised, before smiling at the boy. "You are very welcome, Yugo." She said tenderly, before leaving. The door swung shut gently, letting a crack of light in.

Yugo sighed and sat back in his bed and waited for Adamaï to bring Alibert.

In the other hut, Evangelyne fit the last two pieces together and placed the device on the wall. "Now we can hear everything that Yugo does." Dally looked at it then back at her. "He's our son, Dally. We have to protect him. He's dying." Dally nodded. "I was just wondering if there was any way that we could hide it. We don't want this to be visible!"

Evangelyne cried tears of relief. "Thank you, Dally. Thank you so much."

What Yugo calls people :

Alibert: Dad
Nox: Papa
Qilby: Father
Dally: Daddy
Evangelyne: Mom
Elely: Lily or Sister.
Flopin: Opi or Brother.
Grugraloragran: Grugral or Brother.
Chibi: Ibi or Brother.
Adamaï: Ad or Brother.
Az: Az or Azzy.