206 Pure be with you

Layla's hands were visibly shaking, and her legs were starting to feel weak, they were beginning to wobble. Her heart was pounding vigorously, and the sound of it beating was so loud that she couldn't even hear herself talking.

'Is this really the right thing to do?' She thought, but she had already articulated those words. Right now, all attention was focused on her.

"Why would we hate you, Layla?" Quinn said. "If you have anything that can help us get out of this situation, then we would only be happy."

Layla looked at Erin, who was lying on the bed, one more time while contemplating, 'If it's these people, I think they'll understand. I'm just going to tell them.'

Upon reaching this decision, she started to explain the circumstances regarding her situation.

"I know a place, a place where Erin will be safe. It's the location of a certain group of people, they will be able to help her, actually I'm..." She paused for a moment, gathering her courage before saying the last words, "I'm from that group... I'm from Pure. It was me who wrote that letter included with the nano stick."

"I knew it!" Vorden shouted. "Of course, she was hiding something. Why else would she willingly help Quinn, and accept the truth of his identity? They probably wanted to use him for some reason."

"That's not true!" Layla snapped back." They don't even know about Quinn, I never told them! I didn't ask for this, I didn't ask for any of this!" Layla shouted, as tears started to run down her face.

Quinn saw the tension between them and decided to intervene, he placed himself between Layla and Vorden. He had done this because it seemed like Vorden was going to lash out at her any second, at least if someone didn't interfere soon, so he did. He proceeded to lead her over to the bed, and sat her down next to Erin.

"Sorry guys, but can someone explain to me what or who Pure is?" Fex said, bearing a confused look on his face, as he stood in the corner of the room.

"I'm glad you asked," Logan said, spinning his chair around to ready a file to display. He then opened it while uttering, "I prepared for this after I saw Layla dropping off the note in the morning."

"You knew?" Vorden said, surprised. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"Was it important to the mission?" Logan replied. "Regardless if she is part of Pure or not, it was thanks to her information, that we were able to get those two out of there. True, she might have an ulterior motive, but why would she reveal herself now? There is no need to, unless she truly wishes to help."

Although Logan knew there was some truth in his words, he couldn't help but think that she had kept it a secret for this long. It was contrary to Quinn's prompt revelation that he was a vampire. Something just didn't feel right about that, and the things he had heard about Pure weren't the best either.

In an instant, a projection was seen playing a myriad of different videos. It was mostly of people wearing a type of mask that covered their whole face. All with a figure of an angel that looked like it had its wings removed. It was the mark of Pure.

In the video, it showed multiple explosions from bomb attacks on important buildings and several different guilds they had conducted. It wasn't a pretty sight at all.

"Let me warn all of you. What you are seeing now is pretty biased. Pure has only one goal. To get rid of all abilities and their users. They believe that the current world and the system that's in place are wrong. Even before abilities were introduced, there were many who complained about the gap between the rich and the poor. However, now they feel like even basic human rights don't exist for those with a weak or even no ability." Logan explained.

"Which is pretty stupid, if you ask me," Vorden said. "It was only thanks to those with abilities that we were able to battle the Dalki. If we get rid of them, what do they want us to do? There are only a few people who would be able to kill beasts without the use of abilities in the first place. That is unless you're not human, of course."

These reasons were why Vorden was so suspicious of Layla. To him it made sense. A race exists that is stronger than humans, that don't rely on abilities. Although even the vampires had different levels, Vorden wouldn't be surprised if Pure didn't think ahead.

"Wait, there is something that I don't understand," Fex said. "If Pure is a group of people who hate abilities, and Layla is one of them, then why does she have an ability."

Everyone then turned to look at Layla as they loved to hear the answer.

"I didn't mean to deceive any of you. My situation here is quite complicated." Layla began to reason, "As Logan explained, you all know what our goal is. Currently, the world is in balance, but we don't agree with the system that is in place, and the main culprit of that is the military. However, the only reason they can enforce the rules is because of Jack Truedream. But at the same time, Truedream is also a blessing to Pure. For he's the only person that can take anyone's ability away, without killing them that is."

Layla sighed after her lengthy explanation, as she gazed at each and every one of her comrades in turn, after a few seconds had passed she continued her speech.

"Truedream often visits this military base, more often than he visits the other bases. We have agents stationed at every base, but only at this have all of them disappeared, not one of them ever came back. Accordingly, they decided to change tactics, and wanted a student to infiltrate this military base."

"And they sent in a child?" Vorden asked. "Seems like a good place to send Erin then, doesn't it?" He continued with a sarcastic tone.

"I volunteered!" Layla shouted, yet her eye slightly twitched when she said those words. Because the truth was she didn't volunteer herself for this mission, but it was her mother who offered her own daughter to Pure, just for her own benefit. "Look, this isn't about me and Pure. This matter is about Erin. Right now, she doesn't have an ability, Truedream has been known for doing this to people, and we've taken them in, we still looked out for them when others didn't. We will do the same for Erin."

Vorden then dragged Quinn towards the side and whispered in his ear. "You're not really considering this, are you? For Erin and Peter to go over to Pure?"

Quinn was struggling to arrive at a conclusion. He was pretty sure that Layla meant no harm, yet putting his friends in the hand of strangers, and sending Peter away would be a huge risk. Without Quinn by his side, his evil nature would take over. Moreover, if they ever found out who he was, it would be no better than the school finding out.

However, it was different with Erin. Quinn then shifted his stare towards Logan asking, "Logan, don't you have everything that happened recorded? Can't we just use that as blackmail material against Truedream? Spread it on the internet or something."

"Impossible," Logan replied without delay. "You remember the reports I brought up earlier? It's clear that the military has a monopoly on what can be seen and what cannot. It would be taken down in an instant, and no one would want to host such a thing. They would be going up against two of the biggest powers in the world. No one would take the risk of going up against them. I'm sorry but I wouldn't want to risk the safety of my family by angering them."

When Logan enlightened them of the situation, Vorden started to think about his own family. The sole problem was that he wasn't on good terms with them at all. No one in his family would listen to him, much more do him a favour. It wasn't the Blade family's way.

"I think we have no other choice," Quinn said. "For Erin, the best thing will be to go over to Pure for protection. Erin and Layla are close, so if Layla had bad intentions, the last person she would want to hurt is Erin."

"Wait! Only Erin?" Layla asked surprised. "But what about Peter? He can come too."

Quinn shook his head as he looked at Peter.

"He can't, and Vorden and Fex probably already know the reason why," Quinn explained. "Peter has changed, Layla. If he isn't next to me, then there's no telling what he will do."

Layla then looked at Peter. Although his physical appearance had changed a little, she hadn't been around him enough lately to notice any changes to his personality. Still, when she looked into his eyes, she noticed that they were cold and lifeless.

"Okay, so Erin goes to Pure," Vorden stated. "What about Peter?"

Quinn's mind had already been working overtime as he tried to think of solutions, but at that moment, he was out of ideas. The only thing they could do was to hide him for as long as possible, or they could opt to utilize Vorden's favourite suggestion...

"I believe I have a solution to your problem with Peter." The system said out of the bleu.

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