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THEY ARE OBSESSIVE, PATHETIC CREATURES.
He molded her in his image and had the audacity to be surprised when something twisted ripped its way into existence as a result. He spent years manipulating and maneuvering behind the scenes ━━ he should not be so surprised to find his mirror image.
Autumn can see it in his eyes. The shock. That glimpse of fear. The sheer joy of it all.
"The Guardians failed us", he says softly. "They abandoned us when we needed them the most."
"They abandoned you", she corrects. "They were too busy dying to abandon me."
"If they tried, they would have lived."
She shakes her head. "Trying would never be enough. Not against him."
"Not against us, either", he says and she finds that she doesn't hate the way the word falls from his forked tongue.
She's always going to be that little girl, desperate for his approval, isn't she?
"The Guardians failed", he stresses. "Us and the universe ━━ but they can do better. We can make them do better."
It, that twisted spider that warps the world around her, hisses promises in her ear that she knows are empty.
Still, they tempt her. Still, they draw her in.
"They're dead."
"Not forever", he says. "You can't kill an idea."
"Then what do you want to do?" She says, meeting that searing gaze. "If you don't want them dead, then what's the endgame?"
"Ideas can't die, but they can always be changed."
"Not all of them."
He looks feverish, obsessed. "They would do it. They would. They buried genocide after genocide ━━ they would do whatever it takes to maintain their power."
"They let Hal kill them."
"It never killed them all."
"Ganthet was a fluke", she argues. "Maybe some part of Hal had clarity, but it wasn't intentional."
It was as it was written. It is as it is written, as that blue and broken hand scribes, guided by something bey━━
"There are no flukes."
It's a story and there are no coincidences in stories. There is a hand that draws everyone to their ends. There is a predetermined script to be followed.
She can't escape that. She can't outrun that.
She can deny it. She will deny it to her dying breath and so far beyond.
