Song: Over My Head (Cable Car), The Fray
Focal Character(s): Jade, Peony
The crack of flesh hitting flesh seemed to echo in the air. Jade stared at the floor in shock. Had Peony's fist collided with his jaw two inches higher, his glasses would have been on the other side of the room. But that wasn't what was on his mind.
"That's enough!"
Jade continued looking away, his jaw still smarting with fresh pain.
"Whatever you do, the dead cannot be brought back to life! And spare some thought about how Nephry, Saphir, and I would feel if you were to die!"
Jade finally looked up at Peony. His friend's hand was still balled into a fist as he lowered his raised voice.
"You can't run away from what you did. If, in spite of that, you still want to run away, at the very least let the Professor rest in peace."
Jade lowered his eyes, closing them. He'd been so blind. Peony had seen it for so long, and Jade had just closed his eyes and kept running. It had taken him this long to realize just how far in over his head he was. Logically, his other injuries should have been causing him more pain, but in truth, this was this one that hurt the worst.
"...You're right. Perhaps it's already time I put this to an end."
A/N: The dialogue here is taken directly from chapter four of the Jade manga, where Peony quite literally smacks some sense into Jade after a fomicry experiment goes wrong, leading him to stop the fomicry experiments to resurrect Professor Nebilim. The scene also shows up in episode eleven of the Abyss anime.