A scorpion and a frog meet at a flooded riverbank, both seeking to cross. The scorpion looks towards the frog and asks if he can catch a ride. The frog hesitates, concerned that the scorpion will sting him if he goes across. The scorpion promises that he won’t, and the rules of right overtake the frog’s instinct.

When the two reached the middle of the river, the frog felt the painful sting of the scorpion in his back. Crying out in pain, the frog asked “Why did you sting me here? It will doom us both!” To which, the scorpion merely replied.

“It is only in my nature.”

Backstabbing with you seems to be a favorite pastime, isn’t it Savor? Even when you were down and surrounded, when all of my allies would have called me a traitor, I did what I thought was right and rescued you. I lunge in and step in when no one else, Preservationist or Seeker, came to your aid.

And how did you repay that? By stabbing, again and again, into me as a person. You came with venom and poison, trying to concoct the right words and actions to turn the hero that broke his own rank and file to save someone. You call to the entirety of Arcadia, crowing “Look at what you call a hero.”

You don’t want a hero?

Fine.

No more hero. No more saving a sorry chef, well past his expiration date from the threats that he’s got himself surrounded by. No more honest pleas with the people, no more heroics and bravado to push around. You’ve poisoned the kindness, and guess what? You’re not ready for what’s coming.

For when you kill the hero, you drown in the monster that only you have made.

Because you know, you’re right! I do miss them every damn day. I had my family torn out from around me, thrust into a mystery that continues to spit in my face day after day after day. I’m tired of being lied to, misdirected, and beaten for just trying to do a good damn deed.

So no more! Your poisoned words finally did something other than keep one star reviews off a restaurant that doesn’t fucking exist anymore. When we meet up in that ring, no more masks! No more heroic speeches! I’m just going to get in there, break you like an expired spaghetti noodle, and leave you for Sunshine’s vultures.

And when you call out, when you’re surrounded and not a single ally of yours comes to help you? When five people are breaking the few ribs that I won’t have already shattered? I sure won’t as hell be there to save you. Why would I stay to be stung?
Because the truth is fucko, there ain’t nothing beneath the mask! You want something deeper than me losing the only family I’ve only had? There really ain’t any! The only thing that’s been saving me from breaking you is the hero!

And now that’s gone.