“Hawkeye, I’m fine.”

“Fine!? I don’t know what constitutes as ‘fine’ for you humans, but something tells me you shouldn’t be shooting electricity around with abandon while you sleep. That sounds like the exact opposite of fine!”

We’d been going on like this for the past twenty minutes.

We were both chained up again, around our wrists and ankles. I ran a hand down my face, still shaken at having lost it in a dream. Or was I dreaming right now? “Listen, I’m sure you want an explanation for…” I turned for a moment to regard the charred part of the floor where I slept. “...Well, everything, but I don’t know what’s going on!”

Hawkeye scoffed. “Oh, I’m sure you know plenty! Ladarion, you’re perfectly welcome to introduce yourself to a tub or something when we get out of here ― believe me, I wouldn’t stop you ― but I have to know that you won’t have some kind of nuclear meltdown in the near future that’ll vaporize everything within a mile-wide radius. Especially when we’re in this small cart!”

“You’re overreacting.”

“No, as a matter of fact, I’m underreacting. I’m being very reasonable by not doing the first thing that comes to mind and removing the threat before it grows to endanger everyone, which includes me, here!”

I kneeled down, lifting my chin and presenting my neck. “Then if it’s such a concern, just kill me and be done with it. I’m sick of listening to your bluster.”

She silently drank in the sight of me putting myself at her mercy, but refused to move.

“I can see it in your eyes, griffin. Your fury, your fear, your uncertainty. I live for this. To make your ilk suffer. You’ll get no apologies from me for your useless wing because I have nothing for which to apologize. Given the opportunity, I’d do it again.”

As I goaded her, her repressed anger became palpable.

“You want so badly to end my life, don’t you? Here’s your chance. Or are you too afraid?”

Hawkeye looked ready to pounce, her eyes drifting from my own down to my exposed neck. An amused snort erupted from me. Her gaze then drifted down to her tightened fist.

“Monster…” she breathed. “To think you are the same person who boasted of not believing in fate or having others dictate his life. To think you are the same person who said balance can only be achieved from within. To think you are the same person who broke my wing...!”

Just as I thought she was going to act, her hand quivering violently, she closed her eyes. Tears streamed down her face for a moment as she struggled to compose herself.

‘Yes. Yes! Come on, then,’ I thought to myself, a rueful smile worming its way to my face. ‘Don’t you dare hold out on me, you rotten coward!’

Hawkeye growled, shaking her head as she closed her free hand, the talons raking across the ground. Then she went silent. My heart glowed bright, and I clenched the burning red stone in my grasp as I bathed in the atmosphere.

In what felt like an eternity, she finally let loose a sigh.

“No.” My grin vanished. I glared a thousand winters at the weakling. “I’m not going to allow you to keep getting to me like this.” Her shoulders slumped, and her talons uncurled, revealing that cursed coin she insisted on keeping in her possession. “You’ve just revealed to me that you are the coward here. Too afraid of anything to accept responsibility when given his own choices; too afraid of anything to be his own man just because he’s faced with hardship; too afraid to live." She looked me in the eyes, a fire burning within hers. “To think you are the same person who broke my wing… It’s insulting.”

I snarled, grabbing her and slamming her into a wall of our moving cage. “Rraaaaaaaugh​!”

Wrapping a hand around her windpipe, I began strangling her. I began slamming her against the wall over and over again, lost in a rage. “You weak! Useless! Mockery of nature! See how easily I can end your miserable existence? I’ll show you what mercy gets you!”

Hawkeye grabbed my wrist, fighting for air. I cackled when I watched her struggle. Then, she looked at me, determined, and spoke. “And too afraid to take a life…” A vein swelled in my forehead. “You- you’re nothing.”

My grasp on her loosened, and she fell to the floor, hacking and holding a claw to her throat. I stepped away, my fingers pressing into my scalp with unrelenting force as my eyes shifted erratically. Again I fell to my knees. “No. You’re wrong,” I muttered. “You’re wrong, you’re wrong, you’re wrong!”

A sharp pain exploded from my back, and I found myself face-down on the floor. A weight quickly settled upon me, keeping me from retaliating, and my head was lifted up by the hair. I grunted when a talon pressed against my neck. Hawkeye breathed heavily, and I could feel her glaring lasers into the back of my skull.

“You wanna know the difference between us, Ladarion? When I say something, I mean it. I’m not so caught up in pitying myself that I disregard the emotions of others." I futilely tried to free myself. "I'd be doing you a damn favor were I to kill you. You’re broken! What a waste of time you’d be if you perished here, considering I spent the past two days feeding you and getting you those pills while you slept. But you know what? If you want to die so badly, then just die!” She let my head fall back to the floor.

I mumbled something, trembling.

“What was that?”

I turned my head, revealing the tears pouring from my eyes. “I said I’m not nothing!” I sobbed. “I am important to someone!”

Hawkeye’s mouth quivered at that, and she bit back her retort. “Don’t come near me. Tomorrow we’ll break out as planned, but as soon as that happens you’re on your own.” She sat forlornly in a corner of the confined space, not looking or speaking to me, but staring at the coin.

Sniffling, I curled up in my own end of the cart. I wiped at my eyes. “I am important to someone…”