The Strength of Ten

Reunions, Meetings and Plans

A/N: This is kinda ooc... I know Six usually doesn’t show much emotion, but this is my writing style, so yeah... ;) And I’m gonna have to add in an OC Garde this chappie cause it doesn’t feel like a real story if Five doesn’t appear... So yeah. I know OCs can be annoying sometimes, though, so sorry, bear with me, k? :)

The Garde, Sam and Bernie Kosar were seated in a corner of the first floor of the Canada National Tower, impatiently waiting for Four to appear. Six had her head buried in her hands, silently cursing herself for not following John when she had the chance.

All of a sudden, Ella closed her eyes and her face morphed into a look of concentration, nodding occasionally.

When she finally opened her eyes, she whispered hurriedly, “Guys, John says to meet at the truck. He says he’ll attract too much attention if he came strolling into a national monument in burnt, torn clothing.”

Immediately, Six was on her feet, racing towards their vehicle. The rest followed her as best as they could, but they had forgotten how fast Six could be.

When the others finally caught up to her, she was in the process of yelling at and cursing Four for his ‘recklessness’.

“Damn you, John! I told you to stay put but no. You just had to play the hero and run off to save the day. You have no idea how worried I was!” Six pounded on Four’s chest, a single tear making it past her furious façade and showing what she truly feared, even though she wiped it away as fast as possible.

John grabbed hold of Six’s forearms, his muscles straining to fight against Six’s strength. He held her at an arm’s length, analyzing her sharp features. As if reading her feelings, he suddenly pulled Six to him and wrapped his arms tight around her, rubbing her back soothingly.

“You know that I can take care of myself, Six.” Four murmured into her hair.

“Yeah, I know. but when I saw that firestorm I knew it would have drained your energy and made you an easy target if any Mog had survived the flames.”

John nodded understandingly. He had been exhausted after summoning the flames.

Then Nine butted in. “Alright, as sickeningly sweet as this is, break it up, guys!”

“Even though he annoys the hell out of me, I have to agree with Nine this once. I get the feeling Five is in trouble.” Eight admitted.

After shrugging on a change of clothing, Four joined the rest and strolled fake-casually into the Canada National Tower. Eight teleported Marina, Ella and Nine up to the top of the tower while BK changed into a gecko, hiding in Four’s pocket. Six grabbed hold of Sam and John, turning them invisible and sneaking up to the top of the tower, meeting up with the rest.

At the top of the tower, their eyes were drawn to the few people sitting around, analysing which of them could be Five. As they scanned through the crowd, they realised that a few people were hiding their faces behind magazines, or under the brims of hats and behind sunglasses. They realised that quite a few had milky-white skin, especially those trying to hide.

The Garde guessed immediately. “Mogs. Five must be close.”

Inexplicably, their eyes were drawn towards a girl of average height in one corner, leaning casually against the wall. The only thing that showed she wasn’t as relaxed as she looked was the tension in her shoulders, as if she was ready to bolt at any minute.

The girl had dark brown hair with streaks of auburn, and her eyes glimmered a startling amber, almost gold.

Marina gasps. “I remember her from the journey here! She’s definitely one of us.”

Six nodded affirmatively. “I remember her too.”

They turned to Ella, whose features were scrunched up in concentration, trying to contact Five. After a while, her eyes opened and she reported that Five was aware of the Mogs surrounding her and had come up the tower for the reason that she fought better when up high. Then Ella went on to explain that Five had the Legacy of Levitation.

Sam whistled. “Flying, eh?”

Eight nodded appreciatively. “I wondered which one of us would get Levitation. So that’s why she’s up here. Smart.”

Four wasn’t paying attention to the chatter, choosing to try to devise a plan with Five telepathically.

“Five? Are you there? I’m not even sure if this is working. For all I know, I might never figure out this damned Legacy.”

“You’re not Ten. Who are you?” Five sounded slightly freaked at the boy basically reading her mind.

“I’m Four. I have Telepathy too. Anyway, do you have a plan? You know, to defeat the Mogs?”

“Not really. I just planned on breaking the glass floor on the below floor and fly down. It would have given me enough time to escape.”

“Tell you what, we’ll just wait here for the Mogs to attack, and when they do, we’ll fight. There’re only a few of them here anyway. Can’t be more than fifteen.”

“It’s a deal.”