Jötz pursed his lips and raised his furry brows as she pronounced that she could take care of herself and wished to parts ways once they made their escape. “Chou vant to go one ways und me another, huh? Chust valtz avay like noth-ink ist wrong, eh?”

The explosion that followed was ferocious, filled with fangs and fury and utter incomprehension. The Jaeger simply could not keep up his callous attitude, not when it could drive her away and into almost certain doom out upon the Wastes. “Chou gonna get kilt out der! Look, I ist sorry about chou arm, da first limb ist alvays de hardest, but vhat did chou dink I vas gonna do?! Maybe chou vant to be blue und bumpy und eating flies?? I did vat I had to to keeps chou alive, Miss Ivy. Dat’s vat minions do.”

Suddenly he froze. A pained expression crossed his face as he realized what he had just said. Closing his eyes, Jötz tried to gather his resolve and accept what he had just said as most likely being true. It wouldn’t be so bad, he reluctantly decided to himself; the other Jaeger were still sworn to House Heterodyne but served Wulfenbach until such time as a Heterodyne heir appeared. Why not do the same for this new Spark? He could travel with her, still stay true to his mission (which was rather ambiguous anyway), and if a Heterodyne showed up…

Opening his eyes again and taking a deep breath, he let it out slowly. “Und I guess I is chou minion now, Miss Ivy. Sparks need minions fur more dan chust experiments und digging up da bodies. Minions look after all da schtuff Sparks is forgetting, like feeding da nine hundred pound bunny rabbit dey made last month. Chou ist a Spark vitout a minion, und vitout one chou ist gonna end up in vorst trouble. Believe me, I knows!”

“So,” he pronounced with a great deal of self imposed calm, “I make chou a deal. No more hacky-hacky oft da limbs vitout you saying okay-dokay, I get chou safe und sound to next town. Den if chou still vant, ve can part vays der.”

Jötz truly hoped she agreed to his proposal. It wasn’t just that he felt bad for having to sever her arm, nor was it fear of what might happen to her out upon the Wastes, although the latter was definitely a factor. The girl was naive enough that she would probably try to walk through a field of sward grass or sleep in the den of Barrow Haunt; without a guide, she wouldn’t last long at all, Spark or no. But it was the strange feeling of affection he had for the human girl. She was pretty, oh no doubt about that, but it wasn’t anything truly lustful that drove his concerns. There were dim memories he had of his days before becoming a Jaeger, something he couldn’t quite put his finger on…