A black triangle tattoo sat behind the kid’s ear. Like a sun bursting over a mountain, a the outline of a nine-pointed starburst crested the triangle. June bit her lip, frowning. A nine-point starburst… the symbol of the Asteri.

“…What does that mean?” June muttered.

“You know what it means. They’re an Asteri. Or associated with them, something. If they find us…”

“What’s the triangle?” she asked.

“Does it matter?” Tooly retorted.

June sighed. “He said he can’t go back. I can’t abandon him, Tooly. What do you want me to do?”

Tooly opened her mouth, then shut it. She shook her head.

There was no answer. They both knew it. Taking him in was dangerous, but if June threw him to the streets, she’d never forgive herself. A kid. He’d wiped out the Regis branch, but he was still a kid.

June sighed. The Asteri. Why did they have to complicate everything? Every time she tried to do a good deed, they were lurking just around the corner to kick her in the teeth. They lived for hundreds, if not thousands of years, nigh immortal beings that reigned over entire planets, barely human anymore. To hear the Asteri tell it, they were superior beings, the evolution of humanity; as far as June was concerned, they were trash, a bunch of rich assholes who lorded it over everyone else as if their bought immortality made them better than everyone who worked for a living. Dammit. One day, I’m going to drag them down to the earth. All of them.

“Anyways, I wouldn’t be too sure about that ‘he’ stuff,” Tooly muttered, after a moment.

June furrowed her brows. “What do you mean?”

“Well… there’s nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“You know… uh, plastic doll, yeah? Basically. I had to cut their clothes to patch up their legs and…” she shrugged.

“Guess we’ll have to ask them,” June said. “Is that… common?”

“For full harness? I don’t know. I don’t get a lot of patients in full harness on the Block. Didn’t… back in the day, either. It’s not unheard of, but…”

The kid twitched. Their eyelids flickered.

“There they go. It took a ton of sedation to keep ‘em under, you know. It’s not gonna be cheap,” Tooly commented.

“Put it on my tab.” She glanced at Tooly. “Could you get them some clothes?”

“Eh? Sure,” she grumbled, and wandered off. The door shut behind her.

June moved casually to the door and flipped the lock. She moved to the other side and locked it as well.

Something heavy clattered to the tile behind her. She turned to watch the kid thrash wildly on the floor, wrapped up in the sheet. June chuckled and reached down to pick them up. “Tooly uses some mean sedation, huh?”

A hand jabbed out of the sheet. Caught by the shirt, June fell on top of the kid. The room spun around her. White sheet snapped from the sudden motion. The kid pinned her with their knees and slammed their fist at her neck. From the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of something black in their silvery fist.

June wrested her harnessed arm free and caught their fist. The tip of a pen jabbed between her fingers, inches from her neck.

“Shit, kid!”

She bucked her hips, pushed on their caught hand, and tossed them over. They hit the tile with a heavy smack. Their eyes lost focus for a moment. She grabbed their other wrist and held them down with all her weight.

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“Stop! I’m not going to hurt you.”

Dark blue eyes, a shade paler than midnight, glared up at her. They huffed a stray hair out of their mouth and pressed their lips together suspiciously.

“I’m going to let go, okay? Are you going to attack?”

No response.

“I’m not going to let go until you tell me you won’t attack.”

A small nod, barely perceptible.

She let go with her normal hand and snatched the pen away, then let go with her harnessed hand. She jumped up and back, out of their immediate reach.

The kid climbed up slowly. Halfway upright, a leg slid out from under them. June twitched, but stopped herself. I’m not falling for that again.

They caught themselves on the bed. Something flickered over their face, a grimace, maybe, but it was gone before she could identify it.

Her heart panged. Did they really slip? How could I be so heartless?

A second later, their eyes darted to her. They clicked their tongue and glanced away.

It was a trap. That brat!

She backed to the counters and leaned against them, arms crossed. The whole time, she watched the kid, wary. If they could use a pen as a weapon, I don’t want to know what they could do with the stuff in these cabinets.

Perched on the edge of the bed, back half-turned, the kid watched her in return.

June took a deep breath. Someone had to break the ice. “Hey. My name’s June. What should I call you?”

The kid blinked. They regarded her silently.

She waited. I’m not going to give you the satisfaction.

At last, they glanced down. “They called me Four.”

“Four? That’s not a name.”

Silence. They pulled the sheet a little closer.

“What are you? Where did you come from?”

“I am an object.”

June stared. “No, you’re not.”

They looked up at her. Furrows appeared between their brows, then smoothed. Their shoulders relaxed half an inch. “I… no. Not anymore.”

She tipped her head. A strand of sympathy pulled at her heart. They’ve been through a lot.

The image of a body thumping down the stairs, one bloody splat at a time, flashed before her eyes. She sucked in a breath and stretched imperceptibly. Don’t give in to their tactics.

“Where did you come from?” she tried again.

The kid looked away.

“I didn’t have to save you, kid,” she sighed.

“I didn’t ask you to,” they snapped back.

She rolled her eyes. “What were you doing in the base, anyways? Were you really going to save the kids?”

The kid glanced at her, then at the floor. “I… didn’t want them to end up where I did.”

“Where you did? Where’s that?” June asked.

Dark lashes covered dark eyes as they studied the floor, as if it was the most interesting thing they’d ever seen.

“After they left the gang, where were they going?” she repeated.

A shrug. Silver feet kicked the edge of the sheet.

“Is it… to an Asteri?” June guessed.

They glanced at her, startled. A second later, the expression was gone, hidden under the usual poker face, but it was too late. They’d already confirmed it for her.

She snorted. “Anyone who fights the Asteri is a good guy in my book. Why’d you murder the whole branch of the Regis Group, though?”

“Weren’t you going to? Four guns?” the kid prompted.

“Two of them were broken. Props. I was going to get their attention, then run for it, and To… my partner was going to sneak in the back and grab the kids.”

“You’d die.”

“I’m tough.” She flexed her metal arm and slapped the bulging bicep. “Hear that? Military-grade steel.”

The kid rolled their eyes.

“Why’d you murder the whole branch? You’re not getting out of this.”

“They were in the way,” the kid said. They hesitated, then glanced at their hands. “They would have killed me if I didn’t.”

Excuses. Somehow, though, she felt that they were making excuses for her benefit, not their own. They didn’t see a problem with killing them. “With your skill, you could have knocked them out. Why kill?”

They hesitated, then met her eyes with conviction. “Why not? They were bad people.”

“That’s true, but… that doesn’t mean you should kill them.”

“It doesn’t?”

She shook her head. “Life is precious. You shouldn’t kill if you have another option.”

The words felt hollow in her mouth. The faint scent of blood mingling with oil swirled in the room, and distantly, horrified screams rang out.

“People die easily. It’s not worth putting myself in danger to let bad people live.”

June sighed out and rubbed the back of her neck. I’m not getting anywhere with this. They didn’t seem like a psychopath, but there was something distinctly wrong about their way of thinking. For now, it would have to be good enough. She was tired, and Tooly would be back to kick her out any moment now.

Then again, it’s not like I’m interested in their welfare in out of the goodness of my heart. They’re willing to fight the Asteri. They’ve got strength that I need. When it came right down to it, she didn’t mind if they were a murderer. In a sense, they were more valuable that way.

More valuable as a murderer? I’m disgusting.

She yawned and changed the subject. “I can’t keep calling you ‘the kid.’ I’m not going to call you Four. How’s Sasha sound?”

They blinked and tipped their head. Silky hair cascaded across their face.

“You remind me of a cat I knew once.”

They looked taken aback, but then nodded.

“So. Sasha. Would you like to stay with me?”