Torn Apart

Put On Your Warpaint

"You can't trust him!" Lewis loomed over Arthur, his fingers hooked claw-like too close to Arthur's face. Flame seeped from his gloves, and Arthur could just make out the skull behind Lewis' increasingly transparent face. Aji wouldn't meet Arthur's eyes and kept a good four feet between them. Maybe pulling them aside to talk about the Shiker's threat hadn't been the brightest waking thought he'd ever had.

"Lew, your bones are showing. Dulcie is just down the hall, and Aji-"

"They'll see it soon enough! You can't lean on him. You have to fight him for every inch. He plays the long game and he always wins."

"Nice to know you still care."

"This isn't a joke. Look at me! I was free and clear, right? But no! I walked right back into his game. And you can't even walk off, he's with you every second. He'll make you forget yourself, Arthur. That's what he does. It isn't the person who's betrayed who forgets who they are." Lewis' face twisted as he spat, "It's the person who does the terrible things, the one that breaks other people. Then it's all over."

Arthur didn't need it spelled out to him. Harvey was the first name that came to mind, followed by Lewis who then turned on Arthur. A chain reaction was set in place; the broken one turned to break another, and with the Shiker ever-present to him, it was Arthur's turn.

"It doesn't matter, Lew." Arthur leaned against the wall, fingering the panel on his prosthetic. "Even if we save Dulcie there is no going back for me. We've reached an understanding with ourselves."

"Fill us in on this 'understanding'." Aji spoke to the plush carpeting.

"The Shiker part of me helps me take down Demeter any way we can. As soon as that's done, he intends to be the main inhabitant of my mind. If he can take me alive, anyway."

Lewis' eyes widened and the flames licking his gloves snuffed out. "Arthur. No."

"Arthur, yes." He lifted his chin. "I told you to roast me before the Shiker could get me. So it didn't work out that way, fine. But I will not have this creep running around in my skin ruining things for whoever's left alive. You of all people should understand."

Lewis' hair seethed, licking out in all directions. "Understanding it doesn't mean liking it. There has to be something else to fix this."

"That something else died in the caves," Arthur growled. Aji didn't move a muscle, but she had stopped breathing. Running a hand through his hair, Arthur brought his voice back down. "Look. She... she might have been able to keep me in check, Lew. It wasn't just because of her voice, whatever she thinks-thought. I cared about her before she used her voice on me. And when she did use it, it was like I'd been wandering through a fog my whole life, just fumbling around and hoping I was going in the right direction. Then all of a sudden, there's a clear path to follow. I knew exactly who I was and what to do and where to go." His throat tightened. "And at the end of that path, there's this beautiful, gentle woman who's scared to death that she's put me in some kind of eternal slavery. And I could never convince her..." He trailed off. Aji's curls covered the upper half of her face, but tell-tale tracks glistened from under them. He shook himself. No point twisting the knife. "No, Lewis. Nobody can keep the Shiker in check forever. Not even me. And if it comes down to it, I'll make sure I'm completely unusable."

"And he knows this?" Lewis gestured at Arthur's head.

"Oh, he knows." Arthur smirked, a tinge of green coloring the edge of his vision. "He thinks I'm funny. But we'll see who gets the last laugh later. For now, we should get ready to spring your parents. ETA on the Deadbeat scouts?"