[ even with the specificity it takes him a moment to place the memory, because there have just been so many missions. so many battles. so many years. but they were only on a pemalite ship at the bottom of the ocean once in their lives, and so it comes back to him.

the drode. and words that had burrowed into his head like the dark seed of a possibility, though he had spent years trying to forget them: have you killed your brother yet? no? well, you will.

it had taken so long to come true, but it did eventually. that incident was so much earlier in the war, and it's obvious by the ripple of surprise that goes across this face that he's caught off-guard by her answer. by rachel focusing on exactly the wrong thing. ]

Yeah, no, that's not— The Crayak didn't win. Doesn't win. It's okay.

[ his throat is clenched, and it's hard to talk around it. her reassuring words almost made it even worse, because it reminded him that she did have his back. she'd had his back, until the very end. jake scrubs at his face, as if he can wipe it all away. ]

I'm from later. We're used to time travel weirdness with the Ellimist and the Crayak, but this is still... I'm from a couple years later, Rachel.