“Stingy. I’d be changing a life. I’d—”

“Can you?” Sveta asked, interrupting.

I cut in, “And don’t say ‘try’. Because if you try and fail, I will personally pulverize one of your legs in my hands before we drop you in another world. Be sure.”

Mr. Bough smiled wide, showing some silver-capped teeth. “I have ideas.”

The statement seemed to shake Sveta, to the point she wasn’t holding herself up at an imposing height anymore, or even at my height.

Seeing that and the latent nausea of having to deal with a biotinker and every mental picture associated with them was enough to get to me too. I reached out to Sveta to stabilize her and for stability.

“Being a Case Fifty-Three is a big part of who I am,” Sveta said. “Even if it worked, which it isn’t guaranteed to…”

There was nothing I could say to that. It was hard to fathom.

“…I don’t even have a community with my kind anymore. So why do I cling to it?”

“Because it’s what you know,” Vista told her.

“You said they’re the worst kind of monster, Vista,” Sveta said.

“We’re not that bad,” Mr. Bough said.

“Shut the fuck up,” I told him.

“So it feels wrong,” Sveta added. “Going easier on them to get a selfish favor.”

“You struggling feels wrong,” I told her. “You lost your prosthetic body because I failed you, and—”

“No I didn’t, you moron.”

“—because I could have pushed harder against what I saw as a bad idea, when we split the groups. I didn’t want to be a tyrant, bullying people and pushing for my ideas, and I let us take a bad route, and you lost your body because of it. I felt guilty about Weld and I wanted to help somehow, and… this is entirely the opposite of what I wanted to say. What I mean is you suffering feels wrong, because you’re one of the best people I know.”

Tendrils reached up to wring her prosthetic hands, and touch my hand where I held hers.

“I need to think about it,” she said, but as she said it, she was unconsciously bobbing her head, nodding in agreement to her own internal arguments and thoughts without even realizing it.

Black 13.z

The room was an unoccupied, unfurnished office, plaster and brick, hardwood floor, and a flickering light at the ceiling. The light was too bright when on, and the room was too dark with the light off, and the room was just a little bit too warm for her liking. Sleep escaped her.