He’s right about that, too - it’s over. After tonight, even if everyone manages to avoid being captured or killed (and they won’t, Nick knows they won’t), the Heart is finished. She’s not trying to hold on to ideals she never fully invested in to begin with. It’s not her responsibility to be their knight in tarnished armor. She’s not a hero.

But there is something else she can do. Not many among the Heart were trained fighters - Nick doesn’t even count herself as one, but she has power, and she’s always been afraid to use it. Right now, she has the chance to set aside her fear and use the Talents she’s been given to fight back.

And she needs to try. She can’t be the terrified girl hiding in the closet from her drunken, hateful mother’s violent rampage any longer. She doesn’t want to feel helpless anymore. She is a survivor, and she’ll be damned if she lets anyone - human or machine - make her feel like anything less ever again.

She huffs a weak, mirthless laugh and squeezes her eyes shut, pushing the tears she’s been holding back to slide down her cheeks. “So you do remember my name.” She looks back up at him with a thin smile; she’s never minded his nicknames, even gave him one herself, but the fact that he’s using her actual name now feels alarming - wrong, like ear-splitting tornado sirens droning in the middle of the night. Her topmost hand rotates up to clasp at his, a silent plea that she follows with words.

“Believe me, every instinct I got’s tellin’ me to leave right the fuck now, but I can’t. I got one more trick up my sleeve, and I’m gonna hit these fuckers with everything I got. And if that helps even one more person get away? Then it’s worth stayin’ behind a little longer.”

Her thumb brushes slowly across his knuckles, and she inhales a deep, steadying breath. “I’m not gonna die. Trust me.”