The next day was deceptively beautiful, the blue sky dotted with a few fluffy white clouds, while the soft breeze carried traces of birdsong in the park. Jane wore the same simple blue cotton sundress, slightly wrinkled from being draped over a chair in front of Jake's hearth overnight, complete with the old hat and purse at her hip. She sat in a gazebo amid a few trees, hands clasped in her lap and ankles crossed, waiting for Dirk. A few nervous butterflies fluttered in her stomach, but she suppressed them—this was a big day for them! She should be excited, not worried. And she definitely would suppress thoughts of yesterday.

Soon enough, exactly on the hour, he appeared, sporting wind-tossed hair and casual yet impeccable clothes as usual. In one of his hands was the folder containing their notes for the rally.

"Good morning, Dirk," Jane greeted with a soft smile.

"'Morning," he replied, seating himself next to her and opening the folder. "It's good to see you indeed did show up. How are you?"

"A little nervous, frankly," she admitted, frowning at the cryptic first statement but then disregarding it. "But also excited!"

"Understandable," he nodded. "Honestly, I am too, but there's nothing to worry about. I've got it all under control."

"I know, I know," Jane laughed. "I trust you."

Dirk smiled. "Good to know. Now, let's get this show on the road, hm?"

"Mmhmm! Okay, here's what I have prepared, more or less..." Jane took a deep breath, closed her eyes, then opened them to meet Dirk's gaze unwaveringly, almost as if she were looking through him rather than at him in concentration, before launching into her speech, quashing whatever feelings of nervousness fluttered through her and launching into her admittedly slightly awkward introduction. "Hello, my fellow citizens! I am one of you, from the so-called 'lower' or 'lesser' district. I have walked all my life in the same shoes as many of you, and today I come to share what this life has shown me about the way our world works.

"When I was young, I never understood why I couldn't have the nice things that people on the other side of the city did. I never understood what made them all intrinsically 'better', worth more than us. And you know what? I still don't! Well, I understand the reason we're separated, and that is only because our glorious empress has decided that we are. You and I, and my companion here, and even those who chose not to attend this event—we are all one and the same, we are all one people. The same blood runs through all of our veins! And yet we are divided by someone not even from our planet. Why do we let this happen?"

She stopped, taking a moment to organize her thoughts, then continued. "In the past, our planet was a haven of justice and happiness. We lived in peace. That all changed when the Empire came through. But somewhere, under it all, we still have that same potential, that same love of each other, I know we do! Even though for those of us who live in the lower districts, who slave and toil endlessly just to bring enough home to keep ourselves and our families fed, who cannot ever find happiness if what makes them happy lies outside of their caste, who live in fear of all the rest of the world, life is hard, yes, but it should only serve as a reminder of what we could have had.

"And I do not mean this in bitterness or regret! I speak of hope. Because in my heart," her fingers fluttered to brush her heart, then flitted across to lightly tap Dirk's chest, "and in yours, lives a spark of hope. It's always been there, and always will be, no matter what, because no one—and I mean no one!—can ever take that away from us. We are one, we are united, and we will be free to be ourselves. I promise! If we can all just work together, if we can find that common blood, we can take back our home.

"But those of you of other castes might be wondering why it benefits you to help us, the downtrodden and weary. You do have lofty, easier lives here... and as I said, I am not part of those. But I could have been. And you could have been me. I implore you to realize, our world is unfairly stacked, so that a few may reside in luxury while hundreds starve." She faltered, not sure where to go with this. But then... a daring idea struck her on impulse. Could she perhaps do exactly what Dirk had suggested and bring in some of her own personal experiences?

"Yesterday, I—" Here, it became clear that this speech was indeed from the heart, and also was being spoken on the spot. Jane's breath hitched, and she dropped her gaze to blink back sudden tears for a moment. Gosh darn it, she had been doing well!

Dirk straightened in surprise and made as if to say something, concern knitting his brows together, but Jane waved him off and straightened. "I... sorry. Yesterday, a child died in my arms because her family was unable to feed her or afford medicine for her illness. We found them too late. They were frightened of retribution—they were frightened to seek the means to help an innocent child live. Is this really the kind of world you want to live in?

"Because I'm not saying the world I want makes everyone miserable. I want a world in which everyone has equal opportunity, in which people are safe and don't have to fear for their lives over every little thing, in which people can follow their dreams! This is the world I need you to help me build."

She stopped speaking, then bit her lip. "So... was that any good?" It definitely could use work, because professional speakers didn't just break down on stage, really... Maybe she should have just stayed in a supplementary role at this enormous event. Maybe—

"It was excellent!" Dirk interrupted her train of thought with a genuine smile. Then it faded, replaced by the same concern from a few minutes prior. "But... are you okay, Jane? You didn't tell me about that, yesterday..."

"I—" Were there even words to describe that situation? Jane didn't think so, but the world was blurring and gosh darnit, was she really about to start crying over it again, right now and right here? She would have thought that she didn't have any tears left by this point!

After a second of looking somewhere between frantic and unsure, Dirk pulled her into a warm embrace. "Hey, Jane, it's okay—no, it's not okay, but it happened, and I'm sorry it did, but we're here for you, okay?"

She stayed like that for a moment, just clinging to him and trying to hold in the tears, then with a shaky breath pulled away, offering a watery smile. "I'm okay, yeah."

"You sure?"

"Yeah," she said, blinking to clear any of those remaining tears. "I'm okay."

"What... what happened?" Dirk seemed almost hesitant to ask, a remarkably rare thing for him. Usually he was the dictionary definition of confidence.

"I was in the dark districts," she began, completely forgetting that Dirk and Roxy knew little of her exploits. Jake knew and didn't quite approve, but he knew he couldn't change her mind about it and just extracted promises to be careful, especially when he couldn't accompany her.

Dirk sucked in his breath sharply. "What were you doing there?"

"I ... shucks, I totally forgot I never even mentioned this to you or Roxy," she laughed with embarrassment, feeling her cheeks turning pink. "I go down there sometimes, on my off days. Just to walk around and help out wherever I can, you know?"

He was frowning. "And by 'help out' you mean...?"

"I, well, I buy things from the people there if I can afford it because I know they need money more than I do, and I give them food when I can, and sometimes..." she trailed off, twisting her already wrinkled skirt in her hands.

"Sometimes?" he prodded, the furrow between his brows growing.

"I help the wounded and sick." Jane's voice was barely above a whisper and she wouldn't meet Dirk's gaze.

"Jane," he said quietly. "I know it's important to you, but... don't you realize how dangerous that is? You using your powers so openly?"

"What am I supposed to do?" she shot back, crossing her arms defensively. "Let them die?"

"If they have to to keep you from being taken, yeah," he replied, just as cool as she had been heated.

"How—no! I won't do that."

He sighed. "I can't tell you what to do. I'm only trying to look out for you. Just be careful, okay?"

"Don't worry," Jane said wryly. "Jake already made me promise him that about fifty times."

Dirk rolled his eyes. "Yeah, okay. Don't do anything stupid, Crocker," he half-jokingly warned. "But sorry, I interrupted you, didn't I... continue?"

"Well," she said after a momentary pause, "there's not that much more to say. I... I was doing that, and I happened upon these people, this family sitting in an alley under a makeshift canopy of old papers and boards. There was a little girl who had been very sick for a while, and they couldn't even afford food to feed her either, and I came too late, I guess, because even though I tried she was just a little too far gone, and..." she swallowed hard, biting her lip. "I ... I couldn't save her, Dirk. It was awful, I couldn't stay there..."

"So, is this whole thing why I couldn't find you when I went to your place yesterday to see if you were aware of all the plans for today that I discussed with Roxy and Jake about their roles?" His voice contained a measure of casual sharpness, and he was watching her closely.

Jane straightened in surprise. "You did? When? I'm sorry, I guess I was out. It happened around mid-afternoon, which was when I ran away from—from her," she said.

"I came by in the late evening," Dirk frowned. "Were you still in the dark districts wandering around?"

"Oh... I—I guess so, I did wander for a while, I just had to get away from it all. I mean, I didn't go home last night—"

"What?!" Well, that was an accomplishment, the part of Jane's mind that enjoyed dry humor noted. She'd gotten Strider to exclaim in surprise or possibly horror. But immediately she felt bad because he was undoubtedly worried, and over nothing, too!

"Relax, Dirk!" she said quickly. "I didn't spend the night on the streets or anything. I went to Jake's flat."

"Oh," he said, apparent relief tinting his voice. "That's good to hear, at least."

"I feel a bit bad about that, honestly, he had to go to work early this morning because of our plans for the afternoon and I woke him up in the middle of the night."

"It's better than you staying on the streets."

"That's what Jake said, too," she laughed ruefully. "But what was it you needed to talk to me about yesterday?"

"Just finalizing some plans and things. I figured even if we were meeting up you may as well know beforehand because we were going to devote this hour to speechmaking."

"Oops."

"Nah, doesn't matter, your speech was good." Dirk shrugged.

"You think so?" Jane perked up. Dirk didn't usually had out praise lightly, especially if it wasn't true.

"Yeah." He gave her a small smile again, just a quick quirk of his lips, but it was completely genuine.

Jane smiled brightly in response, pushing her darker emotions away with effort. "Oh, goody then!"

"Are you ready?" Dirk asked, watching her carefully. The underlying question was, are you sure you're okay?

"Yeah. Let's do this." It had only hardened her resolve. For that poor little girl, a bright candle snuffed out before even having a chance to shine, she would change the world.

"I didn't expect the crowd to be this... big," Jane whispered to Dirk in awe as they stood in the wings, hidden from the stage. In front of them both sprawled a massive horde of people, several hundreds at least. A dull roar, wall of sound, permeated the air; almost instinctively Jane stepped backwards, behind her companion. Avoiding attention was better than not, in most cases, yet here she was going to stand out on stage!

Dirk shifted, turning to lightly catch her by the elbow. "It is impressive turnout, definitely." He studied her for a moment, his body language telling her he was concerned. "Are you—"

"Yes, I'm sure, Dirk," Jane assured him quickly. She was nervous, but this was what she was here to do! Plus it wasn't like she would be out there alone. "I'll be okay." She flashed him a smile, patting his shoulder. "Besides, it's a little late to back out, don't you think?"

That elicited a small grin. "Just a little. Don't worry about it, though. I have this entire situation under control."

Before Jane could reply, a small green cube sailed through the air and smacked Dirk's arm. He whipped around, one hand automatically grasping the hilt of the sword strapped to his hip as the other shoved a startled Jane behind him, but relaxed his defensive posture when he saw Roxy waving from a few yards away. She was at the edge of the stage wings, on the other side of the little barricade they had put up as makeshift protection if things went badly, to buy time to escape.

"It's time!" she called in a low voice, just loud enough to be heard over the crowd's muddle of voices. "Good luck, you too! Get out there!"

Dirk nodded, stiffening and taking a quick breath. Jane now studied him; no matter how many times they joked about him being a robot, Dirk was human too. She had only realized recently how much he stretched himself thin keeping them safe and happy—Lil Seb, the cute bunny-shaped robot he had built to keep her apartment safe, especially when he wasn't home—had been what he called easy, but was quite the undertaking if Roxy's story about him actually falling asleep during class one time was true.

He cared deeply about all of them; he just didn't always show it on the surface, but his actions spoke much louder than his occasionally harsh words. He did things that sometimes were downright outrageous, but never put them in danger—half the time those outrageous things were things they probably should have done themselves, and the other half of the time they were still for the benefit of the unfortunate recipient of Dirk's lessons. Roxy had said once that she speculated it was because deep, deep down, he was afraid that something might happen to one of them and wanted to make sure they were as ready and capable as they could be if he wasn't there to protect them.

All these thoughts ran through Jane's head as she examined him. There was a trace of nervousness visible in the tightness of his jaw or the stiff set of his shoulders, but if one didn't know him well, they could easily have been forgiven for overlooking those. Now, it was her turn to place a comforting hand on his arm.

"I'm not worried. I know you've got this under control. Ready to rock?"

He looked startled for a second, then palpably relieved. "Yeah. Come on, Crocker." One deft hand flipped his hood up, and then he slid on a pair of pointed shades. It was an interesting look, but it did fit him, Jane thought. She just wore a mask borrowed from Roxy—they had taken one look at the silly toy disguises her father had bought her when she was young, before the early end of her childhood, and said no, Jane, those wouldn't work—and pulled her own hood up, glasses secured in her pocket.

Behind them, Roxy gave a thumbs-up and blew them a kiss before vanishing, presumably to find Jake again. Jane slipped her hand into Dirk's, feeling adrenaline coursing through her body even as a nest of butterflies frantically fluttered through her stomach. He lightly squeezed her fingers, as if he knew exactly what she was feeling.

With a final deep breath, both of them took a step beyond the wings onto the stage, and turned to face the eager crowd.

AN: Shoutout to YuukiSynical for being the first reviewer! This chapter's dedicated to you, dear!

Again, what do you think? Also, I'm not sure which ships to include... hmm. Or even whether to include any! Romance will not be the main objective of this story but there is a potential for it happening. Thoughts?