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"Alright," exclaimed Luz, eyes bright, "yer on! Brisa'll wanna have Starr with her fer anythin' this big a deal, an' Cabot was pretty serious about challengin' y'all, I bet Owen would be up fer it but . . . maybe not so soon after that nasty episode, an' three might be enough anyway. I'm ten...

Brisa lowered her beer and nodded at Starr, holding her gaze evenly. "Don't worry. Y'can trust him." She gave Dave a dry smile. It was nice to believe something like that about a person, whatever flaws they might have.

"I believe it!" replied Luz, mimicking Truffle's cheer. "But the aura distortion is a thing, so it looks like my posse gets a lotta glory this time~! Truth be told, it's a lotta responsibility, but at least we got time to let loose too. So how about it. Y'wanna go at it in the arena with my gal...

Luz grinned ear to ear. "My gal an' I share one hell of a battleheart, so to speak. Say, why don't we have it out in the colosseum some time? Not that us against you would be a fair fight. Hell, I bet Leg here could take on a fair few of Team Spectrum, am I right?"

Luz beamed. "Aww, that's swell! Wouldn't mind samplin' some if that ain't too presumptuous of me. Oh, an' I've seen some of yer wards in action in combat and heard of yer profiency as a defender. What're each of you like in a straight fight? You specialise completely in defense, or can y'pack a...

Brisa thanked Dave for the beer, popped the cap, and then raised the bottle in agreement to not fucking getting it for him. "Fair bit to discuss there," she drawled. "But I'm gonna... Yeah. With you in a bit." She got to drinking, eyes closed with relief.

Luz grinned. "Whaddaya do in yer downtime, anyhow? The way I hear it, yer the busiest soul on the squad, but I know y'still find time to help Leg out with her dolls. It's sweet. You're sweet. But there must be time that's just fer yerself?"

"Yer forgiven," said Luz, immediately. "Not that yer wrong, but it ain't nothin' considerin' the context." She hopped up on the kitchen worktop to swing her legs in the air. "Strivin' t'be better is good. Brisa's all about that. Me, I reckon y'gotta take it easy sometimes too. Life's too...

"Talk in a sec," she said to Dave, forcin herself to lose the hard edge on her voice just a little. She loped after Starr, using her luxray vision a couple times to check that she was going the right way. Wasn't so hard to get the hang of, really. It came naturally so long as she was looking...

Luz shrugged again. "Who can say? I was never mortal, 'less y'count Brisa as my past self or somethin'. Yeah, she, uh. Always kinda daydreamed 'bout bein' a zeraora someday. Earnin' her place as a sentinel 'gainst evil, an' ascendin' to succeed th'Wanderin' Light." Luz trailed off, gazing at...

"Noted." Brisa motioned with her head to Dave to follow her out, and bit back a torrent of bile and thunder. Would anything make this bastard afraid? What if she just shocked him until he fucking screamed. How about then. I thought y'weren't a violent animal. Brisa snarled at herself, and...

"I guess?" Luz finished chopping the apples and shrugged dramatically. "Incidentally, legend has it that every zeraora on Brisa's world has t'leave home to become a zeraora. By definition, I'm a voluntary exile."

Luz beamed. "I'd be thrilled. I mean, yeah, I think of myself as a Cibus native, but all my memories are from Brisa's world. So my culture is from a world I've never been to. I don't belong nowhere, so why not belong everywhere I wander?" She cocked her head. "Hang fire, what d'you mean 'story'?"

Luz gave Truffle a yearning look. "It really does sound wonderful to travel with y'all. To do so much good. I guess y'must think pretty highly of the lot of 'em, huh?"

"Yeah, but t'be a Voice with no world, and t'lose an entire world? There's hardly a greater pain than that, nor one so hard to escape," commented Luz, taking a brief moment from her chopping to coax Truffle's wings back to effective use in his cooking. She sighed, and blew a tiny kiss to Leg...

Luz winced. "I'll drop it, Anthus. It's alright." Shnk, shnk, shnk. "I'm sorry. Grief an' loss are still new t'me. Anythin' really matterin' is still new to me. And I'm still so young y'can count my age in weeks. I take it this is somethin' I oughtn't t'bring up, an' that's fine. I know...

"Steady there, partner," said Luz. "I don't mean one with another you. One with everythin' but you, waitin' fer yer arrival. If such a place existed—Millijoule talks about the multiverse as if it's literally endless, perhaps one does."

Luz kept chopping, her knife making steaady shnk sounds. "I told you I wanted to travel with y'all fer perfectly optimistic reasons," continued Luz, evenly. "You didn't exactly dissuade me. But I've been thinkin'... Is there some cost, some price that would deter a person from joinin' the team...

Brisa's gaze didn't leave Giovanni just yet. She lingered. Imagined what it would be like to crush his windpipe under her paw. Was there anything to say? There was much to ask, but Giovanni was sharp. He would learn more than her and give away less than her from almost any question she could...

Luz nodded, shrugged, and got to work slicing apples. "Gotcha. Seems all of God Squad are troubled souls to some degree, then. Y'all seem pretty even-keeled considerin' what ya told me you've been through, yerself especially." Dead wife, dead child, failed deathwish. She glanced at Truffle...