Amid all the chaos, sentiment was always the thing that stayed the same. Not emotion - that vacillated all over - but the longstanding ties, the deeper feelings that he still felt even at his most unstable.

What he felt right now ran deep. It ran all the way back to Lyle being one of the first to reach out to him, puttering around his lab invisible until Brainy noticed he was there.

"I lied to you."

A tear rolled down his cheek.