"The problem with surviving was that you ended up with the ghosts of everyone you'd ever left behind riding on your shoulders."
― Paolo Bacigalupi

Tommy lies in a bed with white sheets saturated in the smell of medicine and herbal teas. He stares up at the ceiling, tracing the thin lines across the surface from one wall to the other. Argonaut remains at the edge of his peripheral vision. She seems to be talking to someone. Since Dyscardia is on a mission with Thermoculus, Argonaut must be speaking to Ravager outside the room. The intention to eavesdrop on them is there, but he can't seem to find the energy to decipher the garbled noises exchanged between them. He simply allows the sounds to wash over him like ocean waves cascading over the shore.

"It seems you've had an eventful day," Argonaut says as she comes closer to him. His eyes dart over to her as she settles down in a chair right beside his bed. She examines the minor abrasions over his torso from where Scarlet Demoness forced the metal into his skin. Argonaut reaches towards the side to pull a rag from a bucket of water. She dabs the cut gently, her eyes locking with Tommy. "Does that hurt?"

Tommy shakes his head. It doesn't hurt enough to be worth talking about. It's a little sharper than a dull ache, but Tommy knows that he could continue working even with it flaring up when he moves too suddenly. It would fade in a matter of days. The scars might be a little ugly, but they would hardly compare to the other scars littering Tommy's body from other, far more painful wounds. Tommy could clean off the dried blood himself, and he could dress the wounds if the others pressured him into doing it. Instead, Ravager manhandled him all the way to the infirmary in one of the Syndicate's safehouses, and Argonaut proclaimed her intention to heal him. His disagreement was silenced before he even got a sentence out. She made him change into a t-shirt and sweatpants. Luckily, he got to keep his mask. Now he was lying in the bed with Argonaut leaning over him with eyes far too concerned to belong to a villain.

"What about this? Does it hurt?" Argonaut asks, apparently moving on to a different bloodied fissure. Tommy glares at her as he shakes his head again. Argonaut frowns, looking back at his torso. "It's okay if it does, Vendetta. You have to tell me when you're in pain."

"I'm not," Tommy assures her verbally. Argonaut remains skeptical, but she eventually stops asking him if anything hurts as she cleans the rest of the wounds. Tommy returns his attention to the ceiling. Argonaut finally puts the rag back into the bucket with a wet splashing sound. She stands up from her chair, and she looks him right in the eye with a serious expression. "I'm going to start the healing process. You have to tell me if anything starts to hurt, okay? If it does, it means that something is wrong, and I don't want to stitch your body back together wrong. It would lead to a lot more trouble than just some abrasions."

Tommy nods. Argonaut raises her hands towards his stomach, hovering just above his skin. Twisting ribbons of soft blue light seem to trickle from her fingertips to his skin. The light slowly throbs, gently resting against his skin before nuzzling deeper into the wounds. The light doesn't hurt; instead, it heals his wounds. Tommy stares mainly to guarantee that Argonaut doesn't switch gears to make the cuts worse, but his vision seems to blur before his eyes. He lethargically raises his hand to grab Argonaut's wrist. She stops immediately, turning to him. With a great deal of effort, Tommy manages to lean his head back enough that he can look at her. "I feel... funny."

Argonaut tilts her head at him curiously. She brushes away his blonde hair to place the back of her fingers against his forehead. Her hand trails down to touch the parts of his face that can be felt. She frowns, looking to him for an explanation. "What's going on? What do you mean by 'funny'?"

Tommy smiles stupidly. He feels lighter than he did walking into the room. He can feel Argonaut's pulse from where he continues to hold her wrist. His hand slips off her skin to land on the bed beside him with a bounce. He watches as his limb settles before he understands what feels funny. "My head... warm and... and fuzzy."

Argonaut's frown deepens, as if that were possible. "Have you been to a healer before?"

It becomes Tommy's turn to frown. No one in his family were espers, so obviously none of them had the ability to heal. Supreme was the Hunter's healer, and when things got really bad, Reverie would allow Supreme to heal Tommy. Supreme left a few weeks before Tommy did. When Tommy joined the Hero's Guild, he was required to go to a healer at least twice a year, but he didn't actually get healed. He just had his records updated to account for new wounds, a few more inches of height, and a few less pounds of weight. As someone who frequently got into many dangerous battles, he didn't go to healers near enough. Normally, Tommy would lie about this, but he can't come up with anything other than the truth. "Not a lot... not in a long time. It's a waste of my fucking time, and it's too damn hard to find a healer willing to do it."

"A good healer won't need more than a few minutes, and the Hero's Guild should have some of the best healers in the city," Argonaut argues. There's something off about her tone and body language that would normally confuse Tommy. He's a little too out of it to recognize the oddity of the situation.

"I may be the Biggest Man in the whole fucking guild, but I'm not the most popular. I get respect for putting away the Minotaur. I don't have any friends. I choose not to have friends, don't get my words twisted," Tommy explains, blinking slowly. The closest person to him the guild is the guildmaster, and really, their relationship probably isn't what anyone else in the city would consider healthy. Tommy could say he's close to Monarch, but they really aren't. Tempestarius seems to care about him, but he can never return those feelings. He used to be close with Red Dragon and Sleepy. He hasn't seen them in years, and apparently, Red Dragon was working with the Syndicate. No matter how close he might be with these people, none of them have ever pressured him into getting healing.

Argonaut stares at Tommy, and he realizes belatedly that he mentioned Minotaur. Tommy still isn't sure what Argonaut's relationship with her old partner is. She doesn't seem to hold ill will, but she- like Tommy- could be temporarily setting aside her grudges for the sake of the city. Perhaps she's setting aside that grudge once again because she doesn't say a word about Minotaur when she speaks again. "You're close to Croupier, are you not? I'm sure he could find you a healer. I don't know how many he knows, but I heard that he has a partnership with Supreme."

Argonaut isn't wrong. After running from the Hunters, Supreme went to Las Nevadas. The Hunters were the ones that protected Supreme before because of his incredible healing ability, so Supreme needed someone else to protect him. Croupier offered in exchange for a few healing sessions for him and his Aces. Tommy has met Supreme a few times since they both left the Hunters. There's no friendship between them, but survivors tend to have respect for each other. Tommy is sure that if he asked Supreme to help him with a large wound, Supreme would do his best. Hell, Supreme had practical medical skills, so he wouldn't even need to use his powers.

Tommy closes his eyes. He doesn't know how to explain to Argonaut exactly why he doesn't hightail to Las Nevadas every time he gets in over his head. He sighs, opening his eyes again. He can't bear to look at Argonaut as he eventually mutters, "Healing just isn't worth the effort for my sake. The only reason I'm here now is that bitch Ravager."

"Why don't you feel like you're worth being healed?" Argonaut prods, getting deeper into Tommy's mind. Lies used to come so easily to him, but the fuzzy warmth that made everything seem lighter brought all of his walls crashing down. He can't think of a lie, and he can't find the reason why he would want to lie. It doesn't matter if Argonaut knows this or not. It isn't a weakness, exactly, just a sad truth that Tommy's never felt close to enough to anyone to tell. The person he's closest with reminds him every time they meet that trust is for fools. The person he trusts most will sacrifice anything for the sake of the city. The people he loves most are dead. And realistically, the next person in line is a supervillain who reminds him, sometimes, of faces he often wishes he could forget.

"You would be disappointed in me if I answered that question," Tommy says, and only after the words come out does he realize what he said. He shouldn't care what Argonaut thinks about him. He only cares about her opinion because he feels some sympathy for putting her partner in jail- not because she's one of the kindest people he's ever met even when she's a supervillain and their conversations have been short.

"I promise I won't be disappointed in you," Argonaut assures him. She sounds honest. She looks at Tommy with a patient smile and reassuring eyes. She leans against the bed, giving him her full attention.

"I... I feel guilty when I'm being healed... like I somehow deserve to be hurt," Tommy whispers, tears beginning to burn at the edges of his eyes. When Supreme healed him on Reverie's orders, Tommy felt like failure- like he couldn't withstand Reverie's lessons. In the Hero's Guild, when everything began settling, Tommy couldn't sit in that healer's room without being reminded of the dead bodies draped in white cloth, toted away by heroes with tired eyes. Tommy wasn't able to see his family's bodies, and this proves detrimental when his mind supplies him with horrible images of burned corpses and blood dripping from puddles into oceans on mattresses shoved together. The guilt eats at him worse when he feels his body returning to full health. He should have been the one to die that day ten years ago, but he wasn't. He was the one allowed to live. Every day feels like cheating death, and being healed feels like he's prolonging what should have been taken a long time ago.

"Is this about your family?" Argonaut whispers back, and she doesn't sound disappointed. When Tommy looks into her eyes, she doesn't look disappointed, either. She looks somber. In the light, she almost looks sad. Her frown makes Tommy's heart swell painfully, breaking through the fuzziness in his mind. Tommy wants to make her smile, but he hasn't made anyone genuinely smile in so long that he doesn't know if he knows how. He used to make people laugh as easily as they breathed. That was then, and this was now, and Tommy didn't know what to do to make everything better.

"Vendetta, I can't say I know your family. But I do know that if they loved you even a fraction of how much you love them, they wouldn't want you to be hurt. They would want you to live your life to the fullest," Argonaut says simply, but her words cut right into Tommy's soul. Ever since the day he completely accepted that his family was gone, he has been left with the question of what they would want for him. He doesn't know what they would want for him. He chose revenge, and he prays that when he meets them in the afterlife, they aren't upset with him.

Tommy doesn't say another word. Argonaut slowly returns her attention to his wounds. She wears a neutral expression as she heals the final ones. Tommy stares at the twisting blue lights. They remind him of ocean waves, and while he usually doesn't associate the ocean with positive emotions, he finds himself thinking about a warm sunny day at the beach. He will never have a peaceful day, but imagination is meant for fictional stories. He can enjoy the concept of a beach without having to worry about how his body easily sinks below the salty waves or how Niki adored swimming or how Fundy liked collecting seashells or...

Argonaut turns around to leave the room. Tommy's hand shoots out to grab the edge of her cape. It tugs against her shoulder, and she turns to unhook whatever her cape got stuck on. When she notices his fingers, she looks up at him with a curious hum. Tommy can't say anything. He just stares at Argonaut. She seems to understand the pleading in his eyes because she takes another step towards the bed. "Scoot over."

Tommy does as he is told. He gets to the very edge of the left side of the hospital bed. Argonaut sits on the bed before swinging her legs over. She lays back, shoulder to shoulder with Tommy. Her white hair cascades all around her, and Tommy has to shove some of it out of his face. Argonaut smiles, pulling her hair to rest on the right side of her head. She scooches around on the bed before finding a comfortable spot. She folds her arms over her stomach. Tommy's hands remain at his sides, and his fingers continue to clutch Argonaut's cape.

"What do you do for fun?" Argonaut asks him. The question is simple, but the answer is not. Tommy doesn't do anything for fun. He completes his bounties, and he meets with business associates. He could say that talking to the Ace of Hearts is fun, but he doesn't go out of his way to meet Slime. They just cross paths every once and awhile.

Argonaut's face darkens as she listens to silence. She breathes out deeply and begins talking to him. "In my spare time, when I'm not Argonaut, I run a restaurant with my foster brother. While it is quite a bit of work, we do it for fun. We do it so we can have something to do together. When I was younger, I did everything with my foster brother and my biological one. We all sort of... left each other, eventually. I can't reach my biological brother anymore, so I'm doing my best to maintain a good relationship with my foster brother."

Tommy has never been in foster care. Jack told him horror stories about it- families who didn't care and families who would hurt him. Eret rarely spoke about their past, but they agreed with Jack. Niki was an indentured servant when she ran away and Tubbo was raised by his villainous father, so they didn't know what foster was like. Fundy was a baby, so he couldn't remember what it was like when Sally- his older sister- took him and gave him to Wilbur before she died. Wilbur promised that he and Tommy would never end up in foster care. If they did, Wilbur wouldn't let anyone take Tommy from him.

"I also play video games with my nephew. My foster brother adopted my biological brother's son, if you can believe it. I didn't even know about him until a few years ago. We bonded over video games," Argonaut explains to him. She looks at him from the corner of her eyes. "Have you played video games before?"

"Nope," Tommy answers. He's never had the time or money for such activities. He knows what video games are in concept, but he couldn't name any specific franchises or consoles.

"Hmm," Argonaut hums. After a few seconds, she slides her legs off the bed. She stands up, reaching behind her to grab Tommy's hand. She tugs him forward, and Tommy stumbles out of the bed after her. Argonaut keeps their hands together as she drags him out of the infirmary room. Tommy doesn't have any say in the matter. The mixture between shock and the fading warmth from the healing keep him stuck in a silent stupor. The bare wooden walls of the hallway stretch on, interspersed doors breaking up the monotony. Argonaut stops at one of the doors, nudging it open with her foot. She releases Tommy's hands as she turns on the light. Tommy stands at the doorway as Argonaut goes deeper into the room. It looks like a storage room with cardboard boxes covering most of the walls. There was a dusty couch shoved in one corner. Argonaut pulls one of the boxes out from under a side table swamped in papers and smaller boxes. Argonaut pulls the lid of the box, and a triumphant smile spreads across her lips. "Come here, Vendetta."

At the order, Tommy wanders over to her. He leans into a squat right beside her as she pulls things out of the box. She shoves a few cases for video game discs into Tommy's arms. He looks across a few of them to find a wide variety of games. Before he can start reading the descriptions on the backs, Argonaut takes the cases from him to dump back in the box. She lifts up a metal object in her hands. It looks like a communicator if it was wider than it was long. There are controls along the sides of the black screen. Argonaut brings the device into her lap, clicking a button along the top. The screen flashes white, fades back to black, and then a logo glows across the screen. Argonaut stands up abruptly. Tommy nearly falls back, but he catches himself as Argonaut flops onto the dusty couch. Her nose scrunches together as the dust collects in her nostrils, but she keeps herself from sneezing as she waves Tommy over.

Tommy is thankful for his air filter as he sits beside Argonaut. She puts the gaming console in his lap as the screen flickers to life. She points at different things on the screen, walking him through making his own account. Tommy isn't sure what the purpose of this is, but Argonaut's smile feels worth it. Tommy just creates himself an account using the username 'Wife Haver'. Argonaut chuckled under her breath at that, and Tommy felt pride swell in his body.

"I don't know what types of games you would like, but I put an easy game in that most people seem to like," Argonaut says, gesturing towards the game loaded into the console. The game boots up after a few seconds. Argonaut informs him of the basic mechanics as she starts a new game. Tommy patiently waits to be brought to a cartoonish island with animal characters roaming around. Argonaut forces Tommy to put his new skills into action, testing him to see if he understood her explanations. Argonaut still had to help him out with a few mechanics, but he was steadily getting the hang of the gameplay.

Tommy, at first, played the game with the intent of proving that he could. It was after he completed a few quests that he realized he likes playing it. The characters are adorable, and while he thought he would get annoyed by the noises they make when they speak, he finds himself enjoying the pleasant jingling. Tommy even finds himself smiling as he goes through the general motions of the story.

"Hey, Argonaut- oh, hello, Vendetta- uh, Argonaut, I'm going to need you to pick up some stuff from Ca- from the restaurant. A- Phil, Phil wants to have food at our next meeting for some reason. I made a list of things you should bring," Warden says as he enters the room. He hands a piece of paper to Argonaut. She accepts it with a smile. Warden looks down at what they are doing, and he tilts his head curiously when he sees Tommy's character wandering on the screen.

"You're like Tom Nook," Tommy compares Warden to the raccoon that put Tommy's character into debt. Like Warden, Tom Nook was demanding Tommy bring him money. The only reason Tommy was doing it was because he had a soft spot for raccoons and admired Tom Nook's incredible scam.

Argonaut laughs right beside him. Tommy slowly looks away from the screen to see her smiling face light up with amusement. Warden huffs out a disbelieving breath, but it tampers off with a chuckle. Tommy's cheeks burn in embarrassment. He hadn't even meant to make them laugh, but now that he heard it, he wasn't sure how to feel. It made him feel lighter, like he did something good, but it definitely brought back memories. Most things in his life brought back memories. Even if it wasn't his family haunting him from beyond the grave, Reverie's harsh hands would always linger a few inches from Tommy's throat, ready to claim his life.

"Don't worry. You can tell Phil that I'll bring all the stuff," Argonaut assures Warden as she stops laughing.

"You might be able to tell him yourself. He's been walking around the safehouse. I have to get going, though. Briar is waiting for me," Warden explains. Tommy blinks slowly. Briar is a vigilante. Although her ability to control the growth rate for flowers and her Faerie hybrid traits make her look innocent, she is one of the most brutal fighters out there. She shows no mercy to criminals and no respect for heroes. The only reason she doesn't aim to maim Vendetta when they cross paths is because Briar is close with Ultraviolet, and Tommy's relationship with the Ace of Spades- whatever it could be called- is enough for Briar to decide that he is worth keeping around. Tommy didn't know Warden and Briar had any sort of connection, but if they have a good one, that might be another reason why Briar hasn't gone for the throat. "Goodbye, Vendetta and Argonaut. I'll see you both another time, yeah?"

"See you," Argonaut responds. Tommy remains silent, giving a curt nod. Warden doesn't ask for anything more as he slips out the door. Tommy stares at the closing door for a long time. Argonaut taps against the screen, getting Tommy's attention. "What's that in the corner?"

"A flower, I think," Tommy guesses as he moves the character towards the colored dot in the corner to reveal what it is. "Ha, I was right, bitch."

"It's a pretty flower," Argonaut compliments instead of commenting on the fact that Tommy called her a 'bitch'. Tommy hums in agreement, continuing through the motions of the game. His mind, however, has been struck with a thought that somehow keeps coming back. He doesn't understand why Argonaut is going out of her way to be kind to him. He's the reason her old partner is in jail, and everyone who knows that much knows how badly injured Minotaur was when he was dragged into the guildhouse. Tommy doesn't understand how she can look at him without wanting revenge. All the documentation proves that Minotaur and Argonaut were close. Their relationship was more than business. Tommy would even dare say they acted like best friends or siblings. Tommy wants revenge for his family, so why doesn't Argonaut want revenge for hers?

"Oh, here you are, Argonaut," A voice calls, startling Tommy so badly that he nearly drops the console. He wraps his fingers around it when it settles back into his palms. He looks up to see Phil standing at the doorway. He tilts his head curiously at both of them. "What are you two doing?"

"Vendetta told me that he's never played video games. I brought out one of my old consoles to show him Animal Crossing. He's pretty good at it," Argonaut explains in Tommy's place. "I got the list you wanted me to have from Warden. He went to see Briar."

"He told me he needed to," Phil concedes. Tommy blinks warily. He still doesn't understand what Phil is. He can't be a simple personal trainer. Serenade, Warden, and Argonaut have all willingly listened to Phil about things that don't correlate with training. They were villainous espers, and as far as Tommy was aware, Phil was a civilian. Phil told him he was one, anyway, but Tommy was starting to believe he had been lied to. Phil must be something more. He probably wasn't a supervillain if he was revealing his identity to Tommy, but he must be a powerful esper. He could have some sort of relationship with one of the high-ranking members. He doesn't think Phil would be associated with Azrael or Inchling since Phil hasn't even attempted to persuade Tommy not to kill either of them. In fact, Tommy would go so far as to say Phil encouraged Tommy by agreeing with Tommy's claim that there is nothing one shouldn't do for their family. He could be close with Serenade. In fact, that's probably the most likely claim. Phil and Serenade have some sort of relationship. Tommy, right now, can't get more specific than that, but he'll figure it out eventually. It is, after all, one of the main reasons he came to the Syndicate- to gather information.

Phil sits on the couch on Tommy's other side. The blonde keeps his eyes pinned on the screen as both Argonaut and Phil look over his shoulder. Instead of falling silent, the two of them continue with their conversation. "He hasn't been able to see her in awhile. She must be pissed at him."

"Briar is not someone you want to upset," Phil responds with a completely accurate fact. Tommy has seen her victims before, and she's never angry when she hurts them. Tommy doesn't want to imagine what her rage looks like. "Warden will probably be fine. Briar has been busy lately, too."

"Oh, what's she been up to?" Argonaut asks. If Tommy wasn't in the middle of them, he would have assumed they forgot he was there.

"She's been looking into the Red Army, like us. I told Warden to ask her about what she's found, but there's no telling what information she's willing to give. She wants to deal with the cult herself," Phil continues.

"I can get Ultraviolet to ask her about it," Tommy pipes up as he goes to sell some items in his inventory.

"The Ace of Spades? I forgot you had a connection with them," Argonaut mutters.

"I'm grateful for the help, Vendetta, but I don't think that will be necessary. Briar will realize on her own that the Cult of Erythr isn't something she can take down on her own. We're all having to work together to ensure the safety of the city," Phil informs Tommy, not even flinching as Tommy name-drops the Ace of Spades, the deadliest card up Croupier's sleeve.

"Briar doesn't like working with the Syndicate," Argonaut reminds Phil.

"I don't like working with the fucking Syndicate, but here I am. Briar will get over it," Tommy rolls his eyes. Briar and Tommy have never once had a long conversation. All of their talks, generously called that, have been short sentences with a barely socially acceptable greeting and parting. Despite the lack of length, the two of them have come to some agreements and disagreements. They both dislike working with other people. Tommy is willing to work with others for the sake of his goal, and Briar doesn't make any compromises. Tommy despises the Syndicate, and Briar doesn't care about them. Although they want different things out of life, they are both extremely determined to accomplish their goals. It is this determination that lends itself to respect, allowing their mutual connection with Ultraviolet to become a flimsy association between the two of them. It isn't much, but Briar is only a little less willing to help Tommy than Ultraviolet is, and Tommy counts that as best friends in this economy.

"You're right," Argonaut softly mutters, and her eyes cut to Phil. She stares intently at him. Phil doesn't return her look, instead looking at the console's screen as if it held the secrets to the universe.

Tommy doesn't like whatever is going on between them, so he stands up. He turns around to look at them both, keeping the expression in his eyes merry and light. "I have to get going. Jolt asked me to hang out with him today, and he'll beat my ass I don't show. Or, he'll try to beat my ass. We want to save him the embarrassment of failing, don't we?"

Tommy twirls the console around, handing it to Argonaut. She stares at it for a long second before pushing it away from her and towards Tommy. "You can keep it."

"I ca-"

"If you don't keep it, it will just go back into that box to collect dust. In fact, you should take the whole box with you. Try out all the games and see which ones you like," Argonaut reminds Tommy, gesturing towards the cardboard box with all the gaming cases. Tommy brings the console to his chest, letting his warmth soak into his chestplate

"I'll just keep this," Tommy says. "Goodbye, Argonaut, thank you for the console... and for healing me. Bye, Philza. I'll see you another time."

Tommy waves over his shoulder as he leaves. He takes a deep breath as he exits the room, trying and failing to wipe the smile from his face.