They Cannot Contain Us

The medical facility was quiet except for the machines and Kaori's footsteps. She walked back and forth, her usual calmness gone.

Leo watched her from the medical bed, tired but strangely calm. Something felt off about how he was feeling now, but he couldn't figure out what.

"You got us into serious trouble, Voss," Kaori said sharply. "We fought for days in that terrible place, and now you're back with something inside you." Her blue eyes showed anger, but Leo saw something else… fear. She was scared of the Shadow Realm and that feeling of powerlessness it gave.

Neo stepped in before Leo could respond. "That's enough, Kaori." "Blaming him won't change anything. The reason We're alive is because of him, and I don't think he could control what happened, the whole situation must have been difficult for him too." Her different-colored eyes looked at Leo, calming the tension.

Kaori's jaw tightened in frustration. She turned around to exit through the door. "I have an emergency meeting with the other two resistance leaders" and just like that, she left, her boots making noise in the hallway. The door closed, leaving the room in an uncomfortable silence.

Leo looked at his hands. The black substance in his veins and strange symbol that had been on his arm was gone. He flexed his fingers, expecting something to be different, but everything looked normal. Still, a strange calmness settled over him that felt too perfect. "She's right," he said quietly. "I brought you into this mess."

Neo shook her head and pulled up a chair. "We weren't dragged anywhere. The crystal shard did this." She nodded at Marcus, who was leaning against a counter with a half-smile. He was the resistance's research and multidimensional physics specialist. A form of science that had greatly grown with the introduction of superpowers and weird beasts to the human race.

"Found a shard of Kaori's crystals when we brought you in," Marcus said. "You were unconscious at the time. It was Kaori's crystal from her fight with Vale's team. It was sending energy into you like a weird battery."

Leo frowned, remembering the pain and the weird things that happened afterwards. "That's what activated... whatever happened to me?"

"More than that," Neo explained. "It changed your body's cells. Created Lumina cells, the kind that give Awakened their abilities. But yours are shadow-based. Something new, as there has been no written record of a person with such abilities."

Marcus's smile disappeared. "The Shadow Realm wasn't just a bad place. We think it was a prison for the First Shadow. The Warden kept it locked up. But when your powers started, it broke everything. That's why the Warden followed ya'll when in the realm, it's inside you now."

Leo felt sick just thinking about it. "So it's true? I'm carrying this thing in me?"

"Not exactly," Neo said carefully. "More like a way for it to stay in our world. A small piece of it came back with us."

The calmness Leo had begun to feel disappeared. He looked at his hands again, half-expecting the black veins to return. "What happens if it gets stronger?"

Marcus's face turned serious. "We can only hope it doesn't."

Neo had more bad news. "Just like Elias said, time works differently in the Shadow Realm. We thought we were there for two to three days. But out here? A month has passed."

"A month?" Leo was shocked.

"Yes," Marcus confirmed. "Neo-Tokyo is a mess. Shadows are acting strange. People say they began moving by themselves. The GPA is cracking down on it and blaming us. And you?" He smirked tiredly. "You're now the third most wanted non-Awakened individual in the galaxy. Congratulations."

It didn't take long for Leo to understand why. "If I had to take a guess, Harrison Vale is behind this, isn't he?"

Neo nodded. "He's saying you stole tech from Quantum Dynamics. But of course it's not true, he's covering his trade with those awakened mercenaries from earlier. But with his connections, he's got mercenaries and bounty hunters looking for you. He thinks you know something that could expose how they control Awakened people."

Leo smiled slightly. "He's scared of what I saw in that suitcase. And I bet he's set you two up too." He paused. "What was in that suitcase?"

Neo and Marcus looked at each other. No one spoke.

"Of course," Leo said, sighing, the two in front of him were still strangers after all.

Neo's tone changed. "Listen, Leo. The resistance isn't perfect. We have problems and complicated methods. But we're the only ones fighting against the GPA's control over Awakened and non-Awakened people."

Leo raised an eyebrow. "That's not very encouraging."

"I'm not selling you a dream," Neo said tiredly. "We're not heroes. But we're trying to fix a broken world. And you have the skills and power to help."

"What are you getting at?" Leo asked.

She leaned forward. "You're a wanted journalist, with a bounty that's nearly a quarter of mine. Everyone wants you dead or alive. But us, we want you alive."

His heart raced. "You want me to join the resistance?"

"Yes," she said. "Help us stop Vale, the GPA, and whatever it is that you carried from that shadow realm. You're not just a reporter anymore. You're involved whether you like it or not."

Leo thought about it. He had always worked alone, trusting no one and investigating from the shadows. 

But these shadows were different, they were inside him now. If Neo was right, they could consume him if he didn't fight back.

Before he could provide an answer, a cold feeling ran down his spine. He heard a weird, rough voice whisper.

Leo looked around. Neo and Marcus stared at him, confused. They hadn't heard anything.

"Leo?" Neo asked. "What's wrong?"

The voice, played in his head once more, except this time, he could hear it clearly.

"They cannot contain us."