Four days later, alone outside her parent's restaurant, Olivia leaned against the starstone wall and took a deep breath of the fresh, quiet air.

Even now, she winced at the twinge of pain that followed.

She still hadn't completely recovered from that final Scream. She'd woken up a day and a half later, realised she was still Banshee, and almost collapsed again from the pain. She thought she'd caught a small, white-blue flash of movement in the corner but didn't put much thought into it until Cryo arrived not five minutes later.

With his help, his frost numbing the pain enough to clear her head, she'd been able to focus, to find her own Song and untangle it from Banshee's--and promptly pass out again.

The next time she'd woken up, still sore and completely detached from any sense of time, she'd been in a hospital room. Every time someone new walked in to see her awake and sitting up, they'd almost broken down in relief, smothering her with gentle hugs.

Everyone, that was, except for Jason. He'd just walked in, smiled, and when she'd asked him why he hadn't been worried like the rest of them, he'd just shrugged and said:

"Because I knew you'd wake up."

All things considered, it was nothing short of a miracle that her parents had agreed to let her out of the house today. Maybe it'd been Jason's doing, or maybe they'd just seen how badly she needed to do this, recovering or not.

Speaking of--he should have been here by now.

Olivia opened her bag to retrieve her Liasier and paused. Her breath caught in her throat as she reached inside, brushing a finger over Viri's unconscious body, carefully wedged between two starsong amulets--one cracked, one whole. Silent, she ran her thumb over the crack before pressing her lips tight and grabbing her Liaiser.

She flicked open the messages, checking that he hadn't mentioned a time change and caught herself just re-reading his words. Most of it was casual banter, a back-and-forth that didn't have any significance beyond that... so why in the name of Skypillar was she so nervous?

She'd seen him plenty in the last few days since waking up as Olivia. Jason had stuck around the hospital room as much as he could, telling her what Ericka, Ella, Ariel, and Lucian were up to, asking her their questions since the hospital staff had restricted visitors in the chaos of the last week. He'd kept her distracted, occupied, grounding her when she woke up in the middle of the night with this corrupted fragment on her wrist and reached for her Liaiser to see if he was awake.

Yet in all the banter, all the messages and late night conversations, he hadn't said a word about the Luminary thing.

Of course, they'd never really been alone--one of her parents was usually around and a nurse had always been within earshot and messages weren't safe, but today... today, it'd just be them. No mission to save the City, no one trying to kill someone.

Just them.

Olivia was still looking through her messages when she heard the hum of a Gleamerbike. Her heart raced, leaving her hands shaking as she tried to put her Liaiser away.

She didn't manage it before the Gleamer stopped in its usual spot, dropping to a quiet idle as Jason stepped off and removed his helmet.

"My apologies for being late," he said. "Ariel was busy with her duties and it proved difficult to acquire a Gleamerbike without an emergency or official--Olivia? Are you okay?"

He hit her like a tonne of starstone, just standing there with the helmet in his hand.

She couldn't stop staring at him. His green-elastic ponytail. The icy cuff clinging to his ear. The pale green coat that bared his arms with their silvered scars. When she didn't reply, he placed the helmet on the ground beside him, never taking those mismatched eyes off her as he walked over.

Jason reached out a tentative hand towards her own, which were now pulled tight against her chest. "Liv?"

"I--um." She swallowed and managed a nod. "That's okay. You're here now, so I mean..." She trailed off. "Yeah."

Jason frowned. "Are you sure you're feeling well enough to do this? I'm sure Wyvern won't come back to haunt us if we wait another few days."

Olivia shook her head. "I need to do this. I'm okay. I just--I don't know, seeing you?"

It wasn't really a question, but somehow, Jason seemed to understand anyway. His face softened into a small smile before he stepped back towards the Gleamer and pulled a second helmet from the sidecar.

"Then shall we?" he asked.

*+*+*+*

After they arrived at their destination--one of the few quiet locations in Kaladrel--Olivia stepped out of the Gleamer's sidecar.

She removed her helmet, carefully tucking a piece of hair behind her ear as she placed the helmet down. She straightened, pulling her ponytail over her shoulder to play with the ends as she waited for Jason to finish securing the Gleamer and look at her.

"Are you ready?" he asked. "It's not far from here, but this is as close as we can get on a Gleamer."

Olivia nodded, and they went.

It was a quiet, narrow pathway wedged between buildings that led them to a slightly more open courtyard, tucked away from the main road. It didn't feel large nor grand. It was just... there, a clean, almost reverent space where their footsteps echoed off the walls around them. Two doors on opposite buildings stood closed, the silent guards of the calm.

Jason continued towards the edge of the courtyard with space protected by an overhang. Olivia followed. Together, they walked through the centre archway, where directly against the centre of the wall, was Maria's memorial.

It rested on a raised platform of starstone, perhaps a metre or two wide. It was simple--little more than a carved, waist-height piece of starstone with two potted, flowering plants either side and a plaque imbedded in the flattened top.

Maria

A name that shall remain an inspiration to all who wish to be strong enough to make a difference, powerless or not.

As a lump caught in Olivia's throat, she looked closer at the carvings that covered the starstone. They weren't just decoration... they were words. Messages of farewell, of memories and promises, all in handwriting from young hands.

And at the base of the memorial, wilted as the weeks passed by, someone had placed a wreath of flowers.

Olivia wasn't sure how long they stood there before she found herself speaking. "I... I don't really know what I expected it to be."

"What do you mean?"

"I just... this is the place that changed two lives forever," murmured Olivia. Even then, the words felt too loud in the quiet. She laid the tips of her fingers on the edge of the memorial. "But it feels... peaceful, almost. It doesn't feel violent or heavy like I thought it might."

"Gwen said much the same," said Jason, matching her volume in that soft, calm way of his. "When I asked her, she told me that it feels like Maria forgave them."

Olivia paused. "How did she react when she learned that Wyvern...?"

"I think some part of her already knew," said Jason. "When I went to tell her, she just looked at me and said, 'He's gone, isn't he?'."

The heavy feeling in Olivia's chest tightened.

"It wasn't until I told her what happened that I think it sank in for her. She was trying to hold it together, to help me restore some semblance of order at the Starlight Hall with DragonFae and Golem dim, but later, when Chris came..." Jason released a breath. "She blames herself."

Olivia reached into her bag, pulling out the cracked starsong amulet and resting it on her palm.

It seemed so... so pointless. Everything just seemed so pointless. The anger, the bitterness, the jealousy. It felt hollow. It ached, more than any of the pain she'd experienced from her final Scream, more than anything the Serpent had said or done, and she had no idea why. Wyvern's amulet would stay cracked, forever a reminder of the thing that had broken him, the girl he couldn't save.

"It's like Wyvern said," she murmured. "You can't save everyone."

She went to place the amulet at the base of the memorial with the wilted flowers, then decided against it.

Instead, she placed Wyvern's amulet above the plaque and closed her eyes. She found a small piece of Song within the memorial that matched the amulet, and with that in her throat, and firmly pressed the amulet into the starstone.

Maybe Wyvern hadn't saved Maria, but in that final hour... maybe Maria had saved some part of Wyvern.

When Olivia opened her eyes, the top of the memorial was no longer completely flat. A small, rounded surface slightly lighter than the rest of the starstone rested just above the plaque. Wyvern's insignia was engraved onto the surface--no longer cracked, but whole once more.

"Is that what he told you?" asked Jason.

"That, and it'd probably get me killed," said Olivia. "But it won't stop me from trying."

"I'd never expect you to."

Olivia swallowed, taking a moment to gather the words that were scaring her a little bit less every day.

"Even if it's in my pattern?" she said at last, rubbing the corrupted fragment still bound to her wrist. "Even if it does kill me?"

Jason didn't say anything straight away, but she felt his eyes on her, even as she kept her own desperately trained on Wyvern's insignia.

"Helping people, caring about them, protecting them, they're all parts of who you are," said Jason. "I would never want nor expect you to sacrifice yourself to save anyone, not even me." He turned towards her. "However, I also know that telling you not to, that trying to stop you from helping and saving is about as effective as telling Sae to shut up."

Jason took her hand that was clenched around her fragment-bound wrist and threaded his fingers through hers, relaxing them and slowly flattening out her palm.

"All I can do is tell you, that no matter what, I will be with you," he said. "Whatever you face, we face together. And if, one day..." He blinked a few times, drawing in a breath through his nose before he continued, a little more unsteady, "Then we'll face that together, too."

Olivia's cheeks stung as her eyes fell on their fingers. "I'm sorry that you're stuck with me. With... this."

Jason raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't wish to be stuck with anyone else."

"Well, I could have been a Valkyrie," said Olivia. "Or maybe a Siren would be thematically appropriate. Something sturdy that wouldn't go dying on you."

"Luminaries can die whether they're Banshee or not," said Jason, running his thumb over the centre of her palm. "Pattern or not, you're exactly the way you're supposed to be, Shadowheart, and there is nothing I would change. You're my partner, from the day we became Luminaries until the day you decide you're sick of me and my formal ways. Perhaps it is you that is stuck with me."

A smile crept onto Olivia's face. "I dunno, you're a lot better than you used to be. Those first few weeks were a nightmare. I could swear you were speaking another language."

"Says the one who came in with sentences half-constructed of slang I'd never dreamed existed."

Olivia made a face at him. "Says the one who confused the first Manifested we saved just by trying to ask it if it wanted to talk."

"It was a strategic move."

"Of course it was, Featherbutt."

Jason narrowed his eyes at her. "I retract my previous statement. There is one thing I would change."

With something that was almost a laugh threatening to escape her mouth, Olivia reached into her bag with her free hand and picked up the second amulet.

"It probably doesn't mean much now, given that you already know who I am and the rules went out the window," she said. "But here."

She held out her amulet. The insignia of Banshee seemed to wink at them.

"Lay it down?" Olivia asked him, biting the corner of her lip.

Jason brought his hand down, covering the amulet between their palms. "And down it's laid."

Crimson light flashed between their palms as a warm feeling rushed through Olivia's arm, straight towards her tattoo, leaving it gleaming through her clothes.

Somewhere inside her mind, a memory clicked. A battle, panic as she dragged a dimming Cryo into a storage closet and shut them inside. The face of a boy with black hair and mismatched eyes that she hadn't known then, and a choice--a choice from a bird of snow that begged her to give up her memory so the boy with black hair could remain her partner.

The glow of her tattoo faded back behind her clothes, and for a split, solemn moment, Sae caught Olivia's gaze and bowed his head.

"Here," said Olivia, flipping Jason's hand to the bottom so the Banshee amulet rested in his hand. "It's all yours now."

"What did you do with mine?" asked Jason.

Olivia ran her thumb under the small, silver chain looped around her neck. "Was in my bag til this morning. I--"

"...Olivia?"

The small, all too familiar voice nearly stopped Olivia's heart.

She looked down to the still-open bag strapped to her waist like it always was and found a small, shadowy hand hooked over the edge--and a moment later, a head with large, violet eyes poked through.

Olivia's mind went blank. No--the fragment was still on her wrist, there was no way, absolutely no way--

Then Sae flung himself off Jason's ear, transforming halfway through his airborne tumble on a direct collision course for Olivia's bag. Right before Sae hit, he reached out with his claws, latched on to the side of the pouch and wrapped his wings around the small, ethereal body of Banshee's Ascended.

"Viri!" said Sae, snuggling his beak into her shoulder. "I--I'd hoped that maybe it'd work, but I really had no idea, I wasn't sure if the Other's corruption would override it or not--"

Olivia looked to her wrist, still finding the corrupted fragment firmly in place against her skin. "How?"

"We create the amulets from parts of ourselves," replied Viri, somehow managing to speak around the small pile of snow gradually building on the bag. "It is another piece of me, a piece I separated before the corruption took hold, so it remained an uncorrupted gateway for the Song to pass through. When you bound it to Jason, and through him, Sae, it provided a power source for the gateway. If they remain clean of corruption, I may remain active."

Sae grumbled, releasing Viri and hopping onto the edge of the bag's mouth to perch beside her. "How the heck can you say all of that without that thing kicking in?"

Viri pressed her hands into her lap. "I am unsure. Many of the restrictions do not seem to apply in my current state."

Viri looked up at Olivia.

Olivia just stared right back.

It was a conscious effort to breathe as Olivia tightened her grip on Jason's hand and said one word.

"Real?" she asked.

"Real," he replied.

And Olivia released Jason's hand, scooping Viri up between both palms and bringing her Ascended up to her cheek as this time, the tears came through. She felt Viri's shadow-kissed arms brush her skin with that feather-light touch, heard the hushed, contented hum that her Ascended sometimes sang when they were alone with a moment of peace.

"I missed you, Viri."

The words came out choked as Olivia tripped over her own tongue, but Viri understood, squeezing her a little tighter.

"I missed you too, Olivia."

"Awh, c'mon!" said Sae. "Liv didn't even need you--she managed to transform all by herself!"

Sae shivered, turned, and found Jason glaring at him.

"Okay, so maybe it wasn't all okay," said Sae, holding up a wing and fluttering to sit on the other side of Viri. "But try tapping your tattoo!"

Olivia met eyes with Jason.

With Viri cradled in one hand, she reached up, and tapped a single finger at the centre of her tattoo.

Jason's eyes went wide.

His hand lifted and hovered over his tattoo, the first bit of hesitation she'd seen from him all day. She gave him a small, quick nod with half a hopeful smile trying to break out, as finally, Jason pressed his hand against his tattoo.

She felt it.

She didn't say anything, but he knew. She saw the relief that washed across him, like something had finally been healed. It raced through her, speeding up her heart and leaving it hammering against her chest until it was so loud it was all she could hear.

Together. No matter what came at them, they'd face it together. No more secret identities. No more lies and deceptions that neither one of them could explain. Just the two of them--Jason and Olivia, Banshee and Cryo--neither of them perfect, but still perfectly enough.

It was somewhere in that moment that a chill crept over Olivia's tattoos.

Somewhere in the City, a Manifested had appeared.

Olivia flashed Jason a smile. "Well. It looks like we have something else to deal with."

"Never a dull moment," said Jason, the corner of his mouth lifting.

Olivia glanced at Viri as Sae flapped back up to Jason's shoulder in a flurry of snow. "You ready to get back to it, Viri?"

Viri's violet eyes gleamed. "Always, Olivia."

"So, uh," said Sae. "Who's gonna transform first?"

They looked at each other.

Olivia huffed. "This is gonna be so weird."

"I uh, wouldn't do it here," said Sae casually, quickly jerking his beak towards the door of the orphanage.

Before they could ask, Sae shifted back into the icy cuff on Jason's ear, and Viri vanished back into the shadows of Olivia's bag.

Across the courtyard, one of the doors opened.

Life leaked into the courtyard's silence, the sound of excited kids running to the door and spilling out onto the top step as they followed out a taller, girl that Olivia recognised. A teenager, perhaps about sixteen with short, red hair, sea green eyes, and a grey hoodie left low around her shoulders.

For a moment, Olivia watched with Jason as the girl detached herself from the kids, promising each one of them they she'd come back soon. Though none of the kids seemed to notice, the red haired girl winced more than once, nearly falling over twice as the kids grabbed her legs.

But finally, the girl made it to the bottom of the steps, turning back to give the kids one final wave before they were ushered back inside by a flustered looking adult.

When the door closed, the girl pulled her hoodie up over her head, wrapped her arms tight around her waist, and walked, albeit slowly--carefully--back down one of the paths that led out of the courtyard.

"Everything ties together," murmured Olivia.

"Mmm?" asked Jason.

"I'll tell you on the way," said Olivia, pulling him over to the pathway the girl hadn't gone down. "But first, let's go save this Manifested."

*+*+*+*

A/N - One chapter left. <3