“Why?” It was Tristan who asked, this time. “You have to? Because of personal reasons?”

“No,” Kenzie said, unconvincingly.

“Why?” he asked, again. His voice was gentle.

“Because… scans. I want to scan stuff. And take pictures.”

And take pictures. If it were anyone else, the statement would have been ludicrous.

Tristan looked at me though, shrugging one shoulder.

“You promised you would take me seriously and bring me along,” Kenzie said. “I want to be there.”

“How do you even plan to get close enough to the Titans?” I asked her.

“I don’t. I can get some data from a distance. I’ll take some pictures of where they’ve been. Stuff related to them, like Eve’s gas, or whatever Oberon does.”

I frowned.

“If you want—” Withdrawal cut in, stopped.

I looked at him.

“I could look after her,” he said.

“You didn’t want to come.”

“I want to help,” he said. “If she’s that gung-ho… I’d feel really fucking lame if I chickened out.”

“I resent that,” Chicken Little muttered.

“Shush,” Candy whispered, shoving a gloved hand under his mask. “This is serious.”

“I didn’t mean that in a bad way,” Withdrawal said. “Those kids are going?”

“Not kids,” Roman said, in nearly the same beat as Juliette.

“Younger than me,” Withdrawal said. He was seventeen or eighteen, and Roman and Juliette were thirteen or fourteen. Hard to estimate when they were lanky and tall by nature.

“We’re Heartbroken,” Roman told Withdrawal. “We’ve seen worse.”

“I… have to admit, I’ve heard that a few times, but I don’t know what that is. Sorry,” Withdrawal answered.

“Heartbreaker’s kids?” Juliette asked.

“I’ve heard the name, I think,” Withdrawal said. “I don’t remember any details.”

“We didn’t have internet,” Caryatid said.

“And you thought we had it bad,” Candy whispered.

“We did,” Darlene hissed back.

Chastity clapped her hands together once. “Focus, please. We can share stories of misery from our childhood after we’ve come out of this alive. Shatter their innocence then.”

“Or, um, don’t shatter anything?” Finale asked. “We could talk about it if it makes you feel better, I guess?”

“Not the kind of thing you feel—”

Chastity put her hand over Roman’s mouth, shutting him up.

“I’ll go too,” Caryatid said, hand on Finale’s shoulder. “I’ll stick by W.D. and Lookout, keep an eye out.”

“Me too,” Finale said, very clearly on impulse.

“If you want to help, you can look after the Tenders back here at the base, run any messages or bring anything they have,” I told them. “This? Going? Not an obligation.”

“We’re heroes, we gotta,” Finale said. She looked terrified.

Fuck. Why the fuck were they being helpful? If they weren’t, I could have told Lookout it put the rest of us in more danger to watch her.

“We need everything we can get,” Tristan told me.