I watch as something dark splatters onto the floor, and I don't believe it at first. "Is that..."

It has to be the lights from the alarm making it look red, but no. The red pulse fades and it's still a dark crimson. "Decay?" I utter the word in disbelief, my mind not accepting what I'm seeing.

But I don't feel it. I don't know anyone else like me here, and normally I feel it. This close, knowing it's there, I should feel it. Instead, there's a void where it should be.

This shouldn't be possible, and yet...

"Kam?" Rax's voice is wrecked, scratchy and weak, but I know that tone.

I sling his arm over my shoulder and lift him up. "Hey, no. Don't worry about me. I'm fine."

"But Kam..."

I shake my head. "Rax. Are you okay?"

He stares at me, and more than anything he's confused. "I don't know how it happened. I don't know why I'm here. Did I— who did I hurt?"

He begins to struggle free, and I wince from where he punched me, but I place a hand against his chest. "It's alright. Nobody's hurt. You're alright."

"No, but I— are you I didn't...?" Tears flecked with dark crimson stream down his face as he grimaces. "Why can't I remember?"

"I don't know."

I look toward the door, to where I can I feel Tiana. It's not just fear. That's too small of a word for what's radiating off of her. It's existential dread.

And guilt.

Waves of crushing guilt, drowning out everything else that Tiana might be feeling.

I don't want to feel it.

I don't want to feel her pain right now. I'm not mad at her. I'm not, but I can't help but let all the rage and grief that comes with seeing your friend beaten in front of you seep in. Like a contaminant. Like something eating at my love for her.

Like Decay.

Maybe they're right to fear me.

To fear what I'm capable of. Maybe I should be afraid of myself, and how even the barest bit of pleasure I feel can be used to corrupt and destroy. They call it 'Decay' for a reason. Maybe I've just been been deluding myself into thinking I could be anything other than a fucking monster.

And if I'm going to be a monster, then I'm not letting Rax take the fall for me. We hobble toward the door as Rax continues to apologize and I continue to assuage him. I don't even feel Tiana's guilt now. All I feel is my own hatred, my own disgust at who I am.

Monster. Corruptor. Adulterer.

Despoiler of everything good and pure.

Why did I bother to think I could ever be anything more?

Rax and I stumble out into the hallway, and Tiana straightens — wiping tears from her eyes.

"Is he...? Rax, I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have—"

"You have to arrest me," Rax says.

"What?" My and Tiana's voices echo down the empty hallway. I'm too stunned to speak. All I can do is look at Rax.

"You have to take me in. Now. I don't know if I'm a danger to myself. I don't know if I'm a danger to others," he explains.

Tiana shakes her head. "You're not, I—"

"Arrest. Me."

My mouth finally cooperates. "Rax, you can't. You know what they'll do to you. The media, they'll—"

Rax pushes free of me with enough force that I crash into the wall and leave a dent. I look at him, and I've never seen him so mad. So angry at me. Not ever. "The media? You think I give a fuck?"

Tiana intercedes, stepping between Rax and I. "She's right, Rax. Arresting you solves nothing."

"Say I did care. What would the media"—he cuts a glare at me with the word, and I shrink back—"say about me? How could anyone ever feel safe around me?"

"It doesn't have to be that way..."

"Be what way?" Lindsey asks, strolling around the corner with her gun drawn. She doesn't have it trained on Rax. She's aiming it at me.

Tiana snaps to face Lindsey. "Lindsey, this is an active GPI. You can't be here."

"A Guild Protection Incident mean that I have every right to be here."

Tiana looks to me. "Take Rax and go." Her eyes blaze with defiance, and I remember now just how commanding she can be when she wants.

I stand back up, and take two steps before a bullet grazes the air in front of my face.

"Do not. Fucking. Move." Lindsey's voice is as cold as it is hateful.

It's also effective. I don't so much as breath. And then Lindsey's trigger finger tightens.

"That was a Null round—"

"Lindsey—" Tiana starts, but Lindsey doesn't stop.

"—if you so much as fucking move again I will kill you where you—"

"—they did nothing wrong and there's no reason—"

"—God DAMMIT, stop defending them, Tiana! They're evil!" Lindsey trains her pistol center mass. "Are you fucking her? Huh? Did you fuck her? Is that what you did? You corrupted her and made her go along with your sick little scheme to steal from them?"

Null rounds — ammo specifically meant to shred magically-imbued defenses like my scales — aren't common. Cops can't use them... unless they're called to a Guild Protection Incident.

One shot and I'd go down. I can only hope that Tiana gets me to a hospital and that a surgeon won't let me bleed out.

"Lindsey. Give me the gun."

"I trusted you and you... you had sex with... you're married. What about Rory?"

"Lindsey. I need you to stop."

"I should've just gunned you down."

"I can take that gun from you. You know that, Lindsey."

I hear metal slide against leather, and her holster snap.

Lindsey draws in a breath. "Draxus of Kjel'Doran, you are under arrest—"

"Dammit, Lindsey! Stop!"

"No!" Rax's voice booms through the hallway. "It's okay, Tiana." He looks to me. "It's okay."

Rax extends his arms outward, palms up, as he limps toward Lindsey.

"You say nothing," Tiana says as he passes, not taking her eyes off Lindsey. "I'm his lawyer."

Lindsey gives a derisive snort. "Of course you are."

I crumble back against the broken wall as I watch Lindsey lead him away.

Powerless.

Some fucking hero I am.