It was difficult to tell the time of day within the hideout easily, but Twenty-Two was sure it was just before dawn when she got out of bed. The meaning of that word was much more strict on a city drifting in space, with the time of it happening incrementing almost exactly the same every day. For her, it mattered very little, because of her habit of waking up in the middle of the night regardless.

She placed some bandages into her sack on the table, struggling to keep it properly open with only one arm. The bag itself was full now, weighed down by her own personal affects and a few rations. Before she slung it over her shoulder, she made sure to check that she had enough food and water to last for a day or two on her own. There was some money on the table, and Twenty-Two made sure to add to the pile with the last of her own coin.

Her chest piece fit oddly now. She’d debated cutting off the sleeve for her missing arm, but lacking the ability to do so properly, she opted to tie it in a knot instead. Satisfied that she was ready to head out, the supplies were slung behind her back.

“Twenty-Two?” Jason said, sitting up on his bunk and rubbing one of his eyes.

He was looking right at her now, and her heart skipped a beat. Without saying anything in return she moved towards the stairs and started to climb them. A sharp pain struck her wound, making her collapse down. Jason was quick to rush over to her side and pulled up shirt enough to see the bandages were soaked through with blood. Maintaining her silence, he helped her to her feet and the both of them left to the surface. By the time they hit the top, she had to sit down on the ground, panting slightly.

The air was crisp, and a few critters were scurrying around the empty ruins. All that came through the doorway was a dim blue light from the shield surrounding the city, an effect made to supposedly comfort the original citizens as they transitioned to living away from the old world.

Jason quickly lifted the rest of her shirt off from the injured side. He took bandages from her pack and began to peel away the dirty ones.

“How did you know I had those?” Twenty-Two asked.

“Was watching you when you put them away. Was hoping you’d stop yourself before I had to, but obviously not.” He said, wrapping her chest in the fresh cloth.

“Don’t treat me like a child. Even with only one arm, I’m still the deadlier one of the two of us.” She threatened, staring at the ground with a distant glare.

“Not if you’re bleeding out from a fresh wound. You’re lucky that it was cut the way it did or you may not have even survived at all. Right now you need to be taking it easy, not jumping into more danger.”

Twenty-Two rubbed over the fresh bandages, wincing a little as she could feel some parts of it scabbing over. “Right now I’m nothing but danger, especially to this mission. I’m going to leave so you two can safely—"

“No, you’re not going to leave. I’m not going to give you that as an order because I don’t have the authority, but I’m telling you not to leave. I say that as both your friend, and as someone with the enhancement that can force you to stay put.”

Jason took a few steps away and sat down on the ground opposite to her. Twenty-Two only made eye contact for a second before she stared at the floor again. Her knees dre closer to her chest as she condensed as much as she could. Though her physical strength made it easy to forget, she still had the physique of an Erudine. Her limbs were slender, and when she wanted to curl up and recuse herself from the world, she could.

“So... what exactly was your plan here?” Saul asked her.

“I was going to hunt down that Maskless that’s tracking me. He’s the main threat to our mission right now, and he’s only after me. If I could just draw him out, I could get rid of him quietly and then come back to helping out here. Better than just being a liability, right?”

“Your wound isn’t finished healing and you want to go out there picking fights? His ability is incredibly strong, maybe as much as yours. What happens if you go out there and tear open those stitches? I don’t think you’re going to be much of a killing machine if you’re passing out mid-scrap.”

“Then I just won’t move around too much, I can dodge just fine using my feet. There, happy enough?” She hissed at him, finally lifting her head. “Right now that Erudine is the biggest threat we’ve got, so let me handle it!”

“We can face him together then.”

“You don’t need to coddle me, you have no idea how dangerous this could be. There’s no reason for you to—"

“Get killed to? What, are you worried I’m not going to let you go out in a blaze of glory like you’re wanting?”

Twenty-Two gave him a bitter laugh. “Yes, a blaze of glory. Isn’t that what you’d want to do? You’d like to die in glorious service to the king or something like that. You know the last human king died thirty years ago in the rebellion? They’re not royalty, they’re just a monster that’s good with words.”

“He is my king, and he’s yours as well.” Jason replied, his hands clenched into fists.

“The difference is that he found me was I was a broken and bleeding nobody in the sewers. I signed up with him because I needed protection and had nowhere else to go. You’re healthy, probably joined just so you could get enhanced. Don’t you humans have parents that are supposed to raise you properly? Maybe you’re just using the king as a replacement for a father that was never—"

“Enough!” Jason shouted, punching his fist into the ground.

The smirk evaporated from Twenty-Two’s face. As he lifted his hand, she could see a small rock lodged into his middle finger, leaving a jagged cut. His hand began shaking from the pain as he pulled it out, massaging his palm to settle his nerves. She clutched at her own injury before tossing the spare bandages over to him. All that filled the room was birdsong and the squeak of rodents as he wrapped his finger. Once it was safely secure, he flexed it twice and let out a heavy sigh. She had never seen him angry before, the sight of it had left a dark pit in her stomach.

“Look, I... nevermind.” Twenty-Two said, conflicting emotions welling their way to her throat and making it seize the words she wanted to say.

“Have I ever told you the story of how I actually joined? It’s not something I really like sharing, but right now it feels relevant.”

Twenty-Two shook her head, and Jason moved closer.

“Well I suppose I should explain then. My family were actually blood relatives to some nobles back when they weren’t just merchants. We still spent most of our time in the center ring, had a fairly modest house there. Only mentioning it because when the Buloi... well, when the attack on the court happened, all of our wealth was mostly lost in that mad scramble. We were left rather destitute, but my father could work as a trader, and my mother as a tutor. This meant that I wasn’t really being educated like I had when I was much younger. Was barely out of boyhood when I started getting into trouble with some of the neighborhood children.”

Saul pulled his right leg in front and took his boot off. There was a scar running down the length from his ankle to the big toe. Twenty-Two could only stare at it and compare it to her own scars.

“I didn’t think children could be so cruel.” She said, staring at it.

“Eh... things got out of hand is all. Funny thing is that I would usually just run away from them. They throw rocks and hurl insults at me, but most I got out of it was a bruise and some scraped or cut skin. Nothing that wouldn’t heal up by the next day. The day that I got this one though, I decided to try and fight back. Had read a novel about some little warrior, probably some fable from the old world, and I was inspired to try and fight back to defend myself. Turns out my heroism just made their spite grow stronger. I’d thought they were bullying me on account of my weaknesses, but really it was jealousy. They’d lost their parents or all of their wealth when the fighting ended. When they saw that I still had wealth, still had parents, they probably just wanted to vent their frustrations. When I fought back they didn’t let go.

“They punched and kicked me until I was a bleeding mess on the ground. I kept trying to get back up onto my feet so I could be like that hero, but that just made them start hitting my legs and feet. My foot got split open, actually. One of the larger boys stomped a rock onto it that made it burst open. I... stopped trying to get up after that. By the time they were finished, my whole body was a blurry mess of suffering. Couldn’t breathe right, might’ve had some blood inside of my lungs. Turns out, that’s when I happened upon the king himself.

“I still don’t know what he was doing there that day, but I thank everything that he did. There was some kind of woman with him that had the ability to stabilize my injuries. Made my body feel like clay or something, and she just sculpted the flesh back together. I’d never actually met an enhanced person before then, and it really freaked me out. Not as much as the king himself though, but I think you’ve seen him. Anyway, once they were sure I wasn’t going to die, the king asked me a question. He wanted to know if he would like me to murder those kids. Told me that I would have died in seconds after that beating if it wasn’t for them, and he wondered if vengeance would make me feel better.”

Saul paused for a moment, rubbing his bandages thoughtfully. Twenty-Two only noticed in the quiet that her body posture had started to mimic his, with her legs going in the same criss cross pattern. She inched herself forward and leaned in, prompting him to continue.

“I told him no. Funny, right? Those kids didn’t have any good reason to murder me. They were just spreading the suffering they had inside. Kicking someone else because they though they had it better. But at that moment I realized that killing them wouldn’t exactly fix what they’d done to me. Even if I had died, those kids were attacking me because I was being bullheaded in my own way. Having us both be dead wouldn’t solve the inherent problem. Felt strange thinking all that as a kid, I like to think it was the king himself being there that made me see it that way. In the end he offered me a position under him, which I explained to my parents as an apprenticeship. They still think I’m working on some kind of trade, but that’s more of a story for another time. After I got enhanced, I made sure to pay each of those kids a visit and got an apology out of them. Wasn’t easy, and it took a little fighting for a one or two, but there wasn’t any more bodies in the streets.”

“Well, what was the point of that story?” Twenty-Two asked, standing up. “You didn’t care for actually dealing out justice when you should have. The only reason you got on your high horse here is because you were given power above them. Do you really only care about not getting your own hands dirty?”

“I cared more about people learning their lesson. Those kids are going to be better people now because of that. Maybe revenge is just the Erudine way, but it doesn’t sit right in my stomach, and I know it won’t for yours either.”

“You know nothing about me!” Twenty-Two said. “Don’t start talking about me like you know everything. Just because we’ve worked together, you think that you can figure out exactly what I’m thinking?”

“I don’t need to. All I know is that you’re feeling anxious.” Jason told her, standing upright himself and walking towards her. “It’s going to be okay.”

He grabbed her wrist and pulled her close, wrapping both of his arms around her in a tight embrace. She was stunned at first, being the first time in years that someone had done it to her. Once that had faded, she grit her teeth in anger and hit his side with her fist.

“Let me go!”

“Not until you stay.” He told her, his voice occasionally hitching as she pounded his sides.

“This is your fault. The whole reason I’m here, the reason I lost my arm... This is all your fault! Stop rubbing it in my face and let me leave!”

“No.”

“Let me leave and fight, you’re being too thick in the head! Drop the caring act and just let me head out there and fix my mistakes. What you’re doing makes no sense!”

He didn’t reply, prompting her to keep hitting him. Her blows softed bit by bit, and she eventually slumped against his chest. She buried her face in his chest, the smell of dust and leather from his gear were lost on her. Tears brimmed at the sides of her eyes until she couldn’t see anymore, and she was forced to squeeze them shut. Even muffled from being shoved into him, she continued her protest.

“I can still feel it. My other arm is hanging limp from my side like a ghost and it hurts so much. What sense is there in staying when I’m like this...?” She asked, struggling to speak between sobs.

“Your arm isn’t going to come back just by killing him, even if you do. Dying out there isn’t going to help us out either. The best thing for you to do is stay and continue with your duty. When we finish with this we can get you treated properly and you can relax. Let me bear some of your stress till then, alright?”

Twenty-Two let her sobs subside before she nodded, pulling herself off of his chest and wiping her nose over her arm. Despite the crying, her expression was as deadened as earlier. Jason took her pack and carried it back downstairs with her in tow. Once they were on the ground floor, Jason placed her pack onto the table and waited for her to climb into her cot once more. She curled up on the mattress, clutching at her injury without an effort to get warmer. Without a word, he pulled the blanket over her body, making sure it rested comfortably on top of her before he got in his own bed.