“Is that Lars? What is he doing here? No way Roger invited him.”

Sean’s head snapped around as he heard a comment behind him over the babble of conversation in the party. Lira was on the other side of the room talking with some of her new girl friends on the couches. She was still reserved but with Roger’s prodding and Sean’s support she was opening up a little and making more friends.

Sean tensed as he saw the large form of Lars at the entrance making his way into the room. Attention was slowly being drawn the large man’s way and he seemed to be looking around intently looking for someone. Hopefully Sean, but if not… Sean moved forward ignoring the person who he had just been speaking with to stand between Lars and where Lira sat still happily chatting with her friends, still unaware of the commotion at the entrance.

After a few seconds, Lars spotted Sean and his eyes flickered behind him to where Lira sat. His face twisted with anger and he stomped forward towards Sean. Sean’s mind raced as he saw Lira and her friends finally notice what was happening as the rest of the room began to grow silent in the face of the brewing confrontation. He would be fine fighting Lars on his own, it didn’t matter how badly Lars tried to hurt him. But if Sean was taken out, Lars might move to Lira next before he could stop him…

Sean stepped towards the oncoming man who towered over him with his bulky frame.

“Lars,” he said sharply, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m here to show you your place!” Lars seethed as he came to a stop with clenched fist and jaw, “How dare you take my girlfriend from me! The both of us were happy before you came along and ruined everything. You’ve been an arrogant know it all ever since you got here, and I won’t stand it anymore.”

“She’s not an object, Lars,” Sean spat, “To be traded or bought. She made her own decision, and that’s no one’s fault but yours. The only reason I haven’t sought you out after what you’ve done to her is because she asked me not to.”

“You just think you’re sooo smart, don’t you,” Lars said, “That because you caught me by surprise last time that you’re so tough. But this time I’m ready, and you won’t get off so easily! When I pummel you into the ground, Lira will see who is the strongest and who is really superior!”

Sean raised his fists in a fighting stance and didn’t reply as Lars did the same.

“Hey!” Roger’s voice called out as he pushed through the crowd, “What’s going on here?”

“Lars,” Sean said shortly to Roger, glancing back to Lira briefly as he did so. She was curled up and looked almost frozen in fear as she watched the confrontation. Her confused friends who she hadn’t told the full story to were asking questions as they looked between her and the budding confrontation across the room.

“Yeah. Lars. Who by the Shadow invited you here?” Roger said harshly, “Thought you’d have learned some manners after getting your ass beat by Sean last time.”

“That was a fluke!” Lars growled, “He just took me by surprise. This has nothing to do with you, Roger.”

“On the contrary,” Roger said, walking forward and took off the shirt he was wearing and threw it into the crowd behind him theatrically, leaving him in only the gleaming silver of a clothing band material on his upper half. Several of the observers whooped and grabbed his shirt as it flew over their heads.

“You mess with my friends, you mess with me,” Roger said, “Now it’s a two on one. You should call some friends for backup to make things fair. Oh, wait…”

Lars gritted his teeth and glanced at the gathering crowd circling around them, eager faces happy to stand by and watch the show.

“Fine,” Lars said, “I’ll just take on the both of you. Sean’s barely a threat either way, best to have a challenge!”

Roger cracked his knuckles and took his own fighting stance and nodded to Sean. Sean nodded back.

They stood like that for a few moments as the anticipation built between the two sides. Lars flexed his hands over and over as he glanced between the two of them. Despite his overwhelming anger, Lars seemed wary now he had to deal with multiple people at once.

The tension built and built as the room around them grew perfectly silent in anticipation. Sean glanced over to Roger again… and that’s when Lars struck. Before Sean could react the man was almost on top of him, throwing a large fist towards his skull. Sean ducked and raised his hands to block, but only managed to make it a glancing blow. The force caused Sean to stumble to the side as the large man’s fist barely clipped his shoulder.

Roger darted in and landed a full body punch into Lars’ side as the large man followed through his missed punch on Sean. Lars grunted in pain, but stabilized his stance with a single small step and twisted to land a backhanded blow on the surprised Roger. Roger was sent tumbling to the ground under the force of Lars’ blow, stunned. The man wasn’t a fighter and had only studied the minimum of the martial arts from what he’d told Sean, which showed in how easily Lars had hit him.

Sean landed a hard right cross onto Lars’ face as the man turned back to him, sending Lars’ head snapping to the side. But it seems that Lars had learned, and while there was pain in his tight expression he kept moving through it and barreled into Sean, tackling him to the ground.

Sean brought his arms up to his face as Lars began wailing into him with his fists. Sean’s arms were batted aside with small maneuvers by the big man before he started raining large punches on Sean’s head.

Sean tried to squirm out from underneath the large man, but he was completely pinned and unable to escape or even properly ward off the other man’s blows. Sean’s vision went blurry for a moment as Lars punched him in the temple, slamming his head hard into the floor. Sean’s vision had just begun to clear before Lars’ fist hit his face again, and again.

Sean heard Roger shouting and fighting to shove Lars off of Sean, but it was no use. The man was determined to injure Sean as much as possible and completely ignored Roger’s efforts besides the occasional backhanded blow to ward him off.

Lars gripped either side of Sean’s head and slammed it into the floor full force, and his vision cut out for a moment. Just when he woke up, his head impacted the floor again.

Darkness. Impact again.

Darkness. Impact again.

Darkness. Sean saw Roger kicking Lars in the side, distracting the large man from slamming Sean’s head into the floor again.

“Stop it!” Lira’s voice said tearfully from above where Sean lay prone, “Stop it! Don’t hurt him, Lars!”

Her feet came into view above him as she rapidly approached, running towards them where Lars had lifted himself up in order to fight up Roger’s renewed assault on him.

She leaned down over Sean and reached out to grab him by the shoulders and started dragging him away by his bloodstained shirt.

“You cheated on me with him!” Lars roared at Lira as he spotted her dragging Sean away who was still dazed even after his head trauma had healed itself, “So damn ungrateful after everything I’ve done for you,” Lars continued.

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Lira’s grip on Sean’s shirt spasmed slightly and he saw her look upward. Before Sean could react, Lars dashed forward away from Roger and struck Lira full in the face, sending her falling to the floor out of sight above him with a surprised whimper.

Lars was standing directly above Sean and the world narrowed to the animal standing above him. Almost in a trance, Sean grabbed Lars’ ankles and tugged hard sending him tumbling to the floor.

Sean crawled onto the man and straddled him, ignoring the punches that he felt cracking his ribs and arms with every blow. Seeing that he was having no effect, Lars reached up and grabbed Sean’s jaw. Lars had a hint of fear in his eyes as Sean stared back down at him not in anger but determination as the large man wrenched his hand downward.

Sean’s jaw came unhinged as jaw ligaments and tendons were torn apart under the force of Lars’ powerful pull, leaving Sean’s jaw dangling loosely below his face.

Sean felt the flap of skin and muscle holding the jaw to his head slowly thinning as he started regenerating.

Lars paused for a moment at the gruesome sight as blood and gore sprayed all over him while Sean’s eyes remained as determined as ever, unfazed by his injury. He felt all the pain, but it meant nothing to him. He had to get revenge for Lira first before thinking about such unimportant things.

Sean plunged his hand with fingers held stiff in a jab towards Lars’ face. The man managed to twist his head and tuck in his chin just in time so Sean’s blow impacted not his fleshy right eye but his bony orbital ridge above instead.

Sean’s fingers broke from the blow, but he was undeterred as he quickly held his hand against Lars’ head. Sean’s pointer finger flopped loosely along with several others on his hand. Sean’s phantom fingers formed and plunged directly into Lars’ flesh as the broken ones began to slowly fall off, hitting Lars’ face before bouncing off and hitting the ground next to them as the two of the men struggled against each other.

Just like before, Lars began to scream and writhe as Sean’s regenerating fingers plunged into his face. Sean slowly dragged his four embedded fingers from Lars’ cheek towards his eye, Lars’ skin tugging and resisting the motion as he did so. It felt like Sean was dragging hundreds of pounds along with his hand. But slowly, surely, he managed to bring his hand to Lars’ eye. When it was centered in the soft flesh of the eye, he leaned forward and started putting his body weight behind his arm. With his whole body weight behind it, Sean’s hand inwards through the soft gelatin of the eye, and through the other side and into the brain behind it.

Lars twitched one last time before falling still as Sean’s hand passed through something important. Sean kept his hand in place, arm buried past his wrist in Lars’ eye. He shifted his body weight on top of the still body of Lars and took a shaky breath. After collecting himself for a few moments, he looked up and took in his surroundings. By the Shadow he wished he could kill Lars right now for what he had done for Lira. But no matter what Lars did, what any of them did, they would survive. How could Lars do that to Lira? He hated Lars so much... He twisted his hand in Lars' brain, but the man's body didn't even twitch.

The partygoers had gone silent as Sean had finished the fight, but when they saw him looking up they cheered and started loudly gossiping now that the main show appeared to be over.

Sean twisted his head a little and saw Lira running towards him, alongside a Roger whose pants had a few rips in them and were splattered with blood. Sean glanced down at Lars who was still covered in the gore from Sean’s old jaw, and to Sean’s own clothes that were nearly completely soaked in blood.

Lira hugged him tightly and ran her hands all over him as if to check if he was alright. He twisted with his arm still rooted in Lars’ eye socket to see her face. He was surprised when she started kissing him and apologizing incoherently with her arms wrapped around him. After a few seconds she calmed down and hugged him tighter but stopped speaking. She just sat there with him wrapped around him protectively with her chin resting on his shoulder.

Roger, who had been standing back watching on, scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“Suppose I wasn’t much use, was I?” He said, “I’m happy you beat him while he kept getting distracted swatting me away like a fly.”

Roger eyed Lars’ limp body for a moment before continuing with a slight smirk as he looked back at Sean.

“But don’t go expecting me to start kissing you too. I think Lira’s got that part covered at least.”

Lira twisted to glare at Roger silently for a second while still protectively curled around Sean, and looking like she had no intention of letting go for a while. But then she just ignored Roger and turned back around and rested her chin back on Sean’s shoulder again without saying anything in response.

Lira’s friends came over and eventually managed to pry her away reluctantly under Sean’s encouragement. Roger went off to call station Security before Sean removed his arm from Lars’ skull and woke him back up.

Immortals were rather morbid, Sean mused as he played darts with one hand. Someone had brought the board over and at least Sean had an excuse now as to why his shots were so terrible. Lars’ body was raised and flat onto a table, but it still threw off his aim when he tossed. Or at least that’s what he told everyone that beat him. His mood had only slightly improved as each second his hand remained buried in Lars' skull reminded him that the man would fully recover he removed it.

After the initial shock of what happened, the partygoers had moved on and treated it as some sort of odd novelty with Lars as an oddly shaped anchor keeping Sean pinned in place.

Several people thought it was hilarious when they put drinks just out of reach and had Sean try to grab them without removing his hand from Lars’ brain. He spilled several of them when his drink was just too far to the laughter of the others. He tried to go along with the flow and be a good sport, but he wasn't really in the festive mood at the moment.

But at least Lira was looking better. She was frequently checking in on him anxiously, but her new friends seemed to be helping her calm down and relax as she saw that Sean was just fine. Lira had apparently told them about her whole saga with Lars after some prodding, and they were appalled.

A few of the women had taken a few minutes each to angrily kick Lars’ limp body over and over while the others distracted Lira on the other side of the room. They told Sean that they thought their little therapeutic sessions would be too upsetting for Lira to see given everything that had just happened. Sean approved. Both the kicking part and that they were looking out for Lira’s feelings. Despite everything, he didn’t exactly see her enjoying that kind of violent retribution very much. Well, Lars didn’t feel it either way but the women certainly looked calmer after venting their anger on Lars’ body for a while. And they promised they would work together to tank Lars' reputation with everyone else, so that was also good. But it still didn't feel like enough.

But eventually things settled down again, and Sean began to feel bored more than anything. People were spectating him like he was some kind of strange art exhibit by now and there was only so many games of darts you could play before growing bored. Especially when your game partners kept wanting to talk about fashion of all things. Ugh. With him pinned in place there was no way to escape the dreaded conversation anymore. He knew far more about what exact shade of blue was in season for dresses than he really wanted to. It was just so pointless and the fads changed so quickly.

It felt like a very long time until Samir and the station security finally showed up along with Roger. But eventually they came. They had some handcuffs that they put on Lars as well as a set of metal bands that looped around his whole body and tightened around him which kept his arms pinned to his sides. They were like the ones Emily had used on him to stop him from following her back on Enguli.

At Samir’s signal, Sean slowly began withdrawing his hand from Lars. Lars woke up halfway through and started screaming again, and as soon as Sean’s hand was fully out, Samir pressed a button on a holopad he was holding. The metal bands around Lars glowed with a series of white lights and the now very confused Lars slowly floated into the air where he bobbed in place, hovering a few feet off of the ground.

“What?” Lars said, “Where am… you! Let me at him, you haven’t won, Sean! You— you— Hey, stop!”

Samir and the security team ignored Lars and started walking out of the room, the floating Lars following closely behind. Lars began shouting at them as they ignored his protests and demands to see their superiors. It seems he was unaware that Samir was the one in charge as they left. How ironic as Lars began to focus on him as he noticed the man’s distinctive robes standing out from the black gear of the rest of the squad. Lars was only digging himself deeper now with his threats as his voice faded into the distance.

Samir had assured Sean, Roger, and Lira that they would be giving Lars a restraining order so he wouldn’t bother them again, on pain of expulsion or imprisonment if Lars actually hurt one of them again.

Apparently what Lars had done wasn’t ‘serious enough’ for Samir to be willing to do more than that. Sean had to suppress his urge to throttle the man when he had said that in front of Lira. Insensitive jerk. How dare he say that in front of her!

But now Samir and Lars were gone, and all the drama was over. Everyone went home and Lira ‘rewarded’ him for defending her from Lars when they got back. And for several nights after that as well.

And luckily Samir stuck to his word. None of them so much as caught sight of Lars as more time passed and they slowly settled back into their normal routine. With Lars out of the way, Lira’s new friends knowing her full story, and Roger helping the both of them explore new things, life was better than ever for the both of them.