"No," she agrees, her voice grim. "Everything about the Slaughterhouse Nine - that was all the worst I've gone through, as Skitter. The hardest. They tried to recruit Regent and Bitch. This... cult of serial killers, wanted two of my friends for members. I wasn't in time to protect my dad, and he got caught in Shatterbird's first wave. I embarrassed Mannequin and in return he came for my civilians. He killed Doctor Foster to laugh at me. I told Sundancer she was clear to take the shot when there were still victims alive in her radius - they wouldn't have survived anyway, but it matters. Shot didn't even kill Bonesaw." She shrugs unsteadily, her throat feeling hollow. She knows most of those names don't mean a thing to Shen Wei, but she has to speak them, anyway.

"I didn't realize Brian wasn't leaving the fight with us, when he was caught. And he had to rescue me.

"And in the end- we lost. We captured two, killed three, but... All that mattered was that Jack Slash not get away. And he did."