( those are dangerous words. even at ten, jon realizes that. mondo’s leaning in close, and jon takes the opportunity to reach his hands up, grab onto mondo’s face. he holds onto him, no real strength behind it, but enough to make mondo look to him. despite his years, jon’s gaze is unwavering, strong. wisdom beyond what he should have reflected in blue. )

No. That's not justice, Mondo. That's just vengeance. ( he's really starting to sound like batman here, isn't he. oh, well. there are worse people to sound like. ) That's not fair, to you or to them. You--can't hold stuff like that against people. If I died, if it was an accident, I wouldn't want anyone to spend the rest of their lives stuck on it. You know? I mean. . ( his voice softens a little, lips pursing. ) You didn't want to hurt anyone, and look at how bad it's making you feel. Would you want someone to hurt like that, over an accident? If--if you got hurt, if I hurt you, would you want me to be really sad over it for forever?

( jon doesn't give him a chance to answer the question, closes his mouth for just a moment before he starts speaking again. ) I killed my mom's cat, Goldie. I know it's not--really the same, she was a cat, but. A hawk swooped in and grabbed onto her and I wanted to save her, so I. . I used my heat vision, but I'm real bad with it still, and it toasted the hawk and the cat. I didn't mean to hurt her, I just. . I didn't know it would be that powerful. I swore I'd never kill anyone again, but it still hurts. Hurting someone never, ever feels good. Whenever I think about it I get this feeling in my stomach--kinda like I'm going to puke, but way more painful than that.

Sometimes bad stuff happens. But you can't. . you can't just let that thing ruin everything.