Shade: Unbound

Unsurprisingly, Finn had his reservations about that suggestion, but Lyra already knew who he was. She knew his name, she knew his face. And Jack didn’t have any problems with revealing himself to her at this point. No doubt, his friend would want to get their joint training underway as soon as possible.

And they wanted Jack to come through for them here, because neither of them were in good condition to walk long distances. Despite Finn’s assurances to Mistral, he already thought it was enough of a hassle to walk to the edge of the park while awkwardly supporting Lyra with a shoulder as she limped with him on one leg to the edge of the park.

He was of half a mind to use his grappling hooks here, but he didn't want to risk falling when Radi’s power would start to take effect soon, and he definitely didn't have the energy to do so while carrying another person.

Which was why they were waiting for Jack to pick them up. As it turned out, Jack had somehow been able to secure a vehicle to drive them around in. It was a van with tinted windows, big enough for Finn and Lyra to get in through the back once they made sure no one was watching.

Finn had known his friend had a driver’s license, seeing as Jack was nearly a year older than him and therefore legally old enough to drive, but the car had come as a surprise. That made Finn suspicious. Small purchases were one thing, whole vehicles were another. Jack’s family was well off, but they weren’t rich, which meant he had to have gotten his hands on a relatively large sum of money some other way.

But Finn wasn’t about to inquire about it in front of Lyra, so he let it go for now. He’d have to bring it up to Jack when they were alone again.

“Same place as last time?” Jack asked Lyra when they’d gotten into the back of the van.

Lyra, while in the middle of removing her mask, looked up. “Last time?”

“Yeah. The place Finn dropped you off at the night we first met.”

“Ah, no,” she replied, then she rattled off her new address.

Finn saw Jack frown in the driver's seat. “An apartment? Pretty sure you’re not old enough to rent one of those.”

Lyra remained silent for a long moment.

Jack, who had been about to hit the gas, crossed his arms and looked at Lyra through the rear view mirror. “You know, I think it’s about time you explained what’s really going on with you.”

Still, Lyra was mute.

Before Jack could open his mouth again, though, Finn interjected. “Not here. We need to be out of sight as fast as possible.” The DHD could be secretly trying to follow them.

That made Lyra turn to him, and Finn got a good look at her face for the second time since she’d revealed her secret identity to him. Her hair was still wet, having hardly dried beneath the bodysuit, and the dark circles under her eyes were even more pronounced in the shadows of her position opposite him.

She looked away after a few seconds, and Finn realized he was still wearing his own mask. Not only that, he also realized he hadn’t been intending to take it off. Which was strange, since he would have to when they got to her apartment, or wherever this girl really lived.

Rationally, Finn knew Lyra had seen his face when he regained consciousness after she had—not for the first time—saved his life. It hadn’t even been her fault, he’d taken off his own mask in order to breathe, not realizing that would also mean revealing himself.

Yet it bothered him nonetheless. It could have been the events of today sinking in and affecting his mental state. It could have been because he simply wasn’t at a hundred percent right now. It didn’t make any real difference at this point. He knew some instinctive part of him still wanted to hide who he was behind his hero identity.

Behind Shade.

Though he wasn’t sure he really trusted Lyra, even he couldn’t deny that her actions thus far had proven her trustworthy. And yes, she was obviously hiding some part of her life from them, but so was he. He hadn’t told anyone, let alone her, what he eventually planned on doing. And that was why, on some level, he considered it fair if he likewise remained ignorant about her motivations.

That made no sense to him when he articulated the thought like that. As far as he knew, the way to grow to trust someone was to understand them, wasn’t it? Yet he didn’t feel too bothered that she wasn’t telling them everything.

Or perhaps the true reason why he wasn’t too worried about Lyra’s secret was that he had a hunch it wouldn’t be anything to break up the team over. It felt uncharacteristic of him to operate that way, but he’d gone against his own expectations more than once when it came to Lyra. Whether it was in battle or when they were in conversation with each other, there was a sense of something there. Something that drove them to jump in at the right moments, say things that needed to be said.

He couldn’t put his finger on it, so he shook the thought and raised a hand to his mask.

This felt simultaneously long overdue and far too soon. But he didn’t hesitate, wanting to get it over with before he managed to talk himself out of it with a billion other rationalizations borne from motivated reasoning. He was too tired to go through that again, if he was being honest with himself.

In one motion his hand pulled down the wet head covering of his bodysuit, allowing his damp bangs to fall down over his forehead. He frowned and pushed it back, then found Lyra staring at him again.

“What?” He said. It came out more standoffish than he’d intended, but he wasn’t exactly comfortable voluntarily showing his face like this.

She raised her hands. “N-nothing. Just, uhm, you look—”

“Like shit,” Jack finished for her at the wheel, pressing down on the gas and taking the first left turn ahead. “Both of you. And the smell, man. God. You both have to take a shower later. Unless you get me some nose plugs.”

Lyra gaped at Jack, mortified, but Finn knew his friend was just trying to lighten the mood. He wasn’t sure how Lyra was taking it, but Finn mainly felt exhausted after that whole ordeal. And distanced. Like he wasn’t the one who had fought the primebeast.

Was this Radi’s power taking effect? No, it hadn’t been two hours yet. He was just… numb.

A few beats passed in silence before Jack spoke up again. “We’re out of sight now, so let’s hear it, Lyra. We’re not taking any extra risks by showing our faces near you?”

Hearing that, Lyra deflated, shoulders slumping as she adjusted the position of her broken leg. “I don’t know,” she said, her voice barely audible.

“Excuse me?” Jack replied.

“I don’t know,” Lyra repeated. “I don’t know how much danger I’m in, but nothing has happened so far.”

“I’m going to need you to give me more than that.”

“I’m glad you guys let me hang out with you,” Lyra muttered. Then, realizing the apparent non sequitur, she added, “I’ve been on my own for a while.”

“Okay… Why? And how long?”

“Since the night I met Sha- the night I met Finn, that’s when I ran away,” Lyra said, giving Finn a look he thought might have conveyed guilt. “I ran away because I hurt a lot of people, and one of those people was my mom.”

“You’re a criminal?” Finn asked, eyes widening.

“I think so? I wanted to be a singer, but nobody walked out of that bar unharmed.” Lyra squeezed her eyes shut and covered her head with her hands. “Except me.”

“Wow wow wow,” Jack glanced at her over his shoulder. “Start from the beginning.”

Nodding, she said, “My whole life, I’ve wanted to sing, and I was so happy when I got my power that I accepted the first performance gig I could. I went there, I did a few songs, and, and…”

“And what?”

“I lost control on stage. I knew better. I knew better, but I still went for it,” she ground out. “And it wasn’t just me who suffered for my failure, but all those innocent people too.”

“Suffered?” Finn echoed, drawing Lyra’s attention again. “So they lived?”

She regained a bit of her composure at that. “Some of them barely.”

Finn had already guessed Lyra was a runaway, of course, but the reason caught him off-guard. He’d known she felt guilty, he just hadn’t understood why. Now that he did, though, he was unsure what to think.

A criminal? A fugitive, from the sound of it. He didn’t have as much of a problem with that as he thought he should. Under normal circumstances, he might have reacted differently. But currently, he just sort of let the information sink in, observing it and seeing it for what it was: bad, but not the worst case scenario.

Although he had known due to the structure of Aegis that he would one day be forced to make a decision when faced with the choice between allying with a criminal and going his own way, that day had come sooner than expected. And definitely not from the person he expected. He needed to ask Lyra where her priorities lay.

Jack took over the conversation, however. “Did you even live in this district, Lyra?”

She looked down. “No, I lived in A23F.”

“And you ran here in a panic? That's why Finn found you near the edge of the district. You were escaping from the next one over.”

Lyra didn't even have to answer; they already knew.

The freckled boy kept going. “So that answers my question about how you got your new place. You got a fake ID.” He paused. “Wait, is Lyra even your real name?”

“It is,” Lyra said hastily. “I didn't want to lie to you guys.”

“So if you haven't been caught yet, it should be safe…” Jack trailed off, his expression contemplative.

He seemed oddly accepting of this, Finn thought. But then, what would be the appropriate reaction? If Lyra's story was true, she hadn't had any malicious intent when that incident occurred.

But good intentions didn't necessarily excuse evil, did they? He was sure the thugs they took down on their missions thought they were committing crime for a good reason, too.

While he didn't know the extent of the damage his teammate had caused, exactly, she wasn't a murderer. And that factored into his judgment of her, as did the fact that he'd known her for some time now. Did that mean he was biased, or did it make his conclusions more reliable because he had a better understanding of her?

“Not to sound rude, but ah, why didn't you already look into it, Jack?” Lyra tried, hesitantly. “Don’t you usually like to have all the information?”

“You have Finn to thank for that,” Jack snorted. “He's the one that wanted to give you space.”

She gave Finn another surprised look, but Finn didn’t wait to ask, “Why Aegis?”

Lyra blinked. “Wha?”

He observed her with narrowed eyes. “Why did you sign up?”

“...Because I had to.”

The way she said it told Finn there was a lot to unpack there, but Jack didn’t give him the chance. “We’re here.”

Finn noticed then that the van had come to a halt, and they were parked a short distance away from an apartment complex surrounded by tall trees.

“We’re still going?” Finn asked his friend, looking up at the building.

“It’s not like I can take you anywhere else before your time runs out, so yeah, we’re still going. Now get up.”

Getting into Lyra’s place turned out to be a rather complicated affair, what with the injuries and having to enter through the window, but they eventually managed it with some use of Finn’s power and lending Jack the grappling hook.

When they got inside, Finn saw how Lyra lived, and he supposed he should have anticipated something like this. The whole space was sparsely decorated, the floors and walls bare with the odd chair or small table scattered across the rooms. He saw a couch in the middle of it all and a bed off to the side. That was it, really. Aside from a half-empty glass of water in the kitchen.

Despite Jack’s earlier comments about their hygiene, he wasn’t actually pressuring them to do anything other than sit down and rest, instead bringing out the food he’d prepared along with a set of spare clothes for Finn.

Then he felt it. A tingling in his gut, almost like an itch but not quite.

He’d seen the effects of Radi’s power before, but it was a whole different experience when it was your own stomach that began to glow as if it contained the world’s brightest lantern.

It was through this that Finn learned he was also capable of using his ability internally, but he didn’t see any distinct uses for that right now, since he lost concentration every time his body reminded him it was absolutely starving—and it did so quite often, it turned out, as he hadn’t been able to stop himself from eating anything coming out of Jack’s bag that looked remotely edible. Lyra was much the same.

Having eaten enough for three days but far from satisfied, they took separate seats and silence took over the room.

Lyra was the first one to fall asleep. That left Jack and Finn on their own, but Finn merely stared ahead. With someone watching over him, he was ready to recover his energy levels again. It would be a restful, quiet night.

Or so he thought.