Venna rushed after the medical team as they rolled Titus down the hall of the trauma center. She just kept asking, "Whats going on doc? Talk to me. How is he doing?" She never got an answer aside from the apprehensive glances from the medical staff.

As Titus rolled down the hall, questions and comments flew back and forth. "What is this armor? How do we get it off? How was he hit? Where was he hit? Is Dr. Bender going to meet us in surgery? I'll also need a current medical record sent to my data pad. "How do we get this damn armor off?"

"I can help with the armor," interrupted Benjamin. He stepped forward and quickly keyed the failsafe into Titus' armor and it immediately began to retract back into the holding discs, surgically attached to his body.

Venna let out a gasp as she saw a grisly scar across Titus' chest that read "THIS IS YOUR PENNANCE". Speechless, she stood in place as Benjamin and the doctors continued to wheel him down the hall toward the operating room. Her lithe frame froze in place as if a statue and then slightly sagged against the wall.

Later as Venna sat in the waiting room quietly contemplating what she had seen, she noticed Benjamin come in looking for her. She stood up and motioned him over. He was extremely pale and as he approached his heavy breathing could be heard from across the waiting room. Benjamin sat down and immediately updated her about Titus' condition. Benjamin elaborated that aside from them taking him into surgery about thirty minutes before, nothing had happened of any significance. It truly was going to be a waiting game. As silence began to absorb the room, Venna abruptly turned to Benjamin. Her face lit with morbid curiosity and concern. "Have you seen Titus' chest?" she asked excitedly.

"Yeah it's pretty hot," Benjamin quipped. "I'd definitely give him a 9.5 or a 10 out of 10." Benjamin added a wink for effect.

Venna didn’t smile. "No I'm not talking about looks. I'm talking about the scar on his chest!" demanded Venna. "You know the one that says THIS IS YOUR PENANCE."

Getting a little more serious, Benjamin lowered his head and gave a slight nod. "Yeah I have seen it."

"And?"

"And what?"

"And…. And, what do you know about it?" Venna probed.

"Honestly not much," admitted Benjamin. "He never told me and I never asked. All I do know is that it comes from his past. The kind of past you want to forget, but can't. I'm pretty sure the story attached to the scar was the reason for him becoming a Demon Stalker."

"So you know the story?"

"Weren't you listening? I said he has never told me anything. And honestly I don’t really want to know. I'd be surprised if he really wanted to dredge up bad memories and tell us his life story. I just assume anything like that would cause a man to need a change in his life and maybe a bit of killing."

Chided, Venna sat quietly. Benjamin looked over at her and placed one hand gently on her shoulder. "Look you could ask him. I never felt the need to, but you could. The worst that could happen is he gets a little mad and doesn’t answer your question."

Venna seemed to consider his advice, weighing the choices in her head. Before she seemed to come to a conclusion, a doctor marched in and maneuvered his way to Benjamin and Venna. He wiped the sweat off his brow and looked down at his data pad. "Well, he is out of the woods. We were able to stabilize him and stop the internal bleeding. Half of his ribs were broken; all on one side. No doubt that was where the brunt of the blast hit him. Fortunately for him none of the broken ribs punctured his lungs, but one of them did collapse. He has lacerations, his entire body is one big bruise, and he has a vertebrae out of place. Again, he is stable so we can begin to fix these problems without any difficulty."

Slightly relieved, but still with a worried tone… "When will we be able to see him?" Venna inquired.

"Once he is able to stay conscious," replied the doctor.

After a few hours Venna and Benjamin were ushered into Titus' room. He was drowsily looking at them as they walked in.

"Thesh dregs thay haf me on are sommphing." Titus garbled out as Benjamin and Venna stood at the foot of his bed. Titus looked up at Benjamin. "I'm sposed toooo be theee one who luks shnaken up. Afenr all I did git blowed up." Titus sluringly admonished Benjamin.

Benjamin did have a look that mingled pale, nervous, and disconcerted into a generally unsettled demeanor.

"Well his commander and did almost bite the dust," Venna stated.

"Haha or maybe I'm a little sad because my evil plan to do you in and take your place failed," taunted Benjamin. "But seriously boss, you know I wouldn’t need a rocket to take you out."

Titus roared a laugh which caused Benjamin to laugh at Titus' drugged up antics. Benjamin laughed even harder as Titus continued to wince in pain with every chuckle.

Venna's mouth curved into a smile that never met her eyes. "What I can't figure is how you survived." Venna shook her head and looked over at Titus. His head was resting on his pillow and he had slipped back into a peaceful unconsciousness. A smile still played on his face. Venna realized that this was the first time she had seen him fully smile. In the short time she had worked with him, he had shown a focused determination and professionalism that bordered on obsessive. He had only shown a few cracks in that persona when Venna had caught him crack a smile or cover a laugh with a cough. She pondered whether his tough exterior had something to do with the message carved onto his chest.

Venna walked up to the head of the bed, reached out, took hold of the sheet, and pulled it up to cover Titus' sleeping form. "We should probably let him sleep."

Benjamin nodded his agreement. "We can come back when he is less drugged up and more lucid."

…

Titus sat up in his bed eating some food. It had been a few days since Venna and Benjamin had visited. He honestly couldn’t remember much about their interaction. The past few days had been a blur and this was the first day that he felt on the mend and aware of his surroundings. As he took his last bite of food, Venna and Benjamin knocked on his door.

"Come on in." Titus waved to them.

Both walked in and eyed Titus. "How you doing boss?" Benjamin questioned.

"I feel like I got shot with a rocket."

Venna and Benjamin chuckled.

"Heard you both visited. Sorry I wasn’t awake to see you."

"Oh… you were awake all right." Benjamin announced. "Though you weren't in your right mind."

"Oh no what did I say?" Titus covered his eyes with a hand.

"Something about your mother needing to change your dirty diaper…" Benjamin reported with a shocked expression plastered to his face.

There was a short burst of laughter that was quickly silenced as Venna slammed her hand in front of her mouth. The tears streaming down her face gave away the losing battle she was having with the hilarity of the situation. She slowly got herself under control just as Benjamin started back in.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"And the unprofessional things you were saying to one of the very attractive nurses…"

Venna quickly edged Benjamin out of the way before he could finish. "Titus, do not listen to a single thing he says." A smile still tugging at the corners of her mouth even as she gave Benjamin a reproving glance. "In reality, you were barely understandable with the amount of drugs in your system and before you could say more than a few sentences you passed out."

"Oh that’s good." Titus breathed out.

"Before you passed out I was just commenting on how I cannot figure out how you survived." Venna shook her head and looked over at Titus.

"Well I actually have you to thank for that Venna," remarked Titus. "I saw you jumping and pointing and saw at the last minute, in my peripheral, the rocket hurtling towards me. If I had not been warned, I would not have been able to react in the only way that ended up saving my life."

"How's that"

"You see, my armor has a sophisticated neural network that links with my brain and nervous system. It reacts to the world around me at a very fast pace and protects me from most dangers. But even an explosion is too much for the armor to handle on its own. So when I saw the imminent danger, I sent a command to the suit to reinforce the section that was going to get hit and to deflect the rocket as much as possible. I knew there was a slight chance I might survive if I did what I did and here I am. "

"Very impressive," Benjamin said with an air of deference.

The three of them moved onto other topics but soon found themselves back at the events of the attack.

"So, what's the final report on this incursion? Do we know what they were after? Do we know who it was?" Quizzed Titus.

Venna's eyes locked with Titus'. "It was not necessarily who they were after but what. They took Salverton’s data drive. We found the technicians massacred. Apparently they were interrogated and tortured before having their throats sliced. The data drive was taken and no information on it was left behind. It's a good bet that whoever Salverton's employer was, found out about the data and they took it before we could get anything."

Titus' eyes flashed with furry as Venna recounted the events. As stoic and neutral as he tried to remain, he could not totally hide his inner grimace.

"We don’t know for sure it was them. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions," reproved Benjamin.

"Come on, face it Benjamin. It is not a huge leap to make that assumption. For all we know his house was bugged and they heard his capture and confession to turn on them. Though if it was them, I'm not sure I really want to find out who them really is. They would have to be a very powerful and connected organization to pull off an incursion into our installation and sustain minimal losses."

Titus nodded his agreement with Venna. "She has a point, several actually."

"It does fit, and it could have been them, whoever them is. I just think we should be methodical about this and follow where the facts take us." Benjamin responded.

"You're right… You're right… We can't get ahead of ourselves. We do need more proof before we can really pursue this." Conceded Titus. "Once I'm fully functioning again, I will examine all the evidence and look for anything we missed. Hopefully I will be able to find something to link a group to this attack.

They all nodded in agreement. There was a moment where Benjamin and Venna stood in silence with their arms crossed.

So enough about the attack," interjected Titus. "What have you both been up to during my time in the hospital? Training, digging through intel, rehearsals for the next op?"

"Mostly celebrating my freedom from your tyrannical leadership."

"Seriously Benjamin, he almost died," barked Venna.

"I know! And this is how I deal with tragedy… through levity," retorted Benjamin. "You can't begrudge a guy his coping mechanism."

Titus sat up wincing as he repositioned himself on the bed. "I am glad to see you haven't lost your sense of humor in all of this Benjamin. And Venna, you will soon learn as a part of this team that Benjamin brings the jokes, and my very important role is to pretend they are funny. He is a little self-conscious whether people think he is funny. I find it best to give his self-esteem a boost when I can," Titus calmly explained.

Venna stood looking at Titus and Benjamin with a puzzled look in her eye.

"Yeah, Yeah," Benjamin coughed. "Don’t make me wish that rocket had done a better job. Right Venna?"

Venna had remained silent during this time. The green flecks in her almond shaped eyes appeared to shimmer and her back quickly stiffened.

"You good Venna?" Benjamin called over to her.

With a tear still swimming in her eye Venna responded. "Yeah… Yeah… everything's good. Just a weird allergy thing." Venna swiped her hand under her nose. She cleared her throat. "Well guys gotta run. Glad you are looking to be on the mend Titus." With those words she quickly swooped up her bag on the floor and purposefully strode from the room with her silky black hair flowing behind her.

"Huh, that was awkward." chortled Benjamin. "I wonder if it is that time of the month for her."

"Seriously!? You have to know when not to cross the line!" barked Titus. "Isn't it obvious what she is going through?"

Benjamin scrunched his eyebrows together showing his obliviousness.

"You have the emotional capacity of a dead moose", grunted Titus.

"Seriously… in the entire galaxy of creatures and offensive comparisons… a moose… really?"

"I'm still on pain meds, okay? And a dead moose is a perfectly legitimate insult."

"Whatever. I still don’t understand why you're are so upset?... Your time of the month?"

At this, Titus' cup of water sailed through the air and crashed into Benjamin's chest. "Be serious for once", Titus winced.

"Okay… okay. Fine what's the big deal with Venna?"

Exasperated, Titus explained. "She is probably dealing with the memory of losing her entire team a few months back. Remember, that is why she was reassigned to us. I can imagine it is difficult for her to almost lose another member of a team, but even more importantly she is probably having difficulty adjusting to our team and growing new friendships that she may end up losing again."

"Okay, Mr. Psycho Analysis," Benjamin mocked. "I still think my theory has some merit." With that, Benjamin stalked from the room.

Titus sat looking at the empty door frame and sighed. Venna wasn’t the only one struggling with developing close relationships in fear of just losing them. On the other hand, nothing seemed to phase Benjamin. Titus sometimes thought that was why he got along with Benjamin. Benjamin was a constant reminder to not let things phase you and to move on with life. If only Titus could. This attack had shaken them all to the core and Titus felt a gnawing sense of trepidation at the potential ramifications of an organization being able to do what it had done. Who could do something like this? Titus tried to destroy the anxiety he felt over what he knew the answer had to be…