The crash and shatter of stones furniture echoed through the empty cave as Vinn paced around, randomly attacking things. The doorbell rang.

“Nobody’s home, go away.” Vinn lied.

“Vinn It’s Jack. Open the damn door.

“Is Nicole with you?”

“It’s just me. Open up.” Jack said. Vinn hit the buzzer and the door unlocked.

“Love the redecorating. Going for a modern look, sort of a trainwreck meets vagabond vibe?” he said noticing some things in boxes. “A vagabond trainwreck ready to run away as it looks.”

“I’m leaving, I haven’t decided when or where just, somewhere.”

“Put the boxes back up, you’re not moving anywhere, except the guest room in the girl’s house.”

“Nicole is sick and she wasn’t sick before she met me. She was doing okay and then she started dating me, and now she’s sick and we can’t make her better. I’m leaving her. She’ll hopefully heal.”

“No you’re not, and don’t even give that another serious step. She needs you more than ever, abandoning her now is the worst thing you could do. If she loses it because the one thing in her life she counts on leaves her behind, because things got rough, she may not come out of that, and she will end up hospitalized, and I won’t pull strings to get her out because if she gets any worse she won’t be safe here.” Jack explained. Vinn sighed.

“She would still have you. Everyone still has you, Jack.”

“The hell does that mean?” He asked.

“Are you sleeping with her?” Vinn asked.

“I’d never do that to you, and especially not to Vicki, that’s just insulting and I should kick your ass for suggesting it. God knows I could, because you wouldn’t hit me back and I hit hard.”

“I would understand if she was. She’s a human, you’re a perfect human, you always save the day somehow, It doesn’t seem like you to cheat on Vicki, but you have a lot of secrets lately. If she was cheating on me with someone, I could forgive her. I could understand her. I just wanna know the truth. I won’t even hate you for it.”

That’s the point, Vinn. You should hate me for it. Yea, I’m sleeping with Nicole. She needs a real man she can depend on and you are too damn soft. You’re a giant fluffy plush werejackelope with no balls, and Nicole needs someone to protect her. You weren’t there, I was, I started it. So yea we slept together, a few times. Are you happy?”

“I respect the honesty, Jack.” Vinn said standing up and cracking his neck. “I said I’d forgive her, she’s confused and scared. But you have no good excuse. You stabbed me in the back and made me look like a fool. So fuck you Jack. I hope Nicole finds someone better then both of us, and I hope your guilt just haunts you. All the more reason to leave.” He said, tightening his grip and not leaving.

“And you’re still not gonna fight me?” Jack sighed. “All that and you just walk away. If Nicole left you for some nice guy, I could understand your point, there’s nothing to do but leave…but you just nailed it, I’m a piece of shit cheating bastard with secrets and a past. You really think Nicole would be happier with me or that I’d leave Vicki for her? I’d probably cheat on her too, I cheated on Vicki with her and I love Vicki. Nicole is just a vulnerable girl who needed a man’s comfort and there was nobody to step up but me, so I acted. She’s a friend, I don’t love her. You really think you leaving just fixes everything? Happily ever after villainous backstabbing Jack with his harem of happy brainwashed women? I cheated because I do that…She cheated because you’re a giant bitch, and you won’t even face me now because of the same reason. Damnit Vinn, grow some furry balls.” Vinn turned and grabbed him by the shirt, pushing him to the wall. He reared back to knock him into next year, and paused.

“Do it.” Jack provoked.

“If I did I’d kill you.”

“I doubt that you fur-wrapped gummy bear. I’m tougher then you think. Nicole even said that when I was giving her-” he said twisting Vinn’s pinky enough to break free and dodge the incoming massive fist that struck the wall right where his face was previously. Jack felt the rush, that one you get when you dodge death again.

“That’s the spirit.” He said giving Vinn an uppercut to the crotch and rolling out of the way as he tried to stomp him with lethal intent. “HOW COULD YOU PRETEND TO BE MY FRIEND!” he growled.

“Lying is what I do best.” Jack said, grabbing a 2x4 and batting Vinn’s fist away as he went for another punch.

“You just sat in my home, drank my beer sitting on my couch knowing you slept with my wife, and you didn’t even feel guilty? She was vulnerable, confused, you’re just a predatory bastard and I’m gonna bury you down here.” Vinn growled, picking up a shard of rock large enough to smash a human on its own.

“Like hell you will.” He said drawing a gun from his back and pointing it at Vinn’s face. He stopped. “Drop the rock Vinn.”

“Where did you even get a gun? Who are you, Jack?”

“Drop the rock and I’ll tell you, or I’ll bury you down here and make it look like a cave-in.” he said coldly “Look me in the eyes and tell me I don’t know exactly how to do that. Look me in the eyes soldier and tell me I’m lying when I say this…I’ve buried people before.” Jack said, believably. Vinn dropped the rock and backed away.

“I might take the shot and kill you anyway.” Vinn said confidently.

“That right there, Vinn. You feel that? Focus on that emotion. That is the seething rage of a Delmarian soldier who’s been wronged and deserves revenge. They call you Vendetta for a reason. You want to kill me, and you would have if I didn’t stop you. And you stopped because you know I’d kill you first. Hold that thought, embrace it, accept it, understand it. That’s part of you. It’s always been part of you. You’re bred to kill and trained to kill and you got yanked from your purpose before you had a chance to do it.”

“It’s not enough to take everything from me, but you have to take away who I am before you go too?”

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“I’m trying to get you to understand who you are. You’re a machine made of meat and teeth, designed to kill things, and you have made the choice to be kind. That’s admirable, and you should be proud of that. But you also have that ability to kill in you and you have never used it before. I know the feeling, I had it once. That’s a weapon you carry that they can’t disarm, that you control and you refuse to even acknowledge. Acknowledge it now because if I had not moved, you would have killed me. That was a lethal stomp, and a 400 pound jagged rock you were ready to drop on me. You drew your weapon for the first time, soldier. Not in training, not in practice but with the intent to use it. Now focus on that rage and holster it, but don’t you dare forget that holster is there. You could kill your best friend if he became your enemy, because this time, it wasn’t about you, it was about her. You can fight for her, you can kill for her, Vinn.”

“Jack why are you tormenting me like this?”

“I just saved your damn life, Vinn. You just don’t understand it yet. I’m not sleeping with Nicole, dumbass. I never did, As far as I know and I know a lot more then you think, she’s been faithful to you since day 1. I just needed you to remember what you are. You’re a weapon, you’re a trained, fully sharpened weapon, you just forgot you could draw that weapon.” He said holstering his own sidearm.

“She didn’t…” Vinn said fighting back tears, unable to finish his sentence.

“No, she didn’t cheat on you. She loves you, and I’m still your best friend, and you’re not running away. But some of what I said was true, that’s why it felt so real. You’re softened, you’re lost, and you’re losing your shit. Now Nicole wants that teddy bear she fell in love with, but right now there is some heavy shit going on and the fraction of it that I know, is enough to be concerning, and I don’t know half of it. Kraken is a killer, I looked him down like a mirror and we both knew we were looking at a monster willing to tear the other apart, I just had the drop on him. He looks as you and see’s a sniffling boy who can’t even defend his own honor, and he looks at Nicole like human trash. He has security clearance somehow, and I don’t know where the hell an unstable loose cannon like that got a pass and didn’t fail the psychological exam without someone above my rank making it happen. You have a very dangerous enemy who thinks you are easy prey and THAT is your biggest weapon.”

“That doesn’t sound like a very good weapon jack, that gun seems fairly good, you could just get me one of those.” He suggested.

And you’d be hung for premeditated killing of a fellow soldier with an illegal weapon that I gave you. So you’d hang and I’d be hard pressed to get out of that cleanly.

“Then what do I do?” he asked.

“You move into the big house, where Nicole is safest, and you act like a husband to that poor girl. Support her, make her feel safe, and don’t mention any of this shit to anyone. We never threw down, this gun doesn’t exist and we never had this conversation. I just came over to help you get some things, got it?”

“So far, yea.”

“Now I’m borderline breaking orders telling you this, but something is going on and it’s either behind Gizzy’s back, over her head, or out of her reach. But it involves Nicole and it involves this convention of the council and at least one other council member. I’m not sure I want to know more, I already feel like I know too much. I don’t design the operations, I just operate, and Gizzy said to trust the plan…but that plan involves you and I’m not ready to risk your life on a maybe so I am giving you an edge and a head’s up. It’s about to get worse, it’s about to get confusing and it’s about to get very scary and you need to be ready to draw that weapon, soldier. Kraken is going to challenge you, and you are going to accept it. Not right away, or he will know you have something in that holster. You need to act like a bitch, and refuse to fight, until he gives you a reason to fight. He will just get meaner and more frustrated the more you deny him what he wants, and at some point he’ll do what monsters do and he’ll find a vulnerable spot he can provoke you with and when he does, you accept the challenge.

“Are you nuts? He’ll kill me.”

“Probably, if you think like that. I think Gizzy is willing to let you die for whatever she is doing and my orders are to hold back and let you fight. You’re not ready for that. I’m not ready to let you die for orders, so I’m bending the rules and letting you know now. You can win that fight if you believe you can and you are going to let his overconfident ass get cocky and then you’re gonna do what you just did with me and get real lethal, real fast.”

“Jack you dodge it, I lost a fight with a human and you didn’t even use the gun till you made your point. I can’t even beat you.”

“Firstly, you have no idea how good I really am, and frankly if they’d let me take your place I’d have about the same chance as you of taking down Kraken. I don’t brag very often but you didn’t lose to a construction worker, you lost to the best, and that was training. You’ll get better. Secondly, I knew your moves and he doesn’t, I worked you up to lethal strikes intentionally and he doesn’t think you have it in you. He’s going to underestimate you, and he doesn’t understand how much you love that little gal. He’s fighting for himself, you’re fighting for her, you have more to lose, more to gain, more to be pissed off about, and the element of surprise. Now that makes you one dangerous motherfluffer. Can you kill for her?”

“You’re damn right…I am dangerous. Just not to very many people. I’m gonna kill him.”

“And also I got you a present.” He said walking to the small black briefcase he left at the door.

“Drugs?” he asked looking confused at the syringe.

“Yea basically every fighter is on performance enhancing drugs at this point so they don’t even check or disqualify you for it. Drugs and arena fighting are pretty much a guaranteed deal. However…This is some nasty shit.” He grinned.

“But wouldn’t he be on the nastiest shit too?”

“He’ll be on the nastiest shit a Delmarian can buy, you bet your ass. You can’t buy this. In fact this doesn’t even exist and when you take it, I’m confiscating the needle afterwards and disposing of it.”

“It’s gonna hurt isn’t it?”

“Oh yea. It’s gonna sting going in and then fade away and then when you’re natural adrenaline hits peak levels, you’re gonna feel some shit like you never imagined possible and you’re gonna feel like you’re dying, and then you’re really gonna like it, and you’re gonna have cravings for about 3 days where every time you eat red meat you zone out and get emotional and basically just need to murder your food as quickly as you can, so I suggest switching to protein powders and lots of fluids and it’s gonna burn like hell when you piss the first few times.”

“Holy shit, Jack, are you sure you’re human?”

“Medically yes, but some days in my heart I ask myself that too. Most days I decide I am, sometimes I can’t decide.”

“You are terrifying, I’m really glad you’re on our side.”

“Most people are. Now you have plenty of time to get prepared. You know this fight is happening before Kraken even does, you have the power of love and drugs in your veins and now you know what it feels like to look your enemy in the eyes and decide to kill him without hesitation. Nicole loves you because you’re not a monster like some of the others. You’re a monster with control and a conscience, and you don’t need to hide that side, you just need to know when you draw your weapon and when to be your normal squishy self. Just like me. Fortunately, you only have to go through that once and you have friends backing you up and high ranking council members rooting for you. I had to do that alone, more times than I can count, and at least once more after this is over. It wears on you, Vinn. It eats at you. But if a human can survive that this long and still shut it off and go home, act normal, comfort his girl…A Delmarian bred for power can do it one damn time to protect the women he loves. Now tell me you can’t handle this.”

“I can handle this. I have the power of god and anime on my side.”

“Yea don’t try and be intimidating with your words, you’re not good at that. Just be a gummy bear with a gun in your back pocket for a while and then when the fight starts, you may actually have some fun. That’s the part that will haunt you for a while.”

“Don’t you ever, for any reason let me have this syringe of shit ever again, Jack." Vinn sighed.

“Syringe? I never gave you one to begin with, I won’t give you one till right before the fight either, and I certainly won’t do it again.” He smirked.

“Damn you’re good.”

“I know. Now go be a squishy teddy bear for a few days.”