“She wants me to fix you,” he said.

Sveta looked at me.

“You… you despise this stuff, Victoria. The unquestionable monsters, biokinesis—”

I looked away.

“—You can’t even hear it without flinching! What are you doing?”

“I’m asking about options,” I said.

“Why? You don’t have to.”

“I do have to,” I told her. “I have to do something so I’m actually changing something for the better, for people I care about. We’ve been fighting against this slow grind and dealing and we’re getting worn out and worn down. I want permanent, good changes. I want to get at least a few things dealt with.”

“All at once, today? Why?”

“Not today,” I said. “I’ve been asking around and looking at options for a little while now. Uh, options for the Capricorn brothers, asking a power specialist. I talked to someone about placing Lookout, given her special needs. Sent out some emails about hand tinker stuff and changers who modify their hands, to see if it’s useful for Rain or fixing up Ashley’s hands, or helping you.”

“And talking to biotinkers, despite everything else that’s happened, for me.”

“You more than anyone,” I told her, with some emotion in my voice. “Because you’re my best friend.”

“I didn’t ask for it. I didn’t ask if you’d do this for me.”

“But you want it,” I said.

She didn’t respond, emotions crossing her face. When Vista touched her arm, more of a support pillar than I was, Sveta came free of the train of thought, nodding.

“There are other reasons,” I said. “For me looking into this for you, specifically. I knew some of what was going on with Weld—”

I saw the pain in her face at that.

“—and I wanted to bring it up somehow, but I didn’t know how. I thought—if I could find a good, safe way to give you something good, maybe that would help on a level, if and when he went forward with it.”

“How long did you know?” she asked.

“Weeks.”

“Fuck it, Victoria. What the absolute fuck?”

“I don’t want to watch you hold this in, and I don’t want to watch you struggle with forces outside of your control. And I know this is stupid, it’s a long shot, and it’s probably retreading old ground you or others have looked into, but… I wanted to try.”

“Try? Are you aware of happens if we try and fail?”

“More than anyone,” I said.

“Not that,” Sveta said. “Not what Amy did to you.”

I floated back a half-step, involuntary.

“I’m saying it, blunt, because that’s what we’re talking about. You can’t offer me hope and have it be for nothing. That would hurt more than anything.”

I nodded. “I did tell Jessica to tell you guys to hang back a minute.”

“She did,” Vista said.