"You can't possibly be so deluded that you actually believe what you're saying is any sort of justification for what happened to him," Ratchet says, his voice weirdly calm. "He was... well. You know how good he was. Better than me even, probably. What you did to him, to his skill--the pressure you put him under, to please you or let everyone at his facility be tortured to death--was, was vandalism. It was obscene. Just because a piece of art has the potential to be smashed to pieces doesn't mean that's what it's for."

He snorts, shaking his head.

"That didn't even take as long as I thought it would to devolve into threats--though, are you implying that you'd hurt an organic here or that you'd give us away on purpose? You probably are actually stupid enough to go to somebody else here, blow our cover, and get us both killed out of spite, aren't you? Unbelievable." He sounds weary and exasperated now, more than angry. "What do you even want, Tarn? I mean, specifically."