The Fire of Conviction

"Disappointing." His words were a low murmur, carrying a weight far heavier than his previous admonishments. "I had hoped... perhaps foolishly, that you would be different. That you would be more than just a flicker of defiance in the face of inevitable darkness." A pause hung between them, a stillness that felt like the close of some cosmic scale tilting.

"There was a time I believed beings like you—bright, noble, stubborn in the face of overwhelming odds—could be the ones to lift this world. To save it, not just in fragments, but in its entirety. Yet, time after time, you all turn away, clinging to ideals and limitations that cannot sustain the weight of true justice." There was a hint of something in his tone—his version of sadness, perhaps, a quiet ache beneath his words. It was the dispassionate grief of a force that had watched countless hopefuls fall short, weighed down by their own humanity.

"So be it." He seemed to draw back, his presence receding like the tide. "You have made your choice, and I will respect it. I only wish you could have seen that you were meant for so much more." It's voice echoed, calm but carrying a finality that wrapped around her decision like chains. "You've chosen the path of resistance. You've chosen to believe that your efforts, however small in the grand design, hold worth beyond measure." There was no anger, no mockery, only an air of detached observation—as though he were watching the gears turn, indifferent to the outcomes but keenly aware of the mechanisms.

"You may think yourself a guardian, a light in the shadows, holding your position even when the darkness swells. But know this: I will watch. Not with hope or pity, but with the patience of inevitability. I will see you subsumed by the very forces you aim to hold back, crushed beneath the weight of your convictions." His tone remained steady, as unchanging as stone. "And I will let it happen, as I have watched countless others. Because, as you said... it is your choice."

The silence that followed felt heavier than the darkness around her, his presence lingering even as his voice faded. It was as if the shadows themselves had closed around his words, leaving her alone in the alley with only her heartbeat to remind her of her own determination, fragile yet unbreakable.

Lyra listened to the strange voice's words still he seemingly saying that he or it was disappointed in her for making her final decision. She knew this ultimately would probably bite her in the ass later on; but that was her pain to bear when the time came to pass. No matter what Lyra would take it and while it wasn't going to be easy the end of seeing her nieces cheer on their hero, was well...worth it.

"It may not be the answer your looking for but I know in the end; my heart wouldn't or honestly couldn't bear with the idea of me stepping over to harm albeit semi innocent folks; no matter the crimes they've committed" and that very much was true. Lyra's heart has taken so much on even before becoming a hero, and she wasn't going to allow it to venture off and become closed off as it once did.

Lyra watched as the voice seemed to disappear without a trace leaving the thief to fall down probably due to the strength the voice used to speak to her. Of course Lyra could've left him there, in the cold to which feeling another drop of rain she knew he get worser by the second, but deep down she be breaking the moral's she once told the voice she keep.

Picking up the stranger Lyra took him to the local police station before dropping him off and flying away. Her mind became washing with everything that had transpired in that alleyway, wondering if possibly the voice was right; maybe there was no other way to do what she wanted to, unless to take hold yourself.

"Defiance," Justice uttered, his tone like a tolling bell resonating through the Realm of Order, reverberating with calculated disappointment.

In the silent expanse of his domain, he moved deliberately through his halls, passing towering crystalline tablets etched with the names and deeds of those who had come before. The newest tablet stood blank, waiting for Lyra's name to be inscribed. Justice lifted a hand, the air shimmering with threads of golden light, but he paused, unwilling to etch her name alongside others who had chosen his path.

"You chose defiance over unity, over order. A sin as dangerous as it is predictable in mortals. Your heart, as you claim, cannot bear the weight of my truth, and so you choose your limited ideals over what could save the world. You will fight against the tide until it consumes you, and when it does, you will learn the cost of your refusal. But you will not learn it here."

He lowered his hand, the light dimming as he turned away from the empty tablet. The sins etched upon it whispered faintly, an ever-growing cacophony in his domain.

"Another failure to bring salvation. Another soul incapable of embracing the totality of my vision. They will be her undoing, as they have been for so many others."

Justice ascended a dais at the heart of his realm, his gaze fixed on the grand, cosmic map of mortal existence, its threads of fate interwoven with the chaos he sought to extinguish. Lyra’s thread burned brightly, full of potential and resistance, a flare against the vastness of disorder.

"You are but another spark, Lyra, destined to be snuffed out by your own inadequacies. Your defiance will breed disunity, your disunity will foster despair, and the cycle will continue."

He exhaled slowly, the weight of his endless task bearing down on him as he marked her choice in his ledger, his pen cutting deeply into the page.

"So be it. The tally grows, but my will remains unbroken. You will not stop what must be."

Justice’s gaze lingered on her burning thread one last time before he turned away, already bracing himself for the next refusal, the next disappointment. This world would be saved regardless of how many like her would refuse his offer to truly help it.