[Vinnie could feel himself shaking inside. His fingers balled into tight fists as the ice twisted its way through his gut with agonizing slowness at every word. He could feel a shadow fall over him as Bulba described the way he was pinned, old memories of old pains tingling at the edge of his consciousness. Perhaps it was his intuition speaking in the form of this creeping suspicion. Being helpless, at the mercy of someone else... terror that seemed to last forever, and then growing cold. He knew that feeling.

He knew trying to bury it, and the way it gnawed away at you.

In this moment, he saw a sliver of himself in Bulba - and the recognition horrified him. He couldn't even pause to try and rationalize the Wartortle's end of it. He couldn't be objective. There was only disgust and regret.

Their fight was about him. It was his fault that Marie went so far. Because he'd left the team. Because he hadn't been a good enough brother. The reason Bulba was shaking and looked close to tears was...

It hurt to think about. He desperately didn't want it to be true.

In a small, careful voice, still tinted by disbelief, Vinnie looked up and forced the words from his throat. Speaking them made it feel all the more real, but he needed to know that it was. He needed the truth. He couldn't let it go unsaid.]

He tried to drown you.