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“Wh—where’s Buddy,” are her first words out on the road.
Steel looks like he’s been through hell. Which, to be fair, they have been, and Vespa definitely doesn’t look any better. His shirt is singed in two different places from blaster fire, and a bulk on his left shoulder tells her a thick bandage must be wrapped underneath. There’s a shake in the hands wrapped around the steering wheel that speak of shock, or exhaustion, or worse. His gaze is dark and bloodshot, fixed on the deep purple nothing ahead of them, though he’s driving too fast for Vespa to tell where they are or where they’re going.
The backseat is empty. In response to her, Ruby offers a low, sad whistle.
“Steel,” Vespa repeats, her voice turning uneven, “where’s—why isn’t…”
Vespa, I’m sorry. You couldn’t save her. She's—
She scrunches her eyes shut and opens them again, and when her head clears Steel’s speaking in a soft, careful voice.
“She’s alive. Vespa, she’s in a different unit, ‘kay? We’re going to get her next, they’re keeping her close to Rita. Ransom’s getting Jet right now with another friend—long story. But we'll—”
“What?” Vespa breathes. “But Buddy—she got out.”
Steel pauses. “What?”
“You bargained for her!” She can’t filter out the snarling panic in her voice. This whole time, this whole time, she’d tried to convince herself—it was okay. It was okay because Dark Matters hadn't taken all of them, because Bud was free, because Bud would come for her, it was goddamn bearable. “You and Sikuliaq, I thought—it was her in exchange for the Curemother Prime, Dark Matters agreed—”
Steel shuts his eye for a second. “No. No, that didn’t—work. The Curemother’s… gone. Dark Matters wanted to destroy it. They never gave us Buddy.”
Fuck. Vespa had really thought—goddamnit, just how gullible is she? Her fists curl around thin air. She wants—her knives, her poisons, something.
“You, uh. Okay?” Steel asks awkwardly, sending her a worried glance.
Vespa would laugh if she had the energy. You okay to do this mission, Vee? she thinks. Or are you gonna fall apart on your crew again like you always do?
She shakes the thought away. It’s not true, and it's not what he means by the question, either. She knows that by now.
“Vespa?”
She clears her throat. “Will be.” When we get them all back.
Steel seems to understand that; he just nods, returning his focus to the sky. Vespa turns the new information over in her head, sifts through Steel’s cagey words to see the full picture underneath. They never freed Buddy, and Rita was there when Vespa woke from the stun blast, and Ransom’s retrieving Sikuliaq right now, which means…
“You’re the only one who got out.”
Steel's quiet for a moment, not meeting her eyes. “Sorry ‘m late,” he says, voice rough.
Vespa lets out a long, slow exhale. She needs to calm down. She needs to get it the fuck together, Vee, because Steel needs her for this next part— Buddy needs her, she thinks, and just like that every single stray thought in her head goes quiet.
Like it's sensed her resolve, Ruby’s glove compartment cracks open. Inside is what looks like a medkit, a bottle of water, and a change of clothes, but what Vespa’s eyes catch on are her knives, sharp and familiar.
She picks up the one closest, a short, curved Plutonian blade, gleaming silver and scarlet, and the weight of it in her hand settles her stomach.
Buddy. We’re going to get Buddy next.
To Steel’s apology, she says, “Don’t be a fucking idiot.”
As the Dark Matters base comes into view below them, Steel cracks her a wobbly grin.