[Simple. No further argument needed. It hadn't been another of Rei's ploys. It had been the truth, the unanswered question, scratching around at the bottom of his brain since he'd first walked out into Bay City's streets. Quell was out there, somewhere, and he'd destroyed his only real chance of ever finding her.
He had nothing left. Was nothing. A broken ghost with the corpse of his sister in his arms, two hundred and fifty years of death and horror she'd spread across the settled worlds, only the facsimile of Quell that his mind conjured to whisper comfort as they plummeted out of the atmosphere.]
I can't do it again.
[Quiet. So quiet he isn't even sure he said it. His grip tightens on Stephen for a second. A pulse of need threading through the empty static of his body. He'd known it, waking up here. Had tried to keep his distance. Drown himself in alcohol and sex. But he was weak, like Rei said. Soft-hearted. And now he was in love with another person intent on a path that would leave him with nothing, again.]
no subject
[Simple. No further argument needed. It hadn't been another of Rei's ploys. It had been the truth, the unanswered question, scratching around at the bottom of his brain since he'd first walked out into Bay City's streets. Quell was out there, somewhere, and he'd destroyed his only real chance of ever finding her.
He had nothing left. Was nothing. A broken ghost with the corpse of his sister in his arms, two hundred and fifty years of death and horror she'd spread across the settled worlds, only the facsimile of Quell that his mind conjured to whisper comfort as they plummeted out of the atmosphere.]
I can't do it again.
[Quiet. So quiet he isn't even sure he said it. His grip tightens on Stephen for a second. A pulse of need threading through the empty static of his body. He'd known it, waking up here. Had tried to keep his distance. Drown himself in alcohol and sex. But he was weak, like Rei said. Soft-hearted. And now he was in love with another person intent on a path that would leave him with nothing, again.]