[ It hurts to hear, as it should. Not a sharp pain, but deep and wrenching - the words don't exactly stab him in the heart so much as they jostle the knife already there. Qubit hangs his head and squeezes his eyes shut, wrapping an arm around his middle, but he doesn't try to argue. Even though, grotesquely, part of him still wants to.

But he needs to hear this. It's the truth, after all.

Tony wasn't well, but he wasn't insane. He knew what he was doing, and he knew it was wrong. Part of him even felt remorse, wanted to undo it and go back to the way things were. But even if he preferred to be loved, in the end... he was fine with being feared. He'd embraced the path of senseless violence and he had reveled in it.

The Plutonian made his choice. And Qubit made his.

He doesn't reply for a long time. When he finally does, his voice is quiet and unsteady, but not uncertain. ]

You're right.

... You're right. I know. And I've known for... a long time. Maybe even from the beginning. I just... don't like to admit it.

[ He raises his eyes to meet Carlisle's, sees the judgment in his withering gaze. He does not resist it. He knows what he deserves. ]

If he was a monster, Carlisle, then... so am I.