Eddie had been in and out of it for a quite some time now. We had to carry him back to our tent until they could set up another bed for him, if he was going to stay. He was sleeping soundly in my cot. The only thing we had done was untie the second belt from around his waist that held the small tank his familiar lived. She was swimming around nearby, Peri was staring at her intently, and the axolotl stared back.

"Are you guys talking? Or...?" I asked, after they had barely moved for three minutes.

"Talking," Peri explained, "her name is Kai, she... she's very nice."

Kai blinked in gratitude, and Peri let out a few embarrassed clicks with his tongue.

That made me smile, and I turned back to look at Eddie's sleeping form. His face was so much different than when he was awake, it was peaceful, and content. Meanwhile his waking-self took the form a very ruffled storm cloud. I can't I didn't like both.

I reached forward and brushed some of his ratty hair away from his eyes, and his eyelids twitched slightly. I didn't know if I should heal him or not, I didn't know what was wrong, I wouldn't know what to focus on. However, his airways were clear and his blood was still circulating so I would ask him if he want me to try when he woke.

I'm glad he was here with us again.

Peri suddenly turned towards me, "you missed him?"

"N-no?" I stammered, caught off guard, "I mean yes he's my..." What was I supposed to say, friend? I'm not sure if we were friends. At least Eddie didn't think so. "We know each other."

"Mmhm," Peri rolled his eyes. "Anyway, Kai's asking if you know when he's going to wake up."

"I don't know," I admitted. "I mean, I can't find anything medically out of place." I placed my hand on his forehead. "He has a bit of a fever, but—"

At that moment Eddie's eyes snapped open, and within seconds he'd slapped my hand away and pulled a small knife from Kosmos-knows-where and was pointing it at me menacingly. He let out an animalistic hiss and very obviously swayed from the effort of sitting up so fast. To say the least, I was concerned.

"Hey hey, it's okay," I assured as soft as I could. "It's okay."

"What are you doing here? Where am I?" He demanded, not dropping his guard.

"You're on Thanatos, in one of the homes they have set up. You're safe. Do you want anything to eat or drink?" I asked, "Jason's gone to get food, but I have a cup here for you. You can chew on the herbs I have here, I suppose, but they originally for if you wanted tea—"

He snatched the cup away from me and drank in a way that was entirely greedily. There were droplets spilling out of the corners of his mouth and he coughed halfway through. I tried telling him to slow down but her waved me off.

"Hand over the leaves, broccoli boy." He commanded once more.

I sighed, and handed them over, "you guys know I'm aware my hair is green right? I don't need the reminders."

He chewed on them eagerly, ignoring my statements. Though I could tell he had relaxed somewhat. I waited from him to finish, expecting more questions, and that's what I got.

"I don't remember much of anything; how did I get here?" Eddie asked.

"Jason found you on the border and when he walked you back, you passed out. You don't have to be so defensive by the way, here on the island we're on the same side." I waggled my hand for emphasis.

Eddie squinted at me, as if trying to determine if there was any clarity in my hogwash statement. "Hm, I don't like Jason."

As if on cue, the tent flap was pulled apart and my curly haired friend poked his head in, carrying three bowls of mashed potatoes, rice, and fish. He took in the scene, blinking, before handing Eddie a small packet of utensils.

"Uh... Bundi told me you liked to use these to east or something? I'm not even sure what they are."

"They're chopsticks, you featherbrain." Eddie rolled his eyes, but I could tell the fact that Bundi remembered made him feel better. "I'm from the East."

"Ah, makes sense. I've never been to the East," Jason shrugged. 

Eddie ate quickly, and even them it seemed like he was forcibly slowing himself down. He seemed hungry, and that admittedly worried me. However, we politely waited until he finished.

"How'd you get here?" Jason asked.

"Apophis is here, she took me herself." Eddie explained, "I came to warn you."

"You did?"

Jason and I shared a glance, I knew he'd caught that too. Eddie was being disloyal, he'd never done that before. Eddie's face twisted up into a frustrated snarl, like he was a cornered dog.

"She's getting rid of Felix tonight."

The words sent shiver down my spine a cold stone down my throat. "What does that mean?"

"She's going to kill him."

"Doesn't she need him?" Jason frowned, "what changed?"

"She's replacing him with Bundi."

The space grew silent. My chest felt tight, I couldn't tell what was going on in Eddie's head. He was radiating so much hatred and his shoulders were bunched up like a head of lettuce. He was so uncomfortable, but he was here, he was with us for the first time. It felt really good.

"The Cave," I realized, "did she somehow infect them too? Does this have something to do with their wound?"

Eddie nodded, a solemn seal of fate. I let my head fall into my hands and scrunched up my hair into bunches. My fingertips traced my scalp in stressed circles.

"I've been going at it all wrong, this if why their mood has been all over the place, the attack, the white streaks, they've been infected with the same thing that's inside Felix. Oh Kosmos, I messed up."

Eddie bit down on his lip, and looked down. He let his hair fall in front of his eyes. It was Jason who patted my shoulder gently. "It's okay Craig, there's no way you could have known.

"I should have, I just... I should have." I groaned.

"I..." Eddie started.

I looked up at him. He was angry. I couldn't tell if this was just always how he looked at this point, or if there was a reason. Eddie wrung his hand together, acting like he wanted to bite his fingers off like some of the fish we had back home.

"I've been cutting myself off from Apophis, slowly. I came because I finally managed to scrub her spells off me. I didn't come because we're all buddy-buddy now, I couldn't care less about Felix, I'm here to protect Bundi. They raised me when no one else did, I owe them everything."

His tongue bit chunks out of my heart like a cookie-cutter shark latching itself onto the side of a whale. He had always been so nice before, was that just Apophis's magic on him? Did he really deep down not care about us?

"That's rude of you." Jason looked pissed. "We fed you."

Eddie rolled his eyes, "congratulations! You've been a decent human to me. Do you want a medal?"

"I want you to shut up," Jason growled.

"Jason, stop. Eddie—"

"Edmund, you're not my friend." He glared at me.

I winced, "Edmund, I assume you no longer have a dept to Apophis?"

"Never, I hate her. Almost as much as I hate you."

"The Kosmos gave you that tongue, they can take it away." Jason snapped, implying that if Kosmos didn't, he would be happy to do the job.

I shot Jason a look, he seemed unhappy with my non-verbal suggestion, but he folded his arms and stepped down. "What did we do?"

Eddie's eyes looked like slits, defensive with teeth bared. "What do you mean?"

"I have a really hare time believing you were only nice to us because you were under Apophis's enchantment." I made sure to stare right back at him, "what changed?"

Eddie's eyes witched. "That doesn't matter. I have a headache, I want to rest."

"First you have to tell us if you're on our side or not." Jason pushed, despite my warnings. "Have you really left Apophis?"

"Can we trust you?" I added quietly.

Eddie's hands wrung themselves out once more. He pushed the hair out of his face, and stared at the empty bowl in front of him, picked clean. Something in his demeanor changed, his body was less tense. This time he wouldn't meet anyone's eyes. He bit his lip and opened his mouth.

"You can trust me," his voice cracked like seashells underfoot. "Now please, leave me alone."

I stood up, Jason followed only after a few moments. Eddie had laid down with the blanket over his face and didn't appear to be getting up anytime soon. I folded my hands as I paced around outside the tent. That was a lot of information to take in. At least I know that the old Eddie wasn't fake, something had changed... I had no idea what.

Jason leaned over me, so close I could feel his breath, "so, are we going to trust him or not?"

I looked up at him, honestly startled. "You want me to decide that?"

Jason shrugged, "well yeah. You're our little chief."

Little Chief? Hmm...it's better than asparagus. I glanced back at Eddie's tent. I thought I could hear him inside, maybe talking to Kai or... maybe crying. Kosmos knows of all the boys I was hung up on, Eddie was someone I genuinely cared about. Whatever I could do to make him feel better, I would.

"It's Felix," I said. "It's better to believe what Eddie's saying than to let him die."