“No.” He said. “I can’t tell you where they are. There are people —” When she asked him he looked at her, hurt. “The LEAST qualified person to make it.” He had waited until she had finished yelling, letting an uncomfortable silence build up between them. “But when I looked around I was all there was.” His tone slid down to a quiet voice, seemingly indifferent and reserved as always. Up until this point, he had been leaning against the balcony, staring from time to time down at the waters.
He discarded that position, standing and moving a few steps away. When he turned back to her he was guilt and frustration, a century’s worth, come to a head in a painful bewilderment. “AND I DIDN’T ASK TO MAKE IT!” He threw out an arm in a wild gesture. He wasn’t normally one to raise his voice, but Claire’s shouting and his own self-condemnation had pushed him to it. “How could I make it?! How could I choose between something so IMPOSSIBLE. Damned either way — My own kind; my only HOPE — or those innocents; all thankless, greedy, cruel — How could I choose?!”
He looked betrayed, by what he would not say. “I couldn’t kill them! I couldn’t—live with myself. Even as they plotted genocide what right did I have to do the same; regardless of how worthy I felt the cause?” He bit his lip. “What SHOULD I have done Claire?” He looked away, a hand moving to his own face suspiciously. “I thought they deserved another chance — A chance — I could give them. That is why I looked to discover a way to end it all. Something to strip away the ability. Their weapon; take it away — then let them choose as they would.” His voice quieted, as he confessed further. “If I ever succeed in this ‘cure’ , and they walk free again, — I know they will never accept me. I knew that. I chose to be alone. Forever.” He finally looked at her, but on his face was a grief and hopelessness carried far too long. “Because I would not risk making the wrong choice.”
Claire barely flinched when Henry started yelling back. She’d partly been expecting it, considering she’d been yelling at him and Henry wasn’t exactly the same person since being back. His words didn’t surprise her, though. Henry was always the type to blame himself.
“Henry–” She started, once he’d calmed down a little bit. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? We can never let them out now! After reading about what Adam Monroe did, I have no doubt that they’ll seek revenge. On you. Probably on me for caring about you. On the rest of your family. Just because you couldn’t think of a better way to change their minds.” Her tone was quiet, yet serious. Like a mother chastising her child almost.
She snorted in annoyance at his last few words. “Henry, no matter what decision you made, it was always going to be the wrong choice. Don’t you see that? And now–” Claire shook her head, part of her wanting to cry at the very thought of what Henry had done. “–Henry, what about the rest of us regenerators, huh? How am I, or any future regenerators, supposed to learn more? Ask questions?”
Claire paused a moment, biting her lip before speaking again. “And–and more importantly, are you going to do that to me?”