A Spilled Secret

The three of them stare blankly desperately trying to grasp the understanding of what was said.

"Are you guys not happy, I thought you guys would be jumping for joy." Mark stares at them with a little bit of disappointment in his eyes.

"You can't just drop something like that right after me almost killing, whatever his name is!" Scarlett shouts with a mixture of anger and excitement welling up in her throat.

"Who are you talking about almost killing, you could never kill me with one of those bullsh*t paintings of yours!" Vixx angerly exclaims.

"Well, I don't care what you say right now, no name, I am focused on the fact that we are all getting a chance at K.G.A.." Scarlett says as she stares off into the distance her eyes filled with anticipation and excitement.

Tabs ignore Vixx and Scarlett and walks over to Mark and Maria.

"Captain Silver, I am more than grateful to hear what you did for us, but why me and Big bro, I understand your own daughter, but why us?"

Mark lays his hand on Tabs shoulder, "Look, I have known you and Vixx for the last five years, and every time I have met you two, you we're more determine to be Guardians than most actual Guardians."

"So, let me just say that now is the time for you guys to become actual Guardians."

"Is that the real reason?" Tabs looks intently with a playful grin.

"Well, it is also to get the two of you out of my hair for once."

"Either way, on behalf of Vixx too, I thank you guys deeply." Tabs give both Mark and Maria a warm embracive hug.

Vixx walks over to Mark and Tabs, "Hey, sorry to break up a nice moment, but before Scarlett made her petty attempt to kill me, we were talking about "Keyan's" spark." 

Mark breaks the hug and places his hands into his pants pockets, "Uh, if I can remember correctly, he has a body modifier type power spark, and I think he has the power of a squid."

"It was a blue ringed octopus, one of the most venomous creatures in the ocean." Scarlett states after she broke out of her daydream.

 "Well, that sounds very exciting to see in person." Vixx exclaims with a mischievous grin striped across his face.

Tabs happens to glance down at the old janky wristwatch and notices the time.

"Oh, Sh*t, Big bro we have to get back home before it gets too late."

Vixx glances down at his own wristwatch and sees the time.

"Oh yeah we have to go."

Both Tabs and Vixx make their way to the front door.

"Hey, wait don't go yet." Scarlett cries out.

Vixx turns around and reveals an irritated face to Scarlett, "What is it now, are you going to paint a gun, and try to finish the job this time." He says mockingly.

"Yeah, ha ha very funny."

"But I was wanting to patch up the wound that I caused." 

Vixx looks down at his left arm and sees the multiple holes where the plants teeth punctured his flesh.

"Oh yeah I forgot that this happened, yeah sure I don't mind, but let's get this done so I don't bleed out."

Scarlett rolls her eyes in annoyance, "You really are an idiot." She whispers under her breath.

Scarlett steps out of the dining room and makes her way down a hallway.

"Follow me."

Vixx complies and makes his way down the hallway behind Scarlett.

Meanwhile still in the dining room Tabs, Mark, and Maria stand there as the silence fills the air.

But then a sudden beep erupts from Tabs's watch and breaks the tension.

He looks down at it and reads the message on the watches screen "Oh, that is my daily workout plan, time for push-ups."

Tabs looks back up at Mark and Maria, "Hope you don't mind but Iet me borrow you floor really quick."

Before Mark or Maria has a chance to speak Tabs drops to the ground and starts to rep out push-ups.

Mark looks down at Tabs and can't help but watch, "You know Tabs I thought you were supposed to be the respectful one out of the two of you."

* * *

Scarlett and Vixx make it to the end of the hallway and pass through an open door on the right.

Scarlett flips the rooms light switch and reveals a pearly white bathroom.

"Man, this is way too much white even for a rich person." Vixx says covering his eyes from the light's reflection off the white surfaces.

Scarlett opens up a cabinet and pulls a bunch of medical supplies and scatters them around the sink.

"Okay sit right there on the toilet and we can begin."

Vixx continues to comply and sits on the toilet.

She quickly washes her hands and then puts on latex gloves and pulls up a small stool from the corner of the room.

"Okay let's start this."

She grabs a bottle of alcohol and gets ready to pour it on the wound.

"Get ready this will hurt."

Vixx nonchalantly rest his elbow on his knee to prop up his head, "Don't worry I'll be fine this isn't my first rodeo."

"Oh, you do you mean the gunshot wounds you got today apparently." She gives a jokingly smile.

"Well, those too."

She opens the top of the bottle and begins to pour the alcohol over his forearm.

As she pours it when it makes contact with the wound, she notices that Vixx arm doesn't tense up and that he still is carrying a nonchalant expression on his face.

A bit disturbed at the sight of this she curiously looks at Vixx, "Man, not even a flinch, it is almost like you have had to do stuff like this a lot.

Vixx shrugs his shoulders as he lets the question she asked fly over his head.

After Scarlett gets done pouring the alcohol she sets the bottle down and grabs some bandages and begins to wrap his forearm.

"After I get done wrapping your forearm, I'm gonna need you to take off your shirt so I can get you shoulder without ruining your shirt."

"Alright."

"Really, you don't seem troubled at all about taking your shirt off in front of a girl."

Vixx sits up and leans back on the tank of the toilet, "Well you see, I don't really care, and I'm not going to be troubled taking my shirt off in front of anyone if it means I don't bleed out."

"I guess that's a way to think about situation such as these." 

"Okay, I am done now, so you can take your shirt off now." Scarlett stands up and backs away giving Vixx room to stand up.

"Are you going to stare at me the whole time?" Vixx asks teasingly.

"I can look away if you want me to." She says frantically as her cheeks begin to glow a rosy red.

Vixx continues to tease her seeing her embarrassment, "I leave that choice to you."

Without warning he grabs the bottom right of his shirt and slowly begins to pull his right arm though the arm sleeve but struggles to get it over his head due to the injuries.

"Hey, you don't mind helping me do you my arms won't go past my shoulders." Vixx ask as half of his torso is exposed, and his shirt sits on one half of his body.

Scarlett who covered her eyes begins to take her hands from her eyes,

"Fine I guess I can't blame you, but don't ask me for anything like this again." She exclaims with embarrassment.

She moves forward a few steps only making eye contact as to avoid seeing Vixx's body.

She grabs his shirt and gently guides it over his head and pulls the sleeve off his arm revealing the rest of the wound on his shoulder.

Vixx stares at the shoulder wound, "It isn't bad at all, it is just a scratch."

Scarlett stares at him in confusion and irritation, "How, are you able to say stuff like that, you have four giant holes in your shoulder that aren't supposed to be there."

But as she subconsciously looks down at the rest of his body, she finds the answer to Vixx's easy going nature to the situation.

Her eyes scan his body and notices the tens of scars that reside from past wounds and even a few burns that scatter all across his body, even expanding to his arms.

At the sight of Vixx's body she backs up and covers her mouth in disbelief still keeping her gaze at Vixx's body.

Vixx seeing this, plays it off as her observing his physically toned body, "I know right, the six pack is insane, I have worked hard for this body you know."

But seeing the shaken state Scarlett was in, his playful grin quickly faded as he sat back down on the toilet.

"Just try to ignore them, they just came with the choices that I have made in the past, so no need to get super emotional." Vixx says in attempts to reassure her.

Even though she is in disbelief she is able to muster up the courage to form a sentence. "How, did you get them?", "If you don't mind me asking."

Vixx looks upon her and lets out a sigh to clear his mind, "Sure I don't mind telling you about some of them, I'll let you ask about three of them."

Scarlett still shaken steps forward and sits back down on the stool, "Where did you get this one?" As she points to a smaller scar on the lower left of his stomach.

"That came from an invention I made it ended up blowing up in my face and a piece of shrapnel sliced me open, next." 

"This one?" As she points to a medium sized burn on his right side.

"That one is more recent, I got it trying to stop some kids from picking on another kid, and one of them was a fire manipulator and caught me off guard, next."

Scarlett hesitates to point to the next one as she feels it may be insensitive.

Vixx sees her curiosity and follows through with it, "So, you want to learn about this one." As he points his thumb at a huge scar that drapes across his whole chest.

Scarlett nods her head reluctantly.

"You see, I got this one when I was eight years old." He says as he leans back again on the tank of the toilet.

"It was a reminder that I, once in my life was betrayed by my own parents."

Scarlett listens more curiously, "What do you mean by that."

"It starts with my parents, at first glance the seemed like great people and they were great people, but nobody would expect great people to come from a poverty-stricken area."

"They always put everyone before them including me, as you would expect a parent to do, and even with no money the still made life so worth living for everyone around them."

"However. . ."

"Even when the nicest people get even a whiff of riches, they can easily turn into monster, and that is what happened with my parents.

Scarlett notices Vixx recalling the story is leaving him disturbed.

"If you don't want to continue you don't have to force yourself."

Vixx gives a little smirk, "I don't like to leave a good story unfinished."

"So anyway, sometime passed and I was around seven years old, my parents ended up winning the lottery, and it was a huge thing, because I thought that we could finally turn our lives around.

"Although, my parents began to change, once they got the money, they became more cold-hearted and started to cut off anyone they knew."

"At the time I didn't know why, but I trusted my parents, so I never questioned it."

"But then rumors started to form that my once cheerful and selfless parents became dangerous money hungry kingpins that didn't hesitate to make competition disappear."

"And at that moment I thought, maybe I am not safe anymore with my parents doing what they are doing, so, of course I did what any young child would do and address the problem to them."

"And that turned out to be the worst decision in my life." He says as he slowly brushes his hand over the huge chest scar.

"What ended up happening?"

"It seems after I addressed the problem, I had with what they were doing, and it seemed to really upset them."

"After that they didn't care for me anymore, my parents never once raised their hands at me, but that all changed."

"Soon after a few months my parents started to beat me more frequently, and after a while I became numb to it all, and they noticed that, so they decided to do the unthinkable."

"What. . . did they do?" Scarlett hesitantly asked."

*sigh* "They decided to kill their son in cold blood."

"On the day I turned eight, they dragged me to a warehouse where my father decided to be my executioner."

"You see my father's power spark was a body modifier type that allowed him to turn parts of his body into katana blades."

"Anyway, during that time, all I can remember is being so confused, but before I knew it my father with zero hesitation lunged at me and struck me in my chest."

"I swear time moved slow for a minute as the pain filled my entire body, it was the worst thing I have ever felt, but for some reason I wasn't scarred, I just felt dead even though I was still breathing."

"If your father was going to kill you, how did you manage to survive?"

"When my father was about to finish me off, I could barely see straight, but all I could see was a large creature that grabbed and threw my dad through one of the warehouses walls."

"Of course, my father resisted, and him and the creature began to fight, and it looked as if the creature was fighting to keep my father away from me."

"Well, after a while the creature was starting to slow down, and my father was gaining the upper hand, so I did the only thing I could do to help."

"I used the rest of my strength to stand up and grab my father from behind to hinder his movement, and in that split second the creature got a hold of him and ripped his head from his body."

"I didn't know how to feel at the time, but I ended up passing out due to blood loss."

"But, when I ended up waking up in the hospital, and sleeping at the end of my bed was some kid who at the time I have never met, but the doctor told me he was the one who got me to the hospital."

"And that kid ended up being the person we both know as the one and only Tabs."

Scarlett eyes widen as her back starts to straighten due to the shock, "Wait, are you telling me that Tabs was the creature that ended up killing your father." She exclaims

"Yep, and all I can say now is that I'm and deeply grateful for what he did, because if he didn't, I would be dead."

"How, does Tabs feel about that, I feel like he is the type of person who would be never forgive themselves for doing something like that." She asks concerned.

"Thats the thing, he doesn't remember, when I was still in the hospital the doctors told me that Tabs had just awakened his spark at that moment to save me, and the side effect was a bit of memory loss, which is common with junior stages of power sparks."

"However, since he was exposed to so much abuse at the prepubescents stages of his spark, he gained another side effect, his bones in his arms became less dense and a lot more brittle than most." Vixx says as he stumbles and chokes on his words.

"But his arms look alright when I saw them, he looks like he could bench press a house if he wanted to." Scarlett says confused.

"You see I am an inventor; I invent things to make up for my lack of having no power spark, and most of my inventions are half assed and thrown together."

"But the one time I decided too actually try and create something that wasn't garbage, I was able to create those bandages that he wears around his arms, out of a rare steel that I infused into some silk cloth, and those basically reverse the whole side effect, but only when he wears them."

Scarlett looks on in admiration, "Wow, that sounds cool."

"You could say that, but it still clouds my thoughts from time to time that he developed this side effect due to saving me." He says as the pain of thinking of it covers his face.

Scarlett raises both hands as she grasps onto Vixx's cheeks with great care and delicacy, "I'm pretty sure if Tabs could remember, I'm sure he wouldn't mind doing it again."

Vixx's anguished face slowly starts to form a smile, "Those are some refreshing words to hear at this moment, however we need to get back to fixing me up so me and Tabs can go home."

"Ohh Sh*t Thats Right!" Scarlett exclaims as she takes her hands from Vixx's cheeks, "Sorry I didn't mean to grabs your face." She says as the embarrassment causes her face to glow a bright red.

"No, you're fine it actually helped a lot." He says to reassure her.

"Anyway, like I said let's get this done I'm trynna go home." Vixx says as he lifts up his arm causing blood to spew from his shoulder, awaiting Scarlet to apply the rest of the bandages.

Scarlett grabs the rest of the bandages and begins to apply them to Vixx's shoulder.

As those they continue with the wound, Tabs sits outside the closed bathroom door with as the look of disbelief and horror begin to engulf his face.

Tabs holds his hands in front of his weary and teary eyes, "I. . . Did something. . . Like that?!?"