Josh ushers Steven to sit down. Mark brings him a drink. Raph is keeping Athena close to him despite her urge to go help him. Everyone gives him a little time to let the silence and everything settle in. Raph asks, “Can you tell us anything else?”

He takes a deep breath. “It was the nurse from her treatment seasons. They really seemed to like me… Her surgery. Had complications and things were done. That’s all they said,” Steven puts together little bits of sentences. He jumps to his feet, walks a quick circle, and collapses back into the chair. “I don’t know what happened! She’s been so careful for over a year…Even after her father’s death, she didn’t falter with her treatment,” he rants as he scratches his head trying to think, he puts his head in his hands that are braced on his knees. “Why? She was so close...” he cries.

Athena takes a small step away from Raph as she swallows, “I know why.” Everyone begins to turn slowly. At first, she looks at Josh, “Yeah I brought up initiating her and was in on the efforts.” Josh scoffs and rolls his eyes away. “But while we were on the trip, I was taking my nightly dose when we put our cups down and we picked up each other’s…That’s when I,” Athena’s words begin to fail as she looks at everyone in the room.

Steven stands up. “You did what?” rage drips from his question.

“I initiated her.”

Josh’s head hangs in disappointment. Steven vaults the desk. Athena jumps backward as he starts screaming so hard tears form. Raph blocks him as he dives for Athena. Mark grabs his arms as both men start screaming trying to figure out what’s going on.

“You’re worse than her cancer!” Josh blurts out.

Steven freezes, “How did you know? About her cancer.”

“I found out recently what killed my aunt was cancer!” Josh shouts before collapsing on the counter. Mark lets go of Steven to hurry to Josh’s side. Raph holds Steven by the shoulder as he is calming down. Athena just straightens up.

Josh finally asks, “How bad it is?”

Steven begins taking deep breaths to calm down a little, wipes his tears, and straightens out his hair out of habit. He admits, “It is bad. She went in for a mastectomy. With the amount of organ and tissue damage she has and how the system works, it would easily kill her.” Everyone’s heart fell through the floor.

Dreadful silence cannot describe the growing feeling in the room as everyone’s mind tries to wrap around what they heard. “What do you mean? How could that happen?” Raph finally pieces it together.

“Huh? Don’t you remember?” Steven’s head comes up. “You have to be healthy or completely healed from any major organ damage before you can begin taking the NeoMuscle.”

“Oh yeah. I do remember you asking me that before my initiation,” Mark recalls.

“The system expands the muscle after altering the skin enough to compensate. It affects major organs, the bloodstream, and especially how we breath. That’s why the initial time is done with medical supervision, ideally,” he nods explaining as Doctor Clarke’s lectures repeat in his mind. “And that just covers the first four settings. Not to mention if you actually go into the inflation overflow setting,” he quickly adds on coming back to his senses as he turns away from the group.

Raph, Athena, and Mark exchange glances as they shift on their feet. The small group enjoys using the overflow setting often and even more jokes about ‘ballooning’ each other. Steven on the other hand scratches his side as Josh comes next to him. Josh squeezes Steven’s arm as the two of them come together for the shared memory.

“That means that a person should be chemicals or nanotech-free before starting. Right now, her body is full of chemicals from the cancer treatments so the system would fail right off the bat. Probably felt like she was being cooked alive or something,” Steven’s hand covers his face as he begins visualizing. “But when the muscles expand in the four settings, they only tear like a normal workout but that amplifies any injuries. It would tear her apart before the surgery.”

Everyone falls quiet again.

“Why didn’t you tell us?!” Mark blurts out.

“What part of ‘she’s not one us’ and ‘stop that’ did you not understand?” Steven snarls.

“Does no one read the manual of what you put in our own bodies?” Josh complains in a quiet mutter.

“We did stop after a bit...” Mark whines as he tries to disappear into his shoulders. The atmosphere goes quiet as the mood completely dies down.

Raph steps closer to Steven. “But I don’t get it. She looks so eager about any development,” Raph wonders. Athena agrees. “The way she teased Mark about blowing up. It felt like she already knew and was into it.”

“Yeah. She did,” Steven starts in a much quieter tone. “To a degree, I think. I hoped. It was always her training goal to get big. She probably would have liked it,” he smiles thinking about how happy she would be to be as big as him. “In fact, I think there was a canister of it at her place. She might have thought about doing it afterward. I wanted to be there for her first time. The initiation can be so painful. But I can see her going at it; full force till she almost passes out,” he chuckles as he imagines the two of them, muscle inflated, together as he holds her during her first time. “I told her I would never let her pop.”

Athena realizes his new dream, the fruit of all the wonderful progress in his life just died. Revealing their secret to someone new and bringing her into the family is supposed to be important. But being with someone like that, at that moment is an exhilarating thought to Athena. A new sister in the group as her first initiation, one that already felt like family, seem perfect. It would mean so much more to Steven. ‘Maybe it should have been together,’ Athena begins thinking.

‘Wait a minute,’ Athena begins to recall something. ‘The guys said their initiations were done in pairs and usually with Raph. That means that Steven’s last initiation would have been Raph's. And when he brought it up to that little bit~ wait.’ Athena sighs to herself. ‘Steven had such a hard time after that… He could have been with someone again,’ Athena finally realizes. ‘He could have been with a new love.’ She watches the guys try to figure out how to console Steven. ‘I killed...’

The phone rings again. Steven pounces on it. It is the hospital again. He slams down the receiver, “I have to~”

“Go,” Josh says with a smirk. “I got things here,” Josh encourages him. Steven pats him on the shoulder before running out the door.

“Now what do we do?” Mark wonders.

“We don’t let him do this alone,” Raph declares.

“Take her,” Josh points to Athena. Athena looks shocked as she stares at Josh. Mark and Raph begin to push Athena out the door. Josh glares, “See it through to the end.” Athena just nods before they all leave.

“How did it end up like this?” Doctor Clarke mutters to himself as he stares at an unconscious Viola through a window. ‘He trusted me, with you. You were supposed to be safe.’ He begins heading back to his office as memories of Viola’s childhood play through his mind. Memories of how much her father loved her.

Images of Viola’s father being Doctor Clarke’s trip down memory lane, so happy the instant he finds out about the pregnancy. He would talk to the belly constantly. So much that it becomes the only thing Doctor Clarke and the mother agree on him overdoing. When Viola is born she is so small she fits in his hand, he is rather large even in his normal state, “Look at her Bernard! Isn’t she precious? My adorable little flower.”

The sound of the elevator beeping shatters Doctor Clarke’s dream. The doors open allowing Steven to emerge. Doctor Clarke feels something explore in his chest, “You.” Doctor Clarke pins Steven against the wall across from the elevator before Steven realizes the doctor is even there. “You killed my girl!” Doctor Clarke screams.