Spike and Jack sat in a small surveillance room in Everhold Prison, watching various bits of security footage that the warden and his staff had provided to them. It had been a few minutes of awkward silence as the two watched Edge live a fairly mundane prison life. In spite of everything the two knew about him, Edge was actually a fairly model prisoner, save for a fight or two where he was clearly taking the blame more than anything else. Jack decided to break the ice.
"So...I like the new jacket."
These words brought a slight smile to Spike's face. "Yeah, well, guess my convictions have gotten a little soft since we last saw each other. Even I'm not immune to a good sale." She quickly looked Jack over. "Probably wouldn't hurt YOU to go through a few stores, though. That thing STILL smells like the purple stuff in Eggman's chemical plants."
"Eh, I let my girlfriend do most of the clothes shopping. I couldn't find a matching pair of socks to save my life." Jack said, only partially joking. "Ah yeah, you did find yourself someone on the old unit, didn't ya?" Spike remarked. "Wish I could find myself something like that. My last date was a killer robot who ghosted his friends to meet up with me."
"Heh. I'm not even going to TRY and unpack all that...But yeah, me and Cyber, we...We've got something special." Jack said, somewhat happy to have less tension in the room now. "And Raccoon is doing great, too. Just having a bit of trouble with reading."
"Eh, I wouldn't worry about that too much. Kid's got the heart of a poet, it'll come naturally." Spike said as she leaned back in her chair. Alright, mood was set. Time to ruin it. "You never did answer my question earlier, though...Why DO you want to help bring Edge back in?"
"Do you REALLY need to ask that, Jack? After how our LAST conversation went?" Spike asked. Jack lowered his head. "I know you and the others are still mad over how...Lenient I was to Edge during the war, but-"
"Lenient!? Is that REALLY the word you want to use right now?" Spike practically spat out, standing up in frustration. "You were our LEADER, Jack. We trusted you with our LIVES out there! We all BELIEVED in you...But you broke that trust every time you ignored our concerns about Edge. Every time you let his recklessness nearly cost us everything, you just sat there and made excuses for him!"
"I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, okay? He was part of my team, I...I felt like I owed him that." Jack stammered out. "Oh really? Was your 'benefit of the doubt' REALLY worth the life of Quickshot? Slings? Boom? If they could all be here right now, do you think they would agree?" Spike stared at Jack, who just stared back in stunned silence, not having an answer. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Now, I'm here to put him back where he belongs. If you want to come along, that's fine. Just stay out of my way." Spike finished, sitting back down in her chair. Jack just curled back into his seat, not wanting to exist at the current moment...But then he noticed something on the monitor. "Wait, go back...What's that?"