Mindy piped in.

“Red, I know how you feel. You KNOW I'm always up for a fight, but we can't help anyone if we're dead and we need to regroup."

Red was sweating like a horse after the Kentucky Derby. She wasn't close to being one-hundred percent, and while she wanted to slam her fists on the table in a dramatic gesture, all she could do was slump into a chair.

"I'm so tired of running and fighting on our heels. We've been playing defense the whole time, and now there's barely a skeleton left." Red pounded her head hard enough on the table that she began to bleed.

Arthur sighed.

"Red, I'm not going to heal that. I don't have anything left."

Red lifted her head, a small cut on her forehead.

"Not asking you to."

She wiped the blood from her eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said firmly.

"I understand everyone's concern," she started, looking at her few remaining friends.

"But I can't go with you if you leave town," she added, noticing the expressions ranging from confused to alarmed.

"We were all rescued at one point or another by the Strays. If we put our own safety above the people we protect, then we make a mockery of the Stray legacy." She hung her head.

“I don't want to think we've been fighting for nothing. Because that means we've suffered and died for nothing, and . . . and “

"And you've got another problem," came Natasha's voice from nearby.

Red snapped her head towards Nat, but before she could speak ...

"She's asleep. I wouldn't have left otherwise. But Red . . . she talked. And you need to hear what she said." Natasha noticed the room had hushed, but her eyes stayed locked on Red's.

"Red, she wanted me to kill her."

"What?" asked Talia.

"Why?!" added Mindy.

Red looked even more pale than usual.

"Why . . . why. . ."

"I don't know. She was kind of incoherent. She thinks she's evil and that she's a danger to you and that she won't be able . . . she won't be able to resist when the Dark One returns."

“It's still alive," Tarloh muttered. But at that moment, Red didn't give a shit about the Shoggoth.