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They're both pretty fucked up, huh.
Malos watches Jin hunch over, hand clamped on his forehead, propping himself up on the dingy table to avoid falling over. He does that sometimes. Apparently being a Flesh Eater is painful. You learn something new every day, even when you're the Aegis. Or maybe ex-Aegis, now. It's not like he deserves the title in his current state, with him being too weak to even use his sword. Disgusting.
He suppresses a groan and the urge to clamp down on his own core crystal as he settled back into the ramshackle chair. They're going to have to figure out a way to deal with these episodes. He himself can fight through them (even if his fighting is nothing like it used to be), but Jin is useless when he's in this state. Worse than that, he's a liability.
And that's precisely why he never liked working with others. The artifices didn't present any issues: Perfectly obedient and as reliable as anything could possibly be, they carried out any of his orders as well as they could. Now they're out of his control until he somehow manages to fix himself, and he's forced to rely on the miserable wretch in front of him.
He focuses once more on the pitiful trickle of Blade data that still reaches him. It's so different from what he's used to, the endless torrent of information about all that exists in Alrest filling the back of his head every minute of the day. What little he receives now only comes from Blades physically close to him, like Jin is, and if he can isolate what comes from him, maybe he can get a clue on how to fix what's wrong with him. Or so he thinks, but he's been trying for days now and he still hasn't managed.
“Anything at all?“ Jin's voice is raspy, and he doesn't look up to meet his eyes. He never does.
“What do you think, dumbass? If I'd found anything I would have said so.“
Jin, of course, doesn't respond. That's another thing he never does. He rarely speaks, and it's impossible to get a rise out of him. It's so fucking boring, like talking to a wall. Maybe if he can fix him, he'll be less dull. Not that he was fun to tease even before everything turned to shit...
Frustrated, Malos throws his hands up, “This isn't working. I can't get anything.“
Nothing. No reaction at all. It's like he doesn't even care.
"Oh, for fuck's sake, say something already!" Malos' chair clatters to the ground. He hasn't even noticed jumping up. "All day you sit around, doing nothing, saying nothing, feeling sorry for your damn self. I'm getting real tired of your shit!"
There's more he wants to say, but the feeling of a sharp needle being driven through his core crystal shuts him up. Jin, meanwhile, silently watches him as he tries to compose himself. Then, just as Malos is about to continue, he replies in a soft voice: "What is there to say?"
"Gee, I don't fucking know, maybe anything! Talk about how I killed that Ardainian brat! Or that stupid Gormotti boy! Use your brain, or did you eating your girlfriend fuck that up too?"
"Don't talk about her like that."
There it is, finally. An emotion other than that stupid boring moroseness, a hint of anger. So that's the button he needs to push to make Jin respond. Slowly, a grin spreads across his face.
"Why, because she's dead?" Malos snorts. "So what. Big fucking deal. Get over it. Or keep clinging to that icycle you put up in the control room, I don't give a shit." He bends down and picks up the chair he's toppled earlier. When he puts it back up, one of the legs breaks off. He eyes it dubiously. Sitting down on that is probably not a good idea.
"Just because you never had anyone you cared about..."
"Why would I need that?" Malos asks. "Look where it's gotten you, you miserable wretch."
Jin takes his time with his reply, as usual. "The same place as you. You're not in any better a state than I am..."
"Bah," Malos says and nothing more, because fuck, Jin's right. He's a miserable wretch himself now.
The conversation echoes in his mind as he stands in the hangar and looks at Aion. So much time has passed since then, so many things happened. Hatching plans together with Jin. Stumbling across Mikhail, fucked over by Amalthus too. The strange and confusing experience of people who'd hated him slowly coming around, and wasn't that a surprise when it happened? Hell, he's still not sure how it happened. He wouldn't have forgiven himself if he'd been in their place. Then, much later, Akhos and Patroka, strays picked up by Jin who didn't have the baggage surrounding him that Milhail and Jin had. Neither was inclined to trust any of them, but they hadn't treated Malos as any different in that regard.
Maybe, he reflects, he understands a bit better now why Jin didn't want him to talk about Lora the way he did. Not that that would have stopped him if he were present. Jin gave up on making him less crude and resigned himself to it very quickly.
Still, he knows what it's like to care about someone only to lose them now. It's not like they planned this to be any different, but now that it's all over and they're gone, he keeps thinking of things he wanted to say to them. How stupid. How human. Maybe he's the real dumbass here.
"Heh. Look where it's gotten me, Jin..."
He can feel his partner coming closer, coming to stop him. Whole as he is again, he can also sense that ragtag band of Blades with their Drivers she travelled with.
He's the last one left. It's on him to fulfill the dream they nurtured for five hundred years now.
One way or the other, this is where it ends.
This is where everything ends.