They couldn't handle him gone for less than a day, much less eleven months.

"I avoided asking him to use his own ties, so we hadn't gone to complete extremes yet." Ava knows how much Max values them! Especially given the alternative for replacements.

But no, she doesn't like the answer at all, not because it doesn't answer enough but it's all too painful to imagine. It's not quite the same, but she knows enough of what it's like to have your body torn apart piece by piece, to live every day in agony of stitching it back together again. Only to repeat the process, over and over with no end in sight. She knows she hadn't needed to experience anything like these Faceless Ones to have gone mad from just the pain alone.

She'd destroy them all if she could. But she can't. It's happened. Did happen, will happen, because they're outside of time and unable to do a damn thing about it.

"I won't do it again," she promises, pressing her palm to the one he holds up. "Sneak up on you."