[He feels his head touch something. Realizing, belatedly, it's the countertop. No, he doesn't want this. Doesn't want any of this. But he was chosen for it -- he was handed the lives of two people first, then four. Then one who mattered to the entire universe and...]
[And out of all of those, there's only four left, aren't there.]
[You lost Allura. You left the others behind. You hurt -- and there's Matt's face staring up at him from the floor, betrayed and in agony and there are hands pulling him away and he never gets to explain --]
I... don't think I can... do this. Talk about this.
Not now.
[Because now it feels like every failure is threatening to crush him under its heels. Like losing the Darkling was just a catalyst kicking off a bomb in his broken head. And her words were the trigger.]
[He can feel, under it all, the stirring of that familiar anger. Like some great animal rising to its feet.]
And -- and it doesn't change the others. Not going to bring them back.
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[And out of all of those, there's only four left, aren't there.]
[You lost Allura. You left the others behind. You hurt -- and there's Matt's face staring up at him from the floor, betrayed and in agony and there are hands pulling him away and he never gets to explain --]
I... don't think I can... do this. Talk about this.
Not now.
[Because now it feels like every failure is threatening to crush him under its heels. Like losing the Darkling was just a catalyst kicking off a bomb in his broken head. And her words were the trigger.]
[He can feel, under it all, the stirring of that familiar anger. Like some great animal rising to its feet.]
And -- and it doesn't change the others. Not going to bring them back.