“You really believe that,” Rain said. “Cooped up in this lab, not even following. You didn’t see how we cut her in half.”

“I’ve put all my chips on it,” Chris said.

“She fucking got to you,” I said, my eyes widening.

“No, she didn’t. I knew I’d be doing this before we arrived at this facility. I’m the only one here who isn’t underestimating her, and I’ll be the only one here who can string together two coherent thoughts, in the end.”

“Chris,” Sveta said, quiet. “I should warn you that I’m not in complete control of my body right now. I don’t want to kill you, but you’re making it very hard to restrain this body’s natural impulses.”

“And you’ll murder someone you hate, again, just… what is it? Eight floors up and three hundred feet away from where you murdered the woman who made you what you are?”

“Fuck you, Chris,” she said.

“For what it’s worth,” he said. “I expected you to be upset. Part of what I did with my time was plan countermeasures. This is yours, Sveta.”

He picked up a syringe from a table, big and plastic, holding it in one talon-hand. Ninety percent of him was covered in feathers now.

She reached for it, and he reacted, fast, pulling his hand back. Sveta caught it on the second attempt, gripping it, while he did the same. Neither budged, and the syringe was held by both of them.

“Let me dash it to pieces against the wall.”

“It’s a fix,” Chris said. “You get a body. Ten fingers, ten toes, belly button, heartbeat, spleen. You’d lose the tattoo, that’d be purged, your skin would be like anyone’s skin.”

“I don’t fucking believe you, Chris.” She pulled her tendril back. Her arm writhed as a morass for long seconds before returning to something resembling an actual arm in shape.

“It’s not happily ever after,” he said. “You still lose your mind, whatever form that takes, though I have my suspicions on how she’ll tackle this. I don’t think it’ll be that bad at first. She’ll have to spend at least a decade repairing the damage, getting things lined up, coordinating everyone and everything. You’ll be a little cuckoo, she’ll be nudging you here and there to put you in a convenient little box where you’re doing what she needs you to do. Nobody will quite be able to bring themselves to put up a fight. She’ll close up the cracks—”

“Chris,” I interrupted. “Are you stalling?”

“No. I’m honestly not,” he said. He looked so at ease, when he’d just fucked us on every conceivable level.

I could go back, report to the Warden leadership, and tell them that it was all falling through.