"You only got it after it was you who lost someone! When you already did the same to so many other people!" Scout's tears are well and truly flowing now, voice cracking as he keeps his face buried in his knees, but he glows with anger and guilt and knotted trauma he doesn't know how to process. "And then you get mad and kill the person who only did what you did first, and did it 'cuz you wouldn't stop. Hypocrite! You're all hypocrites."

He's not just talking to Achilles, but to all the adults in life he saw who participated in the self-serving violence. And perhaps worse, who participated in the self-serving violence and tried to lie to themselves and others and say it was anything but that, something noble or righteous, and only evil if someone else does it to them. The depravity so consumed all around Scout that it's left him with the impression that somehow, a person loses their soul when they grow up.

Gavroche gives his friend the dignity of pretending to not see him cry. But he does put his box of cigarettes and matches on the ground and gently kick them in Scout's direction.

"So, didya kill the guy who did it? Or did he kill you? 'Cuz it looks like someone got you with a bunch of arrows, so I'm guessing you didn't go home to Lamb before you kicked it," Gavroche says.