"And how can I trust your words?" Zash is one of them, now. Or he's trying his best to become one of them, to become human. Using words, not thoughts. Dressing like them. Eating food. They're so charmed by him, but charm means nothing. [You can also lie.]

[Not to you. Never to you.] He's still hurt, that Nai hid his plan from him, didn't even let Zash talk him out of this, and now they're all dead—the hurt over Rem herself is still fresh, it's been years but it's still fresh. Can Nai not feel it?

Of course he can. But how can he trust it? Humans lie. What does he even know about Rem? What did Rem even know about love? How could he possibly know what she meant, if she did mean what she said? He can't hear humans, at all, the way Zash can. And even Zash has admitted it's superficial. He can't trust—anything.

She wants to argue with him — she thinks Zash is projecting, this all feels so real, like this cascade of tragedies is happening in front of her — but of course, she can’t. Nai isn’t here to argue with. This all took place over a century ago.

Instead she reaches out to take Zash’s hand, and offer what little pathetic comfort she can.

Morgan knows how this goes from here. From the religious doctrine. God found humans unworthy, and then tore Eden asunder. They didn’t deserve it.

"Sorry, I'm all jumbled in telling. The man that was with Nai, the one he called doctor—our ship wasn't one of the ones that survived mostly intact but there were some survivors, there were some shuttles that managed to escape just like ours did—he was William Conrad, the head of the team of scientists who did—what they did—to Tesla. I hadn't known he'd survived, until then, and I was very surprised that he was with Nai. I think Nai hated him more than any other human, but..."

...the flavour of their relationship is not hard to understand, really. Nai is filled with contempt and hatred for all humans, and yes, for William Conrad especially...

...but Conrad himself is filled with regret and self-loathing and a desire to make amends. He's clearly being threatened into compliance, but—not very much. He genuinely wants to do whatever it takes, and he sees himself as ultimately the one responsible for the Fall. If he hadn't been so monstrously callous, hadn't treated Tesla like a thing to be studied...

This all, Zash pieced together later, from understanding humans better. The glimpses he got into Conrad's psyche served as the basis for it, and he never ran into the man again, but he thinks that's what was going on.

"Zash... Let's finish what I started. Let's build a paradise together." Eden, a place free of hatred, free of death, free of the chains humans impose on them, free of their prejudices and their pettinesses and their greediness. "Let's free our sisters," and take revenge, and kill all humans, and be angry for everything humans have done and continue to do.

"We... we can't just free them." (Several other guards run into the room and towards them from when the two survivors called for reinforcements.) "You know this." [They'd die. There's a reason they called us Independents. Outside of their carefully-controlled environment they can't survive.]

"So you bought into that nonsense..." [If three Independents can exist, then more can. I refuse to believe there's no way for our existing sisters to become Independent. Their gates are small, they can barely access the higher dimension, not like you and I can. They'd be able to control their own energy and bodies a lot better, if they could.] "And it doesn't matter. Chains are still chains." [If they die at least they won't be slaves, tortured to death by humans.]

The arriving guards heard the reports from the earlier guards and aren't asking questions first. As soon as they're close enough, they shoot.

"Nai, wait—!"

Too late.

Nai's blades intercept every bullet, and then for every bullet he sends a blade into the person who shot them. It's only fair, an equal and proportional retribution.

"We—we had to do this to survive—!" says one of the two initial guards.

"No. You didn't." And now they're dead, too, these directly by Nai's hands.

"N-Nai..."

He spots a gun held by one of the corpses surrounding him. There's a flash of anger, and then righteousness, as he picks it up and turns around to walk to Zash. "Here. Since you love humans so much. You can use their weapon." Their instrument of death from afar, offering no risk, only fear and destruction. A cowardly tool.

"Nai, this, this isn't you." The Nai he knew was a quiet boy, a subdued boy, a boy who wanted to be loved and cared for. A boy who had so much going on inside, but who shared it with so few people. Zash felt blessed and privileged, to know him so well. They shared so many lazy afternoons in the arcology of the ship, just sitting next to each other under a tree, sharing all of their thoughts and feelings as if they were one. They didn't use words—didn't need to—and no one else could hear them. It was just them. They loved each other so much—Zash loved him so much—

[I still love you.] It's always hard for him to express his feelings like that, so directly. Much easier to feel, and let Zash feel it too. He can still do that, but like this he—brings it to focus. He misses the arcology. He misses the times he spent reading a book while Zash chattered inanely about the lives of the little people in the ship, the ones who weren't in cryosleep. He misses the times they played the piano together, the way they could do a duet and synchronise perfectly because they knew exactly what the other was doing.

He misses Zash so much. It's been years, and he's felt Zash's absence like a hole torn out of his heart. It ached, every hour of every day. It hurt.

It still hurts. He still feels like he doesn't have Zash back. Like there's this chasm between them. And there is, and he knows that a big part of it is his own fault. He can feel the echo of his feelings inside Zash, and he can see how Zash loves humans, too, sees in them the endless potential...

...but Nai can't see it. Not anymore. He can't feel them like Zash can, never could, and after he discovered what they did with Tesla—and after everything they've done, right here, to their sisters—how can Zash still love them?

Zash doesn't—have the words. He can't argue. He doesn't know how. So he just shows him: all of those times he spent helping humans work alongside plants, live with them. They don't understand, they see plants as objects, but Zash can show them, can show them how much love can accomplish. They're so small, and sad, and alone, and scared, thrust into a strange inhospitable world and afraid for their lives every day. They can't—

—Can’t see the future and don’t dare to be brave today, because they’re so scared. They just want to be okay. That’s all most really want, when you get down to it.

When afraid for their life, people will bite and claw and scrape and cause all kinds of damage, and it will have been worth it, because after they’d still be alive.

"Zash!" calls someone Zash recognizes. Someone who followed him all the way to February. Because he left and thought they hated him and she couldn't leave it at that.

"—Luida!" calls the doctor.