“You aren’t trying to kill me, and you aren’t overtly trying to hurt the rest of us or the city. That’s… I didn’t want it to pass without mention. I can’t imagine it was easy, or more of the others would be holding back.

“You won over the Malfunctions. You did good and you’re doing good, and I… I know this is gibberish to you. Whatever I try to say or write won’t get through, just like you can’t communicate directly with us. But maybe tone of voice matters? Or just the fact I’m here?”

Her head turned forward. She kept trudging forward, body groaning and creaking like a massive structure. The gas around me cleared, though I still stood waist-deep in it.

“I spent too long trapped in a monstrous form. I didn’t feel like I got the backup I needed, not from the people I needed it from. Maybe I’m not in your top five favorite people, you never called me to hang out and the only times I really called was for information or to ask you to help out. I don’t remember having any intense or hours-long conversations. Almost a ten year age gap between us. But we were kind of friends? There was mutual respect, right? And I want you to know, just, um—”

My voice gave a bit, emotion coming through. Fatigue played a part in it, but a bigger part of it was that I wanted to convey with tone and emotion what might not come across in words.

“If you need any backup, if you want a tiny human riding on your shoulder to keep you quiet company, like I needed a certain girl with tentacles for those few weeks I had a best friend… give me any signal at all. Even when I’m not here, I’ll be in your corner, arguing for you, fighting, I presume, for the same thing. These people, those kids. A future.”

I remained where I was, watching, as gas continued to dissipate. I looked out over the city, which was battered, blistered, dark, and empty. The only lights were at the very edges of the horizon, as cities and settlements prepared for evening, starting up generators and using whatever means necessary to ensure they could see and continue seeing as they got camps set up.

“We don’t have much going for us right now,” I said. “But I have little doubt we’d be absolutely screwed if you and Dauntless were fighting us too. All my respect, Fume Hood. Lauren. You’re a hero.”

She kept trudging forward, slowly recuperating from her wounds.

I took off.

⊙

I landed, touching ground with one foot, the leg with the sore foot bent at the knee.