Decisions

Skylar clears her throat, looking uncomfortable with what she's about to say. "I....wasn't dealing with the ambush very well. I got incredibly unpleasant flashbacks to what happened to my brother. But I still was able to pick this up from Mathias and the way he was speaking." She says.

"It's something I've noticed in you, Mia. And you Olivia. And Belle. And I'm worried about you falling into it too Gemma, because you're our leader." Skylar continues. She takes a deep breath. "It's this mindset of believing that you're infallibly right." She lays out.

"Mathias is a sociopath, but his biggest flaw is that he doesn't believe he can be wrong. He's stubbornly committed to what he believes in. He doesn't think anybody else but him can do what he thinks is right, and he thinks his ends justify his means."

"Mia. I'm sorry to say this, I know you're already feeling guilty and probably already know this, but I need to get this out there. You've been getting more quick to anger because you think you're right. You haven't been able to listen to calm reasoning." Mia hangs her head in shame.

"Olivia. Every time Belle is around, you fight and antagonise each other. You're both so stubbornly devoted to your viewpoints and it drove you apart before. It's preventing you from working together for the good of others now. Neither of you are willing to give any ground to the other." She says. Olivia looks embarrassed at Skylar calling her out like this.

She looks around at all of us. "We all need to be able to question ourselves, you most of all Gemma. You're going to be the most powerful of us all one day, by a lot. You're our leader. We all need to be able to listen to each other and accept that we might not know everything or be right about everything." Skylar says.

"We need to be better than Mathias. That's been in my head for a while now. If, IF, we end up defeating him and taking charge of Sydney to run the place, whether or not we kill people who are hurting others is only one part of the picture."

"I feel like it's just as important, if not more, that we're able to question ourselves and whether we're really doing the right thing with the power and influence we have. Because it doesn't matter how good our intentions are. If we can't question ourselves and listen to others, we're going to end up being just as bad as Mathias." Skylar sums up succinctly.

Silence follows her speech. We're all processing her words. I can understand the truth in them, and a part of me wishes I'd been able to say it myself. "Well said dear." Olivia says, and Skylar flushes slightly. "I'm sorry, I don't want to lecture you all. I just wanted to put this out there." She says.

Olivia chuckles lightly. "I just said that you did a good job." She says, massaging Skylar's arm gently. "Thank you....I just....yeah." She says, unsure how to respond. Skylar leans into Olivia, resting her head on the older woman’s shoulder. Olivia puts an arm around her and squeezes gently. I smile at the sight.

The two of them have been getting slowly closer. Skylar says it’s because they can just exist in silence around each other. It makes me happy to see how comfortable they are with each other. Olivia’s a very private person, and consistently puts our goals ahead of her connections with us. The exception to that seems to be Skylar.

“I’m sorry y’all. I know I’ve said it already, but I know I messed up. I’m sorry. I’m going to be better.” Mia promises. I nod in acknowledgement. “Thank you. We believe in you.” I say, smiling at her in support. Lena puts her hand on Mia’s thigh and squeezes softly in encouragement. Mia nods gratefully at the water mage.

“Thank you Skylar. You’re right. We need to be able to question ourselves and listen to each other’s viewpoints. With that being said, we need to decide what our response is going to be to his demands. Everybody needs to have their say.” I put forward, looking around the guild to see who wants to start the conversation.

Mia clears her throat, and we turn to her. “I…I’m a little worried about being too overconfident like Skylar was saying, so I’m open to thoughts but…I kinda don’t think we need to talk about whether or not you’re giving him your power. We just need to decide when we’re going to fight him.” She says.

“I mean it kinda matters, cause you said he wanted to save lives or something right? Shouldn’t we talk about that?” Lena asks. Ivy shakes her head emphatically. “There’s nothing to talk about there. Even if that’s what he intends to do, Gemma giving her powers to Mathias means I might die, or somehow be bound to Mathias. I’m not going through that.” Ivy states firmly, shuddering at the thought.

“There’s no way I’m giving up my power to Mathias. Ivy’s too important to me, and to us all.” I say. “I’d rather die.” Ivy agrees. Skylar opens her mouth, but I hold up my hand to forestall what I know is coming. “I know we just said that we should be open to questioning ourselves, but I think there’s also a line. I’m not going to consider sacrificing one of our own, not if we have any other option.” I tell her.

Skylar sighs, but nods. “As long as we’re still open generally, that’s fair. I don’t like the principal, but realistically, I wouldn’t consider it either.” She says. The rest of the group voices their agreement. “Sorry babes, I didn’t know Gemma giving up her power would do that. I didn’t mean that we should sacrifice you.” Lena apologises to Ivy.

Ivy tips her head in acknowledgement. “It’s okay. None of us actually know what would happen, but my creation is a part of Gemma’s power set. It’s a fair assumption that whatever would happen, wouldn’t be good for me.” Our healer says. “Which means Mia’s right. If we’re all on the same page that I shouldn’t give him my powers, and that we need to fight him, the only question is when.” I bring the discussion back.

Emma speaks up first. “He said he’d start killing people if we were more than an hour late, right?” She asks, looking around for clarification. The others nod solomnly. She sighs, shaking her head. “I can’t let that happen. I don’t know how we’re going to win, but I can’t let people die just so we get more time to train.” She puts forward.

Lena looks conflicted. “I really wish I could just say that we should hide in here for a bunch, get strong as shit, then beat his ass when Gemma’s a higher level than him. But I can’t deal with letting people die either. I vote we fight him on Saturday morning.” She says, resting her head against her girlfriend’s shoulder.

“It is the more practical solution to wait. It is an awful decision to have to make, but I believe the better thing to do is give ourselves as much training time as we can. I do not know if we can grow strong enough to win against Mathias and his guild within three weeks.” Olivia says. One vote for waiting, two for fighting on Saturday.

Elsa looks around, somewhat shy. “I-I think I agree with Olivia. I might be able to keep up the time dilation past three weeks, I’m really not sure. But you guys should train as much as you can. I think it would be better in the long run if you got as strong as you could before fighting him.” She says in her soft voice, and completely to my surprise. I guess Elsa did say that she’s used to turning off her emotions to the suffering in Sydney for practical reasons.

“I agree with Olivia that it’s more practical to wait. I wish I could say that we should just ignore it all and get stronger but….I just don’t think I can. I think we need to fight him on Saturday. I think we have to try.” Skylar voices uncertainly, clearly annoyed with herself about her decision.

“I think it’s pretty obvious how I feel. I can’t bear the idea of waiting just so we can get a little more powerful. I think we need to train hard and fight them on Saturday.” Mia says. Her confidence is returning, but I can still hear the note of fear in her voice.

Ivy looks around at all of us, her eyes lingering on Mia and I in particular. She bows her head and sighs, and I can feel the shame radiating off her. “I vote that we wait and get stronger than Mathias before we fight him. I really want to help people….but I feel like protecting each other is more important than that…I don’t want to risk our lives again, not when we’re so heavily outmatched…” She says. I put an arm around her and hold her close.

“It’s okay babygirl. We all get it. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.” I tell her. The others murmur their agreement. Ivy sighs again, and looks back up at me, awaiting my answer. “So that’s 3 for waiting, and 4 for fighting on Saturday. I think we need to fight on Saturday. Mathias is right, the smug bastard. I can’t let people die.” I conclude.

“We need to ask Paige what she thinks as well. And do you know if Belle is going to work with us?” I ask Olivia. Our mentor sighs. “I’ll talk to her. Skylar was right, I’m letting my own feelings get in the way of working with her. I’ll see what I can do.” She says.

I nod. “I guess that’s where we stand for the moment. Does anybody else have anything to add?” I ask, looking around at the group. Universal shaking of heads. “Alright. I’m gonna go talk to Paige. We’ll decide what to do in a few hours.” I say. “I’m coming with you.” Ivy states. “Me too.” Emma insists. I shake my head. “She might be overwhelmed. I know you’re worried about her, but Ivy and I will handle it for the moment.” I tell her. Emma looks disappointed, but accepts my answer.