The Worst Bunch

"The next member of Quake is Kire... which is Ra's father. He was under the impression you died a long time ago and joined Quake for the purpose of taking down Genesis, not fighting you, Sky. He is the most likely candidate who would join our side if he saw his son again, but on the off-chance, he doesn't... his Incarnation is a beam of strands, so fast and solidified, that it can burn through anything, melt it into ash, and then keep going. This isn't exclusive to a single point... and can be focused around him. He can become a ball of molten lava if he decides to," Illya explained.

"I see what you mean... none of these abilities bounce off of each other, but if they were put together, they would be way too dangerous," I chipped in, looking at the camera zoom in on Kire.

"I wanted to talk about these next two members extensively... this one, and this one," Ruby said, zooming in on Cole... and then a masked one who I didn't see.

"I know a little about Cole. I can explain this one. He told me that he has a vendetta against me, and would do anything to kill me. Avie made quick work of Cole before it became a problem, but Faithy and I fought him, separated his head from his body, and still healed like it was nothing. However, when Avie kicked him at that fast speed, he couldn't react... I was thinking that his ability can only handle what he can perceive, so if we hit him fast, he'll go down," I explained.

"He talked about that vendetta a little when we threw him in that cage... tell me, what did you do to him?" Ruby asked.

"Four hundred years ago, in my old body, it is to my understanding that I murdered his family in cold blood because I was betrayed. I cannot excuse my past actions," I told her.

"I'm not asking you to, I just wanted to know... and that other member, the masked one. What do you know about her?"

"Nothing, I didn't even see her until Avie hit her. I couldn't sense her presence... but when Avie was taking out all of Quake, something about her didn't feel right. It's like I've fought her before. I don't want it to bother me too much, so for the time being, we know nothing about her," I said.

"Okay, so let's recap. We have Fico, who hasn't used her Incarnation. With her is that mysterious person we don't know either. That's two Incarnations we don't know about. Then, we have two regenerative ones, Zeka and Cole, who can heal strands and themselves. After that we have two, technically three attackers if you count Austin and Amy as two people," Ruby mentioned, looking at the table with a concentrated face again.

"Wait a minute... two healers... two attackers... what is logically left?" Mandi asked. She asked to take control of the table and began to make a drawing with her fingers for all to see.

"Two attackers... devoted to attacking obviously. Then, we have two healers. Let's look at their abilities in depth. One of the attackers, Austin, has an attack that can affect multiple people. To be able to turn anything into blades is pretty intense... but Kire? He can only focus on one person at a time. If we compare that information to Cole and Zeka, it's the same thing. Zeka can heal multiple people, but Cole can only heal himself... that's how Quake operates!" Mandi shouted out.

Woah... she made an extremely good point.

"Mandi... that's genius!" Carl shouted out.

"Quake operates on the basis that two people of each class, whether it be the unknown one, attackers, or healers, can hit multiple people, or only one," She added on, looking over at Illya.

"What was your role? What was your Incarnation?" I asked Illya, anticipating Mandi's next question.

"I only ever revealed one ability to them, and it was strand control. I was placed in the same group as Zeka and Cole because of it," Illya told us.

"Strand control. Strand distribution, and strand manipulation," Alexia finally butted in next.

"What...? Wait, how do you know about that?" I asked her.

Alexia had revived an old skill set that I studied to develop my strands along the way. That was almost the exact pattern I followed to train myself. Then... Quake knew that pattern as well, and tried to adapt it to improve its power.

I was connecting several thoughts in my mind now. Kire joined Quake to stop Genesis, but all of Quake wanted Avie and me. What is Quake's goal?

"Illya, what was the goal of Quake? There are too many motivations here for me to pinpoint a reason they would try that style of recruitment," I asked her.

She simply shrugged.

"I wasn't allowed to know," She told me.

"It's to kill all Asterios, isn't it?" Lia asked next.

"Now that you mention it, I was told to report about an anomaly on the Isle... which happened to be Sky. I might've revived you, but people have had their eyes on you before you even woke up. The goal of Quake probably isn't to kill all Asterios, or else my brother wouldn't be leading them... the true goal of Quake probably involves..." Illya's sentence began to slow down as she stared at the table.

"What? What is it?" Ruby asked her.

"Mom, do you mind if I explain?" Faith asked in Illya's stead. She nodded, and Faith took the helm at the table.

She was the shortest here, so it was funny to watch her slightly peak over the tall table. I lifted her up to stand on a chair and she pointed at the dead center of Zealous.

"Take me to The Isle. You were examining it, right?" Faith asked Ruby. She reluctantly nodded and pulled up a map of our old home.

"Right here. This was the statue, correct? I'll mark that as our first point of interest," Faith began, looking towards the north.

"Orion's base, mark that next," Faith ordered.

"Then, this beach, and that redwood forest," Faith explained, finally taking a deep breath.

"What do all of these things have in common?" She looked at me.