Right, hey...again. Abnormally fast updates right now. Don't expect us to keep this up forever. Kaen, Valen, Cayden, Jance and any other OCs that I didn't mention are ours. The knives are mine. Everything else is Naughty Dog's.

And we continue forward...

Erol opened his eyes with a moan. His head was pounding. Hangovers sucked. He closed his eyes again, finding even the dim lighting in his quarters to be too much to bear. His entire body was stiff, it seemed he'd only made it to the couch before collapsing; he was going to ache for days. What had he done last night anyway? He could remember Kaen, Arbner, and Ten in Ten…then there was the blackout, the blank.

He groaned and attempted to sit up, but ended up draping himself over the armrest instead. He tried opening his eyes again. They stayed open longer this time, if only through sheer force of will. He glanced around, vision spinning. He looked at his hands and freaked. Both of them were covered up to the elbow in blood.

"Oh god. What did I do?" this was not good.

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Kaen strode into the detention center, showing no sign of the night before's events. Well, mostly none. She had woken up in Valen's room that morning and had asked for the previous night's details. The first words out of his mouth were, "Erol kissed you while you were passed out."

"That self serving, evil, bastard!" She screamed at nothing. "When I see him, I'll…" then she stopped. The tables, the equipment; everything was coated in blood. Deep knife marks showed on the metal. Kaen turned to where Erol's knives had been, but nothing had been touched. What had happened?

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Erol couldn't remember, not even a flicker. His gloves were stiff with caked on blood. A wave of nausea hit him and he fought the urge to vomit. By the taste in his mouth, he already had, multiple times. What the hell had he been doing?

He stripped off his gloves and shirt, disgusted but not overly surprised that his skin was stained crimson as well. With the amount of blood on his clothes there was no way some wouldn't have soaked through. It didn't stop his surge of fear. With that much blood…he shuddered at the thought.

Movement was only making his headache worse and he grimaced in pain. Muttering an angry curse at himself he walked to the bathroom to go clean up. He stepped on something on his way there. Bending down, a movement that sent his vision out of focus for a few minutes, he picked up the item. It was the eco-knife he'd been carrying the previous night. It too, was covered in dried blood, from blade to hilt; the entire thing was stained scarlet. He tentatively clicked the button on the end. It was empty too.

He started to feel sick again and when he entered the bathroom, no more than ten seconds had passed before he was leaned over the counter, throwing up into the sink.

Just then, Valen knocked on the door to Erol's quarters. After a long, deep discussion with himself, he'd decided to tell his friend about his actions the night previous. Best to prepare him for whatever Kaen said. "Open up," he muttered, rapping his knuckles against the door. Usually he would just walk in, but he did have to be considerate when someone had a hangover.

Erol groaned, still positioned over the sink. He really did not want to talk to anyone right now. He said nothing, hoping whoever it was would just go away.

When there was no answer, Val decided to just let himself in. "Erol? Oh dear Romeo, stealer of women's hearts? Where are you?" A funny smell was coming from the bathroom. He wrinkled his nose at the smell, disgusted by the mental images that accompanied it.

Still Erol attempted to ignore Valen, though he was forced to admit, that comment had sparked his interest. He turned on the tap to rinse out the sink, and again wondered what he'd been doing while being controlled by liquor.

The psychologist poked his head into the bathroom, "Yeah, I thought I should... WHAT DID YOU DO?" he exclaimed, seeing the blood coating his friend's body.

Erol was forced to look at him then; "You mean you don't know either?" he looked scared, "I'm assuming it involved this." He picked up the eco knife from where it was lying on the counter.

Valen whistled, "Oh lord. You've gotten yourself into some deep trouble again, haven't you? Kaen's going to gut you."

"Yeah, thanks. I'm not having a hard enough time dealing with this without that factor; you just had to throw that in there!" Erol snapped and put a hand to his head, cringing in agony.

"Well she's already going to kill you, no matter what you've done on top of it. She's on a warpath."

"I have no doubt that I deserve it. I can't remember a bloody thing after Arbner passed out. What'd I do?"

"Well, Kaen out drank you, so you got mad. Then I hauled you out to the car and watched her dignifiedly sit down. Then she passed out as I was driving, you pulled her up close and," he paused, "kissed her."

"Please tell me you just made that up."

"Nope," he said cheerfully, forgetting about everything but the horrible memory that gave him so much pleasure, "Full on the lips. After telling her you thought she was really pretty."

"Oh god..."

"Yep. Now we have to ask ourselves how much of that was in earnest..."

"None of it."

Valen raised an eyebrow, "Really? Are you sure about that?" How much, he wondered, had Erol admitted even to himself?

"Fairly sure."

"Okay." Apparently not much. "But in any case, Kaen doesn't know that. I've never seen her looking so angry."

"Do you know where my gun is? I need to shoot something," Erol sighed, "Namely my head."

"In the detention center, I believe. I'd suggest taking a shower first. You look like you just murdered someone."

"Thanks, I wasn't aware." Erol stared at the palms of his hands. "Who says I didn't?"

"I do. You don't have the look of fresh killer in your eyes. Only... Well, bloodlust is a bit harsh, but something along those lines."

"I guess that's slightly comforting."

"Well, I've done my duty. I see you later, if you aren't decapitated or anything."

"Yeah," he sighed again, "See you later if I'm still alive for it."

Valen laughed as he left, "I wouldn't really worry. But I still say get in, out and stay hidden for a month." And then he was gone.

Erol sighed and glanced at the shower. He had a feeling that he'd be seeing a lot more of his apartment for a while...

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"HE'S LATE!" An hour had passed since Kaen had arrived at the detention center and her partner still hadn't shown his miserable face. "I swear I'm going to kill him!" She whirled around to face Jance's cell, "Hey! You! Jance! What happened? Where's your idiotic, demented brother?"

Jance leaned back against the wall of his cell, looking very smug. An expression not often seen on his face. "Don't worry, he'll show up. I bet he only woke up recently. He's gonna have one hell of a hangover. If you feel like trying to torture him I suggest screaming at him the moment he walks in," he paused, picking dirt from under his nail, "After what he did last night, I must say he deserves it."

She nearly ran to his cell. "What did he do?"

He glanced around, "Well, he's responsible for the mess."

"No. Come on Jance. Spit it out. I'll let you out if you do. Show me what he did so I can kill him for it."

He considered it, "I'd rather not watch you kill my brother, but I can show you."

"Fine. Could you please show me then?" she said, unlocking the door even as she spoke.

Jance got up and stretched his extremely thin frame, "Okay," he walked past her. And walked to the cell Jak was kept in. "That."

"That what?" She followed him and glanced into the other prisoner's cell. It took her a moment or two to register what had happened. "How in the world..."

"Same way you do it to me. You teach him that or something?" Jance looked at Jak curled up in the corner of the cell, "He's got amazingly neat printing for being so hammered at the time. Heck, I think that's neater than he is when he's sober."

The mess inside was just as horrible as out. It seemed that Erol had decided to carve some of his pet names for Jak into the kid's back. Along with other things, nothing looking very distinct other than the words. "I'm really going to kill him when he gets here."

"What else did he do?"

"Um...It's awkward, really..."

Jance raised an eyebrow at her, the family resemblance to Erol nearly apparent, "Now I really want to know."

"Well, if you have to know... Your dear brother kissed me last night."

He started to laugh, hysterically. "You're kidding!"

"Unfortunately, I'm not. I truly wish that I was, though. When he gets here, I'm going to..." she stopped, unable to think of anything worse than she'd already thought.

Jance said something, but it seemed incoherent mixed in with the laughter.

"SHUT UP!"

He managed to stop laughing long enough to say, "That was actually a jab at my little twerp brother, not you."

"Oh. Well then, that's alright. But where is he?"

"I don't know, but you'd better hope that he doesn't come in while I'm out, otherwise you'd have a hell of a lot of explaining to do. In fact you might have to call it a draw."

"Point taken. If you wouldn't mind heading back to your cell and locking the door Jance. It'll make our next chat a lot less painful."

"Fine," he obediently began to head back to his cell. At the doorway he paused and looked back at her, "I'd really prefer if you didn't actually kill Erol. If not for the obvious reason then because you two are the most amusing thing I've seen in a long time." With that the heavily scarred man slipped back into his cell and locked himself back in. A moment later there was the sound of Jance slamming his head against the cell wall and a loud angry cry of "GOD DAMMIT!"

She shook her head. "Half the time I actually think you enjoy living her. And don't worry. I won't kill Erol. He's too important to this operation."

Jance gave her no reply and seconds later there was the sound of boots on the detention center floor.

"I'm going to gut him," she muttered, "He's late, he tortured a valuable prisoner outside of work time, and he kissed me." It was like a mantra in her mind.

She was pissed, Erol could tell. This was not going to be good. He considered just turning around and leaving, but that would only make things worse. He sighed.

"What the hell were you thinking?" she snarled, eyes blazing.

He shrugged, "I have no idea," his golden eyes cast about, searching for something to look at other than her. He couldn't bring himself to meet her gaze. He wished he could, seeing the amount of blood spread throughout the detention center was freaking him out.

"Do you know what you did Erol? Can you realize the severity of what you've done?"

"What are you referring to? The obvious assault that took place? Or the kiss that Valen was talking about?"

"I was talking about this!" she snapped, pushing him towards Jak's cell. "I can't believe that you, even you, Erol, would do such a thing."

"Oh god," he felt weak, "Neither can I. Though it explains a bit."

For some reason, seeing him, hearing him…It was making her blood boil. True that his mutilation of Jak was similar to hers with Jance, yet it was different. Less humane somehow. "What would possess you to do this?"

"I have no idea." Excuses were beyond him.

"I should kill you right now," she forced him to look in her general direction. "I'm disgusted with you."

He refused to look directly at her. He wished that he could just give her a reason for his actions. Just one, but he had no idea. "Sorry."

Kaen drew back her hand and slapped him with as much energy as she could muster.

Erol didn't even wince, he deserved it.

"Well, now that's out of the way, onto question two. What possessed you to…to…kiss me?"

"I have even less idea about that than I do about mutilating Jak."

"Okay…What about that compliment you so kindly paid me?"

"Was that the…uh…'pretty' thing? Or did I say something else?"

"That. Just that."

"Well," he shifted uncomfortably, "It's true, but…forget it."

"What?!" Had he just called her pretty? No one would be that thick.

"Never mind. I didn't…Dammit."

It was apparent that the slap hadn't vented all her anger. Pulling back her arm once more, Kaen let fly her most powerful punch into Erol's jaw.

He cringed and swore, rubbing his cheek. He'd have another one of her infamous bruises. Back to square one.

"Just…" she couldn't speak she was so hurt and angry.

"Go ahead, do it again," he actually looked at her, "I know you want to."

So she did, but softened the blow at the very end. Her anger was gone, sapped out of her.

He turned away, "Right, well, I'm going now."

"Thank god. I hope I can manage not to see you again."

Erol glanced back for a moment, holding out the empty eco-knife, "I think I should give you this back."

She shook her head, "Those are yours. Keep it Erol. I won't take what doesn't belong to me."

"Fine." Erol turned back around and walked away. As he passed the table with his remaining knives he dropped off the weapon. He had no use for it anymore.

She turned from the scene, watching blood trail down her arms. No, she had not hurt anyone to the point that they bled that day. It was her mental blood, a left over from every death she'd caused. So why was it showing up now?

He wanted to melt into the walls, just disappear. Other members of the guard were giving him strange looks. He slipped into his quarters and locked the door. What the hell was he going to do now? And why did he feel like he was losing something important?

His gaze traveled to the stack of paperwork on his desk. Well, at least he had an answer to one of his questions.

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Down in Black Ops, Valen was facing a very uncomfortable situation. Through the grapevine, Cayden had heard of the previous night's events and wasn't taking it very well.

"That filthy little slime ball dared to even lay a finger on her?" the huge man shouted. "Why didn't you stop him?"

Valen sighed, "I would've killed us all. Now look Cayden, this isn't as bad as it looks."

"Not as bad? Not as bad! I've spent most of my life protecting young Miss Kaen and you manage to ruin it all in one night! The last thing she needs is romance!"

"As guys go, Erol's not all that bad. He's actually pretty sweet…"

Cayden jumped up, "The only reason you're saying that is because, for the past twenty years, you've been in love with him!"

The pair fell silent, the insult still ringing through the space. Finally Valen spoke, "I won't deny it. Part of me does still love him, unrequited of course, but I won't let it get in the way of my two closest friends' happiness."

"Sorry for sayin' that," the huge man patted Valen's shoulder, "I'm just angry is all. I over stepped my boundaries. And you're right – Kaen does deserve joy. I just don't trust him."

The psychologist stared at the ground, "He loves her more than I imagined possible. It's true that he kissed her while he was drunk, but it's not like he wouldn't have done it when he was sober. There are times I'm surprised he's never even hugged her yet. He doesn't even bother to hide what's going on in his head."

"So what should we do? From what you said, Kaen is infatuated to the point of being murderous."

"Yes. She too has trouble admitting her love aloud. Even if she was passed out, she was morally offended at his touching her. She'll never want to speak to him again."

"So we're safe?"

"In a month she'll be more in love with him than ever."

"Damn."

The pair fell silent once more, both wondering how to monitor the out-of-control situation. After a while, the duo said at the same time, "We'll install come cameras until the situation improves."

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In his cell, recovering from his bought of rage at himself, Jance looked over at Kaen. "Slick one, seriously. I think you broke my brother."

"I almost feel sorry for him."

"I do. I haven't seen him like that since he moved out."

With a sigh, Kaen went over, unlocked Jance's cell and sat down inside, "Why does he have to be so stupid?"

"Cause that's just how he is."

"Do you mind if I rant for a while?"

"No go ahead. Where?"

"Face, I guess. But I want to rant aloud too."

He pulled his hair back, "Fine."

"Alright," she whipped out a knife and began to rant, slicing as she went, "Your brother is the most self centered, egotistical, evil, worthless, spineless, pathetic, waste-of-time that's ever walked this earth! I mean, it was bad when I first met him, but it's only got worse! Next time I see him I'll murder him. After that stunt he pulled…next he'll be saying that he's in love with me," she'd forgotten that she was speaking aloud. "I mean, I wouldn't complain if he did say something like that, but still. This is a goddamn soap opera! It's not that I care or anything, but…God! Did he have to do what he did? This is so confusing! It was better when we hated each other! Why didn't Valen stop him? Why can't I remember it? How did this happen? And why am I seeing that mental blood on my hands?" her cuts became more frantic. "I never care about anyone or anything, just like no one cares about me. Love is foreign even if – no! I will not let my mind go there. Even if I did harbor feelings for Erol I wouldn't be able to show them! He'd laugh at me, hate me, tell me he was just joking and I'm a worthless freak! I HATE HIM!" she began to carve a shape into Jance's face, over and over, though she couldn't place what it was. "Why can't this just be simple?" Kaen stopped, pulling the knife away. "Thanks," she said, "I needed that."

Jance clapped his hands to his face, hunching over into a semi-fetal position, "Anytime," he rasped.

"It really is a soap opera Jance. Anyway, I'll see you later. Have a nice day. If you need me, I'll be in my cell slitting someone else's wrists."

"Yeah, see you." He glanced up briefly, "You know where to find me."

"Yeah. See you." With a wave of her hand, Kaen left the cell.

"Hey, Kaen," Jance looked at her, blood streaming down his cheek, "Did you just put hearts in my face?"

There was no reply.