The Strength of Ten

Cepans

A/N: Sorry this is so short! It seem much longer in Word!

Five leaned against their truck, a satisfied expression gracing her features.

“So.... Let me guess. You’re Four.” She inclined her head towards John.

He nodded.

“Nice job making international news, John Smith.” Five stated, a grin on her face.

“I’m just awesome that way.” He quipped.

Six interrupted. “Intros, anyone? I’m Six. Legacies are Invisibility, Elemental Manipulation, the usual Telekinesis, and a few weeks ago I developed what might be Rapid Regeneration.”

Four took the hint. “I’m Four, obviously. Known as John Smith, but you knew that already. Well, I have Lumen, Animal Telepathy, Precognition(A/N: The dream thingy.), Telekinesis -obviously-, Healing, Telepathy –you know that too- and Pyro-Kinesis, although I think that might just be another form of Lumen.”

Five whistled. “Quite the Legacies you’ve got there.”

Nine swaggered to the front. “Always pleased to meet a hot chick like you, sweetheart. The name’s Nine.”

“Is he always like this?”

“Unfortunately, yes.”

Nine cleared his throat. “As I was saying, I have Antigravity, Telekinesis, Super Hearing, and I have the amazing ability to allow humans to use Loric objects for a short time. Oh, and I have Animal Telepathy too. Awesome, isn’t it?”

Eight grinned. Some people never change. “I’m Eight. Pleased to meet you.” He tipped an imaginary hat. “So, I can Teleport, Shape-shift, see the future –a little, at least –I have Precognition too. And saying I have Telekinesis is just redundant. But I said it anyway.”

Marina stepped forward shyly. “I’m Seven, but you can call me Marina. I can breathe underwater, see in the dark, and I have healing too. Obviously, Telekinesis as well.”

“Hi, I’m Ten, as you know. I go by Ella, though. I have Telepathy, and my telekinesis should be coming in any time now.”

“Right. Nice to meet you all. Seeing as we’re doing intros, I’m Five obviously. You can call me Scarlett. Anyway, I have Levitation, as you know, obviously Telekinesis, and I have Hydro-locomotion (A/N: Ability to walk on water. It’s on the Lorien Legacies Wiki.) and Extrasensory Perception. (A/N: Ability to gather information not gained through physical senses.) Oh, I can also control water on a minor scale.”

Four grinned. “We’re opposites, then.”

Five shrugged. “Yeah, I guess. Anyway, before I forget, why do you guys have a human here?”

“His dad was a Loric ally who went missing. And he’s my best friend.”

“Ok, accepted. By the way, where are your Cepans? Mine’s back at the house. She goes by Carla.”

The mood immediately darkened and tears welled up in Ella’s eyes. She was still the most affected by her Cepan’s death. Marina bit her lip as she remembered Adelina, but otherwise hid her feelings well, hugging Ella in comfort and wiping her tears away. John’s deep blue eyes were roiling with millions of undistinguishable emotions, his mind filled with hundreds upon thousands of memories involving Henri.

Six, who was by far the one who could hide her emotions about Katarina the best, glanced at the others, observing that they were in no condition to explain what happened to their Cepans. To prevent herself from breaking down about Katarina in front of everyone by talking too much about the deaths of the Garde’s Cepans, she decided to be blunt but short.

She closed her eyes for a short while to compose herself, before blurting out the truth before she could change her mind.

“They’re dead. All of them.”

Five paled. “Oh God. I’m so sorry....”

Four winced. He never liked it when people said things that were meant to be consoling, like ‘Oh, I’m so sorry. Or, My deepest condolences.’ It always sounded fake and inadequate. The thing that mattered was listening and moving on.

Six, who had more experience dealing with this type of matters, simply waved it away. “It’s fine. It’s a war, people are going to die. There’s nothing we can do about the past. What matters now is training, honing our Legacies and defeating the Mogs. What matters now is reclaiming Lorien.”

Nine pumped a fist in the air. “Well said, sweetheart. Well said. I could have totally said it better, but since I didn’t say it, it’s totally cool.”

Six had to restrain herself from beating Nine up.