The next several days passed without much in the way of activity. D.J. was intent on gaining revenge for Abigail, but he was still recovering from the gunshot wound he had received from Brendan. Still, he would not let this stop him for much longer, every day that Brendan continued to live was another day wasted. The others wanted to see Brendan brought to justice too, but they had the threat of Drevis and Verizzano to deal with as well. D.J. was not alone in his quest however, Aneka was also determined to make her brother pay, even though she knew it would be painful to watch him die. Aneka had always been close to her brother and did not want to be the one to deal him death, but he had betrayed her and the others, and he had to pay for that. On the fifth day after Abigail's funeral Aneka met with D.J. to discuss their shared pain.

"D.J. we need to talk." Aneka said, not looking at him.

"I know." D.J. replied, staring right at her. "I know what you want to talk about too, but I'm not changing my mind, I am going to kill your brother."

"I'm not here to stop you." Aneka said, finally looking at him. "I know the pain you feel and I know Brendan must die for what he did. I just want you to think before you go running off to get revenge. You have to be careful, Brendan is highly trained, and he has Drevis and Verizzano to back him up now."

"I know." D.J. said again. "But they won't stop me. I'll kill them too."

"That's the problem with your thinking D.J." said Aneka. "You can't take on all three of them by yourself, you'll get killed and you can't very well avenge Abigail if you're dead."

"You think that matters to me now?" D.J. asked, almost shouting. "As long as I take Brendan with me I don't give a shit what happens to me."

"And do you think that's what Abigail would want you to think?" Aneka asked.

D.J. didn't answer. He knew Abigail would not want him running off to get himself killed, but what choice did he have? He had sworn vengeance and he would have it, no matter what happened to him in the process.

"Look, let's discuss this with the others, see what they think." Aneka suggested.

"There's nothing to discuss." said D.J. "I'm going after Brendan and that's final, no one is going to stop me."

"I'm sorry to say this D.J., but we are." said Chef, entering the room, followed by the others. "We all know you want revenge, but you cannot just run headlong into death."

"Fuck you." D.J. snapped. "How can you possibly know how I feel? Abby was my soul, goddamn it, I loved her. How can any of you possibly know what this feels like, to lose the person you love most to death?"

"You're forgetting that this has happened to many of us already." said Trent. "So we know exactly how you feel. When Gwen died, I felt the same pain you're feeling now, the same sense of loss, the same hopelessness. We all know what you're going through D.J., so please listen."

"But it's not the same." D.J. countered. "Gwen came back, all of you came back. Abigail isn't going to. She lost her one chance because of the deal Thomas made with Luminous. She didn't even die in the war with Dorian and she still lost her one chance, simply because that protection held for all of us."

"You're wrong D.J." said Aneka. "The protection may have taken Abigail's one chance at returning, but that doesn't change the fact that we know your pain. Yes all of us, including yourself, who died during the war with Dorian came back, and yes we lost our one chance because of it, but we came back for a reason, maybe it was Abigail's time to go."

"Don't say that, don't you dare say that." D.J. spat, glaring at Aneka. Aneka hung her head, ashamed by her words.

"D.J., don't you see what Aneka is trying to say?" Sadie asked. "You don't have Luminous' protection anymore either, so if you die you won't come back."

"Again, I ask you, do you think that-?" D.J. began, but Gwen cut him off.

"Or course it matters D.J." she snapped. "You matter, and we will not let you throw your life away in the pursuit of blind vengeance. If you're going to kill Brendan, you're going to do it with backup and not until we are all ready to face not only him, but Drevis and Verizzano as well."

D.J. stared at Gwen a moment before relenting. "Fine." he muttered. "I won't go after Brendan alone."

"Good." said Aneka. "You're making the right decision D.J. You're not giving into your impulses and throwing yourself into the fire alone. You'll have a plan and because of that you will succeed in gaining your revenge."

D.J. nodded and left the room. The others lingered a moment before going their own ways again. The matter was settled, D.J. would develop a plan first and everything would work out in the end. Or so they all thought.

Later that night, Duncan got up to take a piss when he noticed the weapons cabinet was open. As he moved closer to investigate, he noticed several guns were missing and there was a note taped to the door, written in D.J.'s hand. I'm sorry for doing this, but I couldn't sit around and wait. I know you guys are going to be pissed, but I don't care. I'm taking the initiative and throwing myself into the fire. This battle is between me and Brendan, so please don't come after me. Thank you all for being such great friends, I hope to see you all again someday. With love, D.J.

Duncan stared at the note a moment before realizing what it meant. "Damn it D.J." he muttered as he turned to warn the others.