Psycho Chan's Note: I'm typing between SVU episodes. There are three of them tonight. Yay! I love that show! Fluffy suggests I watch House…maybe I will. Seems like a good show actually, I just…have no life…I mean, I don't wanna ruin that by putting a goal or a meaning to my life…other than Static Shock…I love this show! As you can tell because it's the only FanFiction that we write…heehe…he…eh…I'm pathetic…

Final Cuts: Part Two

Sighing, Virgil headed home, which was still with his pops and Sharon. At eighteen, Virgil thought he'd have a decent job and at least a girl friend. Well…that was before the big bang. Before he was a super hero. Now he worries about saving his ass while trying to keep a normal life. You know, one with girls, a job, girls, family, and girls. After a long night on patrol in search for a new metahuman who decided that the new Egyptian exhibit would make a great shopping stop. The woman was caught, and with it already being late, Virgil decided to walk home. It was a warm summer night, and not like he had the time to enjoy the weather during the day anyway.

He made a detour through the park. Where he use to hang out. It was a calm and peaceful place. Again, until the big bang. After the cure was dispersed, it got quiet again. Up until Ebon and HotStreak made a second bang after breaking into Alva's lab and stealing the 'last' of the gas. Knowing Alva, he probably had multiple containers in different labs.

Something caught Virgil's eye. A body on a park bench.

Curious, the young hero walks over to the bench, realizing it to be HotStreak. Having no interest, he turns to walk away. That is, until the reflection of the moon in a dark puddle catches his attention. Looking again, Virgil spots a knife on the ground, having fallen not long ago as the man slumbers. The same knife that the man had before on the hover craft nearly a year and a half ago. The blood was still dripping slowly, seeming to make a rippling sound with each plummeting drop.

Brown eyes scan the other man. His shirt was blood stained as well. HotStreak didn't look too good at all. Virgil actually looks at Francis. His expression was horrible. It was full of pain and suffering. Like it actually hurt him to be alive. Virgil stares at the older man. This man who has so much pride and dignity, laying in the park, a bloody mess. The man had actually allowed himself to be seen like this. To be seen a mess and falling apart. Unable to walk away, Virgil checks to see if the man is wakable.

"HotStreak." Virgil speaks softly, shaking the man on the leg. "HotStreak…wake up."

A groan escapes the man.

"HotStreak, wake up. You can't sleep here."

The rebel opens his eyes, straining to see the one who woke him up. Virgil looks into HotStreak's empty eyes. The color had seemed to have drained out of them, the once bright green a dull gray. "Huh?"

"It's late…why…why don't you come spend the night at my place. You can clean up there too." He recognized that voice, but he wasn't quite sure who. Sitting up, the broken man looks around, almost confused at where he was.

"…?" His eyes focused on Virgil. "Hawkins?" That was who. But…

"Yeah…it's me…it's been a while, hasn't it?" Virgil smiles. "It's been four years…"

Understanding where he is and why he is there, HotStreak nods to himself. "It been that long?" HotStreak could not believe it was that long. It seemed longer than that.

"Yeah. C'mon. On your feet."

Deciding he could use the help, HotStreak reaches down to get his knife, putting it in his side pocket. "'kay…"

Almost immediately Virgil was further worried, having to lunge forward to catch HotStreak from losing his balance and falling. The mocha skinned teen helps the older man walk, thinking of a way to keep the man up and conscious. "What happened exactly?"

"Well…" About this time, HotStreak's lesson with Talon kicks in. About secrets and their dangers. Not like he was going to lie either, he hated that more. Truth works. Besides, he was too tired to make up a story. "I was dating Shiv…only he was dating Ebon too…" Virgil examines the redhead's expression. The same as that night with AquaMaria and the night he had mentioned Ferret. The pain of not only breaking up, but having his heart broken as well. "Shiv choose him…Shiv sliced my chest open and Ebon raped me." He had put that simply.

"Raped?" Virgil knew that pain. Very well.

"That happens a lot when you live on the streets…" HotStreak struggles to keep walking in a straight line. He was too dizzy, all he wanted was a glass of water and to stop walking.

"Does it happen to you often?" Virgil was curious. Suddenly, he didn't feel so bad that he was used. He had angered the emotionally unstable man, and if he were raped often, it was only natural for him to take what he learned and do it too.

"It's been apart of my life since I was a child…" HotStreak spoke carefully. He didn't tell anyone this. Not Ferret, not AquaMaria or Shiv. Somehow, Virgil was easy to talk to. "Guess it's just part of me now."

The rest of the walk was quiet. Virgil struggled to get the man through the door and it was nearly impossible to get him up the stairs. Thankfully, he finally stepped into his room, tossing the man onto his bed. HotStreak lands in the light blue sheets gently, sinking into the soft fabric.

"I'll be back with some towels and stuff for your wounds." Virgil left down the hall, leaving the other man alone. Again, HotStreak didn't mind being alone. What he really wanted to know was why Virgil Hawkins was helping him. He could have sworn that he beat the snot out of the kid on a regular basis back in junior high.

Before he can think of something else other than he's stupid, the younger man returns.

"Hope you don't mind but…I'm gonna have to ask you to take off your clothes while I do this. I'll wash them and I'll lend you clean ones for the night." Virgil stands next to the bed. "Is it okay?"

"Yeah." HotStreak really didn't have to think about it. Gripping the bottom of his t-shirt, Francis tugs the tight material over his head, handing it to Virgil, who tosses it in an empty clothes basket Sharon left for him. Virgil looks at the gash in the other man's chest.

"You…should probably go to the hospita-"

"No." HotStreak lays down, staring at the ceiling. "I don't do hospitals."

Remembering that back on the island, Virgil nods. "Okay." He begins to clean up the cut, the white towel soaking up the crimson color, staining it. "I won't make you go. Just…stay here then…okay?"

"For a while…" HotStreak grunts as the rough cloth goes over swollen flesh. After a few awkward minutes, the blood was wiped clean, having stopped bleeding.

An abrasion on Francis's skin catches his attention. It looked painful, black skin and a…"Where'd you get that?"

Francis opens his eyes to see Virgil pointing at the scar burned into his flesh. "From Static." He saddens as he watches Virgil's eyes widen. "It was my fault…"

"How so?" Virgil could not look away from the scar he left. Last he saw it, it was still a bleeding mess with flesh hanging off burned skin. It wasn't any better now. It actually seemed worse.

"I…raped him…he made me so mad…he caught me on a bad day…and I lost control of myself. I don't even remember doing it…I blacked out." Virgil looks at HotStreak's seemingly gray eyes. "I don't remember if I was rough or not…if I hurt him…what I said to him…I can't remember it…but shortly after he struck me with one of his punches…" Both were silent for a while. "I deserved more than some missing flesh…I deserve much more…I feel so guilty…I almost want to ask him about it…to see how bad I was to him…how I treated him…how much I fucked him up…" HotStreak looks Virgil in the eyes. "He's a good kid…he doesn't deserve that…to be fucked by a whore who no one wants…I know first hand what kind of damage that does to a person…and I did it to someone else…" HotStreak closed his eyes, his mind quickly going dark.

Virgil moved on to clean up HotStreak's wrist. He couldn't help but think. All this time he thought of HotStreak as a monster that could never die. Him returning from the bay with Ebon nearly proved that to the city. A man without remorse or honor. A self centered man who was selfish and cruel. A demon. Nonhuman even.

But he wasn't.

HotStreak wasn't like the image he portrayed. He was simply human. A person with feelings and needs. And the city rejected his needs. Virgil looks at the eight scars on the man's wrists. Each carefully sliced. Deliberate. HotStreak needed help and no one was around to help him.

Virgil smiles softly. All this time he hated the man who took his innocence. His body. However, so much more was taken from HotStreak. Almost everything was taken from him. Francis Stone felt guilty. Meaning he was indeed human, and not a monster.

That was easily proven by simply looking at the man now. Virgil's brown eyes skim over the topless man. Aside from the gash, he saw scars upon scars. Slashes, tears, claw marks, even bite marks.

It was about time someone helped this man.

"Guess you really do have issues Francis…" Virgil says softly, leaning forward. "You may be broken…but…I promise I'll fix you." The mocha skinned man kisses the red head's forehead gently.

The road to recovery is a long one.