The Squire of Mars had no idea how far he'd come when he became aware that he needed to stop. He'd been driven on blindly by his guilt-ridden heart and only came to his senses once he became aware of the pulsing pain radiating in waves across his face. He didn't care for the emergency room at this time of night, he didn't want the raised eyebrows at another twenty-something with inexplicable injuries. Pretty soon they were just going to start quarantining them all.

No, the bathroom would do.

It was a little public rest room at the back of a children's playground. It wasn't perfect, but it had been cleaned recently and there was no one here to ask him questions. He slipped in beneath the dimly lit men's symbol and shut the door behind him, not that he expected anyone to follow an armored, bloody man into a deserted playground in the middle of the night. His boots rang out against the grungy tiles with every step, echoing uncomfortably within the small open space. Each step bounced across the walls with nothing to soak in the sound, chiming like bells against his aching skull. The pain throbbed to the beat and he accepted the rhythm of his penance. There was no comfort to be found this night, not for him. His soul would not let such a slip of judgment go unpunished.

Gehenna found himself face to face with his worst enemy as he came level with the chipped mirror hanging low over the bathroom's only sink. Brown eyes stared back at him from the reflection, hollowed and sunken in a face matted with blood. The line of his nose was off center but the swelling had already started. He had precious few moments left to do this on his own and no time to question how much it was going to hurt.

He drew in one long breath and steepled his fingers to a point above the bridge of his nose. With no time to second guess himself, he pressed in and began to drag his fingers down, gritting his teeth around a low growl. Instinct told him to shut his eyes against the pain, but he couldn't. He kept pressing the steeple down over the crooked bridge until he felt it shift back into place.

In reality, it felt more like someone had smashed him in the face with a sledgehammer.

Nausea swelled up in his stomach as dizziness claimed him. His dark hands clenched the sides of the porcelain sink so hard he might have broken it off had he not already wasted all of his strength. For a moment he looked dangerously close to passing out, or vomiting all over the room. Maybe both. Instead he forced one strong palm up and balanced it beside the mirror, drawing in deep, calming breaths to fight through the worst of it as he used the wall for support. The cold of the tile was comforting and after a few moments the nausea had abated enough to let him focus on the sight of the man in the mirror again.

Gehenna.

Inwardly, Kam grimaced at the name. His feelings were an equal mix of guilt, hatred and need. Who had this man been? How had he wielded such power without destroying everything he had loved? He envied Penny and her ancestor, the woman that guided her through the worst times. Kamboja had nothing but a few glimpses of a man he'd never met, someone he was having a hard time convincing himself he'd ever been.

Shame hurt worse than any injury he'd suffered and there was no one he could take it on, except for himself. The hand still left on the sink curled into a fist instinctively. He was the reason this had all happened. Kamboja wasn't strong enough to wield Gehenna's power, he wasn't worthy. Gehenna had been great, revered. Mars had held him in the highest esteems and given him a post of honor. Who was he if he couldn't serve the Princess that had claimed him?

His hand reared backwards and slammed into the mirror, shattering it into a thousand fragments. The tiniest pieces clattered down into the sink and he let go of his power as they did, releasing what made him whole. Across from him there was only Kamboja Vaiphei, fractured and cracked and imperfect as he had ever been. The broken mirror left gaps across his reflection and in his head he heard her laughter, horrible and shrill as he realized what he had become.

He was no better than that monster.

His eyes fell away from his reflection and he turned away, slipping back out into the darkness that claimed Destiny City.