“Then it’s a reasonable chance things are fine and we don’t end up chucking you into an alternate reality where you can’t hurt anyone. Of course, it’s the Wardens deciding what to do, not me. You say you read my emotions, so you know how much I hate your guts. I know how much I hate your guts. I’d just be telling them what I think and giving them a suggested starting point, but they make the final call.”

“You’d be telling them to exile me?”

“Probably. If you can’t fix Hunter? Almost definitely.”

“That’s—”

“What? What is it, Amy?”

“It feels like the hate and that kind of idea you’re talking about is coming from the side of you that scared me, when we patrolled together. When you hurt an ABB child abductor so badly you had to call me to fix him.”

“Well…” I started. I floundered for a response. “Fucking obviously?”

“What?”

“I mean, it’s obvious that that kind of side of me is going to be bigger and more pronounced in comparison. You took all the parts of me you liked and mashed it all together into a big pile of lovey-dovey ‘Vicky’ you could cuddle with, kiss, use—”

She shook her head, violent.

“Don’t shake your head at me. Yes. You used me to soothe yourself. You said you loved me but well before you made me into the w—into that mess that had to go to the hospital, you made me into something that wasn’t Victoria, for your own selfish wants.”

“When I read your emotions and tracked them to their roots, I saw that the memory blocks I originally put into place to protect you were down. Brain routing around.”

“You took all of me that you liked and you multiplied it and you mashed it all together like some kid mixing their paints together into a single blob. What the fuck do you expect is going to be left intact and strong, except the ugly parts you didn’t want to touch?”

She shook her head.

“I’ve been rebuilding me. I’ve been trying to find the good and admirable parts of Victoria for a long while now. But that other side of me is there and I’ve spent a while trying to ignore it. The barbaric side.”

“I’ve been trying to find myself too.”

“Fuck you. I don’t care what you’re doing. You—fuck you for even saying that in the same breath as what I’m talking about.”

“You are a victim, Victoria. I’m not denying that. What happened was horrible and unconscionable and it eats me up inside. But I’m a victim too. The Slaughterhouse Nine came after me. I lost my family. I lost you. What happened wounded both of us, and impacted the both of us in a massive way.”