12. REQUITE

twelve

REQUITE

O liver's eyes burned. He could barely see, but the odd sunglasses Samuel had given him helped. Now, everything was in shades of green. Had it been brown, Oliver would have been convinced he was in another memory. He almost wanted it to be. After the nightmare they witnessed, he wanted to leave and shut the door behind him.

He was back on the bed, now much further from the wall than everyone else's, his bare legs dangling off the side and kicking with impatience. They were inside what had to be a hospital, although entirely barren with only enough beds for him and his friends. From what Oliver could tell, the walls were white, the floor too. Everything was white and dull. Two metal chairs stood by the adjacent wall, one occupied by none other than Ondine.

Still in that long green dress with lace trims, still with that ugly braid twisted around the top of her head. Her slender fingers tap-tap-tapped across the bland table between the chairs, her cold gaze heavy with boredom.

Oliver clenched his fists around the fabric of patternless sheets, working his jaw against the need to launch that ghoul straight through the wall.

How they got to this place, why they were clean and dressed in itchy gowns had yet to be explained. Their belongings were gone. Tau wasn't with him. Samuel had told him to stop and listen before he went off the track again. Oliver had nearly maimed him in his blind attempt to swing the bed around. He did his best to stay put, but damn . All he wanted was to give that woman what she was owed.

Forcing his focus off Ondine for fear of giving into temptation, he watched Samuel instead. He held Benjamin's hands and sat beside him on the bed, while Benjamin quietly wept. Benjamin looked terrible, a heartbroken shadow of the bulky man he once was. Starvation had gotten to him, his face more gaunt than Oliver's own.

Samuel, on the other hand, looked just as Oliver remembered him. Handsome, flawless umber skin. Eyes-deep set, neutral expression permanently affixed. It was a great relief to see both alive and relatively well, but Tau was his more immediate concern. Despite persistently asking though, all Samuel had given him so far was that Tau was being seen to.

"I don't understand," Benjamin quavered. "How are you here?"

"Ah. Sentinel Tau put me here," said Samuel. "I'm sorry I didn't find you sooner. I didn't know you were down there until recently."

"It's not your fault." Benjamin visibly forced himself to regain some control.

Oliver had seen the man cry only once before, several weeks after losing Samuel. Were he not without his mantle, he would've crawled over there to try and comfort. Mostly, because it didn't look like Samuel was up to the task.

"I'm so sorry, Sam," Benjamin continued, leaning forward. There was a notable hesitancy from Samuel, before their lips met in a very brief, chaste kiss. "I should have gone down with you that day."

Samuel gently patted the back of Benjamin's hand. "It wasn't anyone's fault. It was bad luck, that's all."

Lucetta scoffed from where she sat on a bed past the two, Maji tucked into her side. She tilted her head back, sunglasses catching a glare from the strange lights overhead.

"Shit just happens, right?" she said.

A pallid smile crossed Samuel's full lips. "It certainly does. Suppose it didn't help I was carrying something of interest at the time."

"You were?" Benjamin asked thickly.

"Ah, yes. A flower. Deep purple—"

"Nearly black?"

"Yes!" Suddenly, Samuel looked enlivened. "How did you know?"

Oliver remembered seeing those flowers in the Wandering Horror realm. Maybe it had been after what belonged to its world.

"That was the only thing I found after you disappeared."

"Is that right?" Asked so casually, like Samuel had just been told the weather might take a turn. "Fascinating."

"What are you talking about?" Ondine asked, and Oliver twitched with the reflexive need to cave her face in.

"Fascinating?" Under the sunglasses, Benjamin's face grew taut with anger. "No, Sam, it isn't fascinating. I was devastated . I kept that flower as a reminder of my failure, so I'd never let anyone else down!"

Samuel released Benjamin's hand and leaned away. "I just think it's interesting it forgot to collect the very thing it was after."

"Almighty Sentinels," Lucetta snapped. "Do you even hear yourself? What the hell happened? What was that place we saw you in with all the glowing things?"

Unperturbed, Samuel shifted to face Lucetta, leaving Oliver to stare at his back.

"That's the world I jumped into during the attack," he continued, looking back at Benjamin. "You'll never guess who I met there. Do you remember Earl?"

"Earl?" Benjamin echoed, numbly.

Oliver sighed loudly. "I'm happy you're both alive and still kicking, but I want to see my boyfriend. Last I saw him, he had snakes sticking out from his face. Where the hell is he?"

"Boyfriend?" Samuel's eyebrows raised, and he cast a dubious look at Ondine, of all people. "Am I missing something?"

"Only that we're in love," Oliver snapped, too wrung out by stress to feel embarrassed. "Tell me where he is or I'm going looking for him."

A chuckle brought Oliver to his feet with head-reeling speed, fists ready to strike Ondine where she sat with that stupid smile on her face.

"Why don't you stuff it up your arse, before I do it for you?"

Ondine scoffed, eyes he knew to be icy blue looking at him without a sliver of interest. "I'm only curious about the short one right now. Throw the others back down the chute, for all I care."

"Come now, Ondine. That's no way to talk to them," said Samuel, as if in on a private joke. He wasn't amused, exactly, but the two had to be on friendly terms.

Ondine's focus turned to Maji, and Oliver flung his bare foot out at the ugly table, smashing it into several pieces against the wall. The woman didn't do so much as flinch, and Oliver's anger twisted into an untamable fury, the sharp throb in his foot serving as kindling.

"You're the cursed one Tristan mentioned." She didn't even look at him, now drumming her fingers along the chair's armrest. "You suffer a great deal from your curse, don't you?" Ondine's gaze slid up to meet his, and his feet were suddenly frostbound. He wanted to look away, but couldn't. "Always so miserable ."

The cruel humour dancing along her voice snapped Oliver out of his brief trance. Matching her chill, he said, "I'm going to enjoy killing you."

"Calm yourself." Samuel's hand fell over his shoulder. Gentle, but commanding. "I'll take you to Sentinel Tau if you want it that much. Alright?"

"Makes no difference to me," Ondine drawled with a faint, one-shouldered shrug.

Oliver remained where he stood. Fists still clenched tight, waging war against the need to kill the ghoul who tormented Tau. In the end, his desire to see Tau won, and he followed Samuel to what he thought was just the wall. It parted like two sheets of metal with a loud hiss that startled him into jumping back.

"We're coming too. Not a chance we're splitting up." Lucetta clambered out of bed with Maji.

Benjamin too joined them, his movements stiff, bare feet unsteady.

"I suppose that's fine." Samuel smiled amiably.

Compared to his husband, Samuel looked in great shape, his short hair and beard perfectly trimmed and resemblance to Lucetta obvious in the assured way he carried himself. Walking behind him down an indiscernible hallway, Oliver's scrutiny moved along the smart purple button-down shirt and well-fitted black trousers, down to oil buffed leather boots. Those were not the clothes he'd worn the day they lost him.

A short distance from the hissing doors, featureless hallways became colossal windows on either side, stretching from floor to ceiling. There was nothing to see outside, other than pale mist dragging past in thick curls. All else remained dull, every corner they turned looked the same. Some corridors had no windows, instead only boring walls and more of those sliding doors discreetly placed within.

Strangely, there were people about. Not many, but enough for Oliver to wonder if this was truly Tau's homeworld, and not some type of official building. He glanced over his shoulder at Benjamin, who struggled to keep up. Even under the ugly, shapeless gown, the muscle mass he'd lost was obvious.

"You…okay?" Oliver asked.

The sunglasses didn't shift as Benjamin nodded in response. Although it was impossible to see his eyes, Oliver thought they were downcast. He reached out to comfort, before remembering he couldn't. Lowering his hand, he struggled with what to say.

Clattering and shouts broke the choking silence between them, jostling Oliver forward. His feet slapped across cold metal flooring until he came to an abrupt stop by a door already open.

He howled at the sight of Tau, strapped to a long table, people in white coats crowded around it. Oliver moved forward, but stumbled back with a rough, glottal noise as the neckline of his gown garroted him.

"Don't get in their way, Oliver," Samuel said, hauling him away.

"You said he was fine!"

The surgeons fought to hold Tau's convulsing body down, piling atop while another worked to pull the writhing, snake-like parasite out. Large, medical tongs gleamed in unnatural light, clamping a tentacle so monstrous, the man needed to climb onto the table and plant a foot against Tau's chest for leverage. His agonised screech reverberated the room, flaying Oliver's heart. He made to go inside again, but a firm hand on his shoulder kept him in place.

"Don't," said Samuel.

Oliver whimpered. Could only repeat, "You told me he was fine."

"And he will be. Let them do what they do best."

Standing back was one of the worst things he'd ever been asked to do. Oliver clutched the doorframe, icy cold metal rending under his fingers. Watched helplessly, as tentacles were severed, more protruded, and surgeons climbed atop Tau to heave and pull, forced to delve further under Tau's mask. Eliciting such inhuman cries, Oliver's vision blurred. Not even Maji wrapping her arms around his waist eased the sobs that shook his frame.

For an eternity, he had to watch Tau suffer, feeling useless and accountable. Until finally, they wrenched the monstrosity free in full. A nest of slick tendrils, violently thrashing, trying to burrow its way into anything within reach. It took two surgeons to fight it into a tub on the floor, where it coiled about, still very much alive and covered by a lid. Someone took it away through another doorway on the other side.

Oliver gasped around a sob and swiftly turned. "Don't look!"

Tau lay exposed, the mask partially pushed up and neck covering lowered. He hadn't seen much, thankfully. Most of Tau was covered in gore. Oliver shoved at Samuel's shoulder when the man continued to look, grateful his curse hadn't taken hold just then, and thankful he didn't need to tell his friends twice. They all turned their heads away.

Surgeons pushed past, warily eyeing them on their way out, clothes covered in dark grime and shimmering fluid. Once silence settled behind him, Oliver chanced a look.

For one, heart-shattering moment, he forgot Tau didn't need to breathe. Neither did he move unless necessary. All the same, Oliver had to make sure and hurried into the room.

Someone had pushed the mask down, the fabric rolled back over his throat. He laid so still, arms and legs splayed out and strapped down. Oliver's fingers were nowhere near touching when the remaining surgeon smacked him across the wrist.

"Don't touch!" snapped the same man who had stood atop Tau, now on a stool, forehead glistening with sweat.

"Oh, do let him."

Instant fury speared Oliver's chest. He whirled on Ondine, gliding through the same doorway they'd taken the parasite. An upward twist of her mouth flooded his vision with red. He sought to take hold of Tau's robes to ground himself.

"He's a unique case," she said.

The second the surgeon sighed in defeat, Oliver fumbled with the nearest straps keeping Tau's arm trapped. Barely able to undo the first, he gave up and draped himself across that broad chest, pressing his face against Tau's throat to take comfort in the lungful of springtime rain.

"Sunshine?" Oliver whispered, but there came no response. "Come on, baby, you've got to show me you're still alive. I can't tell." Oliver pulled away long enough to plead with Maji. "Please, heal him. Or let me. I need to help him."

"I'm–I'm sorry." Maji splayed her hand across her chest, jolting with a hiccup. "They took it from me."

"He's alive." Ondine's dress hissed across the floor, heels clicking as she peered down at Tau, her arms again crossed. "This one's more resilient than I've ever given him credit for."

"I'm going to destroy you," Oliver snarled, hatred gurgling up into his throat. "You're the one who did this to him! Why is no one doing anything about you? Why are you here ?"

He glimpsed Tau's hand, metal glinting with a twitch in the unnatural lights. Before Oliver could react, an arm flung around his shoulders. His face crashed into the firm chest, skin smearing with blood and knocking the sunglasses askew. It didn't matter, his eyes closed against an onslaught of sorrow, anyway. He climbed atop the table to straddle Tau's waist and clung on.

"Don't you want to stop this?" the surgeon groused behind him. "You know what it does!"

Ondine laughed, haughtily, and Oliver grappled with the need to beat the depravity out of her. A need that drowned under an abrupt wave of terror. It came from Tau.

His Sunshine was terrified of Ondine.

Of course he was. Oliver gazed at Tau's face as his sunglasses slid to the tip of his nose, and off with a quiet clatter. He dipped forward and pressed a kiss to the mask.

"Oh, for the love of all that's scientific! We finally got it functioning—"

Oliver tuned out the man's grumblings, fingers gentle despite the fierce tremble in them as he traced the jagged, dark green line in Tau's forehead. Softly, he whispered, "I love you."

He leapt up off the table, his hand outstretched.

His palm slammed into Ondine's face, fingers clamping into her skin. With one effortless swing of his body, her head struck the wall. A crunch of a skull, and midnight blood pelted Oliver's face. It streaked across once white paint as he rammed her head through. He pushed every drop of accursed might into ramming her further in. Ondine's head caved under his hand, bone fragments digging in. He felt the mush in his grip, like he felt ligaments tear and every bone shatter in his hand, in his arm. Cutting through sinew and skin and fabric.

A scream tore free, the agony in his arm blinding. Oliver ensured Ondine's head was well and truly flattened before he pulled away. Wires caught on protruding bone, sparks singed, and metal dragged across mangled skin.

He stumbled backward. Ondine's arched body hung limply from the wall, the tips of her delicate shoes tapping the polished floor. Tearing his gaze away from the grisly sight, he lowered it to his right arm, hanging by threads, cascading blood. So much blood.

Rattling and panicked grunts coaxed his unsteady attention to Tau, fighting against his restraints. The surgeon was still there, halfway off the stool, his mouth hanging wide open. While Oliver only stood there, drenching his feet with blood, the steady drip-drip-drip audible over Tau's struggles.

"I–I think I mess–messed up my a-arm." Oliver's aim was nonchalance, although he didn't think he'd succeeded. It hurt so damned much he wanted to curl up on the floor and scream. Or lose consciousness.

The surgeon pushed away from the table and sent the stool clattering to the floor. "Fuck this. Not even I'm being paid enough for this shit."

Him brushing past in a huff pulled Maji and Lucetta out of their horrified shock. They ran into the room. Lucetta to Tau, releasing him from his restraints while Maji performed an odd dance around Oliver. Her breaths hiked with panic, mouth spilling gibberish, hovering her hands over him but never touching.

His blurry gaze drifted to Tau again, his boyfriend moving in to fold him into a powerful embrace. Oliver smiled as his vision failed him.

Worth it.

An onset of consciousness tugged him forward. Earthy dust and damp stone a scent Oliver had never noticed before, but he recognised where he was long before opening his eyes.

Splotches of grey and green swimming overhead greeted him, spade-shaped leaves with white flecks gradually coming into focus. He smacked his lips against the drought in his mouth and tried to sit up, desperate for a drink.

An awful pain shot through his chest. He flopped back with a startled gasp. A clamp-like terror set around his stomach as he raised his head and glanced down.

There was only gauze, tightly wrapped around the stump of his right shoulder.

Oliver's horrified cry echoed. It stuttered to a stop with a sharp inhale that didn't reach his lungs.

His arm was gone.

Gone .

He squeezed his eyes shut against the burn in them. Forced himself to breathe, to fight the tremors taking hold of his body. He listened to faint voices outside, floating in from under the door.

"She's definitely dead, right?" he eventually croaked, knowing he wouldn't be alone.

"Uhm." Maji, timid to his left. "We didn't really wait around. Just…grabbed our stuff and escaped with Tau."

Oliver tried to sit up again, clenching his teeth against the whimper threatening to escape. "Where is he?"

"He's coming, don't worry. He's fine."

Maji approached, face struck with grief. She slid a hand under his neck and helped him upright. He anchored himself to the warmth of her touch while his world spun away from him, flailing his remaining limbs in response to the aftershock of realising that his arm was…

Water pouring jerked Oliver's focus back to Maji, who set a pitcher down on a table nearby, miraculously cleared of plants. She held a chipped mug out for him to take. Oliver made to grab it, and grimaced.

"Swiving hell," he ground out at the crushing throb in his right shoulder. "This'll take some getting used to."

He could still feel the damned thing, somehow .

Switching to his left, Oliver downed the water in one go, chilled droplets spilling down his chin and onto his exposed collar bones. He shuddered, wishing someone had thrown a shirt over him. His heart buried itself into his stomach every time he glimpsed the dressed shoulder, and the lack of an arm.

Maji eased the mug out of his hand, went to sit beside him, but stopped at a snap that accompanied the materialisation of Tau and Lucetta. Both clutched paper bags in their arms, filled to the brim with shopping.

Dropped, once Tau's face whipped in Oliver's direction. Indiscernible things rolled across the rugs as Tau descended, engulfing Oliver in a hold. His question of, "Are you okay?" contorted into a muffled sob as his face pressed against Tau's chest.

He wanted to be resilient. Like his Sentinel, Oliver wanted to be strong, unshakable. Come out of enduring the worst with nothing but love and concern for others. Instead, as Tau embraced him so sweetly, and his arm hurt when he failed to hold him in full, Oliver could only clench his teeth against the wretched sorrow shaking his body.

He found himself tucked against Tau, curled up on a bed several sizes too small. Sharp fingertips scraped through his hair, along the side of his head, gentle and patient while Oliver worked to stem the rockslide of emotions.

"I'm sorry," he rasped into soft fabric. "I'm so sorry. I didn't think—I should've known you were still sick. I'm so useless."

Tau continued to cradle him, to stroke his hair, a surge of sorrow joining Oliver's own. With that sorrow came love, intense and pure and overwhelming. He inhaled, unsteadily, and nuzzled Tau's face, pressing soft kisses to it.

"Don't think I'm ever going to get used to seeing that." Lucetta's voice cracked.

Oliver huffed a soft, tear-laced laugh against that beautiful face. Kissed it again.

If being back with Tau like this, and they could rest knowing Ondine couldn't come back for him, then the cost of losing his arm was a pittance.

"Tau got you this."

Cold taps against his bare left arm prompted Oliver to turn, Lucetta a lovely blur to see. He squinted at the open tin in her hand with chocolate-covered confections.

"Biscuits," Lucetta offered.

"I–I know what they are! I just—" With Tau's help, he sat up and continued staring at the confections, too befuddled to sew together any words. It had been a very long time since he'd last even looked at anything sweet, let alone ate any. It never occurred to him to indulge, never having the money to do so.

"How…did he get it?" Not for a second did Oliver think Tau had actually gone into any shop, or the market.

"Don't ask, just take it."

Something told him Lucetta had gotten it. Not that it mattered, the gesture heartachingly kind either way. Oliver took the tin, but only held onto it, unsure if he could stomach any food at all.

"Thank you," he murmured, allowing himself to be manoeuvred however Tau saw fit, his back soon resting against that wide chest and legs encased by powerful thighs.

Long arms encircling his midriff secured him in place. Now that the blankets were a mess around his legs, Oliver realised that although he wore underpants, they were most definitely not his, the waist cinched tight at the back and leg pipes far too long.

Maji and Lucetta were back in shirts and denim. New, by the looks of it, but the vibrant yellow of Maji's collared shirt did nothing to hide her fatigue. Neither did the blue of Lucetta's flannel mask her worry. Their eyes told of the things they'd endured, and nothing would dispel those memories anytime soon—or ever.

"Are you two okay?" Oliver asked. "Where's Ben?"

And where was Samuel, and how had they gotten here, inside Maji's hovel, and why were they here? His head spunout of control with a whirlwind of questions. He clutched at the gauntlet resting across his stomach for comfort.

"Oh, you know." Lucetta sighed, moving to store some tinned goods and boxes inside Maji's cupboards. "We survived Hell, so we're all good."

The door creaked open, and every muscle in Oliver tensed, his head screaming at him to hide , while his body froze over.

He was meant to be on the run. He'd killed Lauper and Ondine. They were going to throw him in prison, after everything—

Benjamin slipped inside, closely followed by Samuel, who shut the door behind him. Oliver's breath left in one swoop, his gaze flicking to the windows. The curtains were drawn, blocking the view with their bright sunflower pattern.

"Hello, Oliver," said Samuel with that charming smile of his, perching the edge of the raised hearth.

Benjamin, on the other hand, lingered by the door as if questioning if he even belonged. When eventually he did move to sit by the hearth, the fire's gentle glow did nothing to subdue the shadows under his eyes. He didn't look at his husband either, fingers curling and uncurling over his knees as the Touch-Me-Not straddled the space between him and Samuel.

"We wanted to check on you. I'm glad you're awake," Samuel continued. "That was…quite the display."

Oliver shrunk under the studious gaze, remembering in vivid detail just how outspoken Samuel had always been about his disapproval for him. Or rather, his curse. "Erm yeah. Hullo."

"You two make a strange sight. I remember when all you did was swoon and now you're…boyfriends?"

As he said it, Samuel's eyes narrowed. Not by much, just enough to incite a kindling of anger within Oliver, knowing what would follow.

"I thought you were being unhinged when you said it."

There it was.

Oliver chewed the inside of his cheek, the safer alternative to opening his mouth and retorting. The last thing Benjamin needed right now was for him to mouth off to his husband. He shrugged, intending to be nonchalant, and winced at the pain shooting through his shoulder and chest.

"Ugh. I was kinda hoping my arm could be fixed."

Tau squeezed him hard enough to elicit a grunt, Oliver's chest filling with a regret that wasn't his own. Gently, he ran his left hand down a vambrace, idling a fingertip across the leafy pattern within the metal.

"We tried." Lucetta lowered to the bed beside him. "Neither of us can work Sentinel magic that well. And Tau, he tried his best, but we nearly lost him again because of it. I figured you'd be livid if we let him die trying to save your arm."

Oliver cast her a look, then huffed in hollow amusement. "You're completely right."

He'd rather be without an arm than without Tau. He could learn how to do things differently. As long as his Sunshine was with him, he could take on the whole damn world, even one arm down.

It occurred to Oliver, however slowly, that the decision must not have been an easy one to make. And he knew exactly who had made the call.

"Thank you, Maji," he said, meeting deep brown eyes, bright with unshed tears. "That's twice you've saved Tau for me. I love you so much."

Maji's lower lip trembled and she sucked it into her mouth. Oliver himself dragged along the slopewash of weeping. He turned his head away to regain control as Maji sniffed loudly, dropping to the bed on his other side. Both she and Lucetta leaned in, their heads resting against Tau's biceps while reaching around with an arm each to hold Oliver.

The sob lodging itself in his throat threatened to choke him. He glanced at Benjamin, whose gaze remained downcast. His expression hollow, hands still clenching and unclenching atop his knees. In comparison, Samuel looked at ease, if not out of place in his pristine clothes.

"Why am I back here?" Oliver asked, growing ever more uncomfortable with the way Samuel observed him while Tau endlessly nuzzled the back of his head. "How did we get here?"

"After you lost consciousness, no one wanted to help," said Maji, subdued. "This was the only place we could think to go."

"It's lucky we have a surgeon here now," Lucetta added.

"Yeah." Maji's small hand squeezed Oliver's forearm. "We found our stuff in a room nearby while looking for help, then Tau brought us back here. It took so much out of him that our only choice was to go to Dr. Florelis."

"And it's the strangest thing," said Lucetta, "but Pavlov seems to have pardoned you. Helen and Anna said he posted an official letter declaring the situation is being investigated, and that during this time, you're to continue working until the matter is resolved."

That was weird. First Pavlov let him get away with setting fire to Sentinel magic with Sentinel magic, and now murder?

"Guess he doesn't know I killed his wife yet." The words spilled from his mouth entirely on their own, along with the faint chuckle. He pressed his lips together in an attempt to hide his glee.

Good riddance to that ghoul.

"What uh, was that place with all the monsters?" Oliver asked when the silence stretched into discomfort.

Lucetta gestured at Samuel and leaned back, while Oliver's gaze once again drifted to Benjamin, the tension visibly drawing his features tight.

"Ah, you're expecting me to answer?" Samuel paused, then shrugged. "That place is just a landfill, from what I understand."

Oliver furrowed his brows, certain he ought to feel outrage.

Lucetta beat him to it, " Just a landfill? Have you seen that place?"

"Not personally, no."

"Blessed Sentinels." Lucetta rose to her feet and threw her arms up in anger. "How can you be so calm about that? Who the hell is responsible for such a place? Why ?"

Samuel hummed, shrugged again. "They call themselves the Proxies. They've been good to me. I first met them when that canary opened a portal into one of their surgical suites."

"You mean Onyx?" asked Maji.

"Sure. Obviously, I couldn't go through that portal any more than I could through the others. But, they agreed to capture the bird and send it to you. I hoped it would open a portal so that at the very least, I could talk to you."

"Well, it did." Benjamin's knuckles turned white where he clenched his fingers around his knees.

"So," Oliver said, deliberate in raising his voice. "Tau wouldn't have known what Onyx could do when he gave it to Ben?"

"Not unless the Proxies told him," replied Samuel.

And even if they had, there would have been no way for Tau to communicate it. Oliver fixed Benjamin with a look, waiting for an apology to Tau that didn't seem likely to come.

Oliver swallowed against his frustration. "What the hell are the Proxies, then? Why are there humans in Tau's world?"

Samuel wiped imaginary dust from his thigh. Glanced at the Touch-Me-Not. Looked at anything other than any of them.

"That's not where Tau comes from, exactly," he said at length. "The Proxies act on behalf of the Elders, whom I've never met before. From what I gathered during my brief stay there, the Elders look like Sentinel Tau while he's condensed. Bright spheres."

"Tau answers to them?" Maji asked.

"Again, no one outright told me this but, yes he does."

"Emergence said the Elders are full of shit," Oliver said, angry, although he wasn't entirely sure why. "Said they've done bad things and need stopping."

A thoughtful noise. "I don't know anything about that." Samuel was still annoyingly casual. "I wasn't privy to much information, as you can imagine. I only picked up bits and pieces, here and there."

"Then answer us this." Lucetta's look darkened. "What was Ondine doing there?"

"Ondine is— was her own thing. She helped the Elders create Sentinels by finding potential matches."

Oliver gaped, struggling to keep hold of thoughts that couldn't even properly form.

"What does that mean?" Maji unfurled from Oliver and leaned forward. "Sentinels aren't born Sentinels?"

"Apparently not," said Samuel.

"Wait, is that why that ghoul was interested in Maji?" Oliver turned to her. "Are you a—"

"Don't be silly," Maji interjected.

He was being silly, Oliver realised. Maji wasn't a Sentinel.

"Of course not." Samuel shifted slightly, the sleeve of his crisp purple shirt brushing past the Touch-Me-Not. The bird-like flowers sprang to life, petals fluttering. "Some of them might have been human once, but you're forgetting about all the other beings that exist. I'm sure you're wondering if Sentinel Tau is human, although I couldn't tell you."

Oliver moved to look at Tau over his shoulder, and immediately regretted it. He sucked in a breath, rubbing his collarbones, not quite willing to touch the…stump. Tau raised a large hand off his stomach and gently covered Oliver's own with it. Sunlight washed over him with the comfort and warmth only his boyfriend could give.

If Tau remembered anything at all before becoming a Sentinel, if he truly had been something else before that, then he'd be the only one who could tell them. Not that it mattered. As long as Tau was happy, Oliver didn't care what he was or where he came from.

He leaned back and craned his neck to smile up, and Tau cinched his midriff in response.

"You're saying, then, that Maji has the potential to be a Sentinel?" Lucetta reclaimed her spot on the bed next to Oliver and Tau.

Samuel shrugged. "I couldn't tell you. And neither can Ondine, now that she's… Well."

Squashed. Flattened. Stone-cold departed.

"You didn't tell them what the point of that landfill is." Benjamin didn't look at anyone. Not even Samuel, and Oliver realised then there was something off between the two. Again, or still.

Samuel's face took on an unreadable expression, seeming hesitant to answer. Eventually, he said, "That's where they dispose of anything they've finished studying."

And there was the reason Emergence wanted to destroy them. What Emergence meant when claiming the Elders had unleashed unimaginable horrors upon this world.

Benjamin rose to his feet. Finally, he faced Samuel, his eyes haunted and filled with a fury that, with the untidy beard and hair, made him unrecognisable.

"I was trapped in that landfill for over a month!" Anger ripped his voice. "You can't begin to understand the things I've had to see. What I had to kill, or had to run from. I saw people devoured alive, children —" Benjamin's inhale stuttered, his eyes brightened. "They were all trapped there because nobody is bothering to stop innocent people from wandering inside. And you're sitting here, casually calling it a dumping ground, like it's an everyday thing? It's a bloodscape!"

"So you've told me." Samuel straightened up to take the full brunt of his husband's anger.

"And you still want to go back to them, to ‘learn more'? They're monsters, Sam! They need to be stopped!"

"I'm with Ben on this one," said Oliver tersely. "Not to mention they had someone like Ondine working for them."

"What does Ondine have to do with it?" Samuel asked.

"She tortured Tau!" Oliver spat.

"She does that for the benefit of humankind."

The moment those words left him, Samuel seemed to realise his mistake. His lips pursed, and his dark eyes shifted to the door.

"Who are you?" Benjamin's question was cold, and dangerously calm.

When Samuel didn't respond, Benjamin scoffed in disgust. The door slammed shut behind him.