His fingertips held horrible memories.

Charred

His fingertips were black.

The burns weren't deep, nor would they be hard to repair, but for now they were there, and the emotional pain would have still outweighed the physical pain if his whole body looked like a lump of coal. He was sitting on a med table with a cord in the back of his head.

"The scan has been completed Sprx, and all signs say you only sustained minor injuries. You may take out the scanner cable now."

Sprx did as Gibson instructed before speaking. "So can you fix this them?" Sprx held up his burnt hands for Gibson to look at.

"We don't have time for minor repairs Sprx. We are readying for war. Your transformers work fine and the burn from the Fire of Hate isn't causing you any pain unless you fibbed about your condition."

"I didn't lie, but I just really hate looking at it."

"Sprx, this is no time for you to be complaining over cosmetic reasons!"

Sprx didn't reply. He just looked at his hands with a sad expression on his face.

Gibson's eyes widened. He raised an eyebrow. "That's not your problem, is it?"

"No."

"Sprx, I know this is painful for you, but you can't erase what happened. Fixing your hands won't change that."

"I know," he turned to Gibson "but why can't I just pretend it never happened?"

"When people pretend that something never happened they tend to make the same mistakes aga-"

"No!" Sprx closed his eyes tightly and yelled. "Never again! I'll never hurt Nova like that again! I'll never hurt any of you like that again!" Tears started to roll down Sprx's face as he whimpered quietly.

"Sprx!"

"What? Surprised I can cry? Hurray for you! You have blackmail now! Why don't you go get the others so they can see how stupid I feel too?"

"Sprx, you're talking as if you think I would enjoy that!"

"Well you would, wouldn't you? You always hated me! You always thought I was trouble! And hey, you were right! There's another thing to brag about!" His voice changed to imitate the blue monkey's, but he was having a hard time doing it while we was crying. "'I told you guys Sprx was the one who would cause problems! Look what he did! And guess what? He isn't as strong as he acts like he is! I told you so, I told you-'" he yelped as Gibson grabbed him by the collar and glared at him.

The tone Gibson used was incredibly angry, but not loud. "Listen to me. I may not get along with you sometimes, and sometimes I admit that I make false assumptions about your character."

"Excuse me?"

"It means sometimes I'm wrong. Amazing, isn't it? But no matter how much we disagree, and no matter how much we argue, you are my brother. We may not be related by blood, but you are like a brother to me, and as your brother I'm not going to turn my back on you like that. Are we clear?" Sprx nodded nervously at the almost threatening expression on Gibson's face. "I'm also not going to let you sit here and put yourself down like you are, so stop acting like everything is your fault when it isn't and go get ready for war."

Gibson let go of Sprx, but it was more like a toss. Sprx fell off the med table with another yelp and stood up groaning a little from the pain as Gibson left the room. Gibson turned back to Sprx when he had reached the door frame and smiled at the red monkey and gave him a thumbs up, which Sprx returned with the same gesture.