"Now that we're here, do you want your wings?" a soft question, so idiotically innocent, without malice.
Despite himself, Stinger felt himself stumble. He was just giving Kiza a change of clothes after her surgery. He was just happy his daughter no longer had a parasite that threatened her life- he would have preferred for her to have Regen-X, make no mistake, but he was just happy to have that thing out of her. He knew with this, he would forever owe Jupiter Jones, Entitled Queen to be. It would be something resembling loyalty, his devotion to her. And he expected that to be an unequal exchange. Despite her claims to want to better the Verse, Stinger knew that the girl would change. With the memories of an Entitled in her head, with the pressure to fall in line with luxury and power, the girl would fall just as easily as the other Reccurance's before her. Stinger knew Jupiter would grow to want more, and more, and one day whatever kindness she had would not be enough to suppress her need to get what she wanted.
Or at least, that is what he expected to be the course of this small child.
"What about our wings?" Kiza, sweet Kiza's voice is bright and almost melodic in its quality, unobstructed for the first time in forty years, "Can you actually give that back to us? The Aegis ripped them off. And it's not like we were allowed to keep them afterward."
Stinger winced. Losing his wings had been horrible- watching them rip off his daughter's wings, not even strong enough to fly yet, had been a special kind of hell. No military splice outside of the skyjacker elite was allowed to have wings. Those who were not specifically bred for the program were grafted standard wings, but most skyjackers were natural flyers, and if there was one thing that Stinger really missed from his days in the Avery, it was his wings. Jupiter Jones gave a careful shrug.
"Aren't they natural limbs? There's a machine for that. I can't give you your original wings, but with your DNA, we can grow you some new wings. Most Entitleds to have an injury that loses them a limb would use Regen-X if they are rich enough. But there are medical devices specifically for that, Regen-X is a commodity to keep themselves alive for long periods of time, and using it for a limb is a wanton waste of it. Especially for the poorer Houses."
Stinger blinked. All Entitleds seemed the same to him. Or maybe he had only ever interacted with the top of the gods to think that Regen-X was so easily used by them. House Abrasax was one such example, but Stinger realized that there were more nuances to them than he thought.
"So Queen Seraphi really stopped using the stuff. She invested a lot of time and money to avoid the substance if she was using inferior technology."
"It isn't inferior, it's specialized. Regen-X is a cure-all, I can't deny it, but it costs too much, and it's just a clumsily reset."
She called it people goop. A crude way to put it, but it isn't wrong. Billions of lives are lost every Harvest of each House. Stinger didn't feel… Guilty per se, for his use of the substance. I've used it twice for my age. I didn't think about it much. But living on a Harvest Planet made it more evident to me how much the Humans lie to themselves. But he was aware of what that use had cost. He didn't regret his life, but knowing there was another option possible made him feel... Strange.
"So, you can give us our wings?"
A smile, wide and easy, showing off her missing teeth.
"Easy!"
Stinger waited for the price she would ask for their wings.
Somehow, he wasn't completely surprised when she demanded nothing at all.
