Wait A Moment

--Sky's Perspective--

---One Day Later---

"So, what's next? With the threat of Quake eliminated, it seems that we're in a peaceful era... but I know that's not the case, right?" Dani asked Illya.

Grouped together were Dani, Belle, Illya, Lia, Mandi, Charlie, Griff, Ellie, and me. As things progressed down on Earth, we seemed to be the leaders of our specific groups. Griff had an outlet that reached a few people the rest of us couldn't relate to, and the same was true with Charlie, Mandi, and Ellie as well.

"We're in an era that is a means for training. We'll have to improve our bodies and minds as much as possible to continue from here on out... will Umbra be here soon?" Illya asked, turning to me. I knew she was asking Avie.

"Umbra should be here in a few minutes," Avie told me, which I mimicked and told everybody else.

"Few minutes... I thought she would've run here immediately after the attack yesterday. I guess she's getting smarter," Illya said, putting her finger to her lip.

"By waiting, she removes any surprise attack on her from Quake, right? I don't think Quake will be returning anytime soon... at least, not to anybody connected to Avie." I suggested to Illya, and she nodded.

"By the way, that was your plan? To use Illya's Incarnation around the entire planet so Quake couldn't escape?" Griff asked me, to which I nodded.

I'll admit, the plan itself didn't line up with my average intelligence. On the Isle, I was an idiot. I was reckless and didn't think things through... ever since the fight with Providence, I've been thinking about the past a lot. The things people taught me... and the things some of them won't get the chance to teach me. My intelligence can win fights, I know it can... and this is the first one that I've won because of it.

"Simply impressive... I didn't know we had such a powerful ability amongst our ranks." Mandi said. She mimicked Illya's posture while lost in thought.

"That's what Xavier was going to explain to me. When you cut me, you disabled the strands in my body somehow with your Incarnation... but why just me? Why didn't you do that to anybody else?" Lia asked Illya next, sitting down beside her.

"I found you to be more troublesome. Those who think they're in debt will work until it's paid, at least genuine people will." Illya said to her without looking at Lia. I wasn't sure if that was a compliment... or what.

"Master, Umbra is near. Can we please switch places?" Avie asked me in my head. I forgot nobody else could hear her and spoke out loud.

"I told you not to call me Master. It's Sky." I said with my eyes closed. I realized that everybody else could hear my voice, and turned my body the opposite way. How embarrassing...

"Woah, so Avie can switch bodies with you at will? That's amazing... are you Avie right now?" Belle asked her.

Since she was in my body, Avie was responding in her own way, with her own voice.

"Correct. Sky and I can switch out control of the same body whenever we both agree to it." Avie told her, looking toward the hill near the edge of the city.

"Why don't you have a body? Umbra has one..." Dani asked. It seemed to be a sensitive subject to Avie.

"It was stripped away from me. Illya, can I tell the story?" Avie shifted her mood and her eyes were glowing through the darkness of the shadows around her.

Illya agree, and Avie began a story I hadn't heard yet.

"When Master... Sky was betrayed, right before he died, the last thing they took from him was me. They ripped my body away from him and killed me in front of him, and that was the last thing he saw before unraveling into a psychotic, murderous rampage. If I hadn't been so weak, the conflict with Quake would've never existed, or at least had been weak enough to take on without the need for my power." Avie said. It didn't seem like that bad of a story...

But, I was betrayed. That seems to be the general view of my past.

"Why did you have to ask permission to tell that story?" Charlie asked Avie.

"I'm not sure what your minds can or cannot handle. If your amnesia wears off suddenly and you heard about the past, you'd be put into a comatose state while remembering who you used to be. That's why nothing has been explained to you, and why nothing will continue to be explained to you. Just know, the story of the past is like the Dark Ages of the Twenty-First Century. Nothing good comes from that era." Avie explained to everybody.

So, that was why the stories were being suppressed from me. Even Providence had kept stuff from me... but why would she care about my mind frying itself if she had the goal of killing me?

"I-I see..." Ellie mumbled.

"I have so many questions for you... like, how are you so fast?! Boo could only move at that speed like four times or something... and you did it consistently! What's your secret?!" Dani asked. I remembered, she was naturally a fast person, but now that Avie was here, nobody could compete in that category.

"Well... I can't go full speed in this body, so it's not my full speed, but I was designed to move as fast as strands do. Considering Strands are so integrated into our reality that they make up light waves, sound waves, gravitational waves, and even radiation waves, Strands need to move that fast in order to create everything. In short, it's the Speed of Creation. That's how fast I can truly move, but I'm only barely faster than light speed in Mast- Sky's body." Avie explained.

Wow... I knew she was faster than I could perceive.