âYou have no idea what Iâve been through! Not with Crossbones, not at the Initiative, not ever!â Well, of course Frank didnât; Trauma wasnât a very forthcoming person at the best of times. âPeople wanting me dead wouldnât be new; my dad wanted me dead. And arrested? I doubt there are any prisons that would be worse than what Iâve been through already.â
   He stood up, glaring, trembling. âYou wanna know what happened while I was gone? You want me to tell you how fucking easy it was for him to just grab me off the street like discarded baggage? Why? You want me to tell you about the first day in that basement, when I was tied up and had to break my own hand to get to food? How does you knowing that help me?â He held up his left hand, showing his thumb, not quite at the proper angle; itâd healed wrong and his death and resurrection hadnât fixed it.
    âYou want me to lay out for you in excruciating detail the hole in my gut when I realized no one was coming for me? You want me to explain that I spent years not letting the Initiative turn me into a soldier only to have to become a fighter because of one normal guy? Is this what you wanna hear, Frank? Or did you want to hear that farm animals have better conditions than what I was kept in? That Iâm still not sure exactly how much time I was gone because my memory warped from it? Do you want to know how good it felt when I finally got my hands around his throat? How even though I want him dead, I went along obediently with him to toy with my old friends? And that Iâve gone to him looking for work, but how even he didnât have a use for me now?â
   He grabbed the chair closest to him and threw it to the ground, then stopped, glaring down at the chair. His whole body was shaking as it hit him that heâd pretty much summed everything up with that rant. And⊠that should make him feel better, right? To finally tell someone about this particular ideal. But Trauma felt hollow⊠Like trying to get water out of a long-dry well. âBut whatever. Whether you think Iâm weak or not, I donât go down as easy as I did before, so Iâve got that going for me.â
   Frank listened with a neutral expression, letting Trauma get out as much as he needed to without interruption. It was heartbreaking to hear what he went through, and guilt from not being able to protect him from it left Frank with a heavy heart.
   As Trauma grew more aggressive, and his tone more angry, though, Frank felt anxiety tickle at the back of his throat. Usually, it wasnât much of an issue, but Traumaâs powers made things trickier, and Frank had to put more effort into repressing the feeling. The last thing he wanted was for Traumaâs powers to pick up on it and have the younger man hold back or shift focus as a result. When Trauma tossed the chair, Frank momentarily closed his eyes, and tensed a little, but overall he held himself very well.
   Silence lingered for a bit after Trauma finished speaking. There was a lot of ways to handle the situation, and Frank wasnât entirely sure which path to take. There wasnât really a chapter in any parenting books for this sort of situation. Part of him wanted to open up to Trauma a bit and reassure him that there was other people out there who could understand his pain, but he didnât want to overshare or inadvertently make it seem like he was diminishing Terryâs trauma.
   âI...â Frank started tentatively, before continuing with a hint of pain in his tone, âI want to make sure you know- I- Terry, I looked for ya every day, and I never stopped. I talked tâ all my contacts, cashed in favors, but... Crossbones wasnât even remotely on my radar. I couldnât have thought-- Just, Iâm sorry I couldnât find you, and donât ever think no oneâs gonna look for you, âcause I will. I promise ya that.â
   âBut... Terry,â He hesitated slightly, still not sure of himself, or if he was making the right choice on how to comfort Trauma, âYou canât let âem win. This is what they want. They want ya tâ be broken, for you to give in to âem and change yourself for âem.â
   âLook, if you feel like ya need to fight, if you think thatâs what you need to do... I get it. I really do, but this isnât the way to do it. Taking whatever job you can get to feel the rush of power is just a temporary fix, and it wonât work forever. Itâll become an addiction worse than any drug.â
   âIf ya really want tâ take back your life, become thâ kind of person that makes Nightmare and Crossbones afraid of their own shadows. I still think youâd make a damn good therapist, but if you really need to fight, do it for thâ right reasons. Not just because youâre angry or because you think it gives ya a sense of control, because ya canât control anger, it controls you.â
