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A true friend

"Of course," he says haltingly "But only if you stop blubbering, man We’re still Golds"

I pull back fro y My vision’s bleary I sniff He handsnose into He h together and then sit in an aard silence In ti since the Institute, he says, where he heard me say "bloodydamn" to Apollo My voice went all thick, all rusty Then Dancer showed hi

"Somehow they knew you could trust me, even if you didn’t, shithead Always been that way Alill be that way"

"It doesn’t … bother you?" I ask hiory big thing" He scratches his buzzed head "A crotch rash bothers me Bad fish bothers s "Piss on it You like ure I’d return the favor, even if I really aer than your rusty ass"

I laugh at that He would have dwarfed my Red self "You must knohat I’m here to do? It isn’t just infiltration It will end with the fall of the Society"

"Rise too high, in mud you lie"

"That’s it?" I ask incredulously "You’re on board?"

He snorts "It took me six months on a torchShip to reach you Three months from Triton after Dancer showed ht But still I boarded the ship and had three months to reconsider Still I a my commit to kill me since I was born" He looks around, uncomfortable even after all we’ve shared, despite the jamField "Only people to ever treat me decently are people who don’t have a reason to LowColors You I think it’s time to return the favor"

"And what of the others?" I ask intensely "Pebble, Clown?"

"Not my secret to share Quinn would have understood," he says slowly, fighting back so Thistle won’t Roque won’t Not in a million years Too in love with their own species Don’t know about the tall arrogant one"

"Victra And Mustang?" I ask

"I don’t give love advice, shithead" He stands "Say, just because I’e from a Pink, does it? That would suck sack"

"I don’t know," I laugh "I’etting one Back feels bloody broken" His crooked teeth bare theht, Reap Despite all this shit It feels good in here" He taps his thin chest "It feels … how do you say … bloodydaoodbyes to Sevro "Augustus sent ustus is giving est room?"

"Your ship, your spoils, he said You kno particular he is about order"

"I hope you know the way I’ We walk in silence through the halls I’ Sevro is with me, that Ares still believes in me, and that Dancer is still alive out there It’s a salve on the pain from Quinn’s death

"I suppose you know my family has betrayed the ArchGovernor," she says