“Because… the world is ending. I might die. I can’t think of anything sadder than spending most of my life alone and unwanted and stuck on the outside, and getting so close to having something better, and then ending up alone again when, um…”

She swallowed hard.

“…you know,” she said, quiet. “We all get snuffed out.”

“Trust your team,” he told her.

“My team is supposed to have me on it!” she raised her voice. “I’m kind of really, really good at what I do, I worked so hard to be useful, to give them the info they need, the equipment, the tools. I stayed up late, I studied, I wrote notes, I kept track of everything! I trust the team but if you take me out then the team is incomplete! There’s no Swansong, there’s no Capricorn Red, there’s no Lookout!”

“It’s not just them. They’re cooperating with Tattletale and you played your part in that happening, connecting the two teams. They’re reaching out for help, pulling in allies, and you played a part in that too, or so I hear.”

“That’s… not enough. They’re just going to keep dying. It’s always when I’m not looking or when I can’t do anything about it, so obviously the solution is to look more, do more, upgrade, expand. If I don’t then people die.”

“That’s not on you.”

“And then what? They all die, I’m alone, and cracks spread everywhere, the world turns to crystal, and I’m stuck here with nobody to hug me or keep me company or tell me it’ll be okay, and… even right now I’m trying to think and I can’t think of many people where I left a good last impression. It’s just death and anger and hurt and a whole lot of embarrassment. If you’d let me access my tech, I could at least talk to some people. People who are feeling abandoned right now, who need me right now. What a way to go, letting everyone down, all my life.”

He stepped back, until he was at the door, and then he sank down, back sliding against the door until he was sitting, opposite her.

“I had someone, the last time the world ended,” he said. The smoke around him passed in front of his mouth as he spoke, distorting the word ‘last’. He dismissed some of it with a wave of his hand, thinning it out into nothingness.

“Was it a guy or a girl?”

“Girl. Cozen.”

“What was she like?”

“Driven. She could really perform, she could put on an act, and I think that’s important when you’re a cape. She had a long history as a thief and a burglar, and I actually got my start as a burglar for hire. I liked that… hm…”

“You liked that she was a burglar?”