Arackniss was silent as the elevator went floor by floor down to the lowest level of the club. *I got a good hour before we need to head out,* he thought to himself. He looked back to the key in his hand, *I hope Anthony doesn't mind that I borrowed this.* The elevator stopped and opened up to a familiar dark corridor lined with cells. Arackniss walked out with the elevator closing behind him eliminating any available light in the hallway, save for a small light coming from the last cell on the right. There he saw Valentino sat fully healed and looking at a TV screen, the last of what remained of Vox. When he got close to the cell Valentino looked up with a smile, but seeing Arackniss it turned into a grimace.

"Oh, it's you."

"Yeah, me. Were you expectin' my brotha'?"

"Honestly yes, it's been at least a day, maybe two, since he's been down here. I guess he got bored with me, too bad, not like there's anything good playing right now. Just reruns," Valentino chuckled darkly at this. "Besides, he told me no one else could get down here."

Arackniss pulled out one of his cigarettes and lit it, providing another small light source in the vast black space. Taking a small inhale he blew out smoke before replying, "And you believed that?"

"Of course, Angel is a terrible liar. Granted he never lied often, he learned real quick not to to me," he said turning his head to Arackniss. "So he doesn't know you snuck the key and came down here. Only reason I could see you doing that is to kill me, which would make you the smarter brother. Well get it over with then, I've been waiting long enough."

Arackniss took another drag from the cigarette and blew smoke, "You know I was thinkin' about it but... that ain't it. I came down here to tell ya that Velvet has been plannin' on breakin' you out. Been a real pain in the ass about it too, but that won't be a problem for long."

Valentino sighed, breaking Arackniss's line of thought, and slumped against the wall. "That's it? Just came down here to gloat? I guess you and Angel share the braincell in your family. Quit wasting my time."

Arackniss smiled a little at Valentino's annoyance. "Nah, I don't think so. For the longest time I've wondered why the hell of all people my brotha' would leave you alive, but now I get it. Killin' you would rob me of the satisfaction of watching you here lyin' in your own blood beggin' for someone to come and kill you. It's pathetic and honestly the least you deserve for all you've done, especially to my brotha'."

Valentino began laughing again, giving Arackniss more pause. He watched as Valentino arched himself up along the wall until he was standing as tall as his cell would allow. "Do you think I'm begging you to kill me? For Angel to? No no, see, I'm advising you to. Angel is a fuck-up, always has been, and keeping me alive like this will be his grand finale of fuck-ups once I get out of here. I ain't gonna just kill him oh no, I will kill every person who associated with him. You, that cyclops bitch, that fuckin pig, even that sweet little hotel he called home I will burn to the ground with everyone inside. He doesn't understand, or is too cocky to understand, what keeping me alive means. You don't fuck with me and get away with it."

Valentino's head stuck out from the bars, his eyes red and glowing with rage and his arms gripping the bars. Arackniss looked up unimpressed as he inhaled the cigarette one last time and put it out on Valentino's forehead, releasing a growl from the fallen overlord. "Nice speech Val, but I ain't impressed. Once we're done with Velvet Angel will be back down here in a week for ya. Figured you would appreciate the conversation, you won't be having many of those soon."

Arackniss turned away from Valentino, he could feel his eyes penetrating the back of his head as he walked back to the elevator. "Spero che ti aspettino un inferno peggiore di questo," he said waving his hand back towards the cells.

"Non vedo l'ora di vederti lì," Valentino replied causing Arackniss to pause short of the elevator. He turned to face the moth, and was met with his glowing eyes and smile in the dark. Pressing the call button the elevator dinged open and he stepped inside, pressing the main floor button a little harder than normal. Before the doors closed Arackniss could've sworn he heard jazz music coming from Valentino's cell.

-Hours Later-

"An' rememba to call us if she comes here, we'll do the same if she comes ta us," Arackniss said.

"Right, right," Angel replied climbing out of the limo. As soon as the door closed Husk pulled the limo away and towards another parked car in the lot. Cherri Bomb waved to them from outside as they pulled to a stop.

"Nissy! Husk! Man it's been a while seen I've seen you guys, how've you been?"

"Per l'amor di Dio, did you just call me Nissy? My brotha' I swear to god..."

"Aww don't blame him, I think it sounds good on you."

Husk leaned over the wheel to look at Cherri, "Hey can we save the small talk for after? We're on a time table here."

Cherri gave a small pout at this, "Always so grumpy Husk, but you're right. Here's the stuff," she threw a heavy duffel bag of explosives onto Arackniss's lap causing him to grunt in pain. "And this," she said dropping a silver ball on top of all of it.

"What... is that?" Arackniss grunted out as he slowly shifted the bag onto the floor of the car leaving the ball to roll backwards onto his lap.

"It's an Extermination bomb, made it myself. I won't go into too much detail but it is loaded with Exterminator spear tips so you better be out of the room when you make it go off, nothing will survive the blast. And be careful! The button for it is on the bomb itself, how long you hold it determines how long until it goes off, one minute for every second held in."

With this information Arackniss gently took the bomb in both hands and rolled it back onto the duffel on the floor. "And you didn't make a detonator... why?"

Cherri shrugged at this, "I didn't have time, these are still in the experimental phase if I'm being totally honest."

"So there's a chance something could go wrong?" Husk interjected.

"Hey now! I know how to make a bomb, don't doubt my quality! Just... when you set this up start running, really fast, as far from the bomb as possible. Ok?" She smiled at the two, while they returned it with confused and worried looks.

"Riiight, well we'll be goin' then, and please get Angel out of whateva' he's in right now." He nodded towards the rearview mirror, noting how Angel was still standing outside looking at the building.

Cherri looked at Angel and sighed, nodding and slapping the roof of the car before walking over to greet Angel. Husk and Arackniss drove away once again towards their planned destination. The car was silent at first as they travelled on the road, Arackniss would glance a couple times at the Extermination bomb but wouldn't try touching it for risk of setting it off accidentally.

"So... Arackniss. Why are you here?" Husk asked.

Arackniss looked at Husk confused, "Did ya forget? We're here to kill Velvet. Then afterwards Valentino, and whoever else tries to fuck with else along the way."

"No you misunderstand, why did you agree to work with your brother? From what I know about Angel he doesn't exactly speak highly of his family life, except for your sister but he doesn't really open up about her a lot. So why are you here?"

"You're askin' this now?"

"Sure, got another ten minutes and we rarely talk unless we're drunk and by that point I don't remember the conversation anyways."

Arackniss looked at the floor for a moment unsure on taking up Husk's question. "I.. I have done a lot of bad things, no shit right I'm in hell afta' all. But the thing is I don't regret a single one of 'em. Up there the things I've done I can justify, people who I killed had it comin', and down here it's the same. But one thing I can neva' forgive myself for is turnin' my back on Anthony when he needed me. Like you said our family life isn't high to speak of, our father is a bastard and he's burnin' down here with us for it. Yet he always treated me right an' for that I stuck close to him, I was his favorite son he made that clear to me and to Anthony. When it became clear what Anthony's... certain interests were well, he did a hell of a lot more than just insult him. And I just watched, watched as the brother I knew turned to every drug we've ever sold to escape the pain our father brought onta him. And then, one day, I wake up and find his body slumped in a chair and he wasn't breathin', no matter what I did he wasn't fuckin' breathin'. Il mio fratellino. Our father dumped him in the river, said it was all he deserved."

Arackniss paused resting his head back onto the car seat, Husk stared forward keeping his eyes on the road. "Our sister never found out what really happened to him. And I didn't have the heart to tell her, our dad kept her out of the family business as best he could so she assumed he just ran away. But I never forgot that day, and I hated myself until the day I died for not protectin' him. And when I did die and became... this, I figured my brotha' had to look somethin' like me so I went out and tried to find him. Didn't take long when I entered the city, although they called him 'Angel Dust' I knew it was him. It took a lot of time to be able to contact him, had to get money to pay that bastard Valentino to even see him. I wouldn't have blamed him if he walked out the room as soon as he saw me but he didn't. And after a lot of apologizin' and catchin' up, now we're here."

He turned to look at Husk, "That's why I'm here, cause Valentino, Velvet, Vox, they have been puttin' my brotha' through pain while I was still alive and I will make sure they regret it."

"So it's atonement then?" Husk asked.

Arackniss paused momentarily then replied, "I guess you could call it that. But also it's because of family, you know us Husk we ran with the mob, and family means more than anythin'. My father never understood that and for while I was just like him. I hate myself for it, for what he made me. But that doesn't matter now."

"I see. We're here." Husk was curt with his reply as they pulled up outside The Grind. The building was on the smaller side, no bigger than a appliance store and was worn down over the years. Boards nailed over the windows and the sign missing the letter 'D'. Most would think this place was abandoned if not for the sign on the door that read 'YES WE ARE OPEN, PUSH DON'T PULL'. Before Arackniss got out of the car he turned once again to address Husk.

"So that's it? 'I see'? I pour my heart out to ya and that's all you got to say after that?"

"Look I ain't exactly the guy you go to for emotional support. I asked a question and you talked, didn't expect it to be so personal," Husk sighed, "but you do seem to care about Angel a lot. What Angel is going to go through he's gonna need all the support he can get."

"Yeah whateva', just get the bag," Arackniss replied before opening the door and stepping out taking the Extermination bomb and placing it inside his jacket. He and Husk walked up to the small weapons shop and opened the door to a dark empty room. Something wasn't right and Arackniss felt it. "Hello? Is anybody in here?"

Silence. Usually the place was busy with sounds of weapon manufacturing and tables full of people showing off and selling guns. But now the tables were all cleared and empty, none of the machinery in the back was making noise. "What the hell is goin' on," Arackniss breathed out.

He heard a soft thump behind him, he turned and saw Husk had dropped the bag of explosives behind him. "Um Husk, we need that for the plan? Pick it back up and lets get inside, we can figure out why no one is in here later."

"Arackniss. For what it's worth, I'm sorry."

Arackniss stepped towards Husk, "What the hell do you mean?"

"It's like I said, Alastor isn't in the business of making fair deals."

Arackniss realized too late what he meant as a sharp pain emanated from his abdomen, looking down a long sharp exterminator spear tip protruded from his chest. Then he was pulled into the dark and the door closed in front of him. He landed on his back on the ground which only jammed the spear further through his chest, causing him to scream in agony.

"Well well well, look what I caught!" a sickly sweet voice said. Arackniss flopped onto his side, blood already started pooling around him as the affects of the spear began to take hold. He was dying. He craned his head to look up and saw a small figure walking towards him with knives in each hand. Velvet.

"It's an itsy bitsy spider! Not the spider I hoped to catch but, I got to stick to the script so I'll take it for now."

Script? Arackniss didn't know what she meant but the pain in his chest was too overwhelming to think on it. Breathing heavily he grabbed the pole of the spear just below the head and started pulling out the rest of the spear through his chest. Velvet stood and watched him struggle, humming a tune to herself, almost taking pleasure in the scene before her. After what seemed like an entire minute Arackniss got the spear out, leaving behind a gaping hole in his chest. Velvet clapped and jumped as if to celebrate his small triumph. Arackniss glared and gritted his teeth, his third pair of arms extending with dual revolvers as he took aim and unloaded towards Velvet. This only caused Velvet to laugh more as she backflipped over a couple tables and flipped one on its side to block the rest of the oncoming bullet barrage. After 12 shots both revolvers clicked empty with every trigger pull. Cursing himself he retracted his arms and pulled out a tommy gun in place of the revolvers. Before he could get a shot off Velvet popped up with another laugh and threw two knives towards the spider. He rolled and dodged them, propping himself back onto his feet he crouched and fired, unloading round after round into the table. Chunks of wood ripped apart but Velvet wasn't behind them, seeing this he began spraying the bullets along the length of the table making sure no area was left unmarked. Once he ran out he quickly reloaded and turned his attention back to the table. For a moment, silence. No sign of Velvet anywhere.

Then he heard it, a creaking sound coming from above. He turned his attention upwards and saw Velvet hanging onto the ceiling by knives embedded there. Velvet saw him looking up at her, and with a smile she yelled out pulling the knives out of the ceiling and descended quickly onto Arackniss. He only managed to fire a couple of shots, which pierced through the sides of her body, before she tackled him to the ground and stabbed her knives straight through his lower arms severing them. He cried out in pain once more and used his legs to throw Velvet off of him and into the boarded window behind him. She slammed into it and fell to the ground with a groan. Using his other two pairs of arms he dragged himself to the bullet-ridden table in front of him, as far away from Velvet as he could muster. Looking towards Velvet he saw she was still sitting in front of the boarded window breathing hard. *Got no other choice* he thought. *I have to use this.* He reached into his jacket and felt the cold steel of the Extermination bomb against his fingers. He pulled it out with a groan and looked at it, his face contorted in pain and hesitation.

"I ain't comin' back from this... I need to call Anthony, warn him." With his lower arm he reached to the radio and turned it on. "Anthony! You need to get back to the studios now!"

"Niss? The hell is goin' on?"

Anthony... "Husk, figlio di puttana, we were set up Tony. From the very beginning we were set up, we never had this in control." I'm so sorry... "I ain't got much left in my brotha', just get back to the studio, don't let her get to Val-"

"Ooooo, what's that you got there little spider? Wanna show it to me?" Arackniss stopped and looked to Velvet, who was slowly approaching him, blood stained her dress but the wounds had already healed.

I wish I was a better brother to you... "No problem bitch." He raised the bomb and clicked it once, a display lit up on the bomb reading 10 seconds, "Ti amo fratellino," he finished dropping the bomb and letting it roll between the two figures. The last thing he saw before the bomb went off was Velvet's frightened face. That was enough to put a smile on his face before the world faded away.