Lydia was sitting near the door to the hideout, an inky substance looping around her fingers as she watched it. Reggie watched her curiously, standing nearby and pretending to be inspecting a wall.

"You can ask me questions, you know," she said softly. "I don't bite."

"Oh," Reggie rubbed the back of his head. "I don't want to intrude."

"I don't mind. I'm not adverse to answering questions." Lydia glanced at Reggie, and he walked over to sit beside her.

"What's that stuff on your hand?" Reggie gestured to the inky substance.

"Shadows," she said softly. "Little ones. They collect around me." The inky substance snaked up her arm to curl into her hair. Reggie thought he could hear the faintest whispers, and Lydia glanced at him. "I know you have more questions than that. Spill."

"Well, I check out your story. About how you became… Y'know." He wiggled his fingers as if to signify her powers. She snorted and laughed, putting a hand over the lower half of her face. He smiled, rubbing the back of his head.

"How I became a Conduit?" Lydia managed to tame her laughter, turning her violet irises on Reggie. He nodded, sliding his hands into his pockets.

"I had a buddy of mine look into your story, and it didn't check out. Augustine publishes reports on captured Bio-Terrorists, and there wasn't a single instance of someone lighting a classmate on fire." Reggie glanced at her, and her face slowly fell as he spoke. "If you don't want anyone else to know, I won't say a word. But for the normal guy's sake… What actually happened?" Lydia got a far-away look in her eyes.

"My little brother's powers manifested first. He was gifted with air, and he panicked. He was showing me, crying and begging me to take the powers away, when my parents walked in. They were horrified. They told him he was a monster, that the DUP could fix him. They told him it was for the best. I was protecting my little brother when my powers manifested." She turned away, staring at the floor and the inky substance that had begun to gather around her feet. "I leveled my house, the neighbor's houses, and threw two DUP collection vans. I killed both my parents and two of the neighbors, and… And…" Her voice caught in her throat, and she paused for a moment before she spoke in a shaky voice. "And my little brother was shot dead in the chaos."

Reggie pictured for a half moment what it would be like to lose Delsin, the image of his little brother's bloody body in his arms flashing before his eyes, and he shuddered. He couldn't even imagine the pain Lydia must have felt, knowing that the sibling she'd been trying to protect had died such a preventable death. Reggie glanced at Lydia, taking note of the tears welling in her eyes, before she balled up both her fists and rubbed her eyes.

"I called Eugene, but he didn't pick up. So… The DUP caught me. I didn't fight it. I figured I deserved to go away forever, since my little brother's blood was on my hands. But the things they did to me in there… I don't know how I survived. Their poisons kept me alive, I guess. Just another curse to add to the list. They implanted chips to monitor my health, so when I broke out, the first thing I did was cut them out." She pushed up one sleeve, revealing a number of fresh wounds. Reggie's gaze was drawn to the older scars on her arms, the neat and orderly 1-inch lines that covered her skin. He tried to imagine what tests could cause such regular scars, but Lydia broke him from his thoughts when she spoke again. "One final 'screw you' to Augustine, I guess, along with destroying most of her facility and killing most of her staff."

"That's another thing I wanted to ask you about," Reggie said softly. "How did you break out of Augustine's compound?"

"I pretended to be sick, on the verge of death," Lydia said softly. "My cloak made that easy enough. When I'd recovered from her power-inhibiting drugs enough, I destroyed everything and everyone between me and the outside. I guess I'm stronger than I thought." She was still looking down, at the deep shadows that had gathered around her feet. It seemed to Reggie that Lydia's entire personality had darkened, and he reached over to gently brush his fingertips against her forearm.

"I'm so sorry about your brother. I can't imagine what it felt like to lose him."

"I did everything for my little brother. Our family life was never great, but I tried to make it as good as I could for him. I was a sickly kid, and my immune system has never been very strong, but even when I was deathly ill I always played with him. I made him things, gave him my lunches, even protected him from bullies at the park when he wanted to play outside. My little brother was my whole world, and in the moment he needed me most, I couldn't save him. I was so close, and I couldn't…" Tears spilled down her cheeks, but she didn't seem to notice. Her fingernails dug into her palms, and her hands trembled slightly. Reggie reached out hesitantly, resting his hand on her arm. He couldn't think of anything to say, but he hoped he could at least offer a shoulder to cry on. Lydia spoke again, her voice barely more than a trembling whisper.

"I can still hear him screaming sometimes, when it gets too quiet. I can hear him begging the DUP not to shoot. He didn't mean to use his powers. He never wanted them. He just put up his hands, and the wind picked up. He didn't have to die. I could have saved him, but I wasn't fast enough. It should have been me they buried, not him. Max was a good kid. It should have been me..." Lydia's voice was shaking too hard to continue. Reggie reached out and put his arm around her shoulders.

"Don't talk like that," he said gently. "Things happen, You did everything you could. I may not have known you for very long, but as an older sibling, I know you'd have done anything to save your brother. You did everything you could. It wasn't your fault he died. Don't blame yourself." Lydia leaned against his side, her head coming to rest against his chest.

"Augustine came to visit me after their first experiments on me. I told her what her agents had done to my brother, and she called it an 'unfortunate accident' and said he shouldn't have resisted arrest. That was the moment I knew I had to be the one to kill her. I knew I had to be the one to drain her miserable soul from her body." Lydia's voice went dark, and Reggie tensed a bit. That sort of talk wasn't abnormal for trauma victims, but a conduit with the amount of power required to do the kind of damage Lydia could talking like a psychopath worried Reggie. He had nothing to defend himself, not even his gun. Not that he could have shot her if he wanted to. He vowed to never take an innocent life, even at the cost of his own.

"I won't let her hurt another innocent soul ever again. I saw what she did to the 'suspected conduits' in there. What she made me do to them… She tortured good, innocent, normal people with no power, and I'll be damned if she's allowed to live." Lydia wiped her eyes, the pain in her voice replaced with determination. "I will protect every last soul on this planet from her, even if it kills me." She didn't lean away from Reggie, even as her tears ceased to flow. "Thank you for listening. I know you didn't mean to open the flood gates, I just get so… upset, I guess, when I talk about my brother."

"I don't mind," Reggie said with a smile. "You seem like a nice woman, and I enjoyed getting to know you a bit better."

Neither of them pulled away.