"Oh, of course," Kiara spat as Kady came to a stop in front of her cell. "How dare I steal your thunder? Wouldn't want to prevent you from being able to gloat, right?"
He shook his head, folding both sets of arms. "You of all people should understand."
"Understand what? Tricking people, playing with their emotions, and then throwing them away once you're done?"
"We've both had to grow up with crappy fathers, fathers that the world forced on us. But now I finally have the chance to surpass him, I'll be a better bug than Hopper ever was."
"A better bug, really? A better bug by being pushed around by the likes of Chipendale, by your mom? A better bug by enslaving ants the same way Hopper did?"
"Yes," he growled.
"You're a lost cause, and you're pathetic. You don't know the first thing about what kind of bug Hopper was, if you ever thought he was any good. You're just going to be a worse bug, the worst bug ever."
"I am not!" He turned and kicked a pebble careening down the hall. "All my life, everything I've ever done, everything I've ever worked hard for, it always blows up in my face. So why shouldn't I win, just this once? Why can't I ever win?!" A nearby mushroom lamp was his next victim, stomping it into a crumpled dim mess.
"Calm down! You can't just—" Kiara caught herself, and exhaled a small laugh, drawing Kady's surprised expression. Inhaling deeply through her nose, she pushed her hair back from her face. "You can't just take your anger out on everything around you. Even if the world dealt you a bad hand, it's not actually the world's fault. You have to face it like a grown-up." She stepped close to the bars again, pushing her face through as far as it would go.
"Kady, look at me. You're already a better bug. From the very beginning you were always better than Hopper. But if you do this, if you just go along with what Chipendale and your mom are doing, then you'll stop being the better bug. You'll be worse than scum." She held out her hand to him, palm upraised. "You decide who you are. No one else, only you."
Kady looked between her and her hand for several long moments before reaching out and taking it. "I'm sorry," he whispered, voice shaking. "I'm so sorry. I don't even know what I can do to help you at this point."
"You could set us all free," Hayley pointed out. The others had gathered near the entrances of their cells, watching the pair.
Kady shook his head. "No, they would notice a big group like you trying to leave. And then they'd arrest me too."
"He's right," Atta agreed. "Before anything else, we need a plan. Right now the ants have taken a heavy demoralizing blow, but they're not ready to return to their old lives of subjugation. All they need is some encouragement and they'll rally, just as they did before. The biggest problem is those prairie dogs. Unless we can get rid of them or make Chipendale lose control of them somehow, even a heartfelt speech won't carry us very far."
Kiara's eyes sparked behind her glasses. "I have an idea!"