"I have a feeling they don't," Ratchet says, shivering a little in memory of the cold and rubbing absently at the thick scars wrapped around both his wrists. "I haven't decided whether that's comforting or not." He hesitates for a second, biting the inside of his cheek.

"Did this place... do anything to you, when it dumped you here? Besides dumping you here, I mean. Are you different at all, that you can tell?"