The Oath
“So we might be insane for doing this, but we’re taking the bind.”
Of course, Blu thought as he watched the former children, that was the answer they had all been expecting.
“Right,” Alfred mumbled, his gaze shifting towards a boarded-up window. Freddy eyed the family of Vampires.
“You don’t look very surprised,” he noted.
“We knew that’d be your answer,” Alfred answered simply. “Blu has already had a Vision.”
“Vision?”
“No time,” Marion interrupted, stepping forward again and holding the ancient book up in his hands. “You have chosen to take the Oath. You should choose which Vampire you wish to partner up with,” he told the Mortals, flipping the book open to a seemingly-random page. “There are no customary requirements, but it is recommended you have something in common for the magic to have a better chance at taking.”
“Something in common?” Chica repeated. “Like what?”
“Anything.”
The Mortals and Vampires just looked at each other, none of them really saying anything- they didn’t know enough about each other, after all, to judge what they might have in common.
Well... except for the superficial obvious.
“You could go simple and match up by species,” Marion suggested, gazing over them. “But at least one of you would need to find some other commonality.”
None of them really wanted to say anything- Blu still hoped they would change their mind. The silence, however, stretched on as everyone waited for someone to say something- anything.
When it seemed like no one was going to step up, Goldie cleared his throat. “Er- we have the same fur colour,” he pointed out to Spring, who simply looked back at him with a raised brow.
“That’s flimsy, at best.”
“Still a commonality.”
It wasn’t like Spring could deny it- admittedly, Goldie’s fur was a bit brighter, shinier than Spring’s own, but they were both still gold. It wasn’t the best commonality to base a Blood Oath on, Blu knew, but when they didn’t know each other very well- and they had to do the Oath now- it was good enough to work with.
Spring seemed hesitant, but then he sighed and said, “Fine.”
“Guess that means you’re stuck with me,” Blu said to Bonnie, crossing his arms. “Species is better base than fur colour, at least.”
“Right,” Bonnie agreed slowly, watching him warily. “So how exactly is this done, anyway?”
Blu grimaced and glanced at Alfred, who simply shrugged back at him. You’re on your own there, that shrug said before he gestured for Freddy to follow him.
“Well,” he started, looking back at Bonnie as the other pairs started breaking off, “it’s typically a private affair so it’s just the two of us.” It felt so awkward. He waved for the older rabbit to follow him, heading towards the foyer. “And the most private places in this house are our rooms.”
“Ah...”
The walk was tense and silent, neither rabbit seeming to know what to say. If someone had told Blu fourteen years ago that the children who had snuck into the mansion would one day be taking the Oath, Blu would have laughed.
Because children can’t take Oaths. Children can’t take Blood Binds.
But children grow up.
Fourteen years ago, that wouldn’t have even occurred to him. Fourteen years was a blink of an eye after two hundred and twenty years of living, a moment in his life- the fact that mortal children could grow into adults in that time seemed so... strange.
Blu paused when they reached a door that was always locked- more than locked, it was boarded up and shrouded in darkness. There was only one way in and one way out of the Vampires’ personal rooms, as they had all agreed years ago that they should double as their prison should worse come to worst.
Boarded up and locked from the outside.
He turned to Bonnie, not feeling too enthusiastic about inviting the rabbit into the room only he himself had ever set foot in. But it was the most private room, for him- and also the room he had the most attachment to. It was personal. It was isolated. It was his.
And if he didn’t want to accidentally kill Bonnie, then that was the best place for this.
He held his hand out for Bonnie to take, though the taller rabbit raised a brow questioningly. Blu rolled his eyes.
“The door to my room can’t be opened,” he explained, “and you can’t shadow walk.”
“Shadow walk?”
Blu shook his hand a little and Bonnie seemed to get the hint, finally taking it. Blu had a moment- just a moment- where he remembered a tiny kit whose hand he hadn’t paid attention to, but he knew back then that hand would have barely fit in the palm of his hand. Now, though, now that hand dwarfed his own and he had another flash of wonderment at how that tiny kit had grown up in a mere fourteen years, grown up to be over a foot taller than Blu himself, a foot taller and four years older than Blu would ever be.
But then the moment was gone and Blu, who was still a two-hundred year old Vampire and stronger than any mortal could hope to be, pulled Bonnie through the shadows, into a large room decorated in shades of green and gold. The torches on the wall lit up with just a thought from Blu, casting an eerie flickering light across a four-poster bed.
An old painting was on the wall and as Blu let go of Bonnie’s hand to rummage around for the old magic books he’d been given at the Academy, the taller rabbit just looked at it.
It was a family portrait of a very mixed, somewhat-large family standing on a farm. It was hard to see in the flickering firelight, but he could immediately identify the five Vampires in it, dressed in their Sunday best if Bonnie had to wager a guess. Chii and Mangle stood on either end of the lineup, with Spring and Blu standing next to them. Alfred stood in the center of his brothers and sisters, with two bears- taller, clearly the parents- stood right behind him. The faces were indiscernible, being a large group portrait, but a signature in the corner of an artist he didn’t recognize and a date marked 1785 told Bonnie that this was a painting of Blue and his siblings when they were only children.
When they weren’t Vampires.
This was the Fischbach family, before it was torn to pieces.
“Our uncle painted that.”
Blu’s voice startled Bonnie and he turned to look back at Blu, who was watching him with a large book in his arms.
Bonnie hesitated only a moment. “That’s your parents, right?” he asked, gesturing to the painting.
“Albert and Constance Fischbach,” Blu confirmed, setting the book down heavily on a desk in the corner. Bonnie hadn’t even noticed the desk- a writing desk, with an unlit candle, books and papers scattered about it. There was an old pen and ink well sitting to the side, though it looked like it hadn’t been touched in decades; the small, more modern ink pen attached to a spiral bound notebook on the corner spoke volumes.
The Vampires were keeping up with society.
“They adopted me, Spring, Chii and Mangle,” he explained, absently flipping the book open to the correct page. “After Alfred got lost in the fields and ended up meeting us, at the orphan house. We became friends, and mom and dad decided to adopt us all.” The wistful, sad tone to his voice sounded so very human, at that moment it was easy to forget he wasn’t. “Mom couldn’t have anymore children after she had Alfred, and farmers could always use more help around the homestead so it wasn’t a major choice- but back then, you know, adopting outside your own species was a big deal.”
Blu turned to look at him, frowning. “I don’t remember it too clearly anymore. It was a long time ago. But my uncle was an artist who came to visit for my birthday. I think it was the thirteenth- years kind of blur together.” He shrugged, as if the fact he couldn’t remember didn’t bother him. “Got us all dressed up like we were going to church and did that. Gave it to me as a birthday present. It was pretty cool back then- we all have one, from different times though.”
Bonnie frowned quietly. “You miss them.”
“Of course I do,” Blu mumbled, picking up unlit candles and setting them around the room. “We went for a walk one day- were going... somewhere,” he huffed, frustration seeping into his words. “I don’t remember where. It was my birthday, and Chii had recently gotten engaged, so we were walking to town, I think. Or maybe we were... I don’t remember, it was centuries ago,” he sighed, setting a candle down a little too roughly. Bonnie couldn’t help but be glad it was in a metal holder, rather than glass. “Celebrate, I guess. Finished our chores for the day, told mom and dad we’d be back and...”
He trailed off, frowning. It was hard. He couldn’t remember.
“And never saw them again?” Bonnie asked quietly, and Blu simply nodded. It seemed like Freddy was right. “You know they looked for you, right?”
“Of course I know,” Blu sighed, rubbing his eyes- whether he was tired or about to cry, Bonnie didn’t know. “When we were released from the Academy, we found the newspapers. Mom and dad were... were long gone when we came back to Durmont. Everyone we knew were. Kids I had known from church were old, having grandkids by the time we came back, and didn’t remember us. The old farm was owned by someone else because mom and dad had no children to pass it to, and our uncle was lynched for- for reasons we never even could find, and it just...”
Hesitantly, Bonnie reached out and touched the smaller rabbit’s shoulder. He felt Blu tense up under his hand, but then relax again.
“You and the others bought the farm, didn’t you?” he asked carefully, and Blu nodded. “Is... this mansion where your farm used to be?”
There was a long beat of silence before Blu took a breath and, carefully, pushed Bonnie’s hand off of his shoulder. The candles lit up around them.
“They razed the farm,” Blu muttered. “Razed the farm and built this house. We were so angry- we hated it. Every remnant of our life- gone. The cemetery our parents, and their parents, and our whole family- where our empty graves had been put- was dug up and moved to the public cemetery near the river. Unmarked. Everything is gone. The farm, the orphan house, the old church we attended as children, the market...
“But we couldn’t leave. Didn’t want to leave. This is home, and we’re all that remains of the Fischbach family,” he finally said, picking something up off of his desk and turning to finally look at Bonnie. “So we bought the land back, bought the mansion, everything. Set up a memorial for our parents, where the family graveyard was. For our uncle, too. And we went about making the mansion fit for Vampires who can’t even touch sunlight.”
There was a moment of silence between them before Blu shifted his weight, standing up straighter. “Anyway-”
“What happened?” Bonnie interrupted, brow drawing together. Blu looked surprised. “You were missing people who were never found.”
“Because we were turned into Vampires,” Blu said, raising a brow. “We... I don’t really remember- we did something, and... there were Vampires. Not friendly ones either. Rogue Vampires. I don’t remember what happened after they caught us. It’s all a blur- I just remember a necklace, a pendant- and then the Academy, and we were there for years. Years longer than others usually were. Long enough for the church babies to become old biddies. Long enough that we were forgotten, and our entire family ended.”
He paused, then shook his head. “We don’t remember, Bonnie. It wasn’t good. I know that. Alfred remembers more than I do, but when I ask he shuts down and locks himself in his room. It’s best to not ask those questions.”
Blu held something- it looked like a pen and parchment, strangely enough- up. “Let’s just get back to the subject at hand, okay? I promise I’ll try not to hurt or kill you, but I’ve never done this before so sorry in advance if I fuck it up.”
Oh. Yeah. I almost forgot.
“Right,” he agreed, going back over to the rabbit when prompted. “How, exactly, is this done anyway? What’s the pen and parchment for?”
“Contract,” Blu answered with no forced cheer.
“Alright... and where’s the ink?”
Blu just looked at him, and Bonnie had a very bad feeling.
“Okay, so here’s how this is gonna go. We have to sit in the middle of those candles- don’t ask why, the book says so and I’m gonna be very specific to it because I’d rather you not die in my bedroom- and I have to do some magical mumbo-jumbo that you don’t have to worry about because you can’t do magic anyway, then we have to sign our names in our blood, and, uh, also I have to give you some of my blood so there’s that...”
“Wait,” Bonnie quickly cut in- he remembered them saying something about blood in the system, but at the same time... “Didn’t you say Vampire’s blood- ingested or in the bloodstream or whatever- would turn or even kill us?”
“And now you get why this is really dangerous and not advised for the untrained,” Blu sighed, glancing aside. “See, if the magic mumbo-jumbo I mentioned is done wrong, the blood exchange will kill you. Not even a chance for it to turn you, it would just straight up kill you.”
“Why...?”
“Because it’s blood-to-blood,” Blu explained, still not looking at Bonnie. “It’s not ingested, it’s straight in the bloodstream, and with botched magic to boot, so...”
They looked at each other for a moment before Blu shrugged. “We told you to take the memory wipe.”
“No one exactly explained anything to us, you know.”
“I mean we did, but would this explanation have changed anything?”
There was a moment of silence before Bonnie sighed. “No. It wouldn’t have.”
Blu nodded, as if he knew that was what Bonnie was going to say. Maybe he had. Gingerly, the smaller rabbit dropped to the floor, settling down on his knees in the center of all of the candles. Bonnie carefully followed suit, sitting with his legs crossed, as Blu set the parchment and pen between them. He watched as Blu set out another candle- he hadn’t even noticed Blu holding it- right beside the parchment, but instead of it lighting the same way all the others had Blu gently touched the tip, muttering something under his breath. When the flame lit up, it was notably red.
The torches on the wall went out at the same moment that red flame flickered to life, leaving the two rabbits and the parchment in the dim red and orange candlelight.
Bonnie felt unease- he didn’t know how the Vampire was doing that. He was pretty sure in all the stories there had been nothing about fire, but maybe it was just... magic. Which, it seemed, the Vampires were perfectly capable of using. Maybe it was just a supernatural thing.
“How,” he started, but Blu quickly hushed him with a sharp look. No talking, that look told him, even as the rabbit held his hand out, palm up. This time Bonnie understood what was being said, and with only a moment of hesitation he set his own over Blu’s.
Blu seemed satisfied he understood. “Sorry,” he whispered, though Bonnie didn’t know why as Blu began reciting something in what sounded suspiciously a lot like Latin. Bonnie wasn’t sure, of course- he had never taken Latin before. For all he knew this was just some magic language of supernatural creatures, maybe it wasn’t even a language that existed, but the first thing that popped into mind was Latin and he wasn’t sure why.
He spoke clearly, without stumbling or second-guessing (Bonnie briefly wondered how long Vampires spent perfecting this strangely Latin-esque language, just so they wouldn’t fuck up their spells), and Bonnie listened to each syllable, noting the strange pattern of emphasis, of stronger sounds and softer, almost whispered, lines-
And then he felt a sharp pain from his hand, and he jerked back slightly- but Blu had a tight grip on his wrist, so he couldn’t pull away, and it took Bonnie a full three seconds to realize the other rabbit had clawed his palm.
Bonnie, with his wrist caught in Blu’s grasp, was helpless to do more than watch as the blood from three scratches (he knew they were three, he could feel them burning) dripped down onto the parchment. He watched, almost mesmerized, as the blood beaded, not soaking into the page but instead seeming to gather into a little puddle in the middle of the page.
Then Blu released his wrist, gently pushing his hand back towards himself. Bonnie looked at him, closing his fast (and that burned too) to try and still the bleeding while Blu brought his own hand up to his mouth. He watched, in a strange morbid fascination, as the Vampire’s words quieted- quieted just long enough for him to bite his own hand, not even flinching as the fangs broke through his skin. Blood- dark, almost black- pooled up into his hand from the two small punctures as he put his hand over the parchment. He resumed his chant- incantation? Bonnie wasn’t sure what it was, to be honest- before letting the blood fall onto the parchment.
Bonnie’s gaze fell to the parchment again, watching as his own red seemed to mix with Blu’s almost-black blood, pooling together and swirling in a strange... Bonnie didn’t want to describe it as a dance, but that was all his brain could supply. His own blood didn’t darken, nor did Blu’s lighten. There was no combining, as if the blood simply could not combine the way Bonnie and Freddy’s had when they were children, back when he and his friends decided blood brothers was a good idea (which, in hindsight, wasn’t the safest thing...). It was like oil and water coming together, two things that never should have met meeting.
Blu pulled his bloodied hand closer to himself, much the same way Bonnie had done, as his incantation seemed to finally come to an end. The red flame seemed to only burn redder, and disturbingly Bonnie could almost swear the candle- pale tan, just your average candle- seemed to start melting red as well.
Quietly he told himself it was just the reflection of the flame. He knew he was lying.
Then Blu picked the pen up with his non-bloody hand, and Bonnie turned his attention back to him. Green eyes- glowing green eyes, and he knew that wasn’t just the candlelight- met red for a few moments before Blu’s gaze fell back to the parchment, to the bead of black and red blood there, and Bonnie’s eyes followed suit.
A blood bind, he finally consciously thought, dealt with a lot of blood.
He mentally slapped himself for the thought as Blu set the pen down in the bead, and he watched as the blood seemed to soak into the pen as he dragged it across the parchment, leaving a thin line of blood. It seemed to alternate between the black and red, still never mixing even as it almost instantly soaked into the page after Blu’s pen.
The name was upside down from Bonnie’s view, but he could still read it clearly; Bonito Fischbach.
Briefly he wondered who named their kid Bonito in the late eighteenth century, but he didn’t dwell on it as Blu carefully turned the page around to him, setting the pen beneath his own signature.
The signature was neat, pretty much what one would expect from an educated eighteenth century kid. Maybe a little too neat for a farm kid, but Bonnie wasn’t one to judge- certainly the Vampire had had long enough to perfect his script.
Bonnie picked the pen up, feeling almost like he was on autopilot, and mimicked Blu, setting the tip of the pen down in the blood bead. Similarly to before it seemed to soak into the pen tip and he swept his signature across the parchment, right beneath Blu’s- heavier, thicker lines than what the Vampire had left behind, less loops and swirls, more sharp edges, but the blood dried immediately into the parchment just the same, leaving a signature just as bizarrely-coloured as Blu’s on the page.
Bonnie Henderson.
He lifted the pen, looking at their blooded signatures, and felt very sure as if he had just signed his soul away to the devil. The bead of blood was quickly soaking into the page, as if it were a seal of some kind- and certainly the pattern made by the dark and light blood made it look even moreso like a seal. If it had been made of wax...
He looked at Blu, who seemed very hesitant now. Carefully, he took the pen out of Bonnie’s hand and set it down beside the parchment.
“Okay,” the smaller rabbit muttered just barely loud enough for Bonnie to hear- an impressive feat, all things considered. “Now to find out if I screwed up.”
Basically; time to survive or die, Bonnie translated in his head as Blu held his bloodied hand out to him. Bonnie wasn’t an idiot; he knew what he was supposed to do now.
It’s what he and each of his friends did, at barely eleven years old.
“This will hurt,” Blu warned him as he reached out with his own bloodied hand. Their hands, above the parchment (were their signatures glowing? Or was that a reflection of the firelight?), met, the two hesitantly taking the other’s hand as if in a handshake. But instead they pressed their palms together- and immediately the burning from those three scratches dwarfed as that blackish blood pressed against the wounds.
He grit his teeth, unconsciously gripping Blu’s hand tighter as the Vampire’s blood burned his hand. He could feel the burning spread to his arm, and is this supposed to be happening? Bonnie was sure this wasn’t how it was supposed to work- but it wasn’t like he knew anything about magic or Vampire’s blood.
The bottom line, he figured, was that infected blood was now in his system.
And it hurt.
After a few moments- endless moments, it felt like to Bonnie- Blu carefully adjusted how he was holding Bonnie’s hand, but the burning didn’t stop. “Sorry,” Blu said again, pulling Bonnie’s hand closer to him, and Bonnie could feel his heart beating way too fast- the fear he felt was instinctive, a response to the pain, to the danger he was suddenly hyper aware of. But he also felt like he couldn’t move, like he was powerless as Blu lifted his hand up.
There was hesitation in those green eyes, and of course Bonnie could see why- he knew what the Vampire was about to do, and he was completely helpless to stop it.
So instead he braced himself, gritting his teeth a moment before he felt the fangs brush against his fur. It stung- for just a moment, surprisingly- when they pierced his skin, but the Vampire didn’t bite down hard- and it was bizarre, yet slowly the burning in his arm seemed to fade, and he felt himself unwillingly relaxing, as if the Vampire’s shallow bite was soothing rather than distressing.
Almost drug-like, he couldn’t help but think as the vampire pulled back. Bonnie looked at his wrist, noting very little blood had escaped- the wound seemed to have closed as easily as it had been opened, as if the Vampire had other intentions than blood with the bite.
His arm still felt funny- numb, almost, but he no longer felt like his veins were on fire.
Why? It was curious.
Blu let go of his hand finally, and Bonnie pulled it closer, looking down at his palm. The scratches on his hand looked more than a little irritated, with black-ish blood drying around them. Oddly enough, it seemed those three scratches was the only place affected by Blu’s blood.
Weird.
“Do you feel like you’re dying?” Blu asked warily, and Bonnie looked back at him.
“No,” he answered, closing his hand over the scratches. Blu relaxed at his words and nodded.
“That’s good, if you were still burning after I bit you that meant your blood was poisoned.”
“Oh.” What else could he have said?
Blu picked the parchment- blank but for the blooded signatures- up in his hands and looked at it. His expression was hard to read, and Bonnie watched as he held the parchment out above the red flame. Instantly, as the Vampire wisely released the parchment, it went up in a dark red flame, every candle around briefly turning red and casting the entire room in an eerie crimson glow.
Bonnie watched numbly as the signatures seemed to glow, yet again, in the flames, clear for both rabbits to see, before it disappeared in a plume of ash and smoke.
And just like that, every candle turned yellow again, and the bleeding candle in the center blew itself out.
Bonnie hadn’t even realized that red flame was making a sound until they were left in the ringing silence.
Then Blu broke the silence by falling backwards onto the floor and covering his face with his hands. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
Bonnie peered over at him, raising a brow. “That wasn’t so bad,” he said, though his heart still beat a few shades too fast and definitely didn’t agree. He was hyper aware of the dried blood on his palm. “A little culty, maybe.”
Blu snorted, peeking up at him from beneath his hands. “Dark magic is like that. We need to get your hand cleaned,” he changed the subject, pushing himself back up. “The scratches should have sealed when I bit you, but need to get the blood off just in case, y’know?”
“They sealed?” Bonnie looked at his palm again, frowning. He couldn’t really tell, since it was lined with blood, but... “Why would it do that when you bit me? Actually- why did the burning stop when you bit me? That’s kind of weird.”
“It’s just something that happens,” Blu explained as he pushed himself up to his feet. Bonnie followed suit, stumbling slightly as he did. “I don’t know why, I dunno if it’s magic or something on our fangs- Alfred and Mangle say it’s an enzyme that coats our fangs- but apparently it has a drug-like effect. Stops pain. In the right situations it can even be pleasurable, or so I’m told,” Blu added with a small smirk. Bonnie chose to ignore that. “As for it sealing the wound, whatever it is that stops the pain does it to try and keep a victim from bleeding out.”
The candles went out and the torches lit again, and Blu began collecting the candles. Bonnie just watched him.
“That’s why I bit your hand- it was close to your palm, so once you relaxed I knew the... enzyme had spread enough to affect the scratches,” he explained with an almost careless shrug, snapping the book on the desk shut. “Mind you, it only works for mild wounds. If someone’s wounds are real bad it won’t help too well. Like... a victim who struggles.”
“I get the picture,” Bonnie sighed, absently rubbing his wrist. He didn’t understand anything, of course, but he could imagine a Vampire, unable to keep its victim calm or still, accidentally ripping the flesh open. Magic or not, there was no way that bleeding could be stopped without immediate medical attention.
Which, he imagined, a Vampire born in the eighteenth century would be unable to give.
“Come on,” Blu sighed, holding his non-bloodied hand out to Bonnie. “You know, this mansion doesn’t have electricity but Mangle was insistent on us getting running water. That was a hassle and a half, but it’s definitely been worth it.”
Bonnie took Blu’s hand, letting himself be pulled through the shadows and into a bathroom. The Vampire seemed to jump to it, a going to the basin sink and turning the faucet on. Bonnie looked around, noting with some interest that, though it was clearly still old, it was relatively newer than the rest of the house.
“Let me guess,” he started, walking over to Blu, “y’all left Isolation one year and immediately Mangle demanded a renovation to get bathrooms.”
“Almost,” Blu gave, gesturing for Bonnie to wash his hands. “The bathroom space was already here, it was just everything in here was from the nineteenth century- you know, the early indoor plumbing. It wasn’t very sufficient, especially considering we lock ourselves in here for decades at a time, so when certain breakthroughs were made Mangle fought tooth and nail for us to upgrade with it. She likes baths- always did. We just didn’t have this back on the farm,” he almost laughed, rolling his eyes. “She likes the ease of being able to hop in the tub whenever and not have to heat water up on a fire.”
“How do you deal with the water company?” he asked, carefully rubbing the blood off of his hand. With it cleared, he could see that Blu was right; the scratches had sealed themselves up, leaving three distinct lines on his hand. They’d fade over time, he could tell, but now they were the only evidence of what he’d gotten himself into.
“The Academy deals with that, when we’re in periods of Isolation. Like now.” Bonnie stepped back from the sink, absently catching the towel Blu tossed to him. He only noticed then that Blu had already cleaned his own hand, as the Vampire shut the water off. “It was part of our agreement when we made our living arrangements.”
“The Academy keeps an eye on everything you do,” Bonnie noted warily. Blu passed him, pulling the door open.
“Of course,” he said. “Much the same way your government keeps an eye on your people.”
“The Academy is your government, then.”
“It’s where our government resides.”
“I’m confused.”
Blu turned to him, raising a brow. “Okay. Vampires are overseen by a king- we call him the Lord of Night. The king is the head of the Academy, which is the heart of Vampiric society. Every new Vampire is taken there to begin their life as a Vampire, and once we leave they work to keep us blending in, and to keep mortals like you out of the loop, and hunt down rogues. Every order we’re given, all permissions and restrictions, the Book of Law and all our authorities come from there.”
Slowly Bonnie nodded in understanding. Vampiric society was confusing.
“And now they have some control over you,” Blu added, heading out into the carpeted hallway. Bonnie was quick to follow. “Because now you’re tied to me.”
“That doesn’t sound very reassuring.”
“I told you to take the memory wipe,” Blu repeated, holding his hands up in surrender. “This is on you, not me. Now let’s go see how many of your friends survived the Oath.”