Pepper's mouth thins. She understands why he doesn't want to tell his mother about what he's done, but all the same Pepper thinks she should know.

"Whatever you decide to tell her or not tell her, Gene, you shouldn't avoid speaking to her at all. Because that's not gonna help either of you, and it's definitely gonna make her wonder what the heck is going on," she replies tightly. Rather than sympathetic, her expression is hard. "You're different than you were when you got here, and you're different than you were when you killed Bakura. Just because it hasn't been that long since you grew to where you are now doesn't make that change any less important."

She leans forward. "You can tell her that two of the people you hurt the most after her love you like family, and that they've forgiven you for what you did to them. That you're working with and friends with the person you killed, and that you didn't give up trying to avenge her, no matter how long it took you. There's another side to literally everything you just said. If you're going to count what you've done badly against yourself, Gene, then you need to count what you've done well, too, or you're doing seriously crappy math."