“This life-saving, life-altering, life-defining suit only takes a few hundred Energy to create, but is sold for around three thousand Energy. The only ones that afford it are people born into Houses, or that serve them. Everyone else lives most of their lives in generally painful but bearable servitude—does that answer your question?”

“It does, and that brings me to my last question—did you kill them out of pleasure, or did you kill them so that innocents may be saved?”

“What difference does that make? It’s either them, or us. We had to kill them regardless.”

“Who we are makes a difference.”

“Not as much as what we do.”

“I agree,” Luna said. “What we do, what we have done, and what we regret, is most of what defines who we are—it is what impacts others, it is what makes our world the way it is. Our intentions and motivations behind why we did and do those things are a smaller part, but it is a part nevertheless.”

Nico pursed his lips. Regret, huh? “I didn’t kill them.”

“If the Phoenix hadn’t killed them, wouldn’t you have?”

“Who do you mean by innocent?” he asked.

“Children,” Luna said, walking past him. She sat down against the tree with her knees folded beneath her. Her back rested calmly against the bark. She closed her eyes.

He stopped at the last button and faced her. “That’s it?”

“Hm?” she said, peeking one eye open. “Is there more you want to talk about?”

Nico shook his head. He walked around the tree. The Ranker was balled up in the same spot, in the same position. The shaking seemed to have gotten worst. He was hyperventilating. He held his body as if it would stop it from bleeding.

Nico crouched in front of him. He must have dropped the potion. Was he smart for not doing anything, or was he a coward for doing nothing? What did he think was going to happen? What did he think happened?

Nico rested his arms on his knees. He looked at the corner of the tree, frowning. No, I’m asking the wrong questions again. He looked back to the Ranker, a shell in hand. Why am I trying to understand you? Nico reached forward, placing a hand on the Ranker’s shoulders. He recoiled. I should despise you to the bone.

“Khan? I-is that you?” he said, leaning forward. He reached blindly for Nico.

Nico tapped the Ranker’s mouth. He flung it open. His teeth were rattling. Nico placed the shell on his red tongue and closed his mouth. The Ranker flinched, then relaxed as the gel spread throughout his body. He squinted open his eyes. His pupils were light brown and the whites bloodshot red. The little yellow tendrils stretched beneath his cheeks towards them. Vein by vein they recovered. The blood was left to crust on his face, a line down from each eye, nose, and ear.

The Ranker locked eyes with Nico, surprise, then horror stretching across his face.

“No, Aiden,” Nico said, shaking his head. “I’m not Khan.”

Aiden stared at Nico slack jawed. He went still as a corpse.

Nico took Aiden’s hands into his own. He turned them palm up on the Locust and traced the skin with his index. Soft. It doesn’t take much effort to press a button. People like him, encapsulated in their suits and drinks, have more red potion flowing in their veins than blood. They lived a different life, in their own little paradise, while everything goes to hell because of them.

Nico held Aiden’s finger in between the Locust’s index and thumb. I can take my price in broken bones. How satisfying that would be, Nico could easily imagine. Aiden will feel a fragment of the pain he’d made, that he would have eventually made, that his parents has made, to Nico and his family. It wouldn’t equate, but it would be a start. A single drop on the weighing scale of misery.

But what does that accomplish? The dead will still be dead. The hurt will still be hurt. Their cruel and hideous world will stay cruel and hideous. Crushing a few fingers won’t make anyone happy.

Would I?

Vengeance would set a part of Nico’s heart at peace, he knew that for a fact, but torture is pointless. Aiden was raised by greedy parents, who were likely raised by greedy parents themselves. Taking his vengeance on Aiden was the equivalent of taking vengeance on his enemy’s socks.

If Aiden is responsible, then so is the Iron House for raising him that way. If the Iron House is responsible, then so are the other Houses for allowing it to behave that way—even worst, they still did business as usual. They were partners. But if the Houses are responsible, then so is every person for buying their drinks and believing comforting lies that absolved them of risking their lives for their more unfortunate brothers and sisters.

But if not Aiden, then who do I take my vengeance on? Who is my enemy? Who’s to blame for the death of his parents? Who’s to blame for the burning of his brother?

Someone said something. Nico looked up. “What?”

“Y-yes,” he said quietly. “I—I said I wasn’t a part of it. I…had nothing to do with it, I swear.”

“What is it?” Nico asked. Taking advantage of people? Destroying the world? There were so many things Aiden had nothing to do with.

Aiden glanced at the Locust, “Your brother…. It’s not right, but you melted our brother’s skull in front of thousands of people!” he yelled. He flinched and made himself smaller. His eyes rabidly looked around him. He spoke quickly but quietly. He wiped his bangs. He breathed hard. “It’s Ron. He’s the one that made the order.”

“Who’s that?” Nico said.

“My older brother,” he said. “He’s the heir! Father and mother thought we had to make an example of—” he stopped. “Sorry.”

So it’s the Iron House as a whole? Should I be going after his parents? Or maybe his grandparents?

“Please,” he whispered, his eyes pouring as much tears as it poured blood. “Please let me live. I’m not involved.” He got to his knees and bent his head down until it almost touched the ground. He rested his arms against his elbows instead of his hands.

“I’m sorry, Aiden,” Nico said, and he meant it. “But it’s either me—”

Aiden lunged forward, stabbing Nico through the neck with a dagger. Nico fell on his back and Aiden straddled him, screaming with bared teeth as he sunk the dagger until it scratched the bronze underneath them.

“Or you,” Nico gurgled, punching Aiden across the face with the Locust. A few teeth flew out. Aiden swung from left to right, his eyes unfocused and confused. Nico punched him again, and then a third time. Aiden’s cheekbones broke and the rest of his upper teeth fell out bloody red. He collapsed backwards and crawled away, sobbing, and dropping teeth behind him.

Nico sat up, pulling the dagger out and tossing it aside. He rested his chin against his knee. He looked at Aiden half-running, half crawling away, and wondered whether torturing the torturer made him just as terrible.

Nico fired the Bone Skewer. It went in between Aiden’s feet. He Retracted and the Bone Skewer burst open into a grappling hook. It slid back, catching Aiden’s ankles. He fell face first. He looked back at Nico with a broken nose and clawed the dear ground for hold. He slid and he slowly came back towards Nico, yelling and sobbing incoherently.

No, I don’t think it does. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Anything less is not justice. Nico made a shell.

Nico transmuted the Bone Skewer away. Aiden’s feet flopped to the ground. He covered his head with his hands. “You know,” Nico said, walking around until he faced Aiden. He crouched down, scratching his neck. “If you didn’t try avoiding responsibility, if you didn’t wail and cower, if you got angry and tried to get vengeance for your friends, then maybe, and just maybe, I would have felt bad about using you this way.” Nico clutched Aiden’s hair and lifted his mouth up. He punched in the shell and smashed Aiden’s head against the ground, muffling his cries. “But that’s the thing about people like you--there is no redeemable quality to you. It’s why you do the terrible things you do with pleasure. It’s why I will do the terrible things I do with honor and pride.”

Aiden vomited blood and broken teeth. He gasped, holding his neck and his face. He patted them, confused as they recovered. Nico punched him, knocking out some of the newly grown teeth right out. “I’ll coat this entire summit with your teeth, Aiden,” Nico said, clutching his face. His index finger and thumb pulled down the soft skin under the eyes until they stuck-out. “But maybe if you answer a few quest—”

Aiden nodded before Nico even finished his words.