“Are we really moving forward with this?” Jack asked, leaning forward on his chair.

“I think it depends on what you want. They already know who I am, right?” Lyra responded.

From his own seat, Finn glanced between his teammates. Two days had passed since the ordeal with Homeland and Cyrus extending his offer thereafter. Now that both Finn and Lyra had been cleared to go home again, they had time to come together and decide whether to accept or not.

But regarding his treatment, it had been rather rigorous. When he’d indicated that he wanted to leave as quickly as possible, they used all sorts of advanced-looking machines and tools he had never heard of and did not recognize in order to get him back on his feet. What he saw of the whole procedure while under anesthesia seemed rather painful, and the doctors confirmed that by giving him some heavy pain medication to go, which he had taken—he could hardly move otherwise.

Moreover, they also informed him that he could be treated by a healer as soon as he agreed to the offer. That, at least, made the deal more tempting. If there was one thing Finn disliked, it was being forced to waste more time than necessary.

Except that didn’t mean he could just go and shake their hands on it. This required careful consideration, from all three of them.

Which led to where they were currently, in the living room of Lyra’s apartment. Jack’s drones and Lyra’s power were making sure there wasn’t anyone eavesdropping on their conversation. Finn’s newfound object sense would be able to detect hidden cameras and the like, as well, but there were none.

“This decision involves you too… Lyra,” Finn said. It felt strange to address her by her real name; he’d been about to call her Calliope again, as he was used to. Not that she was wrong on the point of her identity. Cyrus was fully aware of who she was.

The reason he was making an effort to include her here was because he realized the importance of her choice, and because he didn’t want her to hide any misgivings she might have if he did end up joining for the sake of going along with him. The last thing he needed was hesitation when they were heading into an unfamiliar environment.

Or perhaps he simply wanted to know what his friend was thinking.

Jack narrowed his eyes at Finn, then said to Lyra, “He’s right. Your input is just as important as ours here. We’ve gotta be on the same page.”

She squirmed a bit, but nodded. “Okay, but… okay.”

“I can go first, if that’s what you want,” Jack suggested, running a hand through his dark blonde hair. “I say we decline for the time being.”

“And what are we going to do in the meantime, nothing? We can’t go out there right now,” Finn argued. What was Jack’s plan here? They all knew how limited their options were. That was precisely why Cyrus had waited until now to reel them in.

“I, uh, I agree with Finn,” Lyra added. “You two are very competent, of course. I’m just saying…” Her hand went to her stomach. “I was useless against one of their top men. What if next time we’re sighted in public, they send three or four? We’re not ready to fight both major gangs at the same time.”

“We would train and prepare until we are,” said Jack. “There’s still a lot we need to work on.”

“Work on what?” Finn pressed. “None of that would be nearly as effective as what we’d have if we sent them our agreement.”

Jack snorted. “Since when did you become so trusting, Finn? You’re acting like you know for certain that this isn’t all some baiting tactic on their part.”

For a moment, Finn stared at him. “I don’t trust them, I’m saying this is the next step. We’ve been working for them the whole time, we just weren’t aware of it.”

“Fair, but who’s to say we won’t get a better bargain if we wait?”

Finn took a deep breath. “Jack, I should be the one asking you why you’re suddenly so reluctant to make real progress. You’re always going on about how important it is for us to have a good support system, but when someone with actual resources comes along, you want to stall?”

“I mean, the Wardells might poison your white truffle sauce for real this time.”

“Jack…”

Their technical specialist sighed, hanging his head. “Fine, I’ll admit it. I’m comfortable with what we’ve had going on so far, and I don’t want it to end. I know it’s unsustainable, I know you’ll eventually have to move on to something bigger, but it sucks thinking about being left behind. If you sign with these people, they’ll have plenty of professionals more capable than me ready to whip up new routines and gadgets and software for you to use, so yeah, I wanna stall before I end up getting replaced. I’m little old Jack with no powers or talent, nothing special. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, which was by your side.”

Finn’s eyebrows receded slightly. He’d known Jack had been struggling with feeling useless after they lost to that primebeast, but he never thought it was this bad.

“You’re not replaceable,” Finn stated. “Cyrus seemed interested in knowing more about you, so you shouldn’t worry you’ll get kicked off the team. And even if he tried, I wouldn’t let him.”

“Do you have any idea how little sense it makes for you to say that?” Jack retorted. “You never wanted to be held back, but now you’re offering to slow yourself down for me. I’m not one of the best, or even close to it. You need to recognize when it’s better for you to move on.”

“Don’t be stupid,” Finn shot back.

Jack threw his hands up. “What?” he snapped. “Nothing lasts forever, Finn. You, of all people, should know that.”

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The words stung, reminding Finn of the darker, lonelier days in his life. His gaze drifted to the floor, searching for a time long past.

Then, realizing how that came across, Jack amended, “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. Fuck.”

Finn snapped back to the present. “I know you didn’t. It’s whatever.” He looked up again. “But I stand by what I said. This isn’t the end of Gridlock, and I won’t let anyone tell me otherwise.”

Jack still looked a bit out of sorts, but he visibly calmed down after that. “Look, I appreciate that, it’s just that at times like now, when you’re ready for another upgrade in the near future, it’s hard to justify my position on this team to myself. Not only to other people.”

At that, Finn merely shook his head in disapproval.

Seeing this, Jack gave a strained smile. “I’m saying you guys are better than me, okay? Just take the damn compliment.”

“I’m not better than you,” Lyra said with surprising urgency. “I’m not even better than myself before I got my powers, all things considered. Plus, it’s not like I’d be super comfortable having somebody else looking out for me.”

“You need to stop letting yourself believe this is the end of the road for you,” Finn added. “I know you’ve been doing missions with your drones on the side, so start saving up credits. Learn more. Get better.”

His friend blinked. “I did not realize you knew that.” He gave a short laugh. “Thanks, though. I obviously can’t farm credits at your pace, but I’ll take it over nothing.”

“Does that mean you’re convinced?” Lyra asked.

The taller boy sat up straight. “Sure, guess there’s no putting it off anymore. It’s a lotta pressure. Is this how you feel all the time, Finn?”

That didn’t even begin to describe it. But Finn was not at all inclined to voice any of those inner thoughts. Best to deflect instead of giving an actual answer here. “Don’t change the topic, Jack.”

“Right. Well, we still have to do a background check and whatnot. I should get started on that.” Jack grabbed his laptop and began typing.

“You’re not going to find much,” Finn said. “We were investigating the Wardell family over a month ago, and turned up nothing.” He knew scouring for any information they could find was a necessity at this juncture, but he also knew how well prepared Cyrus was. Though this did resolve the initial qualms he’d had about spying on Casey’s family back when Jack first brought it up to him. They had been hiding something.

“I know,” Jack replied as he stared at his screen. “At this point, I’m just glad you’re taking the threat of having two gangs after you so seriously, Finn.”

“I don’t think we ever have to worry about Finn not taking anything seriously,” Lyra jested, a small smirk tugging at her lips.

Finn turned to her. This was new. He hadn’t expected her to make a comment on his character, let alone so casually. She almost sounded… confident.

She caught his gaze and started fidgeting. “Or, ah, that was presumptuous of me, what was I thinking? I don’t know what I’m talking about. Sorry.”

Never mind.

“What are your goals?” he asked her suddenly.

“My goals?” she echoed, tucking her hair out of her eyes.

“What you want to accomplish by working with us.”

“To help you out?”

“And for yourself?”

She paused. “I want to heal the people I hurt. And I can’t do that if I don’t have a lot of credits, so I have to save up for a healer who can deal with… complex cochlear and cerebral damage.” She said that last part as if trying to remember an exact quote.

“That’s not a bad thing to aim for,” Finn said.

“It’s what I have to do, but… thank you.” she said, then continued in a quieter tone, “What’s your goal, if you don’t mind me asking?”

As a matter of fact, he did mind. He just couldn’t let Jack know that he did, because that would make him suspicious. And there was no way in hell Finn would admit what he was planning to do to Omega. No doubt, it would result in endless attempts to get him to stand down. Yet he still needed to justify his level of dedication to their missions here.

“To become the strongest,” he lied. That wasn’t to say it wouldn’t be convenient if he were to attain that level, but he wasn’t competing with everyone.

Lyra regarded him, but if she noticed something was off, she wasn’t verbalizing it.

“Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you, Lyra,” Jack perked up a moment later, thankfully having been distracted. “Have you thought about the possibility of hanging out with us, if this deal goes through?”

“Aren’t we hanging out already?” she asked.

“Yeah we are. I meant in public. Without our masks on.”

Finn shot him a look.

“Come on, Finn. You can’t hide your face from everyone you work with, and now that we know who the people that covered up Lyra’s case are, we know your identity won’t get leaked if you’re seen with her.”

“No.”

“Eh, it was worth a try,” Jack shrugged. “That being said, it was a serious question. Even if Finn isn’t open to exposing his real identity, he can easily disguise himself to look like someone else with his power. His control is more than good enough.”

That… was true. He could do that. The last time he’d given that notion real thought was on the day he manifested, when he had no hope of pulling off such a feat. It was easy to forget the more trivial, non-Shade-related applications of his ability. Though if they improved his mastery in new ways or inspired an actually useful technique, it was worth looking further into.

“If it’s not too much trouble for him…” Lyra was saying. “I’d like that. My days are a bit quiet outside of training.”

“Alright,” Finn declared. “Text me a time and I’ll see if I can meet up with you then.”

“Smooth,” Jack remarked.

“Shut up.”

With a smile, Jack said, “By the way, Finn, what did you tell your mom? She pressed you to spill what you’ve been doing every night, didn’t she? What was your excuse?”

This was a far easier question to answer. “I told her about Lyra.”

“Not gonna lie, that’s unexpected, but great that she knows you have a new fr—”

“She thinks we’re dating,” Finn clarified.

Two seconds went by in silence before Jack recovered. “Good one. I almost believed you there.”

“It’s not a joke.”

Another couple of seconds passed. Then Jack began to laugh uproariously.

As for Lyra herself?

The girl was frozen in shock.

Somehow, Finn got the impression this wasn’t going to make the list of his most brilliantly executed plans.