Shocked by the anger in Mithos’ tone, in the way he gets so heated over Origin’s treatment of Lloyd, he finds himself staring at the Aegis with wide eyes, losing track of whether the fury that runs through their emotional link is his or Mithos’. He’s - touched, really, that the boy cares so much - (or at least cares enough to fight him on this) - but there’s a large difference in how their worlds operated, in how their lives were led.

“Origin only knew me for four years,” Lloyd says, after Mithos finishes, unable to meet his eyes and instead averting his gaze to his boots. “And I couldn’t really even form sentences for three of those years. Maybe I was his son, but it’s not like he ever had to claim me. It’s not like he ever really did. And after knowing what sides we were on...”

He trails off. Origin was on their side by the end, but the truth remains that it wasn’t something he wanted. “For all intents and purposes, we were strangers. I think he wanted to keep it that way. But with you guys - Mithos, it’s different. He willingly created you guys and stuck around. He was more your father than he was mine, and at that point, he had a greater responsibility to keep you safe!”

Forcing the hurt that Lloyd hates to acknowledge out from his heart and transforming it into self-righteous anger and hatred is much easier than coping with it. So he does just that, allowing it to enter into his voice again and power the force behind the words. “It doesn’t matter what happened on my world, the point is that he had a chance to make sure it never happened again, that nobody would be hurt like that again, and he fucked it up. He was so lost in his own fucking mind that he didn’t think about what could happen, and now he’s made thousands of people miserable.”

He scoffs. “Knowing him, he’ll probably try to high-tail it the moment he sees me. God forbid someone holds him accountable.”