Patches tried to take a deep breath. It was shaky and burned his throat. He could feel Eoleo trying to make himself vanish and Kisegawa just barely keeping him in place. You need to hear the rest, she said. Please. Please don’t disconnect. Not if you’re going to forget all over again.

   “Geiru…s-said she thought we were involved with Shisho’s p-plans. Like w-we were out to g-get her or s-s-something,” Patches croaked. “She said– She s-said she wanted to des-stroy everything. That no-othing meant anyth-thing anymore. It’s like– It’s l-like– we n-never existed. O-Or we’re suddenly a different p-person to her.”

    He tried to wipe at his face but the tears just kept coming back. It hurt. It hurt, it hurt– “We loved her…s-so much…She was everyth-thing to us. Was it– Was it all one-s-sided? W-Was Owen the o-only one she c-cared about? Why him? W-Why couldn’t she love us, t-too?”

   She’d hurt them. She’d discarded them. She made it look so easy.

   “Are we…A-Are we really s-so worthless…?”

ALL OF THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

   They fell silent.

   Patches was the one in the driver’s seat, eyes down, carefully rubbing the scraped knuckle Kisegawa had used. The courtesan was practically vibrating, livid with rage, but so, so close to breaking to pieces.

   And in the backseat was Eoleo, curled up and watching with a rapidly, nauseatingly growing sense of dread.

   …What are you two hiding from me? he whispered.

   Patches swallowed thickly, turning to look up at Athena. Don’t do this. It’s all going to break, Kisegawa said faintly. She was probably right. Eoleo just barely remembered that they’d gone to visit her, and they’d convinced him that nothing particular had happened and the body has just passed out for “medical reasons we didn’t get checked at a hospital, probably”. He didn’t remember the shock. The hurt. It’d been too much for him to stay.

   Revealing the truth could make the memories come back and open all the wounds again.

   It was terrifying.

   Patch? K-Kise? What’s going on? I’m– W-What’s all this about?

   He’d said to trust Athena. He couldn’t shy away from this. She’d helped them in court. She could help them again. He had to trust her. He had to.

   “She said…She said that she didn’t deserve to live,” Patches croaked. “She said she didn’t deserve to live, and that– and that–” and he felt his eyes burn and the tears roll down and his voice die out into something hoarse, barely above a whisper– 

   “If it hadn’t been Owen, she would’ve killed us too.”

Kisegawa pressed her lips. Let herself be sad? When was there even time for her to do that? She couldn’t, she needed to keep everyone together, and so she always piled anger and more anger to cover the sadness of having to think about the people who’d hurt her. Hurt all of them.

So instead of feeling sad she just piled anger, and piled and piled and piled and–

And drove her fist into the nearest non-human surface with a loud snarl. Somewhere in the back of her head she heard Patches yelp.

Kissy, t-that’s enough! You’re just hurting yourself! Let me take over! Please! he insisted, trying to claim the driver’s seat. She just tried to shake him off. They both had their hands on the wheel and it was hard for one or the other to stay at the front.

Athena jumped when Kisegawa’s fist mad contact with the nearest hard surface, not really expecting her to get violent. Or well, violent in principle, she supposed? Either way the, emotions she heard in the words that followed were overwhelming. Her heart broke for the woman – for all of them. But if she was going to help, she had to focus on her current task. She had to review what she knew for sure.