A/N: Sorry for the short chapters, been getting a little carried away with this. Hopefully I can get that under control. Once again, comments are appreciated, so leave 'em if you have 'em.
"So," Lexi started as she walked up from behind me. "Why exactly are you trying to break into your own house?" I twisted around to face her, resting my arm against the back of the bench I was sitting on. I had sent her off with an unknown amount of cash, mostly to get rid of her for a while but also with the hope that she would get a hold of some less ruined clothes, which it seemed she had done. Dark hair pulled back and held down by a light blue bandana she had tied around the top of her head, a somewhat bland white zip-up hoodie with the sleeves pulled up to her elbows and the zipper left open, showing a dark purple shirt. Jeans which were nondescript but at least fully intact, which couldn't be said for what she had on earlier.
"Mostly for the reason that I very much doubt it's still my house," I quipped in reply. Lexi rolled her eyes, padded around the bench and lowered herself onto the grass in front of me. "But, with any luck, the things I need will still be there."
"I saw how much cash you're holding," she stated. "What could you need out of there that you can't just go out and buy?"
"There are some things that can't be replaced," I countered dryly. Lexi looked at me in reply, a look of both sympathy and curiosity swirling in her eyes. She opened her mouth, likely formulating a question along the lines of what it was I needed, and I parried with my own to avoid a conversation I didn't want to have quite yet. "So how'd you get your powers?"
"Well," she started with a grimace after a small hesitation. "It was two years ago, I was fourteen. My class took a field trip to the science center, and we were all looking at the giant plasma globe they had just installed. It was huge, the thing took up an entire room. Anyway we were all taking turns touching it and moving our hands around on it." She paused, took a deep breath. "While I was doing that something happened, it overloaded or something, and the glass shattered. I was the closest to the center and all of the plasma arced to my hand, and I guess I absorbed it or something. One of the other kids got hit with a lot of the glass and he got powers from it too, but the DUP got him and took him away. They rushed me to the hospital because I had passed out when it happened, and I guess I just slipped under the DUP's radar." Another breath that rattled in her throat. A long sigh. "What about you?" I chuckled slightly.
"I just woke up with them one day. I wouldn't have even known if I hadn't been down with pneumonia for a few weeks before then. Woke up fine one morning, like it had never been there." Lexi stared at me slack-jawed for a moment, then barked a laugh.
"Seriously? That was it?" I nodded.
"Yeah, that was it. Just happened to have been the day after the whole Empire event thing went down. I mean," snapped my fingers, summoned an etherial pink flame to prove my point. "It's not like I have the same kind of power you do, or most other conduits. I just control me."
"What can you even do?" Lexi asked, emphasizing the last syllable with a slight scowl and a wave of her hand. "I mean, aside from sticking a piece of wood through my dealer's head."
"Oh, so that's who that guy was," I stated plainly. "I mean, it kinda depends. Mostly healing, it seems, but it varies on what I'm feeling."
"Feeling? Like, what you want to do?"
"No, literally what I am feeling. My emotions. Like, this," pointed at the flame that I had been twirling about my fingers as I was speaking. The hue had drained from it, and it was blossoming to almost twice its size. "This was pink earlier. And a lot smaller. The state I'm in plays a big part in what I can do."
"That's pretty cool, actually," Lexi said with a smile. I snuffed the flame, crushed it in my fist.
"Yeah, I guess it is." I stood, motioned to her. "C'mon, let's get going."
Lexi didn't understand a lot of things in the world. She didn't understand global economics, as an example. Or why she thought following a murderous conduit through the alleyways of downtown would be a good idea. Why she could shoot plasma from her hands, but never when it would actually be useful. Sure, she could ruin a school theater performance, or torch the inside of her ex-boyfriend's bedroom, but when a dealer decides to come around to collect and she's a bit short on money at the time, well those powers are nowhere to be found. Maybe that's why she decided to follow Aaron, although it seemed he didn't have much more of a grasp on his powers than she did on hers.
"Hey," she breathed, jogging closer to Aaron. He turned his head, gazed at her with eyes that were rarely the same color twice. They had settled on a drab metallic blue for this round of conversation. "Earlier, you said that your powers were how you ended up 'there' in the first place. Did you mean Curdun Cay?"
"Yeah. I spent the last five years there."
"Well, how'd you get out? Can't imagine it's easy to break out of that place." Aaron laughed, most likely at her. She felt her face redden despite herself.
"Does the name Delsin Rowe mean anything to you?" Lexi shook her head. "Well, he set me free. Set all of us free."
"Oh," Lexi responded flatly. "I heard they trained some of the conduits they had locked up in there. Did they do that with you?"
"Nah. Lots of tests. That was about it. Had this junkie though, could shoot lasers out of her hands. Heard talk that they were training her." Aaron ran a hand through the mess of brown hair that accentuated the top of his sharply featured head. "Curdun wasn't much more than a torture chamber for most of us. Some of them got special treatment. Those turned out to be the ones that escaped." Lexi had stopped listening. Her skin was crawling, teeth chattering. Her thoughts were clouded, lethargic. She knew this feeling a little too well.
"Withdrawals," she muttered under her breath automatically. Bumped into Aaron, who had stopped walking and turned to face her.
"Withdrawals? What were you on?"
"Some... stuff." She picked at a freckle that was on the underside of her forearm. Aaron reached out, placed a hand on her face. Lexi tensed up, tried to recoil as translucent blue tendrils bathed the side of her face. Pierced her skin effortlessly, painlessly. "Hey, what're you doing?"
"Helping," Aaron muttered. His brow was furrowed. Lexi felt the hairs on her arm lie still again, and her jaw returned to rest. Her mind was clear again, almost instantly.
"Did- did you just?"
"Yeah," Aaron stated as he retracted his hand, started walking again. "Can't have you being a liability." Lexi was stunned.
"How long will this last?"
"As long as you can stay away from it. So stay away from it forever and it'll last forever." Lexi was beaming. Instant rehabilitation.
"Thanks," she whispered as they turned back onto the main street. Aaron was quiet ahead. They plodded on beneath oppressive silence for, to Lexi, years. Aaron eventually motioned to her to stop in front of an aged apartment block, burdened by years of urban decay. "We're going in there?"
"Yeah," Aaron mounted the small staircase and pushed open the scarred wooden door into the lobby. "Stay close. Or wait out here. Your choice." Lexi followed immediately behind, closing the door behind her with a soft click.
