"Adrian?" So many emotions washed over Mela's face that I had no chance of following them all. Didn't even try. "H-How…"

She raised her arm as if to reach for me, her feet already bringing her a step closer.

Then her body locked up. She stumbled back, letting out a sound like someone had punched her right in the throat.

I was already moving. Thankfully, long before I reached her, she managed to find her footing again. Her hand came up to rub at her throat gingerly.

A throat that I only then realized was encircled by some kind of collar.

"What is that?" The words, sharp and suspicious, left me in a rush.

"Hm? Oh…" For just a moment, Mela looked so very, very tired. More tired than I had ever seen her. More tired than even her disheveled state suggested. "Well… If yer asking, at least yer probably not working with my brother."

I reeled back like she had slapped me.

"This is a containment collar," she explained. "Can't move out of this room while wearing it, or… well… ya saw."

I did, in fact, see. Rage and indignation and pure hatred thundered through me at what that asshole had done to his own sister.

"Here, let me see it?" I was approaching before she could answer. She stared at me quietly for a moment, but then she did let her hand drop away from the collar. "Don't freak out, okay?"

She nodded, so I flexed my hand and let my claws slip out. She arched an eyebrow at that, but otherwise, she didn't react as I ever so carefully tried to get a claw between her skin and the collar. It wasn't easy, since the thing was fit really snugly against her throat, but I managed. Then I fed my claws some Essence and watched in satisfaction as they slid through the metal of the stupid thing.

The collar sparked, making me worry for a moment, but the sparks died out quickly. Then I repeated the whole process on the other side of the collar. It was even easier this time, the previous cut giving me a little more wiggle room. Soon, Mela's 'containment collar' clattered down to the floor.

I had no idea what to say, so I just stepped back. Mela, meanwhile, stared down at the now useless bits of metal.

Then she screeched like a banshee as her face warped into the picture-perfect representation of wrath.

She stomped down on the collar for all she was worth, again and again and again, entirely ignoring how little damage she was actually doing to the thing. I think she did more damage to her foot, really. The floor also got more than a few new scuff marks, while the collar was practically mocking her with how perfect it still looked after her rampage.

Of course, that might have been because she couldn't keep the rampage up for very long.

Mela slumped barely a couple of minutes into the crash-out. Stumbling over to the wall, she struggled to take in big gulps of air. "Fuckin…! Pathetic. I'm fucking pathetic."

This, at least, snapped me out of my daze.

"Hardly. Come on." I rushed to support her, then carefully guided her out of the room. "Saw some comfy seats over here."

The room her brother had kept her in was very nicely furnished. Plush bed. Extremely comfortable-looking armchair. Several other pieces of furniture that looked to be of high quality. In spite of all that, though, I was pretty sure Mela wanted nothing to do with it.

Seeing the flicker of a smug smile cross her face as we exited the room only reinforced that certainty.

"If you couldn't leave that room, does that mean you haven't eaten anything recently? You've got to be hungry. I can order us some pizza, if you'd like? Or something else? I don't know what you're a fan of," Amelia rambled, briefly faltering when Mela glanced at her.

She looked adorably nervous. Like a girlfriend getting introduced to her boyfriend's family for the first time. That wasn't too far off the mark, actually. But there was so much to be said, I honestly didn't know if Mela was going to be fond of me by the end of the conversation, let alone Amelia.

"I could eat." Mela chuckled raspily. "And have some water. That scream really took a lot outta me, huh? Fucking asshole, sticking in me in there, with no equipment to train or a scroll or whatever…"

Amelia's eyes grew distant as she used them to make an order. I guided Mela into a seat, a couch as far removed from any of the furniture she had in her room as possible, then flitted away to grab a glass of water.

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The kitchen was pristine. The only sign of use in it was the trash can, which contained a few takeout boxes. It took me far too long to locate a cup as a result. By the time I was back with them, both women looked awkward, sitting in an uncomfortable silence.

"Here." I handed Mela the cup. "Need me to help you?"

I grinned as a spark of amusement and indignation lit up in her eyes.

"Oi, look here kiddo, I can still break you over my knee. Don't push me, got it?"

For a tiny stretch of time, I had Mela back. The Mela I knew.

The next moment, though, her eyes darkened. She took a sip of the water, hesitating before she spoke. "How are you here? I… don't want to accuse you of working with my brother or whatever. Still, with what he did… I thought you were dead. Then you show up here."

There it was. The question to open the floodgates.

I couldn't speak. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't hear anything over the thunder of my own heart. It was only when Amelia gently placed her hand on my shoulder, a motion which sent a brief jitter of fear stabbing through me at first, that I found my tongue.

"I… did he tell you anything? About why he did what he did? About what happened?"

Mela's eyes bored into mine with an unearthly intensity. Eventually, though, she did shake her head. "Only that it was done and that he could move on now, whatever the fuck that even meant. I mean, I have some ideas, but… Later. What about you? I asked first."

I didn't like how calm and deliberate her tone of voice was.

"Okay, well… just let me get through the story first, okay? Start to finish. Then you can do whatever you want with me."

"No." Amelia's eyes flashed. "Nuh uh. She can yell. Maybe I'll let her punch you. Once. Maybe. None of it's your fault, though, so probably not, but that's the limit of my magnanimity."

Mela actually cracked a small grin. "Well look at ya! A girl defending yer ass. Managed to get hooked up while I wasn't looking? Good for ya, kiddo. Now, spill. I'll decide how hard I want ta try and deck ya after."

I took a deep breath, and then I… 'spilled.' Right from the start.

My fucked up eyes. Jason and his toadies making the offer because I was the only other kid they knew with a gun. That whole fucking mess of an ambush. The stolen cyberware. Installing it. The other fucking mess that followed right after. The chaos in the slums. My guilt. My suspicions. My encroaching eldritch insanity.

Then the hardest parts. The day the Kittens were attacked. My arrival at the Cattery, the Kittens' HQ, and what I saw there. Getting knocked out. Waking up. All the horrible shit that followed.

Amelia. The escape. The hunt for revenge and the mercs. I didn't even leave out the fucked up shit Amelia and I were capable of, and had actually done.

The pizza arrived halfway through, but I had no stomach for it. Mela did, thankfully, even if she kept watching me with an empty stare as she continued to eat. She gave away nothing of how she felt about the words tumbling out of my mouth.

Only when I was reaching the end did I finally get a reaction out of her.

"So, yeah. I traded a couple of bullet wounds for taking down your brother, and… well… We might have taken his limbs off and stuck him in a room? He's not a shadow or a drone or anything. Though I did, erm… rough him up, and he might or might not be… You're laughing. Why are you laughing?"

I wasn't even sure she could hear me. She had started to snicker when I said her bother was de-limbed, then descended quickly into full-on hysterical laughter.

"Oh… oh, that's too good. Fucker ain't even got legs! You just — ooooh, I can't wait to see the look on his face! I mean… oooooofff, I'm laughing too hard ya fuck! Ya did this to me, and —"

I couldn't catch anything past that. There was just laughter, interspersed with a few ugly sobs and the tears streaming down her face. Then she managed to catch herself for long enough to fix me with a glare, motioning at me roughly.

"C'mere."

Amelia stared at us with a suspicious squint, but I stood up and walked closer to the unhinged redhead with no hesitation.

I was honestly expecting a punch. Maybe strangulation. What I didn't expect was to be pulled into a hug. One of Mela's proper, crushing hugs, the kind that attempted to suffocate me with the weapon she referred to as her chest.

"Fuck, kid. You had it rough, and… just, fuck. You didn't deserve that. Can't say I'm not a little freaked out by the shit ya just told me about, with the fucking shadows and all of that, but… Fuck." She cursed again, squishing me a little harder.

I heard Amelia clear her throat somewhere behind us, which finally prompted Mela to release me with an amused laugh. That laugh did peter out, though, as she fixed me with a stare.

"I ain't sure how I feel about yer part in everything that happened. It… wasn't meant to happen, I get that. Yer not even ta blame for all of it. I know that. Even if ya weren't there… Everything coulda gone to shit regardless. I just… I'm gonna need a minute, with all the fuckin crap that happened. Still, I want ya to know this: I don't hate ya, kiddo. I don't."

The wave of relief that swept through me was so profound, I swear I almost passed out then and there.

I didn't have a lot of people I cared about. Wasn't torn up about that, either. It was what it was.

Mela was definitely on that list, though. High up on that list.

She'd saved my life. Done so much for me. The guilt over what had happened to her had been eating me alive, no matter how good I'd gotten at squashing those feelings.

To hear her say that…

"Thank you. I… thank you."

I didn't sob. Didn't even cry. I felt too wrung-out after my story to properly muster up the energy for that sort of thing.

I did, however, feel immeasurably lighter.

Sure, she hadn't given me a complete absolution of guilt or whatever. But the fact that she wasn't going to storm out and never want to talk to me again… it was more than I'd dared to hope.

"You're going to come with us, right?" I asked. "We can help. I mean, we technically own a merc company. We…. we can go back out to the slums, too. Maybe look for… for, I mean…"

I couldn't say it. Couldn't do that to either of us. Saying that there might be other survivors was a bit too much to hope for.

Mela took a deep breath in and slowly released it. "Sure, kiddo. I'll come. We'll need to talk more, but I'll come."

I finally smiled. I caught Amelia shooting me a grin and a wink, too.

The fucked up mess of a world felt like a marginally nicer place.

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