The Time Hopper

Argumentative Discussion

"Can we take Marie, and Sam, and Dr Omega?" Eros asked, looking around hopefully with big, naive eyes. I paused for a moment, exchanging a look with Riley. 

"Dr Omega, definitely not. His loyalties lay firmly with Consequences, not us." I explained. "Marie and Sam? I honestly don't know, but it'll be one hell of a risk to tell them about this. We will only get one shot at this, and if we mess up we could all be killed." I impressed upon them, looking from each of them. Kat frowned severely at me. 

"You seem fairly certain about Omega. What gives?" Kat asked, weirdly perceptive as always. I looked at Riley, letting him explain because my memory of everything that had happened in the mansion was fuzzy at best and nonexistent at worst. 

"Obsivian killed his daughter. Well, no, Felix was the one who killed her, but it was because of Obsivian, and I'm pretty sure the pedantic's don't matter so much when you've lost a child." He explained, a twist of guilt in his voice. I wondered why. Maybe because he had left his own parents behind without an explanation. 

"But would he betray us just for a chance of revenge?" Lila wondered aloud. 

"Is that really a risk we want to take?" Took asked her in return. Lila shrugged. 

"If we're going to start talking about risk versus reward, then we should leave Marie and Sami behind without a word as well. Hell, if we really want to get into this, then we need to ask Sadie and Riley what the hell they were thinking in coming back here to warn us to begin with." Alice said, looking at me expectantly. I had thought it to be a rhetorical question, but now they were all looking at me and waiting for an answer. 

"Are you guys seriously asking why I came back to try and help all of you? Jeez, I know I'm not around much, but you're still the closest thing to family I have." I said, feeling honestly a little insulted. Riley poked my arm and held his hands up. 

"I'm literally right here." He said, half sarcastically. I laughed and butted my head against his. 

"Dude, you count as one of us." Terrence said, breaking out of his embrace with Rosie for the first time. Lila nodded sagely, and everyone but Took looked like they agreed. Riley grinned. For a split moment, everything felt nice and normal, as though the two of us had actually just popped back for a picnic and a catch up rather than an escape. 

"To get back to what we actually need to talk about, I say we don't tell any of the adults about what we've found out. We don't know how much they already know, and if they even suspect that we know, they could kill us or tell Consequences. I just don't think its worth the risk, not when we can do this by ourselves." Took interrupted the nice moment with a serious, and honestly valid, point. That was what I had thought we would do before I came here, but looking around I could see that the rest of them weren't really happy with that approach. 

"Marie has helped raise us, Sam has always looked after us whenever he's here, and the doctor has looked after us whenever we were sick or injured-" Eros began to say, only to be interrupted by Alice. 

"And Consequences has given us somewhere safe to stay since we were little children, yet we can all acknowledge that he did that for his own reasons-" She pointed out, only for Rosie to burst into noisy tears, again, despite Terrence trying to comfort her. 

"Stop it! Maybe we shouldn't be so suspicious of them. They've always loved us, all of them, even Consequences. I think that we should just go and talk to him about this." She said, Terrence nodding along with her, though with them that didn't mean they actually agreed with one another. In a panic, I looked to Riley, who responded in kind. Took looked like he was ready to outright attack her, and it was only because Alexi was between the two that he didn't.