Arch Frenemies

Part 64: Bad Medicine

When that lock clicked and the door was between them, the suitcase fell from his hands and hit the carpet with a muffled thump. The empath could contain it no longer, the wall inside his mind had broken beyond repair. His mind could no longer hold anything back, and his knees were buckling out from under him.  Slowly he slid his back against the door, crumpling to the floor. 

He pulled his knees to his thin chest, feeling a painful throbbing in his upper torso. The lifelong criminal felt the urge to claw his own heart out; just to stop the wretched thing from causing so much pain; any way he could. 
It hurt so badly! 

So this is guilt. 
It dawned on him.  His very existence had revolved around it since the day of his birth, and in his short life span he had already read the guilt of hundreds of thousands of people, yet he had never felt the thing for himself. 
The throbbing only grew more painful by the second, and he just wanted to rip the dammed thing out.

Toxic placed his hand over his heart, as if trying to press back at a wound, wondering how something that was purely emotional could cause such tremendous physical pain! A tear slid down his pale cheek as h rocked himself. 

How are humans able to live with this? Toxic had never experienced his own guilt before, but then again, he'd never shed a tear before either; and his powers were only magnifying the tarrying experiences coursing within his body.  Ironically, he could read everything. The things he was feeling amplified themselves accordingly. 
A real taste of his own bad medicine. 

Toxic closed his eyes and leaned his head against the door, trying to find a way to think away the pain when he heard it, a sound that caused his already cracked heart to shatter completely.
Pressing his ear against the door only confirmed it, as soft sobbing could be heard on just the other side. 

I made her cry.
He began to think about how Galaxy Girl must be feeling after what he had just done... and the internal pain only grew more unbearable. Toxic sat there silently, and another tear fell as he listened to the sounds she made when crying. 
He wanted to break down the door between them just to get to her, to comfort her like he did before. To hold her until she stopped making that soul crushing sound that wanted to destroy him. 

With her, I'm in what humans call love.
I love her so much it hurts.
Realizing that is why he did what he just did. She had no future with him, well... other than the one that had been predestined for them.
It's what's best for the world. 
He knew that if anybody ever found out, it would ruin her. She would be abandoned by her parents, shunned by the league, and dishonored in front of the world. A fate worse than death for any lifelong super hero. 

After a few minutes, the noise stopped. 
Listening, he heard footsteps and the sound of the V.A.S.O powering up and turning the shower on. 
The villain wiped his face with the back of his hand, black makeup smudging onto it. A side effect of producing tears; no doubt. 

Still wrecked with guilt, he pushed himself to his feet. 
I still have a job to do. 
"If I can't heal her heart, the least I can do is heal her reputation." He told himself out loud as he forced his body to walk to the ballroom. 

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