[ No, Thorns might not kill Nai, but as they've already established today, sometimes dying isn't the worst thing that can happen to a person. That kid is messed up about what his future's gonna look like as it is -- seeing that, seeing a version of his brother that a version of him tortured into sadism? That might fuck Nai up for the rest of his life.

And speaking of things that'll fuck people up for the rest of their lives, if everyone could stop telling him that he's going to die in December he'd really appreciate it. That wasn't him, won't be him, however the timeline on something like this works. He doesn't do more than shoot Blondie a surly side eye about it, though -- he already knows this version of Stampede can't help but care too much, about everyone. It's nice, kinda. Misplaced, but nice. ]

It's fine. [ They've got a long drive ahead of them, and sitting in silence just sounds boring and uncomfortable. Besides, since they're sharing secrets, he might as well learn some more things about Stampede and his family, right? ] The Knives... the Nai in my world, he wanted to fight you too, as far as I could tell. [ Although he's really got no idea what happened between the time he dropped Stampede off in the tower, and coming back into the city to see the twins fighting. He drums his fingers on the steering wheel, debating whether he wants to say what he wants to say, then shrugs and goes with it. ]

Actually, I can't be sure about that. I ditched him, dumped him off and left him to face Knives alone. I don't know what that lunatic had planned. It coulda been just like this, I don't know.

[ His world's Vash might have opted to die rather than become like Thorns -- that might have been the fight he saw. He hadn't thought he could feel any worse about that, but here they fucking are. ]