Pain is the primordial truth.

The way to the Arcade was strained to say the least. Rave, who had defended Victoria just a few days ago, glared angrily at the sniper at every occasion. “Sure ya won’t stab us in the back?” She asked on one occasion. “As long as Igor doesn’t want me to, I will do no such thing.” Victoria answered while staring straight ahead.

“You mind if I ask you a thing?” John intervened before things could take a course that would pull their attention away from their current mission. “Why do you hand the blood out in the first place if it is that easily abusable?” “I don’t know.” Victoria kept her eyes on the target, the small alley between two relatively new buildings. “The fuck do ya mean ya dunno?” Rave asked. “My rank in the Bloodfallen is not high enough to be presented with such secrets.” “So, you just blindly trust that guy?”

That got a reaction from Victoria as she stepped very close to John and stared him into the eyes, “Don’t you dare refer to Igor as ‘That guy’ he is saving you from her.” ‘And the more I hear about this whole thing the less sure I am about if you guys are fit to protect anybody.’ John kept that to himself as he apologized to de-escalate the situation, “Sure, sorry.”

It wasn’t worth making a fuss over right now. He may have solved the puzzle of the Blood of Thana for now but who she was, why her blood had such strong properties or who the Bloodfallen actually were, those questions still lied in the dark. First was Travolta though.

They entered the Illusion Barrier and stepped onto the patchy grass of the preserved bit of city history. The arcade stood there like always, the shabby wooden walls tagged with dozens of sprayers artworks standing in the windless pocket dimension. John never thought about this before but it was really silent here. The buzzing of the streets just vanished and the darkened mood prevented even Rave from thinking of something to say.

They walked up to the building and went inside. The ground floor was the same as ever. The arcade machines stood as a little enclave around the two PC’s that were seldom used while the conference table stood there with the same unneeded hugeness that was its trademark.

A scratching noise as above a piece of furniture was moved in a rather abrupt fashion. John sent Aclysia a signal to take the lead as they walked upstairs. All that he had heard made him pretty weary of what was probably going to happen next.

He had never been on the second floor before and now that he was he had to say that there wasn’t much to miss. There was a door with a bathroom sign, another one that was open and lead to a small room (He assumed that was the one where Rave kept her stuff) and a last red one with a big T painted on it with black colour. Aclysia pushed the handle of the door and they peeked inside.

John had expected Travolta’s room to be some kind of fitness studio but instead, he found a makeshift laboratory. Instruments, chemical and physical in nature, stood on a multitude of desks. Medical equipment piled in a corner around a mattress carelessly thrown on the ground.

Travolta was lying on the ground and groaning in pain. The muscly man had a transfusion running into his right arm. The bloody red liquid pulsated with some unholy power as it dripped from a small bag to the Guild Masters veins. The bag was almost empty. At the side of Travolta was a displaced shelf, he must have had tried to lean on it and the thing had given in, making him fall in the process of creating the scratching noise John had heard earlier.

“Travolta!” Rave was hurrying over and John was quick to follow. They kneeled down next to Travolta but whatever they did they got barely a reaction. Best Travolta could do was turning his head and looking at them with bloodshot eyes before resting his head on the floor again. “Is your dad still in town?” John asked. “Yes, I’ll call.” “Step away.” Victoria said, weapon at the ready and pointed at Travolta, “He clearly is infected this whole thing ends now.”

“Fuck off.” John cursed at her, “Jane call Regan I will deal with Victoria.” “You are an unwise person, John Newman.” Victoria said now holding him at gunpoint. “You can say a lot of things about me but not that.” He used Possession on the handgun and clogged it, turning it into a useless piece of metal in her hands. “I feel rather that your perception is skewed, Victoria. Whatever may be the case we are not killing Travolta.”

Victoria aimed at his feet and pulled the trigger only to find out the sabotage. She pulled out another gun but John just repeated the process. “You are a fool. We have seen what happens next hundreds of times already.” “And I am supposed to just believe that? Your approach has been everything but trust inducing.”

“Dad is on his way.” Rave said from the background and returned to Travolta’s side. The hose that connected to his bloodstream slowly emptied. “You will see in a minute why we do it this way.” Victoria took a few steps back and remained still as they waited for Regan to arrive.

Without a sound, Travolta suddenly stood up. “Jane?” He asked as his bloodshot eyes focused on the world. “When the fuck did you get here? Argh, whatever just leave.” “Travolta the Bloodfallen want to kill you.” John stated his situation, “You need to come with us.”

“I can’t…I need to understand her better.” Travolta took the bag, “She is in so much pain, John. Only in pain. There are no other feelings only pain. Why? Why is she in pain?” His demeanour changed rapidly, the moment of clearness he just had was replaced with incoherent ramblings. “Nails, there are nails, Jane. The world spins, spins around for so long. What does it spin for? Where does it spin? Why is the world red?” “Travolta, you need to…” Rave put a hand on the man’s shoulder as he heaved himself up. “DON’T TOUCH ME!”

Rave was suddenly catapulted through the room by a backhand slap of Travolta’s massive hand and sent crashing into the pile of medical equipment. John hurried over. Rave wasn’t hurt too much thanks to a cushion of light that had softened the impact. “I advise you be more careful.” Copernicus jumped up to the pile and scratched himself behind the ear, “I am not going to help you too much.” Somewhat relieved John turned to look at Travolta

That was new and also very, very bad from the looks of it. “I warned you.” Victoria shouted over to them and pulled out an **** rifle. “This is what happens every time.”

“Pain, that is all…. all the pain…. the pain she feels.” Travolta was gone and whatever now had taken his place was rambling on and on. “Torment. Senseless, feeless, endless, torment. That is the truth. Pain is….” Travolta laid his eyes on Victoria. “You understand? Don’t you?” He asked and walked towards her.

Victoria didn’t grace him with an answer but instead unloaded her magazine into him in a series of shots. Each bullet that hit Travolta sent shockwaves through his whole body. Despite what just happened Rave was quick to shout at Victoria. “What the fuck are you doing?” “Cleaning the mess.” Victoria took a new magazine. Or attempted to rather.

Travolta, despite being riddled with bullets, was still standing. To John, it even looked like the wounds were closing as the mountain of muscles that Travolta was started storming forwards to keep Victoria from reloading. The transfusion hose ripped from his arm, “WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS SHE? WHERE IS SHE?” He screamed as he rammed shoulder first into Victoria and they crashed into the next table.

Whether or not Travolta was beyond saving at this point John didn’t know but it was clear that they needed to do something. “Aclysia you try to keep him occupied, Jane we will try to subdue him.” It was a stupid plan in all honesty. Travolta had already shown to be several times stronger than each of them but they needed to find a way too….

“Do not despair, dad is here!”