POTENTIAL 0

Oh, girl. Oh, you had to say it, didn’t you? Threaten to divide Sara from the group again, to be partners with her geeky little bro, leave her behind in the dust. She helps spring you out of AEGIS, she comes for you when nobody else does, and this is how you treat her? Like she’s disposable, your [i]sidekick?[/i]

Let’s see if you blink, then.

Sara steps in too, closer, inside Euna’s personal bubble, but she’s never really cared about those, has she? “Go ahead,” she says, silky. “Give me your best shot.”

You gonna back up your big words, Euna? You gonna slug Sara for the crime of having feelings, huh? The blood pounds in Sara’s throat as she holds her breath and waits for you to make your choice, [i]bomboncita.[/i]

And maybe you notice that she’s tensing up because she’s a little bit afraid you’re going to hit her, and she’s too stubborn to flinch away. Maybe you notice how she’s shaking just a little, and anxiously playing with the thumb on her right hand, for all that she’s trying to be the biggest thing in the room right now. How her wings are tucked in around her protectively. And maybe you put together that you and Victor kept something from her that she knows now, and of course she lashes out like the tiger.

She is so afraid she’s not [i]really[/i] important to you. That’s why she’s in your face, watching your eyes, waiting to see if you knock her to the ground for being a pain in your ass. If you leave her on the ground again. If you walk away from her again.

Because Sara is arguably the dumbest genius on this ship, and she’d rather swallow her own tongue than grovel and ask if you’re mad at her, do you trust her, why didn’t you tell her. It’s macho street posturing, and isn’t that a bit of a reminder that some of us didn’t grow up in a good arcology?

She’s hard and brittle as the glass that the light shines through, daring you to pitch a baseball through her chest.

[Provoke [b]12[/b] — admit to Sara that you need her, Euna, and add a Team to the finale— or mark a condition.]