washes the grave with

the second time they ask, it’s not really a question at all. crosshair had been talking about the “algorithm” that the seppies had been using, and echo had been explaining some of the strategies they had helped rex come up with. ‘ though i can’t take all the credit, ‘ they’d said, with a smile that still stood on shaky ground, slipping off the corners of their mouth, ‘ fives did a lot of the work too. ‘ a pause. their eyes drifting to the empty spaces of the room. the places where fives should be. and then to rex. ( rex, where’s fives? )they don’t ask again. ( echo learns what happened to fives. )