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[aldhani]

WELCOME TO THE SALTBURNT NETWORK

USERNAME: faker_1

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[kobes]

[a rush, like relief.]

You're back. Hi.
He did. The way was me.

I've been keeping notes since I got here. He had me tell him all of them, everything I know about everyone.

[aldhani]

[there are some things that connect now — the message written in blood, for instance. his breath is long, heavy.]

People who want information have a lot of ways to get it. Torture. Force. I've seen it happen.

[over and over. seen it, killed for it.]

He hurt you. Being hurt isn't something I'd blame someone for.

[kobes]

[the pause makes koby's stomach knot up, even when cassian gives him an out. he shoves forward, needing to make the truth of it clear.]

He didn't hurt me. I told him and I was happy to tell him.
I died in October and my death effect is once a month I turn into a seal and then my pelt disappears and whoever ends up with it can tell me to do anything and I have to do it.
And Angelus got it in November. So.
That's it. That's the whole story.

[aldhani]

[by this point, cassian has seen enough that the explanation barely even fazes him. he just considers it for a time.]

He still took it by force. There was something he could exploit, and he did.

[the empire certainly would have. luthen would have. if it'd meant the choice between finishing the mission or walking away with nothing to show for it, would he have, too?

it's not a comfort of a thought.]

Angelus is the one to blame.

[kobes]

That's what everyone's saying.

[which should be more of a comfort, but -- koby's imposter syndrome is intense and incurable.

after a beat:] He sent me pictures of you. After, I mean.

[aldhani]

I'm sorry you had to see that.

[cassian sends that first, quickly. he'd been too dead to know a lot of the specifics, but he remembers the knife wound, just before the end; there had to have been a lot of blood around his body. that's what max had been left to find.

it's something he'll never forgive himself for.]

He wanted power over you.

[kobes]

I didn't get hurt, I mean. He never even touched me.
He killed you. He tried to kill Amy and Giles and Buffy.
There's
Some things are objectively worse.

[but then, after a beat:] He has it. So.
I guess we'll see what he does next.