My girlfriend's brows raised. "I didn't know he passed away."
"He didn't," Nate interrupted. "Not that I know of. The news reported he did to more easily transition him to the training facilities. Which, unfortunately, -are- under Scribe's care at the moment. This means that the longer we dither about this, the longer those young people are under his influence."
Lexi shot him a glare that could peel paint. I remained silent, trying to down as much breakfast as I could. Sometimes superhero types got a little aggressive about things and if the damn table was going to end up tipped over, I wanted that food in me, not on me.
"Whatever. The point still remains. She goes and fries another Pyro. What's to stop her from nailing any of us? We've all been in the Dream. But it doesn't mean that we did horrible things. Most of us managed to hold back, even if we did do some damage," Lexi said. "Maybe she's actually wanted it all along."
Izzy rolled her eyes. "And maybe I've always been a little Napoleon just waiting for my chance. God, you really don't know when to shut up."
The heat was building to a boiling point around the table. I finished my plate quickly and grabbed one last pancake, smashing butter into it and rolling it up like a street taco. I swallowed it down like a snake, unashamed. Nishelle grinned at me and shook her head, but that was her undoing.
"See? She thinks it's a fucking joke," Lexi snapped. "She's laughing at us."
And Lexi came across the table, sending food everywhere, intent on gouging my girlfriend with a butter knife. Nothing could ever be easy; I'd learned that when we were kids. I kicked the table over and sent Lexi sprawling into Edwin, who grumbled about it and ripped the knife out of her hand.
"If everyone could stop acting like an idiot for ten seconds, I think we could satisfy this entire situation," Edwin said, his voice radiating with anger.
The room fell silent as one and I found my respect for my sweet Edwin raise a few pegs.
You know, if we couldn't have Scribe, maybe we could have him instead. It was just a thought; I had no idea how Edwin would react to the offering of running the Yarborough PTB, but if it came to it? I could certainly suggest it. That was assuming I lived, of course, but hey. There's nothing wrong with being positive, right?
Right.
Edwin put Lexi back in her chair and sat the table upright again. He didn't sit back down, instead pacing around us. "None of us can claim innocence. Not even those of us who just run support. We all know of bad situations or bad parts of town; places where we could do good but we don't. We just don't have the resources. I think Nishelle was misguided. I think she should have come to us immediately with the information, but how could she? She was still stuck under Allison's guidance when it happened, right?"
"Right," Nishelle said. "Or enough under her that I wasn't thinking clearly. Everything in my head was a disaster and there wasn't a lot that I could puzzle out. I wanted to make sure I wasn't a villain before I turned up trying to talk to all of you, or trying to get Cassie back, or even trying to make sure that I was still in good standing with the Alliance."
"Sensible," Edwin told her. Then he turned to the rest of us. "She hasn't done anything underhanded. She hasn't pushed for some sort of problematic policy. If anything, all she's done is bleed for the rest of us. Allison put her in the Dream the same as the rest of us. If the enemy, whoever that is at this point, is against her? I say that she's one of us."
Adam nodded. "But if she screws up, she's stuck out in the cold. That's okay, right? It's like some kind of probation."
I stood up to protest but Nishelle shook her head at me. "That's fine with me. But if I prove myself, by whatever means you deem necessary, I'm off of it. Right? None of this goalpost moving bullshit where I do something decent and you say it's not enough or that it doesn't show that I'm actually a team player. Because if fair is fair, then I deserve to be treated like everyone else if I manage it."
"If that's fine with everyone else, that's good with me," Adam said.
Lexi looked mutinous, but the rest of the table was nodding right along with the pair of them. Nate was visibly relieved. He bent down and began to pick up the remnants of breakfast. I scooped up a dozen plates and helped. Two of the others, Izzy and Lexi, left to hunt down a vacuum cleaner to take care of the rest of the ruin.
Nate nudged his hip against mine as we started in on the dishes. "That was smart, not chiming in. Lexi would have twisted whatever you said to suit her ideals. You knew it. You outmaneuvered her. Not a lot of people can say that about Wreckless."
"I don't know," I said, pulling on a pair of dishwashing gloves. The soap always made my arms break out. "She was acting like an idiot. I almost suggested we have James poke around in her head and make sure she was all right. I didn't think she was capable of spite like that."
"She probably thought she was intervening on your behalf and trying to help you out."
I dropped the plate I was holding. "What?"
"Yeah, Cassie, she doesn't always make a lot of sense but her heart is generally in the right place." Nate picked up the dish and scrubbed it down.
Given who it was coming from,
