Planned From The Start

"Why are you looking at me? I don't know," I told her.

"They were places where you changed, Dad. The statue was the first point in time that you felt responsibility for the lives of your friends. That beach was when it hardened after Domin passed away, and when Red drowned, you punished yourself for that too. You reached your limit, developed more within Orion's Castle, and finally, witnessed your first glimpse of Deity at the Redwood Base. All of these places you changed and developed," Faith explained to me.

"I don't understand, why is that important?" I asked her again, when she pointed at the map.

The locations she pointed at all had an interesting shape.

The shape of a diamond. Like, the stone on my left hand.

"You aren't saying... what kind of coincidence is that?" I asked, trying to push it off.

"Coincidence? Your first point of interest, the statue, who put it there?" Faith asked, turning to Illya.

"Genesis... he planted that there... didn't he?" Illya looked at me next.

"No way... this was planned? How in the hell could he have planned that this entire time?! And, how does this explain Quake's motive?!" I started to yell. This confusion was too much at this point for me.

"Genesis wants you to reawaken, Sky. Quake doesn't, that's why Kire joined Quake to stop Genesis. Quake's goal isn't to kill all Asterios, it's to stop you from reobtaining your old strength, speed, and intelligence. And, because they directly serve under Eirikr, it's probably a big operation to keep you maintained so you don't stop his plan," Illya told me.

"Wait a second..." I paused and looked at the table.

Eirikr didn't throw that Isle at me to test my strength... he was trying to kill me...

But, in a desperate effort to look like it was planned, Eirikr came up with a secondary plan in a matter of seconds to play it off. To bring Genesis to him...

He wants me to bring him Genesis so I can't defeat him.

Holy shit... Genesis was on my side this entire time?!

"What is it?" Dani asked me. I told everybody about Eirikr... but I never told them what he wanted to do with the people of Earth.

Avie's anger was starting to surge in my head, causing a bolstering headache on the left side of my skull.

"Nothing, just a weird coincidence... so, Quake's true motive is to stop me from getting stronger. So be it. They won't make it past me in this city. We'll take them all out, and nobody will be able to stop me," I said.

I felt pressure from my body behind me, and Moon put her hand on my shoulder, turning me around to look at her.

"Your motivations are fine, but if you keep falling down that path, Orion and you will soon have no differences," She said to me.

I nodded, clearing my head. Avie's rage subsided and I was able to keep a clear head again.

"We've learned a lot this meeting, right? We'll pick this back up tomorrow and begin training and preparations for Quake. You are all dismissed... except for Faith, Dani, Illya, Carl, and Sky. I have things to discuss with you," Ruby said. She sat in the chair at the opposite end of the table and everybody left except for us after about thirty seconds.

She pointed at me directly.

"What are your Incarnations?" She asked me.

"Incarnations? I don't have any," I told Ruby. She shook her head.

"When we fought Fico and Cole... you were able to tell we were about to be attacked before it happened. I couldn't even fathom why I was being pulled around, but you saved my life. What was that?" She asked me.

"Just my danger sense. I've always had it since I first woke up..." I told her. Then, I turned to Illya.

"Belle's Incarnation... to stop time... she used that on you, with that Strand Incarnation Mode thing. Illya, how did she get her Incarnation?" I asked.

My curiosity was now piqued. Ruby brought up a great point.

"She was born with it," Illya smiled.

"Then... I can sense danger. That's my Incarnation? That's kind of boring," I admitted, but she shook her head in response.

"Not exactly... hm... Sky, do you remember how you healed a ton of people with those Golden Strands? I can barely do that as often as you do it... that's because that's your Incarnation," Illya admitted to me.

"To heal people...?" I asked, but she cut me off.

"To transfer strands. To people, or away from them," She explained.

"Oh... I see... that's why you were rendered useless, isn't it? Because I stole your strands?" I asked her. Illya nodded at my statement, and I looked back to Ruby.

"My Incarnation is to steal and distribute strands... but isn't that like Zeka?" I asked Illya again. She shook her head.

"This is a lovely conversation we're having between the bunch of us here. Illya, you said Zeka's Incarnation was to heal the strands of missing people, right? That was Zeka's Incarnation... to heal people... what you're saying is Sky is already more powerful than both Cole and Zeka combined, right? The only difference is... he can't take them away. On top of that, I've noticed that Sky had all of the abilities of Shike, Belle, Alexia, and Boo. Did you take them from them too?" Carl asked me next.

"That's right... I took the abilities... and then I gave them back... that's a whole lot of power, isn't it?" I said out loud. Dani scoffed and finally finished the puzzle.

"You didn't steal their abilities, you dummy! You stole the Incarnations!" She finally revealed it to me.

"The power to take Incarnations and give them to others was precisely the reason I had your power after you died. I gave it to you because that was the last ability you received. Is that making sense now?" Illya asked me.