Pony looked at Cassie calmly, a placid look of seriousness that looked out of place on her elfin face. "Right now, Cassie? I think that's the same thing."

***

Toni words tore through Lucien, causing both jaw and fingers to clench in anger, anger at Toni and at himself. The memories of the past year all burst forward, fighting for priority in his mind as he found himself rising to his feet. The knife was still tightly gripped in one hand, the whetstone in the other. Lucien was actually conscious of holding them, but there they were. He stared daggers at the older man. Snarling, he unleashed some of those memories upon him in a snarling voice.

" 'She's gone, Lucien,' " he mocked her brother, " 'You've got to accept it and move on, Lucien.' [i]Your[/i] words, Toni. Your words to [i]me[/i]. [i]You[/i] gave up first, remember? You gave up and crawled back to your wife and kid and never gave a single fucking look back at me, you self-righteous, hypocritical, arrogant bastard!! Where the fuck was I supposed to move on to, huh? Where did you want me to go? Stay in the same nest and be reminded day and day out of everything I lost, is- is that it? I couldn't even bring myself to take anything of hers with me when I moved out because of how much it fucking hurt. And when I finally 'accepted' that she was gone, where the fuck were you, [i]'best bud'[/i]? When I tried to kill myself, were you the one who stopped me? Stitched up my wrists? No. It was Pony. You, Toni, and the everyone else turned their fucking backs on me and told me I was goddamn nut job for thinking your sister might have made it."

"Uh-oh," someone else muttered, "Someone better got and get Uncle." Lucien paid no one else any attention, not seeing two of the salvage team run off down the corridor towards the labs. No, his attention and hate was solely fixed on Toni and himself. Without thinking, he jabbed the knife in Toni's direction for emphasis. He wasn't actually attacking, merely pointing with it, and they were a far enough distance apart that there was no way it was going to get close to Toni. Still, there was the knife and there were witnesses who saw Lucien with it... There would be rumors, later.

"You all thought I was nuts for thinking Cassie was still out there somewhere, that we could get her back. Every single fucking one of you danced around me on tip-toe because you thought I was crazy. And the funny thing is? When I finally gave up? I thought you were right! I thought I was mad!" He gestured towards the rest of the Colony where Cassie was. "Who's crazy now, huh?"

The knife point flickered back towards Toni, it's keen edge honed to razor sharpness. "Maybe I did betray her memory. If I did, that's something for her and me to work through. Just remember, asshole. In the back of [i]your[/i] mind, killing [i]you[/i], will always be the fact: You. Gave. Up. First. You gave up on your sister, and then you gave up on your best friend. And I bet you don't even got the guts to tell her that."

***

As breakfast wound down and the survivors began to slowly move off to their assorted routines and duties, the shout was heard by all. "Lucien and Toni are going at it in the Armory! And they've got knives!"