Assuming a high-end on Alky's regenerative capabilities.





---





I looked at Raven. She looked at me. We both eyed each other, arms crossed.



"I fucking hate you, you know." I said conversationally.



She raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"



"Oh yeah. You're a massive bitch, a criminal asshole of the highest order, scum of society, et cetera. You're like something that dog shit had to scrape off the bottom of its shoe."



If possible, she's even less amused than before, regarding me with disdain. "And now I think I hate you too. Did you track me down just to say that? I have better things to do."



I raise my hands in a placating gesture. "Oh, no, I was just venting, sorry-not-sorry. I actually tracked you down to give you a message from your daughter."



Her eyes snap wide open.



"Yeah, as it turns out, Yang was...a bit disappointed in mommy dearest. Still, she says that you've always got a place back at their house, and Taiyang agreed..."



I can hear her teeth grinding as I lean closer and stage whisper. "However, I think they'd actually be much happier if you just never came back."



Her sword's in my chest before I even register the motion. "Oh no. Pointy objects. My weakness. Anyway, if you want, I can tell them that I found you dead in the wilderness? After what you've done, it would probably come as a relief-"



She rips her sword out of me with a yell, then fast as lightning swings back down and chops me in half from head to waist. Still faster, though, are the nanites stitching together the thin, clean wound. "Aw, did I touch a nerve?"



Raven draws a shaky breath. "Be silent, or I swear I'll-"



"Kill me? Things with a lot more oomph have tried, sweetheart. You know, I really don't know what to make of you. Most people, no matter how fucked up they get, still hold on to their family. You, on the other hand, let your daughter lose an arm and then patted yourself on the back because she wasn't dead. Maybe you don't see her as family, since she's about as far from you as she can get."



She slices me in half at the waist, then kicks my body apart before I can heal up. Not that it changes anything.



"Maybe you just saw that you didn't belong around people like that? People without something fucking broken inside? You are broken, you know, even I can see it, and I'm about as fucked up as they-"



"SHUT UP!" Raven reaches down, rips my head from my shoulders, and flings it across the room. I roll to a stop, then twitch some remaining CNT bundles to turn towards her. "Hey, Raven?"



She swings her sword down, opening up a portal, not even sparing me a backwards glance.



"Does it hurt knowing that Summer's gravestone has done more to support your family than you have?"



Raven freezes for a long moment. Then, without a word, she's gone.