He studied her face, grateful for the fact that her focus appeared to be elsewhere, hopefully preventing her from seeing the guilt and loss written on his own face. The idea of losing the friends that had left… it felt like getting stabbed between the ribs. What was the point of this, of any of it, when surviving just meant outliving everyone else? “I’m tired of being the one who always says no.” He said flatly. “But they would have fought you on it. They fought me on it. They might have stayed. But it would have caused other problems.” He shook his head slightly, then absently brushed his hair back away from his forehead. “It doesn’t matter.” Persephone had wrapped her arms around herself and Jason reached out to place a tentative hand on her shoulder. “They matter. But shit that happened, stuff you did, it’s done. You can't -- ” Jason went quiet, swallowing hard over the end of the sentence. "We keep going."