For a second, Liquid almost smiled. "You could try. Wasn't like I'd... spent years perfecting your accent. Not... not bad for something I figured out on the fly, right?"

You know, if they skipped the whole had Miller killed thing.

He stiffened up a bit at the question. "It doesn't matter. If we stay--" No. Stop that. Think about anything else. Think about a way out of this, not having to explain the virus. Not giving information up to anyone who asked, even if it didn't really matter in the long run.

"A virus. Created to target my team. Carried by... my brother." Or... he could just tell the truth, apparently. Still, it was better to talk about that than trying to convince Miller to stay on the station. If he was talking about something else, D-E-L and its ideals could just wait their damn turn.

He took a deep breath. Well, memories of death were one thing to fight an AI's influence, right? A hand curled into a fist at his chest. "Gave you a heart attack's what it did. We tried to get a vaccine, but we were unable, and... we died. All but Ocelot. If it wasn't the virus, it was my brother. Killing us all off. Killed Mantis."

The severance of their connection had hurt more than his own death.

Another deep breath, and...

"There won't be anything like that on the station." Damn, and he was doing so well.