June would have rather been anywhere else. But if Sasha had ties to the Asteri, Mad Ag was the only one who could help him. Would help him. One of the few people who hated the Asteri as much as June did, Mad Ag wasn’t afraid to spit in their faces.

But there was one small problem.

Mad Ag tipped her head slightly. Her remaining eye blinked. “Bold of you to show your face again.”

“You’re the best in the biz.”

The woman laughed, mirthlessly. “I should turn your ass in, fucking traitor.”

“So do it,” June replied.

She waved her hand. “You know I won’t. Might as well put my head on the chopping block. Gangs’d gank me the second I so much as looked at the police. I know too much. I’ll have to make do with watching you squirm.”

“I need an ID.”

“Only reason I didn’t sabotage your first one’s cuz I didn’t know who you were. You really asking me for a new one?”

June shook her head. “Not for me. For a kid.”

Mad Ag chuckled. She snatched a small tablet off her desk and started fiddling with it. Almost absent-mindedly, she flicked a few filters over the lenses. A quick twist of the wrist separated the phone into two pieces, exposing the internals. “I heard you helped out those kids. Still trying to atone? Think that can make up for what you’ve done?”

June frowned at her hands. “I know I can’t…”

Mad Ag snarled, interrupting her. “Playing the hero. What a farce. Nothing can bring back the dead. Nothing can wipe the blood off your hands. My baby’s blood. My Tessa.”

“No,” June agreed, quietly. In her mind’s eye, another pair of hands overlaid hers. Larger. Brutal. Metal. Tortured steel howled. Screams echoed all around her, her friends, the innocent. She scrambled. Feet slipping in the mud. Blood and oil flowed like water. Her guns beat against her shoulders like a second heart. Alarms blared. Something slammed into her back, and she whirled. Tessa. Cockpit smashed, her hair a mess, blood streaking down her face. Savage. Contorted. She raised her arms and—

“It’s a good thing you come here,” Mad Ag commented suddenly, voice emotionless once again. “I think I’d go completely mad and turn you in, gangs be damned, if you didn’t stop by every now and again and remind me what a piece of shit you are. How the prisons are too cushy for a monster like you. How was she? My Tessa. How did she fight?”

June sucked in a breath. She couldn’t look up. Couldn’t meet Mad Ag’s eyes. “She was one of the best. A warrior among warriors.”

“I know. I know. My beautiful baby girl. I miss her, you know. Do you miss her? Think of her?”

“Every day,” June muttered. Her heart ached like it was trying to wrest its way out of her chest. She fought it back, pushed it down, but it wasn’t so easily quelled.

“You don’t care. Stop the stupid act. Fucking hell, it makes me want to puke.”

June clenched her fists. “If I could take her place, bring her back—”

“You can’t bring any of them back, traitor. Backstabber. Murderer. Do us all a favor and dive off a skyscraper.”

“I can’t.” Not yet.

Mad Ag scoffed. “That’s what they all say. Lies, lies, lies.”

The door thumped behind June. A single knock.

Mad Ag jolted. Her eye narrowed at June. “You get followed?”

June shook her head. “Shouldn’t have.”

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She nodded at the door. “Go see who that is. Kill ‘em if they’re unfriendly.”

June nodded silently. She drew her gun. Rubber soles paced silently over concrete. She pressed her back against the wall and reached out. Carefully, she undid the slot’s lock, then nudged the slot open with her gun.

Empty hallway greeted her. Then, suddenly, dark blue eyes appeared, hands gripping the bottom of the slot. Sasha glowered at her. “I escaped.”

June managed something like a smile, but it might have been a grimace. Shit. Didn’t want him to see this. She pulled the door open. “Come on in, kiddo.”

A transformed Sasha awaited her. Gone were the oversized sweatpants and baggy sweatshirt. Instead, he wore a white shirt and a short black vest. The scarf she’d loaned him was tied like a bandanna around his neck and draped over his chest. Skinny black slacks hugged slender legs, down to mid-calf. Black leather combat boots finished the look, the laces wound around the top several times and tied off in a neat bow. He carried an overflowing shopping bag over each shoulder, which somehow matched the look.

June stared. He barely looked like the savage child she knew he was. Instead, she could’ve easily mistaken him for a model. Even an Asteri model. Maybe Marly had a point. “You look great, Sasha.”

Sasha glared back, miserable. “Stupid pants would bust if I tried to kick you in the chin.”

“Eh? That the kid?” Mad Ag asked, squinting around the corner.

Sasha gave Mad Ag a suspicious look, but June shook her head. “She’s safe.”

“Since he’s here, want me to use his real face?” Mad Ag asked, suddenly all business.

“No, let’s use a composite. Best if we don’t put him on any image databases.”

Mad Ag nodded neutrally. She snapped the phone shut and started to type on the screen. “Kid in harness, huh? That’s gonna be expensive.”

June tipped her head, confused. What’s this? She isn’t attacking me?

Metal clattered as she flipped filters on and off, adjusted a few lenses, and continued. Mad Ag continued to ramble. “Gotta size it up as he grows. Had a neighbor with a kid with a birth defect, had a hand in harness… cost ‘em a mint. Got all kinds of muscular-skeletal issues with having the wrong size, or nerve system development goes wonky, or something—point is, you gotta keep buying new ones. And the old bits are as good as scrap. Not like there’s a big market for kid harness. What happened to him, anyways? Defect? Some kinda accident?”

“Huh?” June asked, still completely lost. Is it because Sasha’s here? She doesn’t want to drag out the past in front of him, either?

“I mean, they don’t do voluntary harness on kids. Can’t fully consent, or sommat, I dunno. Don’t remember. I mean, my kid’s grown. And dead.” She shot a sharp look at June.

“Yeah,” June murmured.

“Car crash,” Sasha said evenly. He glanced at June, then crossed his arms and fixed Mad Ag with a severe look.

“Children should speak when spoken to. Name?”

Sasha blinked.

“I spoke to you, yes?”

“…Sasha?” he tried. It sounded foreign in his mouth, a word he wasn’t used to saying.

“He staying with you?” she asked June.

“Yes.”

“Sasha Sun, then. Damn, that sounds stupid. Not like the original surname’s much better.” She glowered at June again.

“You’re making him my kid?” June guessed.

“Adopted. I mean, nephew is the next best choice, since the neighbors might get a bit suspicious about you popping a fully grown child outta your… bits, but I can’t make him related to you. No one’s gonna believe that one. No way a handsome fellow like that has blood ties to you. Or pretty lady, I guess. Didn’t ask. Sasha?”

He glanced at June, confused.

She shrugged. “He uses male pronouns.”

“Good enough for me. Long as I’ve got something to fill the blank.”

Sasha hovered by the door while Mad Ag finished her work. June used the excuse to stand near him, halfway back the hallway. The further she could be from Mad Ag, the better.

“Alright. ID’s done. Credits?” Mad Ag demanded.

June pulled out her comms tablet. Mad Ag held hers up as well. June winced, but pressed the transfer button.

Gleefully, Ag grinned, as elated at seeing June’s pain as the credits in her account. She tossed the comms tablet at them sideways, hard as she could throw. “Catch! Don’t let it break!”

June lunged, but too slow. The tablet glittered as it spun, rushing toward the wall.

Silver flashed past. Her hair flurried in the wind. Sasha leaped and snatched the comms out of the air. He slammed into the wall, threw himself forward, and landed on his feet. His eyes narrowed. He twitched his fingers. No dagger appeared, but June recognized the gesture.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, it’s okay. It was only a prank,” June placated him. She grabbed him by the shoulders and started to drag him away.

He twisted free and glared at Mad Ag one last time, then stomped away, down the hallway.

“Cute kid,” Mad Ag commented. She fiddled in her desk and came up with a slender pipe. Lazily, she took a drag, then jabbed it at June’s retreating back. “Don’t you dare kill him.”

The green door slammed shut. June hurried after Sasha. “Sorry about that. Mad Ag is—well, she’s crazy. Don’t let her get to you.”

He whirled on her. “You shouldn’t let her treat you like that.”

June flinched. She glanced down. “Ah, yeah.”

His nose wrinkled in disgust. He stomped away again.

“Let’s drop those clothes off, and then there’s one last place to go before we finish up at Tooly’s,” June declared, clapping him on the shoulders.

“Are they crazy, too? Like Marly and Ag?” Sasha asked.

“Marly isn’t crazy. But…” she bit her lip, then smiled. “Well, you’ll have to see for yourself.”

Sasha wrinkled his nose. “Why are all your friends crazy?”