Banksy had been electrocuted multiple times during his tenure as a safe cracker for the Sleeping Dragon Guild. It was simply a hazard of the job when magic was involved. He had also been poisoned, burned, maimed, and subject to all other manner of distasteful booby-traps and defensive spells. So, as Romeo lined up his shot, Banksy had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen when the lightning connected with his body.

This knowledge did not make him feel any better as the electric charge ran through his body and set every hair of his body on end. Then the pain came. It actually took him a moment to feel the pain, his senses dulled by the poison flooding his blood steam, but once he did feel it, it was hell. He lost all control of his muscles and his body jerked uncontrollably as the lightning surged through his body. Through the pain he noted that, to the credit of Romeo, the point of contact was extremely close to the leather strap. That however meant very little to Banksy as he strained against the straps, his teeth bared against pain.

He felt the smallest amount of give as the straps began to smoke. He pushed harder as his world started to spin. He thought he might have been screaming, but he couldn’t hear anything over the roar in his ears.

Everything went black.

A ringing in his ears and something cold pressing against his chest and cheek were the first things Banksy noted as he slowly came back to consciousness. They also told him that he was alive. Alive and in a horrendous amount of pain. Groaning, he pressed his fist against the cold floor and pushed himself up and onto his knees. He listed to the side and crashed back down to the floor and decided to just rest for a minute. There wouldn't be any harm in that. If he just closed his eyes and took a quick nap. Romeo would be…

"Romeo!" Banksy sat up with a gasp and threw himself forward. His limbs would not properly respond and he did an awkward crawl-shimmy towards the table. Romeo did not respond, even as Banksy pulled himself up and onto the table, grasping at Romeo's arm for leverage.

"Shit shit shit." Banksy couldn't find a better word to describe the situation as he looked down at Romeo's prone figure. His eyes were closed and a thick layer of sweat coated his skin. He almost looked…peaceful.

With a trembling hand Banksy pressed his finger against Romeo's neck and waited, but he could feel nothing. Taking a calming breath, Banksy carefully adjusted his finger and tried again.

Still he felt nothing.

No pulse.

No life.

"No." Banksy felt what little energy he had left trickle away and he fell back away from the table and crashed into the counter behind him. His arm knocked against something and sent it crashing to the floor. The sound of breaking glass filled the silent room and Banksy's eyes followed the noise.

He had knocked over the glass case that had held the poison Sani had injected into both of them. The poison that was probably still flowing through his veins. The poison that had killed Romeo. As he stared down at the broken glass Banksy idly wondered how much time he had left to live. Romeo's magic had probably bought him a few more minutes, at least, but it had taken that precious time away from Romeo. Banksy slowly slid down to the floor. He hadn't even considered that Romeo using up his last magic reserves would increase the speed at which the poison would run its course. It made sense, of course. It was actually extremely simple. He just failed to make that connection and Romeo had paid for his failure.

Banksy let out a heavy sigh. In the end, Romeo had been able to free him, but it didn't seem like it was going to be enough. He had nothing left. No energy, no plan, nothing. He could only sit here and wait, staring at the broken glass and empty syringes.

Except only one syringe was empty.

On hand and knee Banksy made his way over to the pile of broken glass and carefully removed the remaining syringe and stared at the blue liquid. In his cloudy mind he could just make out Sani's words. He had called it something. A partner… no, a sister serum to the poison.

Hands clumsy Banksy pulled to the cap off the needle and held it against his arm. The silver tip shone brightly against his black skin and he hesitated. He had no idea what he was about to inject into his already polluted blood. He could be killing himself even faster.

"Well fuck it," Banksy breathed. "I'm going to die anyways."

He pushed the needle into his skin and depressed the plunger, careful to use no more than half of the precious serum. If this worked, he still needed enough for Romeo. Taking in a deep breath Banksy pulled the needle from his arm, put it down beside him, and waited.

He almost immediately regretted his decision and yearned for the sweet embrace of death to claim him.

It was as though someone had poured liquid fire into his veins. He felt it burn its way up his arm and into his chest. With every beat of his heart he felt the liquid travel even further, reaching into every point of his body. His limbs shook uncontrollably and he opened his mouth to scream but no sound came out, only a hoarse kind of wheeze. He rolled over onto his side and sucked in large gulps of air as the fire in his blood burned even hotter.

When it finally cooled down to only a mild discomfort, he did not know how much time had passed. It felt like hours but it could have been seconds for all that he knew. He coughed and felt something warm spill out from his lips. He didn't bother to look and see what it was as he dragged his sleeve across his mouth and pulled himself up to Romeo's table, his hand snaking out and grabbing the syringe. On unsteady legs he looked down at Romeo's peaceful face.

"Please let this work," Banksy whispered as he lifted the syringe high over his head and plunged it down into Romeo's chest.

The blue liquid quickly dispersed into Romeo's body, but there was still no movement from the lightning mage. Banksy swallowed hard and shook his head as the syringe slipped from his fingers. He placed his hands on Romeo's chest and began to push down, forcing Romeo's heart to pump, but he received no response for his efforts.

"I'm not done being mad at you!" Banksy shouted as he pumped, tears beginning to blur his vision. "We're not finished yet, I still have to kick your ass for all that shit you did to me with those slime bombs. Come on. Come back. Come back you jackass!" Banksy shouted as he slammed his fist against Romeo's chest with as much force as he could manage. Under his fist he felt a crack as Romeo's ribs broke and Banksy was suddenly thrown back by an electric charge.

Banksy came to a sliding stop on the floor and stared up at the table. Romeo's body was completely effulged in light. He shone so bright that Banksy could only just make out his body, but he very clearly heard the restraints that held him ping open as Romeo sat up with a roar.

"I'M ALIVE!" Romeo bellowed as he threw his arms to the side and twin bolts of lightning shot off form his palms and washed across the walls. Banksy wisely slid out of the energy's crackling path.

"You're alive!" Banksy yelled before his voice caught in his throat. He sucked in a deep breath and forced a frown onto his face. "Now don't kill me on accident!"

"I feel… I feel… Gah!" Romeo jumped up from the table, still radiating power. Banksy took a step back and peered at his guildmate.

"Romeo?"

"I have so much power!" Romeo yelled. "So. Much! This must be what it feels like to be a God! I am Lightning!"

"Yeah, I can see that. It's kinda… coming through your eyes."

"What?"

"Your eyes… they're all yellow and sparking. It's creepy."

"Wait, what?" Romeo turned and caught his reflection in the mirrored surface of a glass cabinet. His eyes indeed did shine like lightning, complete with sparking effects. He turned on Banksy. "What the hell did you do to me?"

"I saved you! I gave you that booster thing. You were dead, how can you complain about that?"

"How am I supposed to eye flirt with girls with eyes like these? This is too much! There is no subtlety!"

"You're never subtle!"

"I can be!"

"You never are."

"I could be if I wanted to."

"Romeo, we have bigger issues right now."

"You should have just let me die!" Romeo sighed dejectedly. "Fine. Let's go get Azalea then. Maybe Galen can fix this somehow. Got a plan?"

Banksy stared at Romeo with a blank expression. "Romeo, you're a literal power house of raw magical power right now. If there ever were a time for you to just go to town and destroy everything, it would be now. I cannot believe I even have to tell you this. I'm honestly surprised you haven't run off to destroy the building."

Romeo didn't answer as his eyes drifted back to his reflection and his face fell.

Banksy sighed, "Romeo!”

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you. I’m going," Romeo said. It was hard to take his sad expression serious with the lightshow that emanated from his face.

The attention of both boys was suddenly drawn to the door as it burst open and two guards pushed into the room.

"Now you stand back, short stack.” Romeo grinned as he cracked his knuckles and advanced on the newcomers. "I’m about to show you what a man with glowing eyes of unyielding passion can do.”

"Have at it," Banksy said as he took a step back.

It was beyond satisfying to see members of the group that had beaten and tortured you, and your friends, get fried by hundreds upon thousands of volts of electricity. It was even more satisfying to be the one doing the frying and Romeo was having the time of his life. The energy just seemed to pour out of his every cell as he blasted the two Sons back through the door. They landed in smoking heaps and he advanced over them with Banksy in tow. Another door opened down the hall and he shot down the occupant with a full force bolt to the face without even a second thought.

"You know, I could get used to this," Romeo grinned as he dealt two more Sons before they could even fight back.

"Maybe don't over do it too much," Banksy called from behind him. "We don't know what was all in that stuff I injected into us. It might be addictive or something to magic users."

"Oh, it for sure is. I actually already want more of it. Was honestly thinking about going back to look for some. I'm going to need so much rehab!" Romeo cried as he fired off a sizzling bolt of lightning and forced the rest of Sani's escort group back into a room. The door locked shut with a click. He cast an eye back on Banksy. "But before that, I'm gonna take out every one of them. Oh, and save Azalea."

"Good plan. I'm gonna go finish the vault then, none of this will matter if we don't get Sani and the other Sons," Banksy said. He started to leave before pausing and looking over his shoulder. “Don’t die.”

Romeo gave him a nod and Banksy bounded off. Romeo watched him go for a moment before reaching up and slamming his fist against his chest a few times, feeling the magic inside of him well up, ready to be unleashed.

"Alright, let's do this," Romeo said softly to himself before lifting his foot and giving the door a supercharged kick. In retrospect, he realized it might have been a little too much power as his foot pushed through the metal door and connected with the considerably more soft and squishy body of a human on the other side. A scream was heard as the Son was tossed across the room as though he weighed nothing and crashed into the wall. Grinning savagely Romeo pushed through the broken door and was met with what remained of Sani's guards, Sani, and Azalea. Blood dripped down the side of her tear stained face and Sani held a scalpel to her cheek.

"Not a step closer, User," Sani said as he caressed Azalea's skin with the blade. "Not unless you want my pretty fiancée to have a new look."

Romeo narrowed his eyes but took a step back.

"Better," Sani said before giving Romeo a good once over. "It would seem the booster actually does work. I assume that is what you used to counteract the poison?"

"Spot on," Romeo said, eyeing the guard who were starting to inch towards him, weapons ready. “Unrelated, but is there more of that stuff somewhere?”

"Interesting," Sani nodded to himself. "The poison must be weaker than I thought. I will need to reformulate, or perhaps simply up the dosage. Tell me, did your friend survive as well?"

"He did," Romeo said, twisting his head towards a Son who was almost in striking distance. The man hastily retreated back a few steps and Romeo gave him a malicious grin.

"I see," Sani lowered the scalpel as he contemplated. "I suppose that means-"

Romeo had many guesses as to what ‘that meant’, though they were all wrong, but that didn't matter very much as he lifted up both his hands and fired a concentrated beam of lightning straight into Sani's chest. The force was enough to lift the man from the ground and hold him aloft in the air for a moment as the magic coursed through his body before shooting off around the room and striking the other Sons. Teeth bared, Romeo poured every last ounce of his power into the attack, fighting to keep control of the magic until he was sure everyone in the room was dealt with. With a grunt he lowered his hands and ended the spell. As his hands dropped to his side, Sani fell to the ground with a loud thud, as did his men, electric surges still playing out over singed skin.

Completely spent, Romeo dropped to his knees and looked down at his hands. The glow of power was gone and he felt a small twinge of emptiness. He had rather liked having that much power. Maybe he could get another one of those boosters before they left…

"Romeo..." Azalea's weak voice cut off his train of thought.

"Right, right, sorry, save you first, blah blah blah," Romeo sighed as he pushed back into his feet and untied Azalea.

"You saved me," Azalea breathed as she tried to stand up, but could only manage to lean against Romeo, her legs unable to support her weight. "Thank you."

"I did. But you should also thank Banksy, he saved me," Romeo said before giving Azalea an uncharacteristically serious look. "Hey?"

"Romeo?"

"I need you to tell me something," Romeo said, his eyes boring in Azalea's.

Azalea put her hand on his chest. "Anything."

"My eyes… are they still glowing yellow?"

The question threw Azalea and she leaned away. "What? No."

"Oh thank gods, I thought my love life was over before it even really began," Romeo breathed as he wrapped an arm around the confused Azalea's waist and led her to where Banksy was just finishing on the vault. He let go of Azalea and leaned her against a wall. "Got her."

"Good work," Banksy said without turning around. "I'm just about done here."

Azalea looked at Romeo, then at Banksy, then back and forth again. Neither boy was so much as glancing at her. A small smile played across her face and she let out a tiny sigh. "I see. I guess I should have known this would happen."

"You say something?" Romeo craned his head to look at her.

Azalea shook her head. "It's nothing. What are you going to do about Sani and his men? You didn't kill them, did you?"

"Probably not," Romeo sniffed. "The voltage felt like it spread across them pretty evenly. It's going to hurt a lot when they wake up though."

"Don't worry about that," Banksy said as the vault finally swung open and he grinned. "I think I've got something worked out."