This piece has been very popular and is dear to my heart. Looking over it I saw some parts that I felt deserved a little more work. (Chapter 6 felt a little unfinished and Chapter 7 . . . well, I thought I could do better than that.) This is a revision. Reviews are welcome.

Daniel didn't know where it came from.

The night started out usual enough, whatever usual meant these days.

During these patrols, he used to really feel alive and fulfilled with a wonderful sense of purpose and place in the world. That seemed to have changed and he couldn't pin point the exact time when it all fell apart. Maybe it was the realization that every criminal they put away on the streets left a void that would be filled, sometimes even doubled, by the next potentials in line. Maybe it was the change in sentiment towards masks that had been fluttering and then steadily blowing its way across the newspapers and television newscasts. Maybe it was the constant fractured feeling within the mask community, each going in different directions and rarely operating as a team any more. He and Rorschach felt like hold outs.

Then, Rorschach came back from a missing child case one night. Maybe it was that event that changed it all in their world. Daniel knew that in reality it was all of them. A tipping point had been initiated. He felt for all the world like the little Dutch boy. The straw finally broke when Rorschach had another berserk episode and this time it coincided with the police and it had not ended well.

The police had arrived on the scene as Nite Owl and Rorschach were disarming a smuggling on the docks. Rorschach was ringing a thug's neck as the sirens blared overhead. Enforcement had stepped in but he continued to throttle the life out of the man. True enough, the criminal did take a shot at his partner with a pistol but the firearm had been disposed of and the cops were waiting with handcuffs. Dan knew it started to spiral out of control when officers began yelling for Rorschach to let go and step away. Nite Owl tried to approach Rorschach to disengage him but a ring of three cops with aimed guns closed in ahead of him. For a frightening moment, the thug turned an unnatural shade of purple but then a gun muzzle from one of New York's finest tapped at Rorschach's temple and the mask snapped into self-preservation mode. Like lightening he had seized both the gun and the officer. The criminal lay motionless at their feet and Rorschach had the officer's own gun aimed back at him with his arm locked around the officer's throat. The patterns in his mask were gesticulating in jagged angry streaks. "RORSCHACH!" Nite Owl bellowed. The patterns shattered and began to swirl wildly as Rorschach looked around. He seemed to regain his sense of place but still held the cop hostage as he backed up against the ledge where they had been fighting. He released his hold on the cop just as he dropped off the ledge and into the shadows. The enforcement gave Nite Owl silent sour looks as he tried to make excuses for his partner's behavior.

Now, he felt trapped within the confines of the Owl's Nest as a scenario began to unfold more akin to lancing a festering sore than two friends having a quarrel. It had been two weeks since Daniel had seen Rorschach drop into the shadows. He always ran to ground after one of his episodes but they were becoming more and more frequent. Nite Owl hadn't bothered seeking him out this time around. He was still angry. He figured he'd come slinking back as usual after he'd gotten a hold of himself again.

While making repairs to a coupling from Archie at his workbench, a movement in the shadows caught his eye. He chose to ignore it. Years of working the streets had honed his senses to respond to subtle changes and movements. This instance was not suspicious. He knew exactly who it was and why they didn't reveal themselves immediately. After what felt like 45 minutes the shadowed form disengaged itself from the dark of the tunnel entrance. Daniel went so far as to turn his back on the darkness. He heard the clipped noise of old dress shoes approaching on cement. He didn't remove his attention from the mechanics in front of him. The shoes stopped a few feet behind him and waited. After about ten minutes, he could hear the sound of worn leather. He knew this to be a pair of gloved hands flexing in irritation. Still, he continued focusing on the repairs he needed to make on his ship. The sole of a foot slid across the gritty floor as a body turned. The sound of old dress shoes clipping against the flooring echoed again as it receded to the exit of the Owl's Nest. Pissed, Dan flung his screwdriver down and pushed his chair back to see Rorschach's back heading for the exit. Rorschach stopped and tilted his head. "You coming or is it going to be a solo night tonight?" He spat gruffly.

"I don't know. Do you think you can refrain from killing cops tonight?" Daniel spat back. "I'll try to stay out of your way. I don't want to be next."

Black shapes began to bleed over the entirety of Rorschach's mask and he squared his shoulders as he stomped out of the Owl's Nest.

"Fine. Run away from your problems, coward." Daniel muttered as he returned to his workbench. He spun back around as he heard a light rapid cadence behind him. Rorschach had run full tilt back into the Owl's Nest and was airborne as he launched himself at Daniel. Daniel had leapt to his feet but Rorschach was all over him as they crashed back into Daniel's workbench, scattering parts, shattering the wooden table, and landing flat on the concrete. Rorschach had fists full of Daniel's sweater vest as he seethed, "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?"

Gasping from shock but unafraid, Daniel looked Rorschach in the face. "I said you're a coward for running away from your problems."

Rorschach quickly drew a hand back into a fist and held it up threateningly as if to start pummeling Daniel.

"Oh yeah, yeah, start hitting me. Beating your friend's face in is going to solve everything. In fact, with all the shit going down around us, it's going to help loads!"

"Don't patronize me." Rorschach hissed through his teeth.

"Then don't act like an ass!"

Rorschach's fist slammed down across Daniel's face, knocking his glasses across the Owl's Nest, and instigating a torrent of blood from Daniel's nose. Daniel sputtered and coughed but didn't struggle to get up. He choked, "Godammit, Rorschach!"

Rorschach reared back again, "YOU WANT ANOTHER?"

Daniel just lay on the floor. He wasn't looking at Rorschach anymore. His head rested on the concrete and he could see the underbelly of Archie. He shook his head back and forth as blood ran down his face and down his throat. Coughing and gasping he moaned, "Where did I go wrong? How the hell did it come to this?"

The black storm receded from Rorschach's face. He slowly lowered his fist.

Daniel didn't move. It was as if he was defeated and didn't have the initiative to get off the floor.

Rorschach rose from sitting on Daniel's chest and took a few steps back. He had ceased to take insults seriously when he began practicing vigilante justice. Insults were empty threats from petty criminals who knew they were on the losing end. Daniel was above insults, until now. He was above striking Daniel, until now. Daniel's questions voiced the nagging that had been chewing on the back on his consciousness ever since that night he bathed in ash.

He was so angry all the time. He had reason. Then why did it feel like he was on the wrong path? What changed from those days when lines were cut and drawn so clearly? Why was everything turning against them? Why did that matter? Why was his only friend becoming distant? Why did he still have the need for a friend? Wasn't he supposed to be impervious to need? He wanted to run from the Owl's Nest and never come back, but then that would prove Daniel right and his punch would be defending no one's honor.

Daniel sighed and swallowed more blood. "You know the root of all the problems humanity's got these days is no one gives a shit about anybody. I don't know why I bother." He turned his head and spat out a blood clot.

Rorschach backed up another step. "Maybe you should sit up before you suffocate."

Daniel coughed again, "Save you the trouble of doing it yourself?"

Rorschach growled and took a few more steps towards the exit. Dan finally resolved to sit up and prop his elbow on his knee as he pinched his flowing, possibly broken, nose. The side of his face was rapidly beginning to swell and there was a fresh abrasion on his brow where his head had raked the concrete. "What the hell, man? I thought we were friends."

Rorschach looked trapped.

Dan continued, "You're supposed to love your friends not beat the shit out of them."

Rorschach's blots whirled in anxiety at a conversation he'd rather not be having.

"Don't say that word."

Daniel snorted through his open mouth. "That's the problem with the world right now."

Rorschach growled, "Problem is scum who spreads degenerate habits in this city with no accountability."

"Oh, and I suppose you're just the individual to set it right? Look at you! You can't even take care of yourself and you lash out at people who try to help!" Daniel gestured to his shabby coat and lean demeanor.

Rorschach did his best to look affronted. Daniel released his nose to see if it stopped. "I only tell you this shit because I love you."

"DON'T SAY THAT!"

Daniel just flicked his hand as if to say whatever. "What? You don't think you should experience love? How can we justify cleaning up 'degenerates' if our own lives are just as deprived?"

Rorschach was becoming angry again but Walter was creeping through his speech. "You can't say that word."

Daniel was wiping his face with the back of his hand. "Oh, yeah? Why not?"

"You can't say that word unless you mean it."

"Who the fuck said I didn't?"

Rorschach felt kicked in the gut. Visions of Sylvia back handing him through the living room flooded his mind and he found it hard to breathe. He stumbled as he pulled up the bottom of his mask. He was going to vomit. Just as he felt that he might, the floor came rushing up at him and everything went dark.

Daniel squinted as he tested his nose. What the hell was his partner's hang up, anyway? He was done being delicate. If everyone, Rorschach included, was going to be a total dick then to hell with it. He was going to speak his mind. Where the hell does he get off, you can't say that word unless you mean it? Where the hell did that kind of preschool thinking come from? From the corner of his blurry vision he saw the figure of his partner falter and he heard heavy breathing as if someone was hyperventilating. "Rorschach?" he said and then he saw the figure drop to its knees with a painful crunch and begin to fall face first to the floor. Dan scrambled to his feet and caught his partner before his skull could smash into the concrete.