Soha's warehouse voice softened.
Just slightly.
Just enough.
"Tell me why."
"Why what?"
"Why you did it. All of it. The prison break. The supervillain-class crime. Walking into an unescapable prison to find me. Why?"
Cruxius looked at the window.
The dimensional static. The rain that wasn't rain. The world between worlds, pressing against the glass.
"You were thrown in without a trial," he said.
Soha's breath caught.
"Someone decided you were dangerous. Someone decided you belonged in a box. And they put you there, in a prison designed to hold people like us forever, and they walked away."
He turned back to her.
"I don't accept that."
"Why?"
"Because I've seen what happens when people accept it. When they let the system decide who deserves freedom and who doesn't. I've seen the cages. The collars. The ledgers."
He stepped toward her.
"You didn't deserve what happened to you. And no one was coming to save you."
"So I came."
Soha was quiet.
