Stinger knew something like this would happen.

Pain was funny, and it stood to reason that everyone dealt with it in different ways.

Jupiter rushed on ahead, bull heading confronting her pain and trying to consume it. As if understanding it would make it bearable. As if conquering would make it easier, being so fragile in the wake of that. Kiza suppressed it, kept quiet, held it tight, put on a lovely face for the world to see. Never faltered in it, never expressed it unless she truly, truly had gotten past it. Smiled beautifully in the wake of it, and stayed so strong despite it all. Grey held it until it was too much, then exploded, fractured into different furious pieces. And left it to lie there without processing it until they absolutely had to.

It was why they had exploded at Caine.

It was why they had looked at Stinger's son and been so hurt when he had failed to see a person of equal standing. Stinger is angry at that. He knows, vaguely, what Caine has been through. He was younger than Kiza was now when he was tossed into the Badlands. And the Badlands was a flimsy excuse for the system of Orous to not officially execute someone. It was where the worst of the worst were tossed into. An in-hospital planet of death and extremes. Death, a certainty or one that you wished for.

But it had been that or death all those years ago, when he had torn out the throat of Balem Abrasax, and Stinger had given his wings, and Kiza's for that slim chance that Caine would live until he could drag him out.

"You live through this, Caine Wise. You live through this and let me bring you home."

The boy he had raised was a man, and he had seen none of that in the two hundred years.

But something had remained the same.

Caine simply didn't think about his pain.

It wasn't worth it to him. He, as much as Stinger had tried when he had become his Flock leader, did not see himself as worthy to think about his pain. His breeder had been a piece of work, cruel at best, one of the worst in the system, and the combination of propaganda that was common to splices and his inferiority complex had taken a toll on his psyche that no amount of reassurances could take away from. Given his history of having the bad luck of being beneath the ire of Entitled society on top of that-

Well.

His son was in immense pain.

And the few things he did with that he did do with his pain was to lash out at the people around him. Especially those who weren't really responsible.

"Arms up," he said, simply.

Caine obeyed.

He always did.

In action, if never in spirit.

Stinger swung.

Caine dodged. He was still good, the most promising thing to enter the Avery whilst Stinger had been in there. Despite not having his own natural wings, Caine, for all his 'disadvantages' for his DNA, had been born to fly.

But the Badlands had changed him. Made him rougher, made him sloopy.

Stinger landed a solid hit. And it was stupidly easy for him to get into his defenses and really get into it.

They exchanged blows. Stinger assessed him quickly, dodging hits and kicks with ease. He used his wings because unlike Caine they were a part of him again, and Caine wasn't quite used to them anymore.

"You've been having a rough time adjusting," he told his son, easily.

Caine's face twitched as he tried to knock into Stinger's center of gravity as he circled around him, wings a loft as he hovered a few inches off the ground.

"I guess."

Stinger landed a solid kick. Caine went flying. He recovered, flipping up. But the weight of his wings, barely attached a few weeks, caused him to stumble.

"... Can I have this talk with Kiza? She's always reasonable."

Stinger buzzed, agitated.

"Caine, neither you nor Kiza would actually address the issue."

"I've talked to Queen Jupiter-"

"Jupiter is a child that is too forgiving. As much as you're scared of her, you aren't actually mad at her, even if you were putting all of her frustration at her feet. The same thing with Grey. They went for a topic you thought resolved, and you belittle their very existence for it. Especially when you are still pissed at me and still wouldn't have told me about it."

Caine stilled. Eyes wide and big and if Stinger wasn't so mad at his son he would have laughed.

"And you don't trust me. You haven't said a Verse damn word about anything-" he returned, furiously exploding.

Finally.

"Caine, how the hell can I trust you if you don't even start asking questions? How the hell can I talk to you if you stay locked up in your room when you aren't on shift guardian Jupiter? How can I trust you if you don't trust me?"

Caine blinked, mouth dropping open.

"Because it's been two hundred years, little pup, and you need to do more than mope when you don't understand and are in a new situation. I've given you as much space as you needed in the meantime, but since you've talked to her Majesty, I figured you're in a better head-space. But you've gone and made Grey cry, and that leaves me equally disappointed and angry at you. Now, what the hell do you want to know?"

Caine's jaw worked, and his face was red with both embarrassment and what looked like tears.

"Stinger- why do you follow Jupiter? Why do you- you seem to care for her like Kiza?"

Stinger found himself smiling.

"I follow her because she saved Kiza's life. I love her because she is a good girl with a good heart that wants to do right by this fucked up Verse we live in."