Things settled down a little for The Gatewatch. It had to since it wasn't every day Emrakul tried to destroy a plane, and certainly not every day that they were forced to get alone. It was more than just a game of chess to Jace, but he wasn't happy with all the moves he had to make just to get everyone in the same place at the same time. Gideon was pretty easy to please, but the food bill went through the roof. Chandra was the same as Gideon, constantly eating whatever was in front of her, but since Jace kept some very flammable books around, there was an element of constant danger. Nissa demanded as little time on such an industrialized plane so he had to be sure to only call upon her when it was important. Liliana was the biggest game move to make only because of the fact that it was Liliana. She didn't make things easier for herself. But what was he thinking allowing the person who had betrayed him the most on his team? Then he remembered Liliana coming to save all of their asses. It was a beneficial arrangement for the time being.
Today was one of their meetings. Gideon arrived perfectly on time, clapping Jace hard in the shoulder as a warm welcome, "It's nice to see you again my friend. How have things been since our last encounter?" His voice rang out through the house.
Jace stifled a laugh when he realized he never heard the man whisper. "It's been alright. Business as usual, everyone should be here shortly."
"You can always count on Chandra to be late." Nissa raised her voice just above a whisper.
Both of the men jumped, not realizing that she was there. Gideon laughed walking over to greet her, "You managed to sneak up on Jace! What an achievement."
She shrank her shoulders down in embarrassment, "I didn't mean to-" Suddenly Gideon pulled Nissa into a hug. If Nissa had a personal bubble, it was now completely destroyed. He ended the hug and started to walk to where they had their meetings. Nissa took a deep breath calming herself after the hug.
"He means well." Jace walked to her side.
"He does." Nissa agreed, "But must we always hug?"
Chandra walked through the streets - which was more of a confidant stroll - even though she was late. Cities always made her mind wander, no thanks to the memories of her running through similar streets as a kid. She turned the corner to Jace's house and went to knock on the door. "I'm sure you could just walk in at this point." It was Liliana's voice right behind her.
Chandra jumped, ready to take down whatever snuck up on her, "You really shouldn't do that to me. I could have burned your eyebrows off."
Liliana laughed, not concerned about the threat. In a fluid motion she gestured to the door, "Are you going to go in first or should I?" Chandra didn't make the first move, so Liliana walked past her, "I don't understand why you're so hesitant to be here. Jace is more than welcoming isn't he?"
"He is," Chandra agreed, "But I think, he thinks, I'm a sneeze away from setting his library on fire."
"Jace is afraid of anything he can't control or fully explain himself." Liliana walked through the door, making herself home in a place where she was most certainly not. "I guess we are the last to arrive."
"Hopefully Gids left me some food."
"Ravnica food always leaves me unsatisfied."
"Zombies better at cooking dinner?" Chandra joked.
Liliana nodded with a smile, "They're usually good, except every once in awhile you get a spare finger or eyeball in your stew. Other than that, it's to die for." Liliana kept walking, while Chandra stopped in her track, not sure if it was hilarious or nauseating.
Gideon looked up from the table, once they came into view. He stood, going over to Chandra giving her just as big of a hug as Nissa, "My friend! How have you been!" He looked back at her, giving her a stern point, "You've been behaving yourself correct."
Chandra shrugged. Her cheeks would have turned pink if they weren't always constantly rosy and pink. "I mean I've been trying." It was the truth, and Gideon knew it.
The two caught up while Liliana slinked into the seat at the end of the table. She made herself at home, leaning into the chair examining her nails. Jace walked to her holding a book under his arm, "Lili," He sighed, "That's my chair." He knew it was a childish demand, but he also knew that it was exactly what Liliana expected and wanted to happen. Nissa watched the two of them from the far end of the table. She wasn't happy with Liliana being on the table: Not one bit.
"Oh you're chair." She looked at him in mock thoughtfulness, "Would you like me to move."
"Quit it Liliana." Nissa cut in with actual volume. "If you're going to be apart of us, you need to at least be.. Courteous!"
The whole room froze, looking at Nissa. Even Lili was impressed. She dipped her head down, and rose from the chair, "Well since you asked nicely." As she passed Jace she gave him a look to continue their power exchange. She relocated to another chair, this time on the left side of Jace. Gideon sat on the right side of the table with Nissa, and Chandra sat with Liliana. "So what happens at these little meetings?"
"Well," Jace sighed, exhaling the stress of mile long to-do list, with the pressure of keeping all the planes from disaster, "We figure out what we're doing. Anyone hear anything suspicious?"
"Innistrad is a mess, but I don't think anything we can do will help it." Liliana laughed then looked around the table realizing that they didn't find it as funny as she did, "Oh please, the man has been nothing but unhelpful."
"I may have something.." Chandra spoke up from besides Liliana. To the rest of the Gatewatch, this was new. Of course she was helpful in a fight, and finishing a plate of fish beast but she was never really one to plan an assault. She reached into her pocket pulling out a tan paper, with red ink scrawled on the side of the paper, "This flyer was given to me a few weeks ago, somewhere where they got word of what happened with Emrakul." The whole table seemed to stifle a shudder - or for Liliana a grimace, "It's about Kaladesh."
"Go on," Jace leaned his elbows on the table.
"Well, they have been regulating Mana for some time now and some people have become concerned that there's some issue in the government concerning it."
"Like a shortage of Mana?" Nissa questioned.
"It's like they're taxing it. The powerful are keeping it all for themselves. There's this inventors fair-" She evened out the flyer, putting it on the table for the rest of them to read, "I think it's worth looking into."
Jace leaned back, "Chandra the last thing that we did was stop a Giant Eldrazi creature from ripping the planes apart. We can't be chasing every single injustice on the multiverse."
"But this is bigger than that! They have ships that-"
"I'm afraid I have to agree with Jace on this." Gideon looked over to their leader, "We need to come up with an intervening point, or else we'll exhaust ourselves."
"So we're just going to sit here." She crossed her arms. Lili could feel the warm bubble around her jump out a couple of feet, "And wait for everything to get worse?"
Gideon put his hand up to try and calm her down, "If things rise in complexity, we'll look into it." He looked around to the table, "Do we agree?"
He looked to Nissa who nodded her head, "I think that seems logical. I mean, it's concerning, but I don't think we are the authority."
"We won't be of any use until we build up a reputation for good." Jace agreed with the rest. The table tried not to look at the elephant - more like Necromancer - in the room but they eventually turned to hear her opinion.
"Well I'm touched my you jumping to the chance to ask me what I thought." Liliana said with her usual protective tone of confidence. She looked up to think and then turned to face Chandra, "I think that you should keep investigating it. Is this a Gatewatch matter, of course not. But that's only because all of us would attract too much attention." The table looked at Lili, amazed she was actually trying to help. "Oh please everyone! Stop looking at me like you keep expecting me to kill all of you, and use your bodies for an evil plot."
"The fact that you thought that all out so carefully…" Jace said slowly, "Makes it less reassuring."
"Anyway, " Liliana rolled her eyes, "What's to stop one or two of us from going and looking into these little cases?"
"Because it splits us up." Nissa pointed out, "It makes us weaker."
"But it makes our appearance seem stronger." Chandra could see where Liliana was coming from. For once it was nice to not have to do everything in a team always. They had all fought their fair share of battles on their own.
As they brain stormed their voices grew louder and louder, "No!" Jace stopped them, "No more bickering. I don't like that idea, and Chandra, I don't want you going off and looking into your own cases. That makes us as unpredictable as the enemy. You of all people should know the risks of being unpredictable."
Chandra's hair bursted into flames, "Excuse me?"
Jace could see that he set a ball into motion he wasn't prepared to stop, "That's not what-"
With a loud scrape, she stood up from her chair and pointed at Jace. It was a small remark, that was a mystery to everyone else in the room, made her lose control of herself. "We can't all just 'Mind Sculpt' the people around us so there isn't any resistance. The lines aren't that clear Beleren." She puffed as she thought of other things to say.
"That is not what I meant. Do not put intentions into my mouth." Jace instructed, "Why can't you just think about the strategy we're working out here?"
"Because there are people, on Kaladesh, who need our help! I need to go b-" She stopped, straightening her back as she realized that emotions that she couldn't control were more than she expected. "We need to help them." Chandra looked at the table for support, "Come on, Gideon, you're not even on my side."
Gideon sighed, looking at Chandra with sad eyes, "There are more people than just one plane. If we play our cards right, we can save them all." Liliana used all her might not to roll her eyes, or gag on the sentiment. It would give her away to simply.
Chandra looked down at her feet. "Fine. I understand." She didn't sit back down, but instead walked straight out of their meeting room.
Lili watched her leave and noticed that no one was going to go after her. She was an overly emotional youngster at one point. She knew that all Chandra needed was someone to talk to, to help teach her how to get what she needed from the people around her. As Liliana stood up to follow Chandra, she thought: 'I could be her diabolic tutor.'