ACHILLES' HEEL

Warning: Violence, Angst galore etc.

NB: I'm not one for writing SPC humour. I like to find the serious sides of their characters and expose them to the world. Lol. Also, don't expect each chapter to be too long.

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Chapter Three: Guido Anchovy

Was it a room? Guido wasn't sure. All he could see was neverending darkness. The floor was hard and cold beneath his feet. Two figures began to slowly form in front of him. One tomcat, one she-cat. They were both a little shorter than he was. The former was dressed in white armour, the latter in pink. Both were ready for battle, but against what? Guido scanned the darkness. There was nothing and nobody else that he could see.

"You're going down, Anchovy." Speedy said, breaking the silence. His voice was a menacing growl as he unsheathed his sword. "It's about time we did this." He blasted a small ball of energy from the tip of the sword, knocking Guido off his feet.

"My turn." Polly said, her voice low and growling like Speedy's. "Hiiii-ya!" Several heart-shaped pods were thrown at him, attaching themselves to parts of his body and releasing shocks of pain as well as clouds of pink gas that made him cough and choke loudly.

"What the?" He paused to cough loudly from the gas. Speedy moved closer and kicked him in the stomach. Hard. Guido groaned in pain, clutching his stomach. "Guys? What's gotten into you?" They both laughed.

"You don't get it, do you?" Speedy sneered, the tip of his sword pointing at the base of Guido's neck. "We don't want, or need you around, Guido. We never have. The SPC only needs strong, brave warriors that the public eye adores. That means, in more simple terms, that we *don't* need *you!*" He pressed the sword a little harder, and a trickle of blood came from the small hole the sword's tip had made. Guido tried not to wince.

"But did we ever need him, Speedy?" Polly asked in an almost dreamy tone, slipping her arm around his waist. "I mean, he only ever defeated one of the Big Cheese's robots, and I'm thinking that was pure luck anyway. You've defeated over twenty of them alone. Even I managed to defeat more than Guido could, and I'm a woman!" She laughed coldly, her violet eyes dancing with cruel humour as she planted kisses along Speedy's neck.

"Guys? Guys? What's going on here?" Guido could feel his breath tightening in his throat as he backed away. They laughed coolly.

"You still don't get it, do you?" Speedy sneered, sliding the sword down to Guido's chest and taking a step forward. "Your time is up. Nobody wants you around anymore, because you've proved just how worthless you really are. In fact, I don't think anybody ever wanted you around. Take a good long look at your life. Can you honestly think of one time when your life was worth anything to *anybody?*"

Guido's mouth dropped open in shock at the cold, cruel words that were flowing from the mouth of the tomcat that he had believed to be his best friend. He cleared his throat, trying to come up with a good reply, but a cold, whispery voice penetrated his mind to answer for him.

Of course you can't think of a moment, because there isn't one. You were never needed in life. Speedy and Polly don't even want you around, look at the revulsion in their eyes. You were never part of the team, just an inconvenience that they were too polite to rid themselves of because they knew how badly you wanted to feel like you belonged somewhere. But you've never truly belonged anywhere, have you? If it weren't for their politeness, you would've died a long time ago at your own hands. Maybe you should. Go on, Guido, get Speedy to push the sword a little deeper. You're all alone once more, so you might as well end it. You're worthless, you have nobody and nothing to live for…

"No! That's not true…" He muttered, barely loud enough for Speedy and Polly to hear. "I'm not worthless, and I'm not alone. I *am* needed…I know it!" Polly laughed coolly as she continued to rain kisses over Speedy's neck. He pulled her closer with one arm.

"Oh, look! The little baby is talking to himself!" She squealed gleefully. "Well, I hate to bust your bubble, Guido, but every word you speak is a lie. You *are* worthless and you *are* alone! Speedy and I were *never* your friends. We don't even like you. You're nothing but a delusional moron with nothing and nobody to live for. I mean, who would even *want* to like, let alone love somebody as worthless as you?" She turned around and captured Speedy's mouth in a deep, passionate kiss. He responded eagerly, and Guido could see their tongues battling for dominance. Their eyes remained wide open the entire time and fixed upon him.

Guido bit his tongue and closed his eyes tight. He wasn't going to cry, he couldn't. But these were his supposed best friends doing this to him…

They're just proving the truth to you, Guido. You're weak, worthless and alone. You can't defeat second-hand robots without their help, you're considered by everybody, even them, to be the least important SPC, and you have nobody. You have no family, nobody to hold you at night and tell you that you mean something to them. Hell, you don't even have any friends. WEAK, WORTHLESS AND ALONE!!! Accept it and kill yourself. It's all you have left, and you know it.

"Please kill me, Speedy!!!" He rasped, feeling completely drained of all energy. Speedy smiled cruelly, twisting the Ginzu Sword against Guido's chest just hard enough to draw blood.

"Oh, I plan to." He answered evenly. "But not right away. I think I'll continue to let you know just how worthless you are for a little longer. Oh, and by the way, in case you haven't noticed, Polly and I are together. Guess that proves who she thinks is more worthy of her love, ain't that right, Polly?"

"Definitely." She sneered, staring straight at Guido. "You could never compete with somebody as wonderful as Speedy. He's always been the one with more friends and girlfriends, he's the leader of the SPC, and he's defeated more robots in the last three years than you could in nine lifetimes-"

"Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!!!" Guido yelled, has claws digging viciously into his forearms. Their laughing, as well as the whispery, mocking laugh of the voice inside his head, seemed to fill his ears and echo violently around what Guido now believed to be a room…

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Guido woke up to himself kicking the bedclothes violently off the bed. He groaned and pushed his damp, dark hair back from his forehead.

"Fuck." He groaned again. "That dream again. It's like it knows all my fears and gets a kick out of exposing them to me." There was no point in trying to sleep again, he knew that. His ears pricked up at the sound of soft sobs coming from the room next to him and, mean as it was, he felt a twinge of satisfaction. Polly had been having her nightmare too, so he wasn't alone.

Clad only in a pair of black boxers, he stumbled towards his draws and felt in the top one for a cigarette and lighter. They were the only things that could calm him down after the dream. He knew that Speedy and Polly often had similar dreams - dreams that exposed their greatest fears - around the same time he did because they had discussed them before late at night over hot drinks. But they all had different methods of coping.

Speedy's method was late-night bingeing. Polly usually cried herself back to a dreamless sleep. He smoked himself into apathy, but never found himself able to sleep again for the rest of the night.

Guido sighed, shivering slightly at the cool breeze as he stepped onto the balcony, lighting his cigarette and sharply inhaling the strong smoke into his lungs. He exhaled just as sharply and leant onto the balcony rail, the cigarette resting between the second and third fingers of his left hand. He was going to be out here for awhile.