Communing: the ability to speak with and return spirits that have not crossed over to the mortal plane to resolve unfinished business.

Tyler slams the door behind Tiana's father and spins on his heels, eyes red with fury. "What the hell, guys?"

The two instantly start apologizing, stumbling over their words and each other. They got maybe ten words out total before Tyler shuts them up.

"Calm down, I'm not blaming you guys for anything," he says. "Well, maybe you, Tia, because of my hand, but I'm not mad. I'm just confused. Very fucking confused. I'm the empath here and I almost punched a wall the other day. Josh is basically a baby kitten and he could've killed Hayley with a kitchen knife. You- well, you're kind of angry all the time, so maybe that's not as surprising."

"Hey!" Tiana protests.

"What's happening to us? Why can't we control our emotions?" Josh asks.

He can almost see the smoke coming out of Tyler's ears as he furrows his eyesbrows in thought. "I don't know. What do we all have in common?"

"None of us are straight," Tiana snorts.

"Tati!" Josh shoots her a dirty look.

"What, am I wrong?"

"I highly doubt that's the reason," Tyler rolls his eyes. Josh doesn't even have time to process that he basically confirmed he isn't straight. "It's got to be something else, something to do with Alley Cat."

"Maybe it was the machine? I mean, Josh and I both got fucked up by it."

"Yeah, but it was programmed to attack only you two, not me, and it didn't do anything to me."

Josh's stomach twists. "What if... it's our powers? We all got them through Alley Cat one way or another. What if he can manipulate us through that?"

"But that doesn't make any sense," Tiana mutters, though Josh can already see the gears turning in her head. "Unless he still has pieces of the broken philosopher's stone and he can use them to remotely mess with us. But that still doesn't explain-"

"That must be how he's powers the machines," he says, cutting Tiana off.

Tyler looks between the two kids, at the door, then back before sighing and sitting down into a chair, head in his hands. "Shit. We need to call Hayley."

"No way!" Josh protests just as Tiana yells "over my dead body!"

"She's the only one who knows how the stones work," Tyler says sternly.

"Did you just forgot the part where she baited us to a super villain?" Josh retorts.

Tiana nods furiously. "Yeah, asshole, I got my wings clipped 'cause of her."

"I don't like this either, but what other choice do we really have?" Tyler pulls his phone out. "If there was anything else I could do, I'd do it.

"We can handle this ourselves," Josh says. "We've done it before, and we-"

"And you almost almost died, Josh. I'm not risking your life again."

Tiana speaks up. "I saw something."

Josh and Tyler turn to her.

"There was a survivor from the first explosion," she elaborates. "A girl named Ashley. After I tried to destroy the machine, I saw her come in and yell at Alley Cat, saying that this wasn't the plan. She told him that they were supposed to find the third one. When I blinked, she was gone, like a ghost."

"Or a memory," Josh mumbles. "What if you saw something that happened in the past? Your powers are time based, anyways."

Tyler squawks. "What? Since when?"

"Since forever, genius. Took you long enough to find that out." Tiana rolls her eyes. "Anyways, she said something out this abandoned building near the edge of town. Canopy Hall, I think?"

"They have to be planning something there," Josh says.

"Like what?" Tyler scoffs. "The stone fragments are useless. All they can do is-" he stops, eyes widening with an unseen revelation. "Oh my god."

"What?" Tiana asks.

He doesn't respond, only pocketing his phone and standing up. "We're screwed, we're so fucking screwed."

"What's going on, Ty?" Josh reaches for him.

Tyler swats his hand away, a small shock from the touch making Josh jump. "I think I know who Alley Cat is, and it's not our survivor. Jesus, I should've seen it earlier. He was so obsessed with the stone before the accident that it was so obvious."

"Who?"

"Brendon, he was the head scientist. They didn't find his body. My parents were good friends with him, and they used to say that he loved his work more than his own husband. When the explosion happened, most assumed he'd been disintegrated like some of the others. But he's the only one crazy enough to do something like this."

Josh smacks Tiana's shoulder. "The textbook we found. Do you still have it?"

"It's in my book bag," she says. "Oh god, he knows our powers. He knows everything."

"Ty, what do we do?" Josh turns to Tyler, who's zoned out, eyes wide and hands shaking. He's never seen him this scared before.

Tyler looks up, face pale, and gulps. "We have to hide."

"Wha- dude, we have school. I've already missed a whole week, I could fail because of this-"

"Do you want to die?" He snaps, making Josh freeze. "Because if we don't hide and try to disconnect ourselves from the stones, we're all going to go fucking crazy and then die."

Tiana exchanges a surprised look with Josh. "Okay, so we hide. And when we're ready, we go to Canopy Hall and finish this."

Josh sighs. "Fine. As long as you promise to tell me what's going on with you," he glares at Tyler.

"Are you two a couple yet?" Tiana asks.

He squeaks, face going hot. "D- dude! No, we're not together!"

"You think I'd date someone a foot shorter than me?" Tyler jokes.

"It's not my fault you're like ten feet tall!"