[ Root latches on quickly and absolutely to people when she does, rare though it is. She's used and manipulated people for so many years for her own ends, mostly for money, for the fun of it, and she can read people as straightforwardly as she can read SQL. Which means she trusts her own judgment absolutely. When she finds someone she likes and respects, she doesn't let go.

Charles became that very quickly for her with his empathetic words and understanding shortly after her arrival, and Root won't forget it. She knows her shortcomings and she knows her strengths: she can treat people like pawns and she can treat them like kings. It's only lately she's tried to find somewhere in the middle.

But knowing herself means she's sure of is who she is, and where she's going. She doesn't really need the reassurance. ]

I don't need you to tell me I'm worth something, [ she says with complete honesty, but she softens the blow by covering his hand on her arm with her own. Root has slender hands with soft callouses from holding guns. ] Either we all matter or nothing matters, and I think we all matter. I matter. You matter.

Whether we're code on a server somewhere, or cast off in a transdimensional void rationalizing our experience, or dead in the strangest form of purgatory, what we do is important. She taught me that.

I'm not going to give up. But what we have here and now is going to have to be enough.