Mr. Shotuku stood in front of the fire, watching the tiny flickers and embers that shot out of its orange glow. His eyes began to move between the different people sitting around him, roaming over the students, then the androids, then the doctor. Porter watched the old man's head rotate, trying to pry into the elder's mind. How much had Shotuku known prior to all of this? Was each step, each mission, been just a part of some larger game, something that had always been leading to this exodus?

A squawk rung out from the forest and a pair of birds burst out of the foliage, shooting up through the darkening sky. It shocked Porter out of his thoughts, snapping him back to reality. Only then did he notice the rest of his colleagues were looking at him expectantly and they must have asked him a question.

"Oh uhm..." Porter's eyes went wild, flipping back and forth in the hopes of drawing a hint out of somebody, but he found nothing.

"I told you he didn't follow," Ardwen said, chuckling a little alone before falling silent. He was still trying to lighten the spirit among the students, but they were all waiting for Porter's reaction before they would know how to feel.

"Yeah, sorry, I kind of zoned out a bit there." Porter absently rubbed the back of his head, a stupid grin spread across his face to deflect criticism for his loss of focus. There was a serious moment of silence shared among the group before they all burst out laughing at a still-useless Porter.

"You haven't learned anything have you?" Riya spoke between fits of giggling, holding her side.

"I was paying attention, I was just thinking about things!" Porter attempted to mount a comeback, his ego shattered, but it was too late.

"Not paying attention indeed," Shotuku muttered, black slipper in hand. The dark footwear zipped through the air, smacking Porter across the face and sending him careening into the air, until he dropped down into the ocean with a splash. "This next period of time will be critical for all of you in order to deal with what may come in the future."

Porter sat up in the ocean, slowly spitting out seawater from his mouth. He didn't protest though, quite used to Shotuku's beatings at this point, and he pulled himself up from the water. He shook it off though, sitting back down around the fire to begin letting his clothing dries. "Then now what?"

Shotuku's eyebrow twitched at Porter's ignorance but he withheld another slipper. "We grow and we strengthen ourselves. If we are to be separate, as you all chose, we will have to become better than we ever were before. All of you must draw out your greatest strengths and extinguish your weaknesses."

There was an empty silence as the entire group waited for a quip at Shotuku from Chase, sitting and staring at one another. None of them wanted to acknowledge Chase's absence, and even Shotuku seemed to be waiting for the deceased teenager. Doctor Roth stood up in the pause, moving into the middle of the circle as he did not understand the gap. "I can reprogram Alpha as needed to-"

The elder man raised his hand and shook his head slowly, silencing the doctor. "We will not be using Alpha, Roth. Sigma will be assisting the students."

"Assisting? Assisting how?" Ardwen leaned forwards, eyes glued to Mr. Shotuku. It was clear from his gaze he didn't trust the teacher entirely; even Porter was able to pick that message up from Ardwen's demeanour. Do I trust him yet? Porter pondered. While he wasn't able to figure out whether or not everything had been part of a larger plan yet, he still had to decide first if he could work with Shotuku moving forward.

"To become better pilots, you must become better people." Shotuku began his explanation by sweeping his arm over the group, very aware of their trepidations. "This is something that you have learned for some time as students at Saint Maurius. But we can only take you so far with sparring against each other and practicing combat. Sigma provides a chance for us to elevate ourselves, to generate experience that would take years to normally create."

"By doing what?" Porter cocked his head to the side, not entirely able to follow what was going on.

"We will fight him." Raul spoke blankly without looking up, his hands occupied with a piece of driftwood he was studying. He seemed to be the only one in the group who had endured additional training in his lifetime, stemming from when he had be taught the way of the ninja. As such, he had been able to decipher what Shotuku was hinting at as he spoke.

"Yes, you will spar with Sigma." The elder professor shot Raul a dirty glance, upset over the loss of his spotlight and big reveal. "You will all duel Sigma in hand-to-hand combat to improve your abilities."

"But he'll kill us," Porter blurted out. "He will literally kill us. That isn't a figure of speech or reaction. He will one-hundred percent kill us."

"Give me some credit Porter," Sigma cut in, his purple eyes piercing through the fire to stare across at his brother. "I can maintain appropriate levels of strength as needed."

Memories of a giant wave flashed through Porter's head but he shook it off. It seemed this was the plan moving forward and they were sticking to it.

* * * * *

Porter's hand collided with purple metal, bouncing aside harmlessly and sending a painful vibration up his arm. Sigma had batted aside his punch once again, and returned to a peaceful stand. The android barely moved while they fought, just watching Porter at all times, and it was killing the teen. He had taken several shots at Sigma already but had yet to make any meaningful contact. The cyborg would always duck, dodge, or deflect anything that came close to it in the blink of an eye.

Sigma had already admitted many times that he was going slow intentionally and was trying to play fair, but Shotuku had whispered some instructions and the android had been untouchable since. Ardwen was draped over a log, exhausted from his failed bout, and Nami was sitting on the ground, trying to wipe away the sweat and stay clean and composed after her loss.

"He can't be beat." Porter sighed, teetering a little as he stood. "He's far too fast for any human to keep up with him."

"Is he?" Shotuku motioned towards Sigma. "He seems to be moving at a relatively normal speed for a well-trained human; nothing you could not match one day."

"Exactly, one day, just not this day."

Shotuku smacked his hand into his face at the ignorance of his students. "Obviously this is going to take much longer than I anticipated." The elder moved between Sigma and Porter, his eyes moving between the two of them. "Why are you losing this fight Porter?"

Porter rolled his eyes. "I just said why. He's way too fast."

"Why are you winning Sigma?"

Sigma shrugged, his larger frame towering over the other two. "I guess."

"You guess what?" Porter asked, trying to get his brother to finish the sentence. "What do you guess?"

"No, I just guess." Sigma's face stayed flat during his speaking, his expression consistent at all times.

"Exactly." Shotuku shook his head at Porter in disappointment. "He guesses. It is a predictive fighting style, derived from the ability to analyze an opponent. By watching your movements and deducing likely attack patterns, Sigma can determine where you will attack before you do it."

"Anyone could have told me that," Porter panted. "This is the special training?" Porter was already thinking up ways to escape and places where he could relax on the beach. Before he could settle into a fantasy though, an image of the South Star impaled by a Bahari flashed through his mind, and his focus was restored immediately.

"Do you not plan to improve so you may endure the trials of the future? Or has your spirit disappeared?" Shotuku raised an eyebrow to match his words and emphasize his point.

Porter stared down his mentor, eye burning with newfound passion. "No, I haven't given up."

"Good, now you must begin to observe your opponent and understand where and when he will attack, as well as what he will do to block you. You must begin to calculate odds and statistics, determining the path of least resistance."

"Like electricity," Porter mumbled, and the rest of the students all fell backwards off their seats.

"You...you actually know something educational?" Shotuku stammered in his shock at Porter's fact. "Yes, very much like electricity, you will always choose...the path of least resistance." The elder eyed the teenager with suspicion, unable to determine how Porter had pulled out that knowledge when he was normally so clueless. "That being said, you will need an immense amount of focus without sacrificing any of your capacity as a fighter. Can you visualize your enemy's movements without-"

"Yes I get it." Porter cut through his teacher's speech with a cold conviction. He puffed out his chest for a moment before releasing a long exhale and drew his fists up in front of his face, prepared to resume his duel. He threw out a jab, shooting straight at Sigma's head, and the android's index finger rose into the way, deflecting the blow and redirecting it to whistle past the cyborg's ear.

Porter tried for another swing, his left arm coming around as a hook, but Sigma easily ducked it, placing his hands in front of his chest to block Porter's follow-up with his right fist. "Keep trying, you'll get there." Sigma's encouragement rung in Porter's ears with a mocking tone, spurring him into another series of blows. The android turned-aside all of them, twisting his body to dodge strikes while controlling Porter with blocks and misdirects.

"Oh I'll get there alright." A surge shot down Porter's arm, a blue tendril of lightning curling around his punch as he threw his fist forwards with blinding speed, driving it towards Sigma's abdomen. The cyborg had to catch the blow in his hand, stopping it in its tracks with his strength, and the two ceased their fighting to stare at each other.

"Don't cheat Porter," Shotuku said, scolding the young student. "Your goal is to improve your own observational skills and your analytical abilities, not alter your speed through after effects." The old man shook his head in disappointment, walking away from the pair and leaving them standing in their frozen positions. "That's enough for today."

A buzz went through Porter's body, sending shakes up and down his spine, causing him to clench his teeth. A sudden pain shot through the hand that was in Sigma's grip and he yanked it free in surprise, yelping slightly. "See, not so fun getting shocked is it?" The cyborg winked at his brother before returning to a seat around the fire.

"Say, Mr. Shotuku." Riya's voice seemed to waft around the elder, pulling him back towards the students with a smile upon his face. "Yes my lovely, precious dear?" The teacher dropped to a knee in front of the girl, head bowed in servitude. Rick stepped out of the shadows of the forest, eyeing the old man with suspicion, while Porter leaped over the fire to block Shotuku's way.

"Stay away from her, you old perv!" the two said in unison. With a twitch of his eyebrow, Shotuku had sent both Rick and Porter flying away, red marks the size of slippers stamped across their faces.

"What can I do for you, sweet Riya?" Shotuku returned his focus to the student, his demeanour shifting once more.

"How does Porter do those things with lightning when he's not in his Goliath?"

"Chase did it too!" Nami blurted out before instantly recoiling with memories of her lost love. She curled up a little and leaned onto Raul, treating the larger student as a pillow for her tiny frame. Unsure what to do, Raul simply blushed and sat perfectly, awkwardly, still.

Shotuku stood up slowly, his ageing body creaking as he moved. "Ah, that I cannot entirely explain. It is well documented that the devices within a Goliath that allow it to draw out the chi of its pilot and materialize it are bit of a mystery when it comes to long-term effects. In some cases, in most cases really, former soldiers have little-to-no side effects after using a Goliath for an extended period of time. Anything reported is usually headaches, blurry vision, things that cannot entirely be attributed to any one specific cause. But in some situations, particularly those who have a powerful chi, they experience more severe repercussions from using the battlesuits. They have been labelled as 'after effects' and they're quite strange."

"Keep in mind," Shotuku continued, taking a seat on a rock, "that a Goliath is designed to draw out and run on the innate power within all of us. Draw out enough of it, and you may end up with it being permanently dredged up from your body. Sometimes it settles back down, sometimes it never goes away, and sometimes it can be commanded at will. Those would be extreme cases. To this day I've only ever seen one person who could control his chi on a whim outside his machine."

"Porter?" Riya cocked her head with her question.

"Porter?" Shotuku burst out laughing, falling into a fit that lasted a full four minutes and twenty-three seconds. He eventually straightened up, wiping a tear from his eye as he did. "Porter can't control his feelings, let alone his chi. No, someone else, an old prodigy of mine who could shift the balance of nature itself. Such a shame what happened to all that talent." Shotuku's entire body slumped, including his facial hair, in response to his statement. "But those are after effects that let Porter do what he does."

"But he hasn't been using his Goliath that long, has he?" Ardwen asked, puzzled over this new information. His face revealed his confusion and thoughts as he processed Shotuku's words.

The elder only shrugged as a response. "Then perhaps he just has that much chi. Like I said, nobody really understands the effects. Some people won't experience them until they're my age, and some start them right away. There's no way to tell." Shotuku stood up, brushing the sand off his clothing before turning to leave for the night.

"That doesn't seem very scientific," Ardwen retorted, his eyes trying to bore holes through the teacher's back.

Shotuku sighed, clearly exhausted from frequently answering questions and dealing with a group of confused adolescents. "Life isn't always scientific, is it Ardwen?" Shotuku continued into the trees, disappearing in the darkness.

"I never know if he's helpful or a hindrance." Ardwen held his forehead in his hands, body bent forwards as he tried to grasp the entirety of what had transpired. "Chase is dead, Jahari are bursting out of the earth, the government caused it all, Goliaths produce after effects, seeing your opponent's movements, it's all too much without any clear answers." He leaned his head back, exhaling into the night sky.

"What...what did I miss?" Porter dragged himself along the sand, pulling his body up on top of the log, his clothing covered in a combination of mud, water, and seaweed. The rest of the group only stared at him as an answer.

Sigma pointed his hand up at his brother, the circle in his palm opening to reveal the black hole that ran down his forearm. A blast of air shot out of it, sending ripples through the beach before colliding with Porter, shooting him off into the ocean once more. "Nothing important," Sigma muttered, unable to conceal the smile on his face.