John watched Six as she left the room with Sam. She closed the door behind her, leaving him and Nine alone at the table.

"Well…" Nine started. "Could have gone worse."

"It always can," John replied.

Only a couple of empty chairs separated them from each other. The chairs were filled by their friends just minutes before the meeting ended. Sam, Malcolm, and Six had stayed behind to talk a little more, but even then they didn't really come to an agreement.

John wanted the human garde to feel like they knew what was going on and a part of everything, so most meetings weren't private, but he had decided that this one should be. Multiple governments from across the world were sending threats New Loriens way. The meeting was to address a few of them.

New garde were being discovered every day and Malcolm had made the guess that Earth might be trying to imitate what happened on Lorien. Half of the population becomes garde and the rest stay the same.

It scared John.

Firstly, they were already starting to run out of room to house the new human garde, and they were still trying to get to the garde before anybody else could. Ella was doing a good job with helping, but never gave away as much as John needed.

Nine got up from his chair and walked closer to John. "You didn't say much," he stated.

"Yeah," John replied with a sigh. "Wasn't much to say."

It's true. John had just overlooked the meeting while everyone else put their opinions out there.

"Hm," Nine hummed as he studied John.

"What?" John said.

"Walk with me," Nine told him before walking past him to the door. John raised an eyebrow before following.

Nine had changed. A lot. John thought that it was a gradual thing, he changed a little after Eight's death and the war, then a bit when he became the professor of the academy. But then John didn't see him for a while and in that time he had changed more than John was expecting. Nine was more level headed and had the capability to be a leader. John saw how he acted around Nigel and his other students. He was still protective, but very caring. Something that John would have had trouble describing Nine as just a couple years ago.

John followed Nine out of the caves and into the bright light outside. They both walked in silence as they made their way towards the edge of one of the many forests in and around New Lorien. John had had a lot of time to explore the area when the war ended, so he knew his way around. Nine was still learning where everything was, but he and Nigel went on hikes, so he was getting the hang of it.

"What do you think we should do?" Nine asked.

John assumed he was talking about the meeting. "I'm not sure," he said. "I don't want to cause more trouble than we already have, but I think that the world will force our hand."

"Yeah," Nine sighed. "That seemed to be the main argument."

Six was ready to fight, and she made it known. Sam and Malcolm were on her side, but they thought they should wait a little longer to see if fighting was needed. Nigel had the same thoughts. He had seen what the foundation could do and wanted to rescue as many human garde as he could, and Caleb was following his lead.

"And what if Malcolm's right? Half of the population becomes garde? We would need more space," John said.

"A lot more space, Johnny, we'd need half of the world. And more teachers," Nine added.

They had built a new academy, which Nine had become the head of immediately. Malcolm and Lexa both took up their previous positions there, but a lot of people didn't want anything to do with the human garde anymore. Sam had actually stepped up and decided to try and teach. It went pretty well and he bonded with some of the students quickly.

Taylor had tried to convince John to teach, but he knew that most of the kids still didn't trust him.

"How is the academy doing, by the way?" John asked, trying to veer away from the topic at hand.

"Would be better if you were there," Nine said with a smirk in John's direction. John rolled his eyes at the gesture. "C'mon! The great Pitticus Smith teaching the next generation of superpowered teens? It'd be great."

John winced a little at the use of his past name.

"Sorry," Nine said as he noticed. Another thing that John would never expect from the old Nine. An apology.

"You're good," John replied as he waved him off. "I'm just busy with a lot right now, and I really don't think teaching would be the best thing for me."

"Alright…you're always welcome to change your mind, though."

"Thanks."

A small lake came into view as they walked. Nine continued walking to it until he was right at the edge of the water. John joined him, looking out over the smooth surface.

"Can you breathe underwater?" Nine asked.

"Yeah, Marina showed me how. Why?"

"Just wondering."

They fell into silence for a while before John reached down and took his shoes off. Nine watched with interest as he took off his socks and stuffed them into his shoes. He slipped his shirt off before handing it to Nine.

His ximic had let him copy shape shifting, so he didn't need to use a binder anymore. It was a lot more comfortable this way, plus it didn't really take a lot of effort after he practiced it. It was just second nature now.

John stepped into the water. It got up to his knees before he dived into the depths. He took in a lungful of water, waiting as his legacy kicked in. When it did he sank to the bottom of the lake and watched as fish swam around him.

Marina had said that the experience always helped her calm down, but it was a little unnerving to John.

He pushed off of the rocky bottom after a few minutes, and swam to the surface. His head broke through the water and the rest of his body followed as he began floating.

"Hey!" Nine called from the shore, waving to him.

John flew over to him, touching down on the sand beside him. His lumen legacy started up and he dried himself quickly.

"You were under there for a while," Nine said with a nervous smile.

"Worried?" John asked, expecting some smart remark in response.

Nine's smile faded. "Yeah, a little."

"Oh."

They stared at each other awkwardly for a couple seconds before Nine cleared his throat and handed John his shirt. "Thanks," John told him as he pulled it on over his head.

"No problem," Nine replied.

They ended up walking back the way they had come, still an awkward kind of aura around them.

"We should go on a picnic out here sometime," Nine said suddenly.

"Yeah?" John asked.

Nine wanted to go on a picnic. That was new.

"Yeah. There are a bunch of nice places for it. You free tomorrow?"

"Uh, yeah, I guess," John replied.

"Sweet."