Stepping through the alley's puddles, I call out to a woman with water for arms, dragging Thadius behind her, "Hey!" She jumps and drops him, her teeth grind as her tendrils snap towards me. I hold my hands up and she stops, "That's my brother!" She looks around among the rooftops, the rainy alley, "I'm a friend! We're safe for now." A simple knock to my noggin doesn't summon a vision, as per usual. She sits herself down against a wall and I march up, do the same.

She looks at me, then away. "Thanks for saving him." I force my hand out, "Right- I'm Markus." She scoots away, "Not here to be friends with you." Upon further inspection, she rubs her completely damaged shoulder, "What happened to your arm?" Thadius' weak voice whispers under the rain, "Markus?" I crawl to him, "Holy crap!" He grabs my forearm, "The monsters here-" I shake my head, "I know." She squints, "What language is that?" "Enochian." She tilts her head, "What?" Thadius jerks and weakly shouts, "That piece of shit!" I follow his eyes and Slim's holds his stomach with a smirk. "Hey boys." The woman stands and shouts, "Get out of my damn sight, Slim!" He rolls his eyes, "Shut the fuck up and split, then. I have to talk to them, privately."

Thadius tries to stand and we both help him, "There's nothing we need to talk about, Slim!" He tilts his head, "We have so much to talk about!" Thadius takes a step and stumbles, one word outside Enochian explodes from his mouth, "Bastard! Gladius trusted you! Tesyn trusted you!" Slim shouts, "I tried to save them!" Thadius shouts, "For all we know, you fucking killed him! I may feel weak, I'm still going to kill you!" Slim marches towards us with a straight face. "Fine." The woman's tendrils suddenly glow blue, "Don't you fucking screw with us!" He starts running and somehow he dodges through the tendrils. It's like he lies even about how he moves. I run forward and throw a punch in desperation, in that moment, we lock eyes. A malicious stare breaks through his own facade. His fist slams into my face. My head breaches a deep puddle and then the ground, I push myself up and take a breath as Slim punches the hell out of the woman. Thadius wraps his arms around him, but he stomps on his giant feet. With that, he slips out his hug and sweeps Thadius to the ground. Slim starts punching him in the face, over and over, "You-Don't-Fucking-Know-Shit!"

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Thadius throws a punch, Slim catches it with both hands and then swings his knee to his face, Thadius goes limp, then wakes up almost as soon as he left, "I tried to save you fuckers! And this is what I get!?" Slim cocks back his fist and Thadius flinches in anticipation. I shout, "That's enough!" He nails him again as I walk towards him. A feral animal that used to be my brother is killing Thadius. He led Ursa to us. I clench my fists and throw a punch at his head. He turns and catches it. I shout and a bright flash explodes from my other hand as I swing it at his head. I pause as he dodges, but that light connects with his chest. He tumbles across the ground and a pipe wrench made of blue light fades from my hand.

Slim stands up. He grabs at his chest and grits his teeth, then screams at me incoherently. A wail suddenly escapes his throat. His lips tremble before he turns around and runs off. A vision forces itself upon me in the form of a headache, Slim stands in front of a projector. A tidal wave of anger and despair rolls and wraps around me from just a few slides of the infinite slide wheel, I snap out of the vision out of sheer terror, the weight of his experiences that would break me if I saw only one more.

A drug dealer's neck twists, the melting of tar in a spoon, a woman. A slideshow on repeat, people dying. Brothers in arms, brother, sister. Children. Women. People that BELIEVED in me! I forced them to play their roles to a T. My eyes slowly open to shouts and bright lights flashing. People hop and scream the lyrics of their music. A woman lies next to me, I don't even need to check her pulse. Like me, I feel the same way. Despite the loud music, I lay on this mattress next to plenty of homeless people, all cramped in this warehouse. Flashes in my head, even though I just went through it, what little I have left, I almost killed. What can you do when the drugs don't work anymore? All this, trying to fill a pain fueled black hole only has one ending. Only one way to finally end the pain stares you down after flushing yourself down gun oil through a downward spiral barrel. After you hit rock bottom, go up shit creek, all to find you're the paddle that gets you out. No one cares more than me.

I pull my gun, shoot a man screaming and grabbing his head. Verank smiles wide, "Murder looks good on you." "I'm ok with these freeloaders dying. More food for the working men." Brothers, you will only make me slip once.