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"Arya..." Jay calls once more, but Arya does not turn her head. "Listen... I can't convince you of anything, but please... just think about this..."

Those words reach into her, caressing her attention like a much-needed hug. She slowly brings herself standing up and looks down over her body. Even that simple dress cannot hide the mess that she has made of her self from her. She covers her face and slinks back, away from both of the men, until she is backed up against the wall.

"Arya, you have no reason to be afraid right now," Mauruvius says. "All you need to do is remember how much we've helped you over the last few weeks."

"Weeks...?" Arya wheezes.

"Oh, does it really matter how long it has been?" Mauruvius says, taking a step closer toward her. She hisses and rears back. This makes the dog stumble back and cough. "We-well, maybe it matters, just a little bit."

"I'm done." Arya says.

"Excuse me?"

Suddenly, she is upon him, grabbing onto his shoulders and slamming him roughly against the wall.

The hound yelps, but rolls his shoulder, grunting as he lets out a quick quip. "If you wanted be a little more rough, all you had to do was ask."

She slams his shoulders against the wall once more and narrows her eyes. "What have you done to me, you sick fuck?"

"All I did was make suggestions. I never made you do anything you didn't want to do. I've been nothing but a friend to you this whole time."

She sticks her tongue out, flicking over his chin. "I taste a liar," she says, then quick as she pounced him, she bites her teeth down into his neck, pumping him full of her venom. When she pulls back, she spits out the blood, wiping her mouth. "Now, is that being friendly? Is that not hurting you?"

Mauruvius grabs his neck, taking in deep breaths. "It's... it's certainly something else," he says. "Certainly, it is what you said you didn't want to be."

Her eyes narrow. His demeanor hasn't changed. He hasn't spilled his guts because of his new friendliness, courtesy of her venom.

"But I must admit," he says, shaking his head. "And I have admitted this before, this has been mutually beneficial. If you ever wanted to leave, you could have, at any time. I just... encouraged you to stay with my words, with my-"

"You hypnotized me." Arya says. "Don't think I don't know how this works." She turns around, looking towards Jay With her arms holding over her body, she can't bring herself to actually look at the rat of her dreams. "You must think I'm some kind of freak now."

Jay adjusts his tie and flicks his whiskers. "Maybe I haven't learned everything about you in the short time we were together, and hell, maybe you learned new things about yourself in this past year. But the fact of the matter is I came here to see you, and, well, here you are."

"Here I am," she says, lowering her arms away from herself. She stands tall, her tail swishing over the ground by Mauruvius. "And it turns out I'm actually some kind of big perv who gets off on biting people, but also can't get enough of when someone is bigger and stronger around me, taking away my control. And, because of that, I'm back to exactly where I was before... people using me for their own gain and my own shortcomings."

"Ah, yeah, that's a real downer," Jay says, rubbing the back of his head. "Say, why don't we get out of here and figure out our next move? There's a lot we have to do and I was thinking maybe-"

"No," Arya says, slithering over towards Mauruvius once more. She holds her hand out, and the dog smirks, grabbing onto hers to help himself up.

"What do you mean? Your Uncle is using your venom right now! Doesn't that... doesn't that bother you?"

"Certainly," Arya says, getting the dog up to his feet. She pats him on the cheek and whispers something into his ear. He nods, and runs back off across the street.

"But, you're not going to help me take him down?"

"I think I've finally figured it out, Jay. It took me time alone to myself and a strange journey after the fact, but I really think I got my head on my shoulders. I tried doing things that everyone else wants me to do. I've tried living live of wanton abandon and debauchery. I think, now, the best thing for me is to fix the mistakes I made, before I work on the mistakes that my uncle had me make.

"And... what mistake is that, love?" Jay says, stepping up beside her.

"Well, I got a tiger to talk to, and then there's also the case for Uma.

"Uma...? Jay's heart drops. He grabs her arm, tugging it. "What about Uma? Is she okay?"

"She's fine... mostly, I think," Arya says, frowning. "Truth is I kinda lost track of her recently."

He chuckles at that. "Oh, that's okay. I saw her the other day" Jay says. "Come on, let's head back and see if we can catch her."

"You go ahead," she says. "I'll catch up. I have a few things I want to check out in there first."

"They're a dangerous group. They hypnotized you, Arya!"

"You can't hypnotize someone to do things they didn't already want to do," Arya says, "deep down, that is. Now that I know that, I can more easily negotiate. They're the kind of people who would more likely be able to help take down my uncle. I couldn't do that myself. Besides... last time I saw Uma, she was here, as well."

"That's a lot to unpack," Jay admits. But he says. "But if you're sure, I'll come along with ya. After all, you're the one who got me out of messes more than the other way around. You got a good head on your shoulders."

She sighs, placing a hand upon his, rubbing the back with her thumb. "Yeah, despite everything, I think I actually do..."