The cells looked much different from this perspective.

Drake hadn't done what all the other prisoners did when they were locked up in the Barricades. He didn't press himself up against the bars and watch for any movement from the hallway. Didn't look for a way in which to get out. Didn't bemoan that this was unfair and undeserved and if the authorities would just listen to him, everything would be different.

No.

He sat on his cot. Awaiting sentencing.

He had done wrong. He had traveled to another universe. He didn't have a leg to stand on.

But he would be lying if he said it didn't hurt, to be here now. To be imprisoned for simply following orders.

And the look on the Chancellor's — his mother's — face when he'd approached her, tentatively asking if he was going to be held responsible for the journey he made to find Gosalyn Mallard. The relief that had blossomed there, her soft tone when she'd said, "I'm so glad you connected the dots yourself, Drake. It makes this less awkward," before having the bots arrest him would forever haunt his nightmares.

The system he had built his entire life upon had not been there to catch him in the end. What he believed in, what he had always supported, had crumbled beneath him. And here he was, on a cot in a cell, with nothing left.

No one was going to come visit him.

No one was hoping he'd have a lesser sentencing, or would be there waiting for him when he was released. If he was released.

Multiverse travel was the most severe crime one could commit.

But he hadn't volunteered to go.

He'd been told.

Yet, he'd known going in that it was a crime.

He wasn't sure why he had deluded himself to thinking that he was, somehow, above the law.

No one was above the law.

He'd made sure of that.

"I can hear you brooding from over there," came her voice.

Gosalyn.

Though, she didn't like that name.

He was supposed to call her Crimson Quackette.

But he couldn't bring himself to call her that in his mind.

She was Gosalyn.

Lyn.

He guessed.

She'd been arrested, too, and was locked up in the cell across from him. No more than five minutes had passed after they were secured before she had crouched by the cell door, pulled out lock picks from her ponytail, and had started fiddling with the lock.

What confused him the most was how avoidable her arrest had been. After the multiverse travelers had all managed to escape (to continue to wreak havoc on other universes, he was sure), Lyn had destroyed the portal. Destroyed being the operative word; she'd taken her katanas to the thing, making sure none of the tech was salvageable. Then she'd walked over to Drake, sitting down beside him, those green eyes watching his feeble attempts at escape.

And there she'd sat, legs crossed, as the robots — what was left of them — surrounded the two. She'd stayed with him like they had been accomplices. Or friends. Saying not a word, but watching him, her face shifting through several different emotions.

The Chancellor hadn't been far behind, marching in and releasing Drake with her usual military precision before having the two arrested.

Why had Lyn stayed? Why hadn't she run? Her freedom had been so easily within reach, but she'd sacrificed it for what? So he wouldn't be alone?

He afforded her a glance now, seeing her face screwed up in concentration as she continued to fiddle with the lock on her cell door.

"We might as well talk," she said. "There's not much else to do down here."

"I have nothing to say to you."

"That's incredibly rude," she said. "Especially when I came here with you."

"Came with me," he said softly, incredulously.

He'd been right, then. She had chosen to stay with him.

But why?

What was he worth to her?

What could she possibly get out of this?

"You committed enough crimes to land yourself here," he said.

"I'm not saying I don't deserve to be here," said Lyn, pulling her lock picks back into the cell and wiping her hands on her pants. "But do you? I think it's pretty messed up that you're in here at all."

Secretly?

So did he.

But he wasn't going to tell her that.

She was still an infamous criminal.

Even if she had stayed behind to keep him company. And was talking to him now like they could be friends.

"You gonna just take your sentencing without a fight?" Lyn asked, picking up her lock picks once more and trying again.

Drake surveyed the wall across from him. Counted the bricks that were stacked on top of each other. "I've done wrong. I deserve whatever is coming."

"I don't think you've ever done wrong."

He glanced to her.

"You probably haven't stepped out of line your whole life," Lyn argued, sending him a knowing look before scooting closer to her cell door, pushing herself up against the bars to get the angle she needed. "I don't believe for a second that you did anything that justifies you being here."

Drake straightened. Said aloud the words he had been thinking for the past several hours. "I traveled to another universe. Knowingly. Willingly."

"To make an arrest. When cops go under cover and infiltrate a criminal ring, they aren't held responsible for the crimes they need to commit to blend in. The same courtesy should have been given to you."

"Are you really defending me?" Drake asked, studying her. Trying to ignore the logic behind what she was saying because she was making sense and if he started to think he was in the right, he'd be even more miserable than he was now. "I have spent a good deal of my life hunting you and your kind down." Not successfully, but that was neither here nor there.

"I can still think it's unfair. I'd be pissed if I was you."

"Well, you are not me."

"Thank God for that. Your life sounds boring."

"I'm not judging. It's actually the only interesting thing you've done." Gosalyn had said on the battlefield. When she'd warned him of this very scenario. He hadn't thought much about his life, and all it could potentially be lacking, until he'd had it called into question twice in one day.

Was his life boring?

Was he missing something?

Was there something else he should be doing?

A loud clink shook Drake out of his reverie in time for him to see the door of Lyn's cell swing open, a triumphant grin on her beak. She grabbed her lock picks before standing and walking out of her cell. Closing the door behind her, Lyn turned to face Drake.

"Want to spice up your life a little?" she asked.

"What on earth are you talking about?"

She held up her hand, the lock picks gleaming in the florescent light.

Could she mean?

No.

She wouldn't risk freeing him so soon after their meeting.

They were practically strangers.

"What do you have to lose?" Lyn asked. "If you stay here, you're gonna end up going to jail for how long?"

Drake was silent for a moment before he realized she was actually asking rather than posing a rhetorical question. He cleared his throat, numbers and laws whirling through his mind quickly. "Likely for the rest of my life."

"So, it's life imprisonment or you come with me."

"What part of my brain do you imagine was damaged that I would want to live the life of a common criminal?" Drake snapped.

"I'm anything but common, buddy," said Lyn, her expression shuttering. It wasn't until this moment that Drake realized how playful she had been. But her walls had sprung up at his comment. He wanted to take it back if only to see the mischief gleam in those hypnotic green eyes again. She was so lively, so magnetic, when she wasn't hiding herself away.

Had all of those other Drakes been right? Was this girl what he'd been missing?

"I don't care if you want to stay here for the rest of your life," said Lyn. "Just thought I'd offer another option."

He frowned. "How do I know you'll keep your word and help me once we're out of here? What's to say you won't abandon me to my own devices as soon as we're free? How can I trust you?"

He'd trusted before. Trusted so much that he hadn't thought anything bad would happen once he broke the law. Fool. He was an absolute fool. Trusting was for children. He knew better now.

"I'm not asking for trust. That's built up with time. This is faith."

Drake closed his eyes, his fingers digging into the meager mattress he was sitting on. "A leap of faith."

"Like when you're a kid at the pool and you grab hands with your friends, close your eyes, and scream, 'Geronimo!' as you jump into the water. We all have those moments in life where we have to just go for it and hope that everything will be okay. And this is one of them."

"Besides, people deserve a second chance. No one is all bad." There she was again. Gosalyn Mallard. And her infernal words circling in his mind.

But….

He wasn't all bad.

He didn't think.

He'd done wrong, of course.

But certainly he wasn't all bad.

Who was?

Drake's eyes snapped open.

She had been right.

Damn her.

Maybe he did deserve a second chance.

And maybe others did, too. Some of those he'd locked up himself. They certainly hadn't deserved the sentence in its entirety.

He'd done wrong.

Not when he'd gone to kidnap a girl from her home.

(Though that certainly wasn't a shining moment.)

He'd done wrong his whole life.

His system was flawed.

Reasons did matter. They mattered a great deal, especially with crimes and the criminals who committed them.

Drake looked over to Lyn.

Still standing outside his cell, hands on her hips, and lock picks shining in her fist.

Slowly.

Drake pushed himself off the cot.

Stood.

Walked over to the cell.

Studied Lyn in silence.

Then sighed and said, "Geronimo."

That mischief sparked in Lyn's eyes once more as she nodded, still businesslike, and crouched before his cell, her lock picks making quick work of the lock. In no time, his door was swinging open, Lyn's lock picks disappearing into her ponytail once more.

"You don't have to jump alone," she said. "You can come live with us."

"The other criminals?" He nearly balked. Drake Mallard going to live with the other rule breakers in the criminal underbelly of the city.

But where else did he have to go? And he likely owed several of them an apology.

Because if he was able to get a second chance, then so should they.

Sighing, he nodded. "Thank you."

"Now, we're gonna be going up against that Chancellor of yours," explained Lyn, eyes zeroed in on his face. "I'm not gonna sugar coat it. It's an all out uprising. You don't have to do anything official, but know you're on our side now. And if you think for a moment that you can run back to the government and try and double cross us," Lyn scowled. "We won't forget."

Drake nodded again, standing at attention. "Understood."

She studied him for a moment longer before hitting the button that opened to the robot workshop. "Leave that cape behind. You look ridiculous." She left.

It surprised him.

Her comment.

And the smile that spread over his beak.

An easy sacrifice.

Unclipping the cape, Drake tossed it back into his cell before stepping into the workshop.

Lyn was crouching down in front of a robot, hands deep in its circuitry. "We'll find you a new outfit that isn't like a beacon in the night." She moved on to another robot, shaking her head. "White. What an awful choice for a wardrobe."

His smile still firmly in place, Drake followed Lyn.

A/N: And that's it! If you're wondering what happens to Lyn and Drake and Stellar after this, "Uprising" by MUSE is a good place to start!

A special thank you to Amelia and Pharaoh who kept encouraging me when I wasn't sure if this story needed to be told. And to Mal — your back and forth with Pharaoh after each chapter went live made this all the more enjoyable. I don't deserve either of you. Lastly, thanks to all of you who took the time to read and comment and send me messages. I appreciate every single one of you and I hope that you had a good time traveling to the Poiverse!

If you haven't seen Paige's artwork, depicting the Posiverse characters, be sure to visit my Tumblr (RebellingStagnationBlog) and check them out. And send her all the love she deserves.

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

~Rebel