Convergence

Chapter Eleven: Democracy and Friendship

The void glistened again, the water rippling with a medium breeze. Matilda, Alistair and Wylie sat in the water in a circle, fidgeting with their hands.

"I'm worried." Matilda stated bluntly, no emotion in her voice at all.

"About Nick?" Wylie asked back. "Me too."

"About both of them." Alistair spoke his own opinion. "Nick's an adult now, but that one kid really is just... a kid."

Matilda nodded. "Like we were."

Morgan and Riley stood above them, Riley leaning over. "Hey, I don't think you have to worry. Ella's a smart kid, from what we can tell."

"And you sound like you know Nick really well," Morgan stated, "so you shouldn't have any doubt that they'll be fine. After all, they survived whatever happened to you."

"They only survived that because their dumb scientist dad wanted them to." Wylie sighed.

"Eesh, daddy issues. I know all about those." Riley leaned back up, scratching the back of their head.

"Tell me about it," Matilda remarked.

"Same here," Zoey raised her hand.

"Ditto." Pyro was the last to agree.

"My dad was a scientist!" Morgan really just wanted to participate.

"Can we focus on the task at hand, please?" Xudio waved his arms up, standing next to Zoey, River and Pyro.

"Wrangling children is just so difficult." Zoey put her hands on her hips, one of them holding her staff, ignoring the fact she still looked like a child herself.

"Yeah, sorry." Morgan walked forward, all of them standing up.

"What are we doing?" Alistair asked, a hand on his neck.

"We're planning, remember?" River pushed. "Morgan, you still have your magic, right?"

"Yeah," Morgan said, blinking their eyes to show the purple hue. "I used it a while ago."

"How'd you get that, anyways?" Alistair asked. "Were you born with it?"

"We were born with our abilities," Wylie explained, waving to his friends, "but we never had anything actually... magic."

"No, I wasn't born with it."

Riley interjected quickly, "I would have thought they were a lot cooler if they did."

Morgan kept talking, jabbing Riley quickly in the stomach. "Where we were, there was this like—this literal monster. It was huge. It was called the Walker or something like that. It attacked me and transferred some of its power to me."

"I spent my life researching that, and you're not sure of what it's called." Pyro teased. Matilda laughed in response.

"Well, at least something cool came out of it? I don't know," Alistair shrugged, not sure how to respond.

"More importantly," Xudio continued, "we can use it against, uh, whatever we are up against."

"I'd explain it to you, but we are absolutely not safe here." Zoey leaned in again. "All you can know is that it's the reason why you're all here."

"I thought Nick and Ella were the reason why we're here." Pyro interrupted.

Riley shrugged. "I thought it was you, Zoey."