Lust was livid. Her eyes narrowed and her teeth grit, cold contempt written all over her face as she pushed Jade back. "Don't patronize me," she hissed. "Make up whatever excuses you want, this is about revenge, not your convoluted sense of ethics. The furball is right about you. ALL of you." Her normal tactics would have been to threaten to kill him or someone he cared about to get her way, but that wouldn't work here. She wasn't immortal, and she was profoundly outnumbered. Whatever chances remained to her without Palitutu would be erased if they struck her down now.

She whirled around, rage and desperation making her movements sharp and savage, more like an animal's than a person's, and her eyes fell on Jack. "You. You promised you'd help me. Show me that you weren't lying." She thrust her hand toward Palitutu. "Prove that humanity really does embody mercy and compassion, not just some pretty words that can't be backed up by action."