Outside, in front of a larger-than-average house, two teenagers stood next to each other, leading against the wall next to the front door and the window.

"You've really upset her," Casey said.

"Way to state the obvious," Finn shot back, more heat in his voice than intended. Then, thinking better of it, he added, "It needed to happen. I was done lying."

Casey huffed a quiet laugh through her nose, brushing a lock of blonde hair behind her ear as the wind picked up. "Yeah, well, you really went for the throat with the 'I have to kill Omega' thing. Bold strategy."

Finn leaned his head back against the wall, closing his eyes for a second. "It's the truth."

"I know." She kicked a pebble near her shoe, watching it bounce down the steps. "Still. You couldn't have left things off with, like, 'I missed you guys' or 'wow, traffic was crazy between dimensions'?"

He cracked an almost-smile. "Next time I die and come back, I'll try leading with that."

The girl smirked sideways at him. "Good. I expect nothing less from the ghost of edgy boys past.

"You need a haircut, by the way," she told him, brushing his long brown locks with her fingers. Standing on her tiptoes, she continued, "I can't even be at eye level with you now."

"Because you're too short," he said lightly.

"No, because you got too fucking big," she grumbled goodnaturedly, crossing her arms.

Neither of them spoke for a few moments.

Sighing, he decided to clear the air between them. "You're not going to stop me." A statement, not a question.

She gave him this weird look, jarred at the sudden tone shift. "You mean I can't. And even if I could… I don't know what I'd choose. But I get what you're chasing after—more than you think."

Though he was staring straight ahead, he sensed that she was holding her gaze on him for a while, expecting him to question it with some degree of wariness. Strange position to put him in, he thought. He couldn't quite interpret whether it would be rude to ignore the truth she was willingly sharing or to just take her answer at face value and not pry any further.

…Alright, he would just let her tell her story, if there was one. "Why is that?"

"How do you think my mother died?" she asked.

It was silent between them for a time, until he realized she actually expected him to answer. "I don't know, Casey."

What she said in response wasn't what he expected:

"Neither do I."

"She went missing?" Finn guessed. Did she mean her mother's situation was similar to his, except he came back?

"I was five," Casey began. "I don't remember exactly what I was doing, just that she wasn't gone long. A day, maybe. But when she returned, I…" she trailed off, expression neutral. Her aura, however, told a story of long grief that had never really left.

"She was dead in Father's arms when I saw her again," she said, voice steady. "Back then, I barely understood what death even meant. I just knew she wouldn't wake up, and there was blood. So much of it. And Father, Aiden… they were devastated.

"No one would tell me anything. That was the second-worst part. I started to suspect someone was responsible, but I had no idea who. Every time I asked, I got stonewalled. They were trying to protect me, I know that. It just didn't feel that way at the time. After the funeral, there was just this void where she used to be. And all I had to fill it were questions. That's been the case pretty much ever since." She looked over at Finn, voice softening. "So yeah. Having someone to point that pain at? Someone to blame? I think I get it more than you realize."

Were she talking to the old Finn, she would have been exactly on-target, but this wasn't about revenge anymore for him. He simply had to destroy Omega. Still… he didn't want to create more distance between them when Casey was choosing to be vulnerable with him, so he decided to carry on without confirming or denying anything. "You seem to know some things about my past," he observed.

"We talked, your mother and I. Following everything that happened, I needed some space from my own family, and since we met the night of the raid, I figured I should check in on her. One visit turned into two, and so on. But who knows, maybe the real reason I started coming here is because I m- no, never mind. Whatever." She shrugged uncomfortably, as if that would dislodge the weight she was carrying.

"I see." He rested a hand on her shoulder. "That's why she likes you so much."

Casey's eyes went wide, her cheeks blazing as she stammered something that wasn't quite a denial.

"It's fine," he waved her off. "It helps, knowing she had someone like you around."

She flicked her hair arrogantly, letting out a dainty sniff to act as if she didn't just lose her cool. "Is that so? Well, you should expect nothing less from me. I don't do things by half. I needed to make sure, that's all."

"I have no clue what I'd do if I didn't have such a thorough person around," he deadpanned.

"Truly, I'm the best," Casey basked in his praise, one hand on her chest.

The silence that fell was easier, less charged than before. Inside the house, he could sense that his mother had fallen asleep in the wake of the extensive, screeching tirade she went on upon hearing his plans. He'd known her reaction would be bad all along, honestly. But now, he was feeling somewhat vindicated in his decision to hold off on telling the truth initially. Not about the hero thing, but definitely about his eventual target. It had landed better than it would if he had been weaker, more shortsighted.

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There was no avoiding it, unfortunately.

In the end, he would rather drag it all into the light so they could have an honest relationship, as opposed to the constant lies he had told her in the early days.

"...I'm sorry," Casey said out of nowhere, bringing his focus back to his friend.

He raised an eyebrow at her, unsure what she was getting at. "What are you sorry for?"

Her expression contorted into a mix of hurt and helplessness. "For letting your girlfriend go villain, obviously, what else?"

Lyra had been at the forefront of his mind, but he was delaying his interaction with her for fear of what he would see, and what she would see. That said, Casey had just said something downright stupid. "Like you said before, you can't do anything about it."

"This is different. You weren't there, she was so lost without you. Spiraling." The Wardell girl hugged herself tighter, even though it was rather warm for this time of day.

"I'll deal with it," he said firmly. Pausing, he carried on, "How did you know we were together? Did she tell you?"

She looked at him like he was an idiot. "I saw you two holding hands."

Oh, right.

During the raid, when Casey had first used her power on Lyra. She must have been the only person who saw that.

Hmm.

"Do you not want me to spread that around?" inquired the blonde in a gentle voice.

"I don't care."

Blinking, she shook her head in disbelief. "Ever the unflappable Allister, aren't you? I don't think I've ever seen you flustered."

As she said that, he could perceive the colors surging through her aura. They held a certain tone at first, then her face tensed in thought when she saw him looking, gaze fixated on a particularly interesting blade of grass.

It took him a beat to realize what she was doing. She was covering up her emotions by distracting herself with a smokescreen of other thoughts that invoked different feelings. Was she trying to prevent him from reading her? She certainly had enough context to attempt that, considering her power scanned other powers for their capabilities.

She still failed, though, he hadn't missed the flashes of pink. That… made it complicated.

Neither of them were inclined to mention it.

"Let's keep it that way," he decided to say.

"Yeah." Just unambiguous agreement.

"Where is Ines?" he wondered out loud, offering a change of topic. "I don't sense her anywhere nearby."

"Good," Casey said with a frown. Then she caught his eye, explaining, "Ines? I'm not on speaking terms with her anymore."

"Why not?"

"I thought she had my back," the girl spat, adjusting her blazer to sit better on her shoulders. "She was in on it the entire time."

Had Casey not known about Ines' ability, or her occupation?

"You knew," Casey accused him, but more in the sense of someone remembering they should be angry at something and therefore not possessing that high of a degree of anger in the first place.

"I thought you knew," he admitted, which was sufficient to shut her up.

On the other hand, he was quite confident that Casey was wrong this time. Ines cared about her a lot. He might have to do something about it.

"Where is she now?" he asked.

"Central, where else? Living it up, doing missions for Father that I know NOTHING about. The usual," she finished softly, having yelled the word 'nothing.'

"Looks like I'll be seeing her," he concluded.

It took Casey a few seconds to internalize what that meant. She stayed quiet before saying, "How soon are you going?"

"I was thinking today, but…" He looked back towards the house, where Mom was snoozing. "I'll go tomorrow morning. At the latest."

His former classmate was nodding along. "I can make arrangements. For tomorrow," she agreed in a rush. "But I can't waste any more time."

"You're coming with me?"

"Yeah!" she said, already speed-walking toward the white picket fence. "I'll be in contact. It was great to see you again, Allister. Don't disappear!"

Finn tilted his head in confusion at her unwarranted haste, but didn't otherwise comment, both because he didn't want to say anything and because of the distance she had made. He wasn't going to shout back, instead giving a final parting wave, watching her enter a car that was apparently hers—a silver Xepian series Torch model. She drove off, waving again once she was far out of sight because she knew he could sense it.

Funny girl.

Left to his own devices, he turned invisible. No one was looking, after all. He knew that much because his senses extended more than double as far as they had when he was fifteen.

Seeing as he had no need for grappling hooks anymore, he didn't need any preparation to hop onto roofs. That meant he could get to the top of one of the houses on the other end of the street in a couple of quick jumps, no enhancement needed.

But shouldn't roof-hopping be a thing of the past? He was done having to stick to the ground and being outranged by flying opponents. Mistral could soar through the skies on his cloud, Aiden was Aiden, and Gunther was capable of walking on air.

Finn didn't think he could manage the latter one, but he had an idea in mind. It was rather simple, actually. All it required was a basic application of his nanites.

On a specific type of item. A metal one.

He opened his Aegis app, making the laughably cheap purchase for a full-body chainmail suit. Seeing the third location get approved, he internally shook his head at Amalgam's obstinance to deliver the materials outside his perception. It knew that he was aware of its nature, what was even the point?

Regardless, considering his speed, it was no big deal. He ran towards the box and began to throw on the linked bits of metal over his purple garb. While he wasn't shy about changing invisibly, this was faster.

The metal came on without incident. Or rather, the ferromagnetic metal came on without incident. Because the goal here was to take to the skies. And given his ability to influence the electromagnetic spectrum, this was the easiest way. Could he potentially do it with no external equipment through a combination of reality impression, fading and different configurations of energy? Yes, but that would drain him. Plus, his control was far from perfect when it came to making the nanites convert energy. This training tool would help him, for starters.

So, wasting not another second, he bent his knees, flexed his arms at his sides, and controlled the nanites in order to grab hold of the armor on his clothes where his influence didn't weaken too much. Directing the armor upward…

Finn flew.

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