Harold was sort of... relieved, even after all of that. He was holding back a few tears of failure, but he was honestly sort of happy. He did what he did, he tried, he surrendered, sure, but he tried... This was honestly the most 'grown-up' putdown he's ever had. He thought that Lorenzo was a huge asshole mad scientist... He was really fucking weird, after all. Hearing something so, lenient from him was refreshing, and helped Koehler realize how bad of a failure it really was.

No, for his leniency, Lorenzo needed a reward. A plan formulated in Koehler's mind, a surprisingly devious one... He asked the biggest question that came: [color=fff200]"Uhm, sir, when will our next mission come? Will it be a real one?"[/color], and a follow-up, [color=fff200]"And... do Cruxi things tend to self-destruct?"[/color]. Koehler would get this man a new Cruxi test subject, difficulty be damned! Mad scientists like weird new test subjects, right?

Harold would make it up to his squad and his commanders whatever way he could. He was determined. ...Yet he added one last thing. [color=fff200]"Hey, sir... one last thing. The... y'know, narcotics, made me freak out. I don't want those any more. I didn't know they'd do... that. I wouldn'tve used them if I knew."[/color]. His mind wandered elsewhere after that, but still plotting. He looked around the room and gauged the others' feelings, noting that Liu'un was holding back actual tears really bad... Because of Lorenzo. Maybe he'd do something else instead...