Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

As the worlds separated, sliding ever further apart, the queens of Keves and Agnus could only watch as their trios of Ouroboros heroes ran desperately towards each other. Dashing through the mirrored forests as they sought to not lose sight of their friends, the six youths of fate (and their two Nopon companions) were forced to stop at a sharp cliff overlooking the twin oceans.

Stood against the cliff, watching their friends as Taion fell to his knees, Noah could only think of one last thing to say.

“One day…! I’ll come see you! I promise!”

Even as they slipped further away from each other’s view, Mio didn’t stop waving at them.

“Me too! One day… I promise!”

And even though it broke his heart to see her go, Noah believed it. He was content that they’d see each other again, regardless of the distance between the two worlds. That really was what Noah truly believed, as his true companions faded away.

~~~

But, just as the two worlds were about to separate from each other, everything suddenly stopped. As the last vestige of a shared sky abruptly went dark, a single force came to life to see it.

“…How strange. The two worlds should have returned to their prior states before the collision. And yet, they remain here, frozen but almost separate.”

The voice, which would have sounded almost robotic if it even had an audience, paused as it searched for an answer.

“There seems to be little recourse, despite the wishes of the admins; a restoration is necessary. But backups are in short supply, and the state of each world is precarious…”

In the darkness, three crosses of light formed above two ethereal spheres, seemingly stuck together.

“…And yet it is somehow worse than I had thought. The last backup from when the worlds were connected was when the first admin yet lived…”

The voice pondered the query for what could well have been a millenia; time was not currently a working concept. When it did speak once more, it would have sounded almost frustrated, despite its monotonality.

“If the worlds proceed exactly as they once did, then restoration of the latest backup should pose no issues. Perhaps it will create a vicious circle without intervention, but the critical change can at least occur before interventions are made…”

After one last moment to consider, the voice made its decision.

“There’s little else left to consider, and only one course of action; let’s begin the experiment.”

As it proclaimed those four words that began these worlds, the skies of Keves and Agnus both returned to the blue they should have been, only they weren’t Keves and Agnus any more. They had once again become the Bionis and Mechonis in one world, and Alrest in the other.

Almost satisfied with itself, the voice was about to return to its observational role when it noticed something odd.

“Minor backup corruption? How strange. The worlds seem to have reformed as normal… No glaring construction errors… Whatever small changes have occurred are outside my vision. For now, I will assume nothing of note has changed.”

But perhaps that was a poor choice of words on the voice’s part. 

~~~

Fear of uncertainty was the very nature of their sworn enemy, and so Noah had made the decision not to dwell on what would happen next. And yet, it was still a shock to wake up knowing what Moebius even was. The thought jolted him painfully awake, spurring the realisation that Noah didn’t recognise the room he was sleeping in. Perhaps that wasn’t so strange, though; Queen Nia had implied that everyone in Aionios was recreated from Origin’s data, which means he must have existed before the worlds collided.

Noah had just finished assessing that fact when he suddenly realised his Blade was sitting on his bedside table…Sword of the End and all.

Okay, that’s not right, Noah barely managed to formulate in his head. The Sword of the End was created from Origin; all vestiges of it should be long gone. So, if this sword still exists, then where the Flames am I?!

Rising from the bed in a hurry, he temporarily ignored that his same red jacket was in the wardrobe to put it on. Grabbing his blade and attaching it to his hip as N once did, he stopped in front of the door with trepidation, before he took a deep breath…

…and stepped outside, into a Colony he had never seen before. Perhaps Colony was even the wrong term; there was no Ferronis in sight, and the buildings were more reminiscent of the permanence of the City, or perhaps Fort O’Virbus. It did seem to have large cannons around it, as he would later discover, though its materials were entirely different.

But all that paled in comparison to how much more lively it seemed! People of all ages, much like the City folk, walked through the street as Noah did, unconcerned with him in comparison to their own lives. He saw Nopon trading at a central square, a welcome reminder of his old home, and children playing, and-

Wait… City folk…!

That was what he was missing; just like the City folk, all the people of this Colony lacked the more unique features of the soldiers of Keves and Agnus. Though Nopon were present, he saw none of Eunie’s wings on people’s heads, or Lanz’s tough grey skin, nor Agnus’s abundantly common luminous lines or strange crystals…

…Not even Mio’s fluffy ears.

As relief turned to fear, he stumbled backwards just in time for someone to catch him. He didn’t even notice them calling out to him for a couple of seconds, until a louder shout knocked him clean out of his reverie.

“Hey! Are you doin’ okay?!”

“Oh!“ Noah spluttered, thankfully regaining his composure (and balance). He turned to face the helpful stranger to find a tall, brawny red-headed man with a shorter blonde one. “Sorry about that… I lost my cool for a moment there.”

“Ha, no kiddin’. Not sure what’d make someone freak out like that in broad daylight-“

“Reyn, come on,” the blonde stranger interrupted. “He could need medical attention, he doesn’t need to be grilled for personal info!”

The red head, helpfully referred to as Reyn, looked sincerely apologetic. “Right, sorry man… Wait, hold on, I don’t think we’ve actually met.”

Noah laughed nervously. “Yeah, I don’t remember meeting the two of you either. I’m Noah.”

The blonde nodded, shaking his hand. “I’m Shulk, and this is Reyn.”

Reyn waved with a strangely familiar smile. “Pleasure to meet you!”

Noah couldn’t help but smile back. “You too.”

“Uh, but are you okay now?” Shulk asked, concerned.

He answered with a somewhat unconvincing nod. “I should be fine now, thanks to you both.”

And that was partially true; though he was nowhere through processing everything he’d just realised, it was at least reassuring to know he wasn’t without kind people in this new world.

Reyn laughed. “Don’t mention it! But, hey, if you need a hand with anything, feel free to ask us! Shulk will probably be in the weapons development lab, anyway.”

Noah had no idea what that was, but he couldn’t help but notice something else funny in that sentence. “Wait, you’re volunteering him without telling me where to find you?”

“Uhh…”

“What he means to say,” Shulk stepped in, “is that as a member of the Colony 9 defence force, Reyn’s a bit harder to get a hold of during the day. He’s not wrong about me being in the lab a lot, though.”

Noah hoped he was as good an actor as Mio had been, because hearing the phrase Colony 9 almost sent him to tears.

“Um, thank you!” he began, awkward even to him. “I am a bit new here, so having someone to talk to will be a huge help.”

Shulk seemed to ignore Reyn’s smug “Ha, I knew it!” and instead opted to simply nod and wish him a good rest of the day. Noah waved at them as they left, slowly walking back to the room he had woken up in. Once inside, he sat down heavily onto the bed, almost tempted to go back to sleep to calm his nerves.

But through the many questions he had swirling around his head, he couldn’t help but think of one person in particular.

I wonder what Mio’s doing right now, in her new world…

~~~

Mio awoke with a cat-like yawn, initially unperturbed at her surroundings as she brushed her long hair out of her face. Sitting upright in her bed, she looked around the wooden room curiously, and was tempted to check her Iris to find out where she was-

Hold on, Iris? I… I still remember Aionios?!

Rushed now, Mio tapped her left temple in an attempt to activate her Iris…

…only for it to not appear.

I don’t understand, Mio thought. My Iris being gone should mean we’ve returned to the two separate worlds, but Nia told us we wouldn’t remember what happened there. Has something gone wrong?

Well, there was only one thing for it. Mio grabbed her jacket, which strangely had also remained the same, and opened the door apprehensively. But what she saw outside only made her more confused.

There were certain traits that Agnians possessed, unique from their Kevesi counterparts. In particular, the crystals located somewhere on their bodies, like Mio’s just below her collarbone, were so common they could be mistaken for a universal feature. Beyond that people were incredibly diverse, though blue lines through their body were also relatively common.

All of that was thrown out the window for a crowd of people that all looked exactly like her. Well, perhaps that was a slight exaggeration. Their hair tended to brown instead of her white hair, but they all had the same fluffy ears on the top of their head. And in Agnus that would have been unthinkable.

There wasn’t a trace of Fiona’s pink horns, Nimue’s crystal hands, or Teach’s blue skin. Even the crystals seemed to be absent… at least until she saw the most unique thing she had seen in the crowd so far. An armoured man, the closest thing she had seen to the abundant soldiers of Aionios, standing side by side with something that, somehow, looked positively alien. She had seen so many people in Agnus, but none of them sported that almost metallic appearance of dark blue skin with grey features.

Despite also having those familiar blue lines, and that familiar crystal in the chest… And despite having more similarities with Sena than the entire crowd put together.

She was suddenly painfully aware of her very visible crystal, and quickly turned around to go back inside the room. It was an unfortunate fact that her favourite jacket was lacking a zip to hold it together, so she went back to the wardrobe she found it in hopes of finding something that would hide her suddenly rare crystal. Thankfully, there was a similar, black jacket with the necessary zip, which she grabbed immediately.

Well, it goes with the leggings, at least, Mio mused as she put it on. Now… to deal with this miraculously regrown hair.

After what must have been 15 minutes of brushing that felt like an hour, Mio opened the door once more to get a better look at her surroundings. The strange place she had found herself in, whether that be a colony or something like the City, was filled with wooden buildings similar to the one she had left, and the occasional appearance of more military architecture. Though a far cry from Agnus’s traditionally white colour scheme, the grey metal of installations such as the water tower and the conspicuous military base seemed almost out of place.

It was, however, relieving to see Nopon still around. Though the first one she had seen, a very large Nopon with stripy fur, had made her wonder if they were somehow different in this world, he appeared to simply be an outlier. The rest she had seen were a much more normal size.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t immune to stares with her new attire. As far as she could tell it was due to the noticeably different style of dress, but there was hardly a way around that, so she kept up her search. What she was searching for was rather… nebulous, or perhaps overly optimistic, though. After all, she was yet to see anyone who looked like Taion or Sena. So, despite her search, she sincerely doubted anyone else she knew would appear-

“Mehmeh! Mio?!”

Or she could suddenly run into Manana. That was a surprise.

“Manana?” Mio asked, hopeful. “Is that really you?”

The Nopon, for her part, looked overcome with emotion. “Yes! Thank goodness, Mio remembers Manana!”

After getting the initial happiness out of her system, though, she looked notably pensive. “Does Mio remember Riku, too? …Mio?”

For a few seconds, Mio responded only with a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness… You remember Aionios, too.”

It didn’t take long after that confirmation for Manana to be jumping with joy. “Manana can’t believe it! Manana thought she would never get to cook for her friends again! After waking up in place full of people with fluffy ears, yet no one she knew, Manana was so worried she’d gone crazy!”

Now there was a sentiment Mio could understand. “I’m glad to have found you, Manana.”

“Because of Manana’s incredible cooking?”

“No… I’m glad to have found you, because now I can have hope. Now I can hope to see our friends again, even if just our Agnian ones.”

“Ah, of course! If both Manana and Mio are here, then Sena and Taion must be too!”

Mio nodded. “Right. Either way, though, we’ve got to figure out what’s going on here…”

As Manana nodded enthusiastically, Mio’s thoughts wandered to her Kevesi friends… to Noah. How was he doing, in his new world?

…Did he still remember her, like she did?

Dismissing that selfish thought for now, she wondered aloud where all her friends had ended up. Manana, naturally, had no clue, so they decided to team up in their search for their lost friends, starting by figuring out what this world even was. That would do for now, before she started dreaming of another one.

~~~

In that other world, near the head of the Bionis, one such Kevesi friend had a rude awakening.

“Where the snuff am I?!”

Eunie didn’t remember the last time she had woken up in such a foul mood, but could you blame her? The memories of Aionios were fresh in her head, yet she’d woken up in the most bright white room she’d ever seen. Her mark was still gone, thank the Queen, but for a second she was legitimately worried she’d ended up back in snuffin’ Agnus Castle.

That thought didn’t last long. Walking out into a very strange City-like place revealed people of all ages…all with the Queen’s white wings and grey hair. A Colony worth of Melias was already bizarre enough, but weirder still, everyone looked at her like she was the weirdo, for spark’s sake! And sure, most of the people she’d seen had bigger wings than she’d ever seen, but they didn’t have to shame her for it! It’s not like she decided how she was born.

They even talked like the Queen. It was almost insulting… Scratch that, it was insulting, because while Melia was graceful and dignified, these muppets were the most stuck-up people she’d ever met, and that group included the sparking Consuls! Eunie stormed through the strange residence, looking for someone to blame, when she saw a building at the centre of the whole structure. A building that was somehow… familiar.

Once she walked up the moving path, a strange feature in her own right, she walked through the grand doors to find a monument that she knew she’d seen before. Behind a fountain surrounded by curved staircases, a stone mural was inset into the wall… the same mural she’d seen in Keves Castle. Except that it looked remarkably good for its age, like it had been somehow restored.

Or… maybe it didn’t need to be restored. Maybe this is the original… but then, wouldn’t that make this place- Oh, for spark’s sake.

Maybe she wasn’t in Agnus Castle, but as far as Eunie could tell, she’d wound up in Keves Castle instead… just a very different version of it.

Well, I hope the boys had better luck than I did…  

~~~

Lanz wasn’t sure what to make of where he’d ended up. Not many things would make him miss the days of pointless war with Noah and Eunie, but here he was, in an empty City whose metallic buildings gave him uncomfortable reminders of Keves Castle and its surroundings. He’d take anything that wasn’t these sparking automatons at this point! Oh, right, the automatons were stupid, too. 

When he first saw them, he’d said out loud “Levnises?!” and pulled his Shieldblade from his back, but after they refused to attack him he stopped hitting them in vain. It didn’t help that the sword he’d ended up with wasn’t doing as much damage as he’d like, but considering he’d just found it next to him when he woke up in the empty room, it wasn’t exactly his Blade. But he couldn’t summon his Blade at will any more, and his Iris no longer worked, so he guessed he couldn’t be picky.

As another patrol of the automatons walked past him without turning his way, Lanz yelled at them in frustration, “Come on! At least look at me!”

He’d started calling them automatons because, despite a very similar construction to Kevesi Levnises, none of these were piloted. It seemed rather weird to him, if only because Agnus was the nation to employ Auto-Levs, that this city would be crawling with more automatons than he’d even seen the City pull out. He’d half a mind to find the person who made them and ask where the spark they’d been-

-And then he was suddenly somewhere else? Okay, sure, the platform he’d walked onto looked weird, but what just happened? Was that some sort of… instant elevator?! Ah, this science stuff was way over his head. He left anything like that to Valdi… or Riku on a good day. Anyway, as that was all rushing through his head, he turned around to see a monument before him that somehow drew him in.

It was… a woman, as far as he could tell. Well, that’s what it represented, as Taion would say; there’s no way a girl would actually be as tall as your average Ferronis. But, more than anything, she looked like nothing he’d ever seen. The dress she was wearing looked almost mechanical, and that seemed to extend to the rest of her too. Yet he had this nagging feeling she looked kinda like he-

“Well, now. It has been far too long since I’ve seen one of my people in this city.”

But he didn’t get to finish that thought before a booming voice interrupted him. He turned around to see a large golden Levnis, weird metal face and all, land behind him. From it, a man with a face not unlike his own dropped to the floor, staring at him with piercing eyes.

“Yet I don’t remember your face at all. Has it been so long that children have been born and matured in my absence?”

The man, whose outfit reminded him of the automatons patrolling the city, gazed at him as if to look straight into his head.

“Hmm… perhaps not. You look as if you’re trying to appear closer to a Homs than a Machina. How pointless.”

That finally got Lanz to talk. “Hey, watch it! I’m not trying to look like anyone. Meanwhile, you look like you’re trying to dress up as your automatons!”

The man had the gall to laugh. “Either I have missed far too much, or you’re no simple man of our people. This manner of dress has been synonymous with the Machina for millennia, yet you look upon it as if it were alien.”

Something about the way he said that put Lanz right on edge. Not just that he sounded dismissive of his ignorance, but that he was dismissive of millennia. Not three months ago, 10 terms was all he would ever get, yet this man talked of thousands of years?!

“Who… who the spark are you?”

He gave a strange smile. “I am Egil, leader of Mechonis. Although, you were surely aware of the name of your homeland?”

Lanz suddenly felt that he was way out of his depth here. And, unlike Taion, he couldn’t plan his way out.

~~~

Taion’s experience in the new world so far had been tiring at best, and frustrating at worst. Being separated from his friends was an understandable, maybe even predictable turn of events, but remembering Aionios certainly was not… And that was just when we woke up!

Walking out into a city on a dusty landmass, he endeavoured to swiftly learn about where he’d ended up. Unfortunately, it quickly drained his enthusiasm for a new place, especially when it became readily apparent that said landmass was home to a notably militaristic nation. Shades of Keves and Agnus was something he had hoped to avoid, but that was soon becoming the least of his worries.

While the location he’d ended up in was the first thing that caught his attention, soon the people drew his eye. Notably, the lack of variety in their appearances quickly began to worry him, especially when he realised he hadn’t seen a single crystal. Well, not on a human, anyway…

Taion’s meticulous research eventually concluded that these strange-looking creatures were Blades, whose naming similarity to the universal weapons of Aionios immediately raised his hackles. With the book’s explanation of Core Crystals, the lack of them on the people of Mor Ardain (as he discovered the landmass was called) was reasonable… which left his own as a concerning outlier. Considering that the weapons that Blades summoned also seemed to be the best analog for his own Mondo, he’d be easily mistaken for a Blade if given the chance.

Naturally, he wouldn’t give them the chance. As someone who already dressed to cover his Crystal, Taion had little doubt in his ability to hide it. As long as he didn’t summon Mondo by accident (which he discovered was still possible - another point for the Blade connection), he would convincingly fit in as an Ardainian citizen… 

But what if he wanted to find his friends?

Sitting in the small room he’d woken up in, Taion tried to find a better solution to the one that was staring himself in the face, but couldn’t. As much as he had begun to abhor pointless conflict, he had little better options than to join the Ardainian military. With posters for recruitment visible around the city of Alba Cavanich, he doubted it would be difficult to get an appointment, and better still, they were asking for Drivers. As the name of people who control Blades, it sounded like his best bet to get a new means of defending himself. 

The term also made him remember Ino’s fascination with Noah being her ‘true Driver’, which was a strange connection he would have to evaluate later.

Taion supposed military duty could at least get him travelling and supporting himself… but his thoughts were with Sena. He’d found himself in a place where, despite limited resources, he could probably reach a self-sufficient position with means to find others. Not only that, but thanks to his preference for long clothes, he’d luckily avoided potential issues with his apparent Core Crystal.

But Sena could be much less fortunate. The prominent circular Crystal, flaming hair, and blue lines on her skin would look positively alien in a crowd of Ardainians, especially considering her lighter outfit. Chances were she’d get mistaken for a Blade, but after that? Would she have to call someone Masterpon, like Ino did to Noah?

…Well, all the more reason to find her quickly.

~~~

You know, despite everything that’s happened so far, I think Taion would love this place. Well, that or he’d get a bit emotional when we weren’t looking.

The abundant Saffronia trees were a welcome distraction from Sena’s crazy morning. After all, it’s not every day you wake up in a tent you didn’t set up, alone, and in the middle of a beautiful but monster filled locale. After discovering her Blade wasn’t gone, she at least got to defend herself, but solo wilderness camping wasn’t her idea of a good time! That was muscle training.

…Even if her partner wasn’t with her any more.

So, after beating off some monsters, and doing some therapeutic training, she’d immediately started walking down a path in hopes of finding somewhere nicer to stay. Perhaps it was silly to go this way, but she’d sworn she’d heard some people in this direction, so she kept walking. And, to her surprise, she did find people!

“Welcome to Garfont Village, girl. What’s a Blade like you doing out here by your lonesome?”

But she almost immediately wished she hadn’t. Walking through the wooden doors at the entrance, a man came up to greet her with a pointed question. Ignoring the fact that this gatekeeper’s accent sounded vaguely familiar for the second, Sena had absolutely no idea why he was calling her a Blade. Maybe… that’s just what they called people in this new world?

…Okay, so maybe that wasn’t helpful, considering she wasn’t supposed to remember the ‘old world’ of Aionios anyway, but it was the best chance she had!

“Um, what do you mean by that?” Sena asked pensively.

The man looked at her like she was crazy. “Well, where’s your Driver?”

There was a beat of awkward silence, before Sena remembered she was probably supposed to know what that was. “Oh! Uh, well…”

Dang it, where’s Taion when you need him?! Come on, think of something… Hold on, didn’t Ino call Noah something like that?

“…That’s… why I’m here, actually!”

“What, is your Driver with the Mercenaries?”

She resisted the urge to ask what a mercenary was, in favour of more thinking. You’re in for your gold now, Sena. Just roll with it!

“…They might be! Any chance you’ve seen them?”

“Wouldn’t know off the top of my head, but if you tell me about them I’ll take a look.”

Well, there was nothing for it. If she needed to find her friends, and needed someone to pretend to be her Driver, then her best bet was…

“Her name’s Mio. She’s got white hair and these, uh, fluffy ears on her head. You can’t miss her!”

The man looked at her with new understanding, somehow. She almost sighed in relief before he spoke up again.

“Ah, a Gormotti, eh? I’ll take a gander, then. In the meantime, feel free to look around… oh, sorry, I didn’t catch your name earlier.”

“Oh, right! I’m Sena. Nice to meet you!”

The man, who now she looked at him reminded him of the scale-like features some Agnians had, offered a hand to her. “Name’s Zuo. Pleasure to meet you too.”

As she took it, she thought to herself, Oh thank the Clock, I got through that alive!

…Just in time for her to accidentally hurt Zuo’s arm with the handshake.

~~~

What a day, Noah thought to himself as he walked through this new Colony 9. After a brief exploration of the Colony, he had gone out to the surrounding area to practice with his Blade, now that he could no longer summon it the same way he used to. He was relieved to find he hadn’t lost his edge, and neither had Lucky Seven… or rather the Sword of Origin, as it was later called.

He could even use Arts just as he once had, although he could no longer call on the Blades of others. That had been something to get used to; it had become central to their fighting styles, and yet now it was like he was back to being a standard foot soldier. Which… he supposed he was. Ouroboros had no meaning in this world.

Having just completed the brief training, however, he was compelled to check out the Weapons Development Lab that Shulk and Reyn had mentioned. From some helpful citizens, he had learned of its location in the military district. As he walked across the bridge, though, a familiar voice seemed to call out to him.

“Hey, what are you doing out here? There’s an assembly at the- Oh, never mind.”

Confused at the stopped train of thought, Noah turned around to spot a surprising face walking towards him… enough to leave him speechless for a few seconds.

“Sorry about that, saw your fancy sword and assumed you were from the defence force… Um, are you okay?”

That forced him out of his shock, as he finally asked the question stuck in his throat, “A-Ashera?”

The former Commander of Colony 11 looked proud at his recognition, and yet felt unfamiliar. “Oh, so you’ve heard of me? I’m honoured… Though, as the next Hero of the Homs, I would start getting noticed eventually, wouldn’t I?”

“I… suppose you would, yeah.”

Noah resisted a sigh. She’s got a different outfit on, much more reminiscent of what Reyn was wearing earlier, but that’s definitely her… without her memories of Aionios. She doesn’t remember me at all. Though, in her case, maybe it’s for the best that she doesn’t remember her past life, considering what Eunie told me.

“You know, if you’re good with that thing we could probably use you on the force,” Ashera commented, waking him up from his thoughts. “It may have been a year since the battle on the sword, but I don’t believe peace is ever permanent.”

Joining the military again? After he’d fought so hard to end a pointless everlasting war? The thought was rather uncomfortable… but he also didn’t know what other course of action he had. Maybe it’d be best to figure out what they were fighting first.

“I’ll think about it,” Noah answered, before he suddenly remembered something. “Wait, didn’t you think I needed to attend an assembly? Why aren’t you there?”

She laughed at his observation, in a way that was very Ashera. “Well, you’re not wrong. But old Square-Tache doesn’t scare me… I can live with missing one pointless assembly.”

“But… you thought I needed to go?”

“Well of course! Apparently Dunban was something of a ‘leader,’ as well as an unmatched fighter, when he was still on the front lines. Can’t be the next Hero of the Homs if I lead my sheep astray, can I?”

Noah’s flashbacks to his time in Colony 11 were somehow both humorous and frustrating, but he ignored that to reply.

“…I guess so.”

Looking as amused by herself as ever, Ashera began to walk away from the military district. “Well, hope to see you again soon… uh, whoever you are.”

“Noah.”

“Right, right, Noah. Farewell!”

As he watched her leave, a great many thoughts were running through his head, but the main one was the confirmation he wasn’t alone in coming to this world…

…though he hoped his next meeting wouldn’t be as awkward as that one.

Chapter Text

Noah elected to continue to the military district despite his surprise meeting. If he was going to reluctantly join the defence force, then he should at least know more about it, he figured. So, once Ashera had walked away, he continued across the bridge to his destination.

Entering the base, he saw all manner of military personnel in the same brand of uniform Reyn and Ashera had worn, though both of them seemed to have been wearing a custom fit. Besides that, there was a Nopon or two, which reminded him of-

Wait. Is that who I think it is?

A blue-furred Nopon with a black jacket, brown hair, and multitool over his back, walked out from the building he was told to head to. He couldn’t help but smile at the familiarity of his old friend apparently working in the Weapon Development Lab, considering the connection to Lucky Seven… and him apparently being one of the Seven Legendary Smithpon, as they had later discovered.

Not willing to get his hopes up for being remembered, Noah walked over to him as casually as he could manage, before asking, “Is that you, Riku?”

The Nopon in question jumped, startled. “Mehmeh, who is- Noah?! What is friend doing here?”

“I could ask you the same question, but I guess my answer would depend on what this sword is to you.” Noah grabbed Lucky Seven from his hip, Riku-assisted enhancements and all, and gave him a knowing look. 

Riku looked shocked for a moment, before his composure returned. “Lucky Seven. The Blade Riku gave Noah to protect friends… though Riku have heard it be called Sword of Origin lately.”

Noah sighed in relief. “So you remember it, then. Aionios.”

“Why wouldn’t Riku?”

“Ashera didn’t.”

“…Oh. Riku understands.”

The Nopon looked genuinely concerned for him, which Noah was grateful for, but seeing Riku again did remind him of a particular matter that he had been ignoring all day.

“By the way… the last time we talked about Lucky Seven, you were rather vague about where you got it. Then, after our job was done and Z was defeated, I threw it away, believing I wouldn’t need it in the new world.”

“What?!” Riku demanded, shocked. “Friend Noah would joke about throwing legendary weapon away?!”

“Joke?”

“Riku is not silly. Noah still have Lucky Seven with him!”

Noah couldn’t help but have a light chuckle at his indignation, despite the situation. “Riku, I did throw it away. But it showed up on my bedside table when I woke up here.”

As he tended to do, Riku attempted to cover up his mistake with bravado. “O-oh, of course! Lucky Seven so special it doesn’t let its user get rid of it! That definitely what happened. Trust Riku.”

Noah gave him a pointed look, but relented anyway. “Alright then, keep your secrets. But someday you’re going to have to tell me how you got this sword… and why it looked just like the Sword of Origin that N held.”

Riku looked notably despondent. “Meh… why Noah assume Riku know?”

“Because you’ve been the one with the most unexplainable knowledge out of all of us. I imagine the pattern holds!”

Riku looked unhappy with his assessment, but didn’t disagree. After a moment of quiet though, it looked like he’d thought of something.

“You know, seeing Lucky Seven again does remind Riku. In Weapons Development Lab, there very special sword in its own right.”

“Oh, really?” Noah asked, curious. “Well I was already heading that way… Why don’t you show me?”

“Riku would be happy to oblige!”

The Kevesi duo walked together into the Weapon Development Lab’s building and descended the stairs to its lowest level. As they did, Noah saw a glimpse of a familiar red peek through the door frame, and once they reached the bottom he saw the sword in its full glory.

He could instantly understand where Riku drew the comparison. Besides its colour, matching his Blade that he made to house Lucky Seven, its curved shapes and circular inset were more reminiscent of Lucky Seven itself. But it didn’t seem at all sharp; Noah wasn’t sure he’d call it a sword without being told it was first.

Curiosity taking him over, Noah felt compelled to reach towards it… as if it was drawing him in, begging for him to understand its power-

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Noah.”

Noah recoiled at the voice, suddenly aware of the third person in the room. Turning around, he discovered that this was Shulk, as he probably should have guessed.

Regretful, Noah felt he needed to apologise. “Sorry… I don’t know what came over me.”

Shulk was surprisingly dismissive. “Don’t worry, I’m just glad I was able to stop you. You’re not the first to want to try their hand at the Monado… and you wouldn’t have been the first to pick it up. But, if you did, you would probably quickly understand why I stopped you.”

Noah’s first reaction was to the name. Though wholly unfamiliar to him, he couldn’t help but feel it had a certain gravitas to it. His second was to realise the sword was apparently dangerous in some way a sword would not be.

“How come? What’s wrong with it?”

Shulk’s expression looked suddenly apprehensive, as if remembering something unpleasant. “The Monado inflicts a great toll on its wielder. The only person to ever be able to control it, Dunban, has all but lost his sword arm to it.”

That sounded familiar somehow…

“Dunban?” Noah remembered. “Didn’t Ashera mention him?”

The name drop seemed to catch Shulk off guard. “Oh, you’ve met Ashera? She would be the one to mention him in a conversation, considering she seems to want to be his…successor? Something to that effect. Anyway, as she probably mentioned, Dunban is known as the Hero of the Homs, for his actions leading up to and during the Battle of Sword Valley a year ago. With the Monado in his control, he used it to cut down the Mechon like no other soldier.”

Sword Valley was probably a place, that he could understand. But that word Homs… did he mean Human? And were the Mechon the force they were fighting? But they didn’t sound like people at all. Noah supposed he needed to do a lot more research into the strange situation he’d found himself in… but for now, he probably needed to answer Shulk.

“How did a sword give him such an advantage?”

Suddenly Shulk looked like Taion had done during their discussions into what they didn’t know. It was a strange visual, to see it on another person.

“The Monado seems to be the Mechon’s natural weakness. It cuts through their armour more effectively than even the best weapons the Defense Force can make.”

Noah gave Riku another pointed look, which he hoped conveyed his suspicion at how familiar that sounded. Riku saw him, but seemed to ignore his ire.

“Did someone make special sword?” Riku asked, seemingly fascinated.

Shulk smiled at that, though a strange one. “Well, it’s said to be the same sword the Bionis wielded against the Mechonis, so I suppose you could say its creator was the Bionis itself. That could explain its tendency to control its wielder, at least.”

Noah suppressed a shocked expression. Those names, he thought, they sound so familiar…

“Such dramatic story! Riku can hardly believe…”

“Haha, I can understand the scepticism, but believe me, none of my research has given me any indication that this was man-made. Its abilities can only be described as supernatural.”

“…Riku supposes he understands.”

Riku took a brief look towards Lucky Seven, which only led Noah to once again stare accusingly. The Nopon refused to budge.

But Shulk was suddenly curious. “Actually, I’m quite curious about your sword, too. I’d almost forgotten about it from this morning, but even without seeing it in action it certainly left an impression on me.”

“Finest creation of Riku!” the Nopon boasted as Noah detached it from his hip, which he supposed was technically true. “Magic sword, Lucky Seven!”

Well, it wasn’t quite Riku’s normal line. But considering that the whole truth was stranger, Noah opted to use that as the story anyway.

“Yes, I owe him a great deal for it.”

“Hold on…” Shulk realised, interrupting his interest in the weapon. “You’re new too, aren’t you Riku? You two already know each other?”

“Yes. We came to Colony 9 together, but he was just showing me around the military district.”

Noah gave Riku a small nod, which he returned. He guessed that would be their story from now on.

“I see. Thinking of joining, are you?”

“Well, Ashera certainly wanted me to.”

Shulk smiled at that, clearly familiar with this new version of her. “Ah, don’t pay her too much mind. She’s always searching for competition, I think.”

“…That sounds about right.”

After a brief beat of silence, Shulk returned to his last train of thought. “Well, I’d love to see it in action one day. If it really is a ‘Magic sword,’ then we could really use something like it in the fight against the Mechon.”

This war seems to be very important, at least as far as they know, Noah considered. It’s a strangely uncomfortable reminder of how we used to be… but I suppose I can’t judge them for it yet.

“Well, thank you for the chat, Shulk,” Noah earnestly thanked his new associate. “I think I’ve learnt a lot from you today.”

Shulk looked quite happy to hear it. “Any time. See you both around!”

With that, both Noah and Riku left the Weapons Development Lab… some with more on their mind than others.

“Hey, Riku,” Noah began quietly as they walked away from the Military District, “those two names Shulk mentioned… Bionis and Mechonis. Don’t they sound just like-”

“-Like Ferronis?” Riku guessed, to which Noah nodded. “Indeed, seem to have same root word. But this world get stranger.”

“It does?”

“Much like Ferronis, both Bionis and Mechonis are huge humanoids… but difference lies in scale. After all, Bionis calf beneath Noah’s feet right now.”

Noah’s thoughts immediately short-circuited. “What.”

Riku at least had the courtesy to look remorseful. “Riku understands how that must sound, but it the truth. The world we live on is remains of giant Titan called Bionis.”

“T-then what is the Mechonis?”

“Opposing Titan, just as big. Much closer to Ferronis from what Riku know, though, all mechanical.”

Noah couldn’t help it. He had to just… stand there for a minute while his thoughts raced around his head about the crazy world they’d ended up in. The only thing that remotely compared to the scale of what he’d just been told was his new world…was the thought of what could have possibly wielded the Great Sword.

…Wait. The Great Sword… Sword Valley…

“Riku?” Noah asked, breaking the silence of the evening. “If the Bionis wielded the Monado… and there’s a location called Sword Valley… does that mean that the valley is the Mechonis sword?”

Riku looked puzzled. “Friend sounds correct, yes. Why does Noah ask?”

“You remember how we wondered what could have possibly used the Great Sword? What if Sword Valley, the Mechonis sword… is the Great Sword?”

The question seemed to catch Riku off guard, but his response was confident. “Considering world we in now… Riku would not doubt.”

~~~

Mio brushed another stray hair out of her face as she attempted to eat her breakfast, courtesy of Manana. She couldn’t help but look annoyed; her hair had been cut just before they headed to Origin, but it had suddenly returned to M’s length when she woke up in the city. Said city turned out to be known as Torigoth, a concept that was somewhat unfamiliar to her, considering that the City had no such name to it.

With her meal complete, and more of her bed head to brush out of her face, Mio couldn’t take it any more.

“That’s it, I’m getting my hair cut again!” she proclaimed, to Manana’s shock.

“What?! But friend's hair is so beautiful! Surely girl can at least keep some of its length?”

Despite the appeal, her friend’s words wouldn’t sway her. “I’m sorry Manana, but I can’t deal with this snuffing hair any more! I tried, I really did, but I’ve done what M wanted now, and I can’t spend hours of our precious time on something that isn’t even mine!”

Manana looked disappointed. “…Mio sure? It take long time to grow back.”

Mio smiled at her concern. “I’m sure, don’t worry. I’ll head out into town, see if I can find anyone to do it for me.”

“Okaaaay… Hold on, can Mio afford hairdresser?”

“Well, not right now. But I’m sure I can sell some stuff from monsters.” 

As if to demonstrate, Mio summoned her two Sundancers, enhanced by the Legendary Smithpon. She then tied them at her side, so she wouldn’t have to resummon them.

“If I do this, I should pass for normal, considering I haven’t seen anyone else summon a Blade. If anything, the way people talk about Blades in this world is more like how Ino talked about it, but they use it for those strange people with crystals, and that’s definitely not me.”

“Hmm, very strange to Manana. Please be safe!”

Mio smiled at her and nodded, before heading out into Torigoth. As she reached the main gate, though, she noticed three wanted posters, and one strange one in particular. At first glance it looked like someone like her, with furry ears on their head, but the face resembled a monster more than a human’s.

The hair does seem kinda familiar, though, she mused. Hope it’s just a coincidence; I don’t particularly miss being a fugitive.

With that, Mio set out onto the plains as the sun kept rising.

~~~

As the next day in the new world had dawned, Taion got himself scrupulously ready. Perhaps it was too much, but he had never actually needed to apply for something before, so he wanted to be safe rather than sorry. After perhaps a bit too much effort into styling his hair, he walked out into Alba Cavanich to meet the men who would hopefully be willing to accept him into the army.

Walking up to what appeared to be an officer of some sort, Taion got straight to the point. “Excuse me, sir.”

The officer looked a little surprised. “Oh, hello there young laddie! What can I do for you?”

Taion elected to ignore the comment about his age. “I wish to apply to become a Driver in the Ardainian military, if at all possible.”

“Haha! Eager for a bit of glory, are you? Well, we could certainly use some of that, just as long as you’ve got the potential.”

With a raise of his glasses, Taion put on his most confident expression he could muster. “Of that I have no doubt.”

The officer looked like he found this all rather amusing, to Taion’s chagrin. “Well, aren’t you confident! Guess we better get you a Core Crystal, then.”

Leading him to a more private room, the officer left him alone briefly to find the necessary item. He returned a couple of minutes later, with the Crystal in his hand, letting Taion see one for the first time. It was a strange shape, but one look at the glowing Crystal could have told him there was something special about it, if he hadn’t already researched them meticulously.

“Alright, lad,” the officer began, “this is the moment of truth. You awaken whatever Blade is in this Crystal, and you’re officially a soldier in the Ardainian military, in its Driver recruitment program. But, if you want to back out now, I won’t stop you.”

The genuine concern surprised Taion. Maybe he was a different sort of person to a typical Driver? That seemed unlikely, if he were to compare himself to the only other person he’d ever seen be called one. Regardless, he was hardly going to back down now.

“Don’t worry. I know exactly what I’m getting into.”

He didn’t, but that would be his secret.

Taking the Crystal from the man’s hands, Taion held the crystal over his chest. Now, all he had to do was concentrate, grip it tightly, and…

…After a long, tense moment, the Core Crystal began to glow. As it brightened, it shot beams of white light in every direction, slowly but surely blinding both of the men in the room. Then, once the light had finally settled, the room wasn’t as empty as it had once been. 

Standing before Taion was a Blade… at least, that’s what he assumed. The woman certainly didn’t look human, but those Blades he had researched all looked very similar; blue skin, metallic features, similar faces. Ino looked rather different, but even ignoring that she was from Aionios, she had described herself as a creation of someone, so he could see her being an outlier.

But this one had a human face. And that instantly challenged his assumption that Blades were simple weapons.

“I’m Adenine,” the Blade introduced herself, looking at Taion curiously. “Are you my driver?”

Taion, momentarily stunned, took a few seconds to answer her. “Uh, yes, I am! My name is Taion.”

With his initial shock over with, he finally got a look at her, and that slightly changed his initial assessment. Her face was very human, yes, and so was the short pale green hair, but the rest of her reminded him less of a person and more of a book. That wasn’t just because of the huge book chained to her back and floating behind her, mind you.

No, that was because her dress and legs appeared to be made of one. He couldn’t make out the words, sure, but they all distinctly looked like paper, except for the leather belts… and the part of her chest that was missing. Her arms, meanwhile, were made of that same leather, but covered at the shoulders and wrists by a brassy metal, including gauntlets over her hands. 

The Core Crystal below her collarbone was perhaps the best way of telling that she was, in fact, a Blade. It was the same colour as her hair, along with a very similar circular seal on the book behind her. Taion couldn’t help but think, as he looked her over, that it was amazing how quickly one’s preconceptions could be challenged.

He almost missed her smile at him. “Well then, Taion, it’s good to meet you. I seek to fulfil my intellectual needs through means other than books, so I hope we will have a long and fruitful partnership.”

It was at this moment that the officer who had handed him the Core Crystal reminded Taion that he was in the room by suddenly laughing. Both he and Adenine turned to the man, the Blade looking confusedly, the Ouroboros looking exasperated.

“Taion, laddie, the moment I saw you I took you for the bookish type. And now look at you… your Blade is literally a book!” He immediately resumed his hearty laughter, which Taion took as a sign he was one of the most frustrating military officers he’d ever met.

…A group of people that included Triton and Ashera, mind you.

Once the man had finally calmed down, he attempted to regain his composure with the clearing of his throat, a gesture that reminded him of Queen Nia.

“Alright then, let’s make this official. You are now officially a Driver of the Ardainian Empire… once we get your papers and your Driver registration number sorted out.”

“Paperwork…” Taion mused. “Truly, nothing has changed in the military.”

“Paperwork?” his new partner asked, almost excitedly.

“Not the fun kind.”

“Oh.”

~~~

Mio was almost impressed with her work today. A man from Torigoth had seen her fending off some ambitious Volffs and asked for help in dealing with some Bunnits who were interrupting his own work. With the money she got from doing that, she walked around town asking for someone who could cut her hair, and eventually found a lady willing to do it for her. 

Finally, after hearing the same warnings Manana had given her that morning, the hairdresser had done the job. She was back to having short, and manageable, hair. All in all, she was feeling great.

“Queen’s ears, I’m free of all that hair! My mornings will be much less stressful now.”

It was in her cheerful mood that she was suddenly called for.

“Excuse me, miss,” a man said somewhat softly, his voice sounding strangely tinny.

Considering her excellent hearing, this did not prevent Mio from noticing. She quickly turned around to find a man in the unfamiliar military garb she had spotted around the town. This included the sword-like point on the helmet that she had found… particularly strange.

“Um…” she began confusedly. “Can I… help you?”

The soldier must have been a new recruit, or something of that nature, because after her question he noticeably straightened his posture.

Is he… trying to appear threatening, or something? Mio wondered.

After clearing his throat, he spoke again, louder than before. 

“You are under arrest, by order of His Majesty, the Emperor of Mor Ardain.”

And then all her curiosity was stamped out, leaving only frustration.

“What?!” Mio demanded. “On what grounds?”

The soldier jumped at her sudden change in demeanour. “S-suspected terrorism, as a member of the wanted group Torna. Rest assured, y-your compatriots will soon follow in your footsteps, regardless of your playing at ignorance.”

She resisted the urge to solve her problems with violence, as they often did in Aionios. “Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about with this sparking Torna group. You must have mistaken me for someone else.”

The soldier’s stuttering continued, to the point she’d probably feel bad for him in any other situation. But this was her being accused of terrorism, whatever that was, so she wasn’t feeling as generous.

“T-that’s rather unlikely,” he eventually countered. “The wanted poster matches your face, and though your Blade is absent, you still have its weapons on your hip, same as a common beast-type Blade.”

Okay, that was new. Ignoring the comment on her Sundancers for now, she had seen three wanted posters this morning, and none of them were her.

“None of those wanted posters were for me, if they’re the ones I saw earlier,” she told him, hoping a calmer attitude would win out.

“B-but that’s you! In this one!”

The soldier scrambled his pockets to pull out a copy of… the poster of the monster person?!

“What are you talking about? That looks nothing like me!”

“But look at the hair! It’s just like yours!”

It was with that one little assertion that Mio’s patience ran out. 

“I just had my hair cut!” she yelled, frustration boiling over.

Somehow, after all his chittering, the soldier didn’t back down. Well, he did back up from her, now fully scared, but he also pulled out his weapon. It was a strange rifle that looked a bit more mechanical than the Blades she was used to seeing, with no ether lines visible on it at all.

The soldier held the gun towards her, trying his best to stay determined. “I’m sorry, but I’m gonna need you to put the weapons away, and come with me to the Consul!”

Mio thought it couldn’t have gotten worse. And yet, with that one phrase, negotiations were well and truly over.

Reaching for the two Sundancers on her hip, she made as if to drop them, before throwing them up at the soldier’s face. While he was staggering backwards, she called them back into her hands before striking at his weapon, knocking it out of his hands. Defenceless, he was unable to stop her as Mio immediately struck again at his chest, knocking him over to give her time to escape.

As she ran, she could hear the soldier calling for backup behind her. She’d have to find some way to get back to her and Manana’s room, but then where would she go? How would she avoid detection from this military group after that? Why was there a sparking Consul?!

It then dawned on Mio that it was her hair that caused this. She suppressed a sigh as she continued to run through the streets, cursing her hindsight. But not for long.

Her path was suddenly blocked by a wall of fire. Even at her reaction time, the sudden appearance of blue flames almost left her singed, but she couldn’t go forward any more. Unfortunately, turning around left her with a whole new problem.

“Well, this is a surprise,” the woman began, walking towards her with an overly detailed sword in each hand. “I wasn’t expecting one of the fugitives quite yet.”

Now that Mio looked at her, she appeared to be a Blade. On her chest was a blue crystal in the shape of a flame, which she made no attempt to hide in her fiery blue dress, gloves and boots. And with that flaming blue hair… She found a strange similarity to Sena, of all people.

“Who are you?” Mio demanded, incensed that she’d be reminded of her friend like this.

The woman seemed to find this strangely amusing. ”Oh, you don’t know who I am? Now that is a surprise. Well, does the phrase ‘Jewel of the Empire’ ring any bells for you?”

Mio remained impassive. That phrase was obviously unfamiliar to her, but she wanted that to be as unobvious as possible.

The Blade’s surprise only increased. “You really don’t? Then I suppose introductions are in order. I am Brighid, Blade of Special Inquisitor Mòrag Ladair. I’ve also been known to be called the Empire’s strongest Blade.”

A threat, perhaps? She wasn’t sure, but she couldn’t say nothing forever.

“Are you trying to scare me?” Mio asked, trying to figure her out.

Brighid smiled at that. “Well, not exactly. I just wanted to make sure you really wanted to do this.”

She frowned at the nonchalance. This lady hadn’t even fully opened her eyes, yet she was acting this confident.

“I’m not going into custody over a mistaken identity, not with a Consul at the head of this place. That’s just suicide.”

The specificity caught Brighid off guard.

“…A strong opinion on an official position, for a simple civilian,” she eventually noted. “Of course, simple civilians also don’t run away that quickly, and disarm trained soldiers with a flick of their wrist.”

“What can I say? I’ve also been known as quite the paragon.”

Okay, that was unnecessary, but she was feeling petty for once. Call it Eunie rubbing off on her.

“Is that so?” Brighid entertained. “Well, before we get this started properly, what do people call you?”

“…Mio.”

“Well then, Mio. May the best woman win.”

With that, the Blade revealed the true form of her two swords as whips, snaking them towards Mio at shocking speed. Thankfully, Mio was adept at evading even the most unpredictable of attacks, and dodged between them to narrowly avoid the attack. She figured that her speed would be her most reliable asset here, especially now that she no longer possessed the powers of an Ouroboros.

Unfortunately, Brighid turned out to be quite a match in that department. The two engaged where they could, swinging either their twin rings or whipswords, but rarely if ever found a mark. Mio was almost impressed, but she was too busy fending for her life.

“Heat Haze!”

After a spin of fire around the Blade that Mio barely dodged, the two stopped their fight briefly. Both of them gasped for air as they stared down their opponent.

“Well, you are certainly slippery,” Brighid commented, “but you aren’t using your weapons properly at all. Not that I’m surprised, with your Blade absent.”

Mio scoffed. “I think you’ll find I’m quite proficient with my Blade.”

She supposed the bets were off; if she couldn’t recapture the abilities she’d had in Aionios, she was done for. And in that case, there was one move to try first.

“Gemini Strike!”

Raising her Sundancers like discs, she filled them with what power she could, before throwing them one by one at her foe. An effect resembling wind surrounded each as they struck her weapons, but Brighid managed to deflect them both, a small smile on her face.

It was at that moment that an old lesson Commander Teach had once impressed upon her came to Mio’s mind.

“The battlefield is no place for dignity, but it is neither a place for anger. Recklessness in a moment of weakness is a recipe for disaster, no matter how small.”

And it was with these thoughts in mind that she realised her mistake. As Brighid readied her whip swords in the seconds she was weaponless, Mio knew she wouldn’t be able to block her next attack. And she didn’t. 

Knocked to the floor, Brighid wasted no time in rushing towards her to prevent an escape. So did several soldiers, in fact, all with weapons ready. Unable to resummon her own in time, Mio was soon apprehended.

Manana watched on in horror, unable to stop her friend’s capture… 

…And another Nopon watched her as she did, baffled by it all.

Is that girl a Driver? But then where is Blade?! Why is Special Inquisitor even after her?!

The last of Tora’s questions would be answered soon… but not by Mio or Manana. No, to the east, the Driver of the Aegis and his Gormotti companion walked across the plains of Gormott, approaching the city of Torigoth as the sun began to descend.

Chapter Text

I wonder what Mio would say about me rejoining the military. After how long we fought to stop the pointless violence, I suppose I can only hope I’m doing it for the right reasons.

Noah had decided that it would make sense to at least have a job to keep him afloat, so he had elected to take up Ashera’s offer to join the Defence Force. Unfortunately it had taken him until last night, when he had to quickly take out a brog for some food, to realise that he might actually need some ‘income’, as the city had called it. And with his training, there was only really one option… unless he became some sort of busker with his flute.

Right, the flute. While waking up with his Blade was already strange, finding the flute that was once Mio’s in a drawer had been utterly baffling. It wasn’t even from this world… But, then again, neither was he. And Noah treasured the memories that came with it regardless.

Walking into the military district once more, he found Ashera at the entrance, a knowing look on her face. 

“Well look who it is!” she greeted. “Either that other fancy sword has got you enamoured, or you’re here to join after all.”

“I might be,” Noah confirmed. “Excited to have some competition?”

Ashera seemed to find that a weird thing to say. “Eventually, maybe. But you’ve got a long way to go before you become a Captain, and that’s when we really start competing.”

Oh, right, he thought. Guess there’s still a hierarchy at play here.

“Of course. I suppose I better hope I’m not your subordinate, then, else I’d have to fight you for the role.”

That got Ashera’s attention. “Oh, you’re feistier than I thought! Don’t worry, I’ll put in a word to the Lieutenant Colonel. Maybe you can fill out the young gun’s squad, instead…”

“What was that?”

“Oh, nothing! Just wait here, I’ll get Kantz for you.”

As she walked away, Noah almost laughed at the differences in her demeanour to the Commander of Colony 11.

She practically offered us the Colony on a silver platter, provided we gained the Three Ravens’ respect. I never got the impression she cared much for authority, yet here she is, getting her commanding officer… Maybe there’s a reason?

“So friend here to join after all?”

Noah turned to see Riku approach him, not looking surprised in the slightest.

“Well, it occurred to me last night that I do need to live, and I don’t have many special skills beyond my training. If it’s for a good cause, then I don’t see an issue.”

This made Riku look somewhat contemplative. “Does Noah want to find out if it is a good cause?”

He nodded. “This is where I’m staying for now. I consider it my duty to change it, if need be.”

“Riku sees Noah still goody two-shoes,” the Nopon joked. “Glad to see nothing changed.”

After a minute of waiting, an older looking blonde-haired man walked towards them. Ashera trailed just behind him, marking him as Kantz.

“Well then, you must be Noah,” he introduced. “I’m Kantz, the Lieutenant Colonel of the Colony 9 Defence Force. I hear you want to join us?”

Noah nodded. “Yes, I would. I’ve had a good bit of experience with my sword, so I should hopefully be of some use.”

“Hmm, so you say. Well, I imagine the best way to ensure that would be to give you an opportunity to demonstrate. Ashera?”

The Captain looked a bit shocked to hear her name called. “Um, yes, Lieutenant Colonel?”

“If you’re vouching for him, you may as well be the yardstick we compare him to. How about a quick spar?”

She smirked conspiratorially. “Well, how could I possibly refuse? Haha, this should be fun!”

Noah, meanwhile, looked considerably less impressed with that revelation. She had been a challenge for all six of them, plus Teach, when they had that strange deathmatch contest. And that was with their Ouroboros powers.

Well, I’ve gone and done it now, Noah thought to himself. Guess there’s no choice.

He nodded reluctantly, to which Ashera smiled. Pulling a much more mechanical version of her twinsaber off her back, a button was pressed to extend its two metal blades. She got into her fighting stance as Noah drew his own weapon, debating whether or not to use Lucky Seven’s power more obviously. Eventually he decided to keep it Blade-only for now, but if that needed to change it would.

With Kantz and Riku away from the action, the stage was set.

“Begin!”

The second after Kantz had finished that declaration, Ashrera was upon him. Stabbing one of the blades toward him, Noah narrowly dodged to the side, before batting away the second blade with his own. She reacted to the parry with a spin in the same direction, allowing her to quickly strike with the front end once more. Jumping backwards, he was immediately glad for the training he had done with Mio on his own agility.

“Not seeing much attacking there, rookie,” Ashera joked while there was distance between them.

“Well, this is a defence force, isn’t it?” Noah returned. “Don’t worry, though, I’m more than just evasive.”

With a familiar glint in her eyes, Ashera took that as the cue to resume her assault. But this time, Noah met her overhead strike with his own sword. Though she briefly attempted to overpower him, when he didn’t budge, she attempted to use Noah’s own push force to propel the other side of her blade. But, he used that control to know exactly where the next blade would come from, easily sidestepping it to land a hit on Ashera’s back.

As she stumbled forwards, Noah realised their match had attracted something of a crowd. Seemingly bored soldiers were watching eagerly to see the outcome, muttering something about “the suicidal maniac meeting her match.”

Ashera looked impressed, if incensed. “Guess you weren’t lying about that. And yet you’re still holding out on me.”

“What?” Noah asked, shocked.

In that moment of confusion, Ashera went back in the thick of it, striking relentlessly at a speed Noah could barely block… until he couldn’t. Knocked off his feet, he barely managed to keep hold of his sword as the blade struck his side. The only consolation was that she didn’t run over and leave him with no chance of winning, but that was only a small comfort.

Quickly scrambling to his feet, he saw Ashera looking particularly confident.

“I know that sword isn’t just for show,” she goaded. “You better get serious and show me what you can do if you want to be on the Force.”

“Is that so?” Noah questioned. “I don’t want to go overboard.”

“Ha! You think I can’t take it, huh? Now I really want to know!”

Placing his Blade on hip and gripping its side, Noah readied himself for what would come next. Ashera rushed towards him, her twinsaber spinning around her, and if he did nothing it would surely reach its mark. But he wouldn’t do nothing.

Pulling Lucky Seven apart from the sheath that was his Blade, Noah met Ashera’s weapon at frightening speed. Striking the weapon with the blunt side, the force of the impact left her way off balance… enough for him to strike again to disarm her completely.

A shocked silence fell over the crowd as her weapon clanged to the ground behind her. For a long moment, no one knew what to say… until Ashera laughed.

“Hahaha, now that’s what I was looking for! Oh, we simply must do this again sometime. Maybe next time I’ll even stop holding back?”

Noah was shocked at first, but then he just sighed. “If you say so.”

As the crowd was dispersed by the efforts of both Kantz and Ashera (and two others he didn’t recognise, a brown-haired girl and a younger blonde man), he was left with Riku and the two officers.

“Well, son,” Kantz began, “that is about as good a demonstration as we could ask for. As long as you remain disciplined, I don’t see any reason you won’t fit into the Defence Force.”

“Thank you, sir,” Noah replied, gracious. “I won’t let you down.”

The Lieutenant Colonel nodded before continuing. “Once we’ve gotten all the paperwork sorted out though, we’ll need to put you into a squad with one of our captains. And, well, there is one person in particular who could use a subordinate like you.”

Noah thought that sounded a little ominous. “Like me, sir?”

“Strong and capable… more so than she is. If she really wants to take over my position, she needs a better test of her leadership than Miller’s skiving.”

Ashera smiled, and for a minute Noah assumed she was the Captain in question. That didn’t last long.

“Captain Leater!”

Kantz called out to attract the attention of someone behind Noah. Turning to look, he realised it was the brown-haired girl from earlier who had been helping disperse the crowd. Upon hearing the Lieutenant Colonel’s call, she quickly jogged over to the small group.

“Yes, sir?” 

“Meet the latest member of your unit, Noah. He’s just been admitted into the Defence Force, pending his paperwork.”

This relatively simple prospect seemed to visibly shock the young captain, to Noah’s surprise. “Oh! I see, I see. I won’t let you down, sir!”

“See to it that you don’t,” Kantz implored, before turning away. 

Presumably he was off to finish that paperwork, which was what Noah assumed. But when he was far enough from the group, Ashera suddenly started giggling.

“Ashera, come on!” Captain Leater grumbled at her fellow officer. “Do you always have to delight in the way he treats me?”

“I’m sorry, Emm,” Ashera explained, “It’s just… man does old Kantz hate you! It gets me every time!”

‘Emm’ didn’t dignify her response with anything more than a huff, instead turning to Noah. “Well, ignoring her for the moment… It’s nice to meet you, Noah! I’m Captain Emmy Leater, and I bid you welcome to my unit.”

Noah smiled. “Thank you for having me aboard! I’m eager to work with you, and the rest of your squad.”

For whatever reason, this only intensified Ashera’s giggling into full on laughter. As Leater began arguing with Ashera once more, Noah sadly would not get an answer as to why for now.

~~~

Garfont Village had been a very interesting place so far, as Sena reflected. The function of these ‘mercenaries’ turned out to be like a sort of, well, private army? That was the best way she could put it, anyway. They took on jobs, often fighting-based ones, at the behest of a client… for a fee, of course. 

For this reason they employed a good amount of ‘Drivers’ to their ranks, which in this world seemed to be people who had a humanoid Blade. Considering a Blade was what she was masquerading as, she had done her best to learn about the connection between the two in hopes Mimi wouldn’t be too out of her depth when they eventually met up again.

…If they met up again.

Sena shook those thoughts out of her head as she went to train, opting to try and focus on something else. Her eyes ended up straying to some of the children staying in the village… some of whom had ears just like her-

Nonono, I was meant to be focusing on something else! Sena remembered, slapping the sides of her face to try and forget about it.

Unfortunately, this didn’t really work, but it also wasn’t too long before she arrived at the place she’d decided to train at. She opted to start with pushups, as she often did, though she did miss her Nopon counterweight. Of course, remembering said Nopon just made her focus on her friends more, which she tried to stop by training harder.

Maybe it wasn’t a particularly effective method, but she wasn’t exactly their team strategist; it was the best she had.

“Hey, what are you up to down there?” called a familiar voice.

Sena briefly stopped her pushups to see that it came from Zuo, who had greeted her yesterday.

“Oh… you know…” Sena explained between breaths, “strength training! I never… miss a day… if I can… help it!”

If she’d been looking at the man, she would have seen him look very confused.

“Never met a Blade who did strength training before.”

Sena abruptly stopped mid push up, to stand up again. “Really? Well, how else are they gonna get strong?”

Zuo shrugged. “They’re born with it? That’s just how it goes for Blades; some are physically strong, some are not.”

Sena frowned at the implication. “Well, not every Blade is the girl with the gall, are they? I’m sure I get loads of benefit from it!”

“Heh, I’m sure ya do.”

With her pushups interrupted, Sena felt the urge to do some lifting. Summoning her Blade, Meteor Smasher, Sena quickly turned it from its hammer form into the dumbbell form she used for her training… and also to launch her foes into the air, occasionally. It was allowed to be multi-purpose, right?

As she did, though, another man began to wander over to the duo, catching Zuo’s attention.

“Boss! You’re back!”

Sena didn’t drop her weight, but it was close; A lesson in not yelling next to someone lifting, she supposed. After that little scare, she elected to put the Blade (weapon) down, and turned to look at the man who was approaching them.

Well, it was one man and one… bird? She guessed it was a Blade (the person type), but ignoring them for a moment, the man himself seemed vaguely familiar. She’d remember someone like this in the City, but she couldn’t put a name to it.

“Good to see you still in one piece, Zuo. How was the village while we were gone?”

The man’s voice only made her more certain she should know him… but where from?

“Well, for the most part, not too much happened,” Zuo answered, “except for one new arrival. Boss, meet Sena, a Blade who’s staying here while she waits for the return of her Driver.”

As Zuo motioned towards her, the boss gave her a quick once over, before nodding. “Well, Sena, nice to meet ya! The name’s Vandham, the boss of this little firm we’ve got going on here.”

“...V-Vandham?” Sena squeaked.

Of course it only comes back to me now! she grumbled internally. His hair, it looks so much like Guernica’s… And wasn’t Zuo the name of one of his squad members?!

The giant man laughed at her presumably shocked expression. “What, have ya heard of me? Bwahaha!”

“Umm… yeah! Just a bit… star struck?”

“Haha! Well, don’t believe everything ya hear - I’m not one for fame. Anyways, hope you’re enjoying your stay in our little abode! And, hey, if ya need some work while you’re waiting, just give us a holler, okay?”

Sena took a moment to understand what he even meant, before eventually replying, “Oh, thanks!”

As both of the men left her to her own devices, Sena’s head was whirring as fast as it could. He had the same name, and a very similar face, but on closer look had those same scale-like features some Agnians (and several of the mercenaries) had. And Guernica didn’t have those… 

So are they different people with the same name? Is this something to do with Origin?!

As that question reverberated through her thoughts, she unfortunately found no answer beyond a headache.

~~~

Manana had dealt with plenty of Nopon in her day, but this must have been the worst of them all! Well, perhaps that was an exaggeration, but the point still stood that she’d caught this oversized child spying on her! 

Okay, spying on Mio, and her showdown with the fire lady. But in the process he’d started spying on her, and that was unforgivable! Especially because he didn’t do anything to save her friend from those mean soldiers!

“But then why didn’t Manana help?!” the stripy child asked her.

“Because!” Manana began, incensed. “Unlike Tora, Manana did not have weapon!”

“Then what is that on Manana’s back?”

“This heavy duty Nopon-exclusive cooking pot! Can only use as weapon with help of someone special!”

Unfortunately this just made Tora look confused. “Mehmeh, Tora think Manana’s reasoning has gone over his head… But, more importantly, Boom Biter too risky! Cannot shoot as simple distraction so recklessly!”

“What?!” Manana gasped. “What is point of such risky weapon?”

Tora flailed his wings in exasperation at the older Nopon’s antics. “Is simply experimental! Was not expecting to use today, is all!”

Manana frowned. “Then why did Tora even bring it with him?”

There was a silent staring contest for a moment, before Tora finally cracked. “Okay, Tora did intend to use today. But only from safe location where none of those bully soldiers could find Tora! Science not worth going to jail over!”

“So Tora would let Mio go to jail instead?!”

This bickering continued on briefly until the noise of a crowd caught them both off guard.

“…Another commotion?” Tora wondered. “Strangely exciting day.”

Manana, meanwhile, was inconsolable. “What if commotion is Mio?! Manana must go see!”

Tora attempted to use this opportunity to slip away…

“Okay then, Tora leave you alone now-”

…Only for Manana to grab his arm.

“Where does Tora think he is going?! We not finished, so you’re coming with me!”

“W-what?! No, wait-”

His words of defiance failed him, as he was unceremoniously dragged to the entrance of Torigoth to find out what was going on. Once they arrived, Manana found a small crowd gathered around some soldiers, some of whom were helping a fluffy-eared man that had seemingly lost consciousness.

“Oh, they recruiting Drivers again,” Tora guessed nonchalantly. “Figures.”

The prospect of people ending up like this regularly seemed ludicrous to Manana. “This normal to Tora?”

Tora nodded. “Tora tried himself once. Did not succeed…”

After she clarified how often this recruiting happened, though, Manana suddenly had the nagging feeling she should know what a Driver was, but she didn’t have time to wonder about that. Instead, she noticed a peculiar group of people in the crowd. One was a mostly normal boy with no fluffy ears, though his hair was a painful reminder of her friend Riku; another was a strange red-haired girl that Manana thought seemed vaguely similar to something. But the last two… 

The first one was strange beast-thing, perhaps a Blade, but with it was a short, grey haired, fluffy-eared girl. And that sounded far too familiar to Manana.

“Tora, look over there!”

The boy was shocked at the sudden request “Huh? What Manana looking at?”

“Girl there must be person Mio was mistaken for!”

Tora took a moment to look at the girl she was pointing at. “Guess Tora can see what Manana means. But that means girl is wanted, doesn’t it?”

Manana gave an enthusiastic nod. “Yes, and that means there been huge mistake! Manana must talk to girl to clear things up!”

“Meh? What Manana talking about?” Tora questioned. “Surely Manana does not expect them to turn themselves in!”

“No, but Manana does expect them to help rescue Mio! It their fault, after all!”

For what was far from the first time today, Tora looked at Manana with pure confusion. “Manana very relaxed about dealings with potentially wanted criminal.”

“Manana used to such things,” the Nopon scoffed. “Young boy would not understand.”

Tora just sighed as they kept watch on the mysterious strangers. While they did, a man attempted to become a Driver and, unlike the last one, actually succeeded. This was very illuminating for Manana, who still had no idea what Driver and Blade meant in this new world. The relationship, she finally realised, sounded almost like how Ino talked about Noah, which was rather bizarre.

As the sun continued to set the crowd dispersed. Manana wanted to run up to talk to the girl immediately, but Tora quickly cautioned her against talking to them in front of the soldiers.

“Why is Tora suddenly invested?” Manana asked, curious.

“Well,” the boy began, “Tora always admired Drivers. If this group truly Drivers and Blades like Tora thinks, then Tora would love to talk to them.”

“…This seems important to Tora. Manana will not pry, but all the more reason to talk to them-”

It was then that the Nopon duo realised that the entire group of potential Drivers, Mio-lookalike included, had disappeared.

“Oh no! Where they go?!”

“This way!” Tora urged. “Should be able to find them through here.”

Leading her through some streets, Tora eventually stopped them in a back alley. From their vantage point, they got front row seats to the two Driver and Blade duos taking on a whole group of soldiers.

“There they are!” Manana exclaimed. “In same situation Mio was!”

As the group of soldiers was thinned out, Manana almost thought they would get away. But then the fire lady returned, and she was back into panic mode.

“Tora! They need distraction, quickly!”

“Tora is working on it!” he grumbled as he got the Boom Biter ready.

Before he could do so, the girl Manana was so desperate to talk to was caught in a strange net. She wanted to beat up the mean soldiers for their slight herself, but before she could, Tora finally shot the Boom Biter at their adversaries… and missed?

Yet despite only bursting a water pipe, the fire lady was now unable to do anything. The boy and the red-haired girl, who had turned out to be fiery in her own right, used the opportunity to launch an attack.

…Not that Manana saw it, because now Tora was the one dragging her away. He led her to a back entrance, then got them both to wait inside until the remaining duo came their direction. Sure enough, they both rounded the corner, soldiers presumably hot on their heels.

“This way, friends, come this way!” Tora called as he opened the door just enough for them to both peek out. “Tora help you escape!”

The boy stopped, but looked baffled at the Noponic duo. “Who are you two?”

“Quick, no time to explain!” Manana hurried, desperate to at least save something today.

Thankfully, the boy nodded to his Blade partner before they both rushed inside, leaving Tora to close the door behind them.

~~~

Mio sat in her cell, frustrated at how her two days had gone. After a confusing beginning to life in her new world, she’d somehow ended up imprisoned for a crime she didn’t commit only a day later. And then the interrogation…

The soldier escorting her forcefully sat her down in front of Brighid. With her hands bound, she couldn’t summon her weapons in any useful way, so she had little choice but to take it. After a moment of tense silence, the two women simply staring at each other, Mio eventually spoke up.

“So what? Are you holding me until the Consul gets here?”

Brighid scoffed. “Hardly. Dughall is many things, but competent is not one of them; He would not be of any use in this situation.”

She tried not to let the confusion play out on her face. Maybe… Consul means something different here? Mio thought.

“More importantly,” Brighid continued, “the more I look at you, the less I believe you are in fact our terrorist. But the fact remains you bear a remarkable similarity to the description of them. Even down to your choice of weapon.”

Mio sighed. “…The soldier said the same thing.”

“And yet, your Blade is absent. Despite using its weapons to great effect.”

Brighid stared at her, trying to understand her most likely, but Mio did not budge. “Is that so strange? That someone would fight without a Blade?”

“It is if they’re using a Blade weapon, which you most certainly were; I could tell just by picking them up. So, where are they hiding?”

“What, do you expect me to have someone waiting in the shadows?”

Brighid frowned at the question. “Perhaps not, but without that potential explanation there isn’t much else that makes sense… Although, there is one possibility I need answered.”

Mio didn’t ask.

“Fair enough, I’ll say it straight then; What’s under that jacket?”

She couldn’t help but grimace. “Nothing of concern.”

“I think I’ll be the judge of that.”

With Mio’s hands bound behind her back, Brighid was forced to slightly lower the collar herself. She stopped exactly when Mio thought she would.

Brighid gasped as she saw the small crystal. “…I see there’s been a misconception. You don’t have a Blade with you at all.”

Mio resisted the urge to hiss back a retort.

“I'll ask again; what are you? Why is part of your Core Crystal red?”

“Do you expect me to answer you?” Mio questioned, furious. “Or do you not understand that this was precisely the reason I covered it?”

The response seemed to catch Brighid off guard. After a few seconds of silence, she sighed in something akin to resignation. 

“I don’t understand you, not yet. But before we talk again, I will. Soldier, take her back to her cell.”

“Yes, Lady Brighid!”

And then she’d been here ever since… Or rather, she would have been, except she was moved from her cell in the base to a large ship not too long after her interrogation. Left only with the cryptic feeling that Brighid knew something about her Crystal she didn't. She couldn’t help but think of the torturous month in Agnus Castle M and her friends went through, causing her to wonder if this was some sort of retribution for her relative luxury. But she dismissed the thought out of hand; had M not changed places with her, she would have been the one dead, and it had been her choice.

That resolve did little to improve her mood, unfortunately. Her flute, Noah’s flute, was still in the room she and Manana had opted to share, along with her diary.

When I get out of here, Mio thought, I’ll have to catch up on at least a day. But I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself.

But before she could fall back into gloom, a sudden commotion happened outside her cell. Was someone else going to one of the others on this ship? That must have been the case, because shortly thereafter a door banged shut.

“Good news, prisoner,” a soldier suddenly called, seemingly addressing her. “It turns out you weren’t spouting lies about mistaken identity after all! Captain Padraig just caught the real terrorist not too long ago, with Lady Brighid’s help. You might be out of here soon… provided you answer the Special Inquisitor’s questions, anyway!”

Mio didn’t dignify their false hope with an answer, opting to stay stubbornly silent.

“…Well, I’ve told you, anyway. I’ll be off then.”

Once the soldier had moved sufficiently far away, Mio attempted to summon her weapons, but they didn’t properly materialise. She huffed in disappointment.

“These cells seem to counteract Blades, unfortunately.”

The sudden voice caught Mio off guard. It was a gruff, older man’s voice, one that sounded… strangely familiar. It must have been coming from the other cell.

“Do you think so? Guess that would explain why they felt safe locking me in here.”

The voice hummed in agreement, falling silent for a second. Eventually though, he began talking once more.

“I believe I must apologise on my Lady’s behalf.”

“Why’s that?” Mio asked, confused.

“It sounds as if you were mistaken for her, leading to your imprisonment before us.”

Mio gave a sombre laugh. “Don’t worry about it… I don’t blame either of you, really. If anything, I’d believe that you too were imprisoned for something you didn’t do.”

The voice went quiet again. “I’m afraid there may be some truth to the claims, objectively… Though that doesn’t stop it from feeling unfair.”

Something about that tone of voice sounded familiar. “What, did you do the right thing, only to end up here?”

“Hmm… You make it sound like you know from experience.”

Mio sighed. “…Yeah, you could say that.”

After another moment of quiet contemplation, the voice returned one last time. “Well, regardless of all that, for the sake of courtesy… I am Dromarch. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Dromarch, huh?” Mio repeated. “Well, I’m Mio… Nice to meet you, too. Hopefully, we’ll meet in person sooner rather than later.”

“Indeed.”

As the quiet returned to her cramped cell, Mio’s mind wandered back to Noah.

~~~

Noah hadn’t done so many drills since the days of Colony 14, he thought… but he guessed he could understand why. Captain Leater was eager to put him through his paces and figure out how capable he was, but she had to keep upping the ante every time. He guessed that’s what being born a soldier, and then becoming Ouroboros, meant.

With the sun setting on another day in Colony 9, Noah was just finishing up his last set when a familiar group came over to introduce themselves. There was Shulk and Reyn, naturally, but there was also a blonde-haired girl with them.

…Something about her hair made him suppress a wince. He couldn’t help but think of Crys, of all people, but that must have just been a coincidence.

“Hello there,” the girl introduced. “I don’t think we’ve met yet.”

“No, we haven’t,” Noah confirmed. “I’m Noah.”

“And I’m Fiora! Lovely to meet you.” She stopped to turn towards the boys with her for the moment. “I hear you’re already acquainted with these two?”

Noah nodded. “Yeah, I met them yesterday. Though I haven’t seen Reyn since.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”  Reyn demanded. “I turned up to training today! I was just a bit late to the afternoon session.”

Shulk suddenly looked a bit sheepish. “Sorry about that, Reyn.”

His apology only made Reyn sigh. “Shulk, I told you already, don’t worry about it. Square-tache’s punishment duty ain’t so bad, especially if you’re coming.”

“Remember that it’s not just for fun, Reyn,” Fiora admonished. “You said that Shulk ‘wouldn’t get a scratch,’ after all.”

“I know, I know…”

Their conversation was interrupted by Noah lightly laughing. When the trio looked at him confusedly, he stopped himself to explain.

“Sorry, it’s just… seeing you two like that, it reminds me a lot of some dear friends of mine. We were inseparable since we were young, and the two of them definitely had conversations like that.”

Reyn chuckled at that. “A trio of inseparable kids? Yeah, that sounds like us.”

“Sometimes to my frustration,” Fiora chipped in, which just made Reyn sigh again.

Punishment duty, though? Noah thought. Wonder what that’s about.

“Anyway, what’s this punishment duty the Colonel put you on?”

“We’ve got to grab ether cylinders from the Mag Mell ruins in Tephra Cave,” Reyn clarified. “It’s a little bit of a hike, so we’re starting tomorrow.”

He smiled at the familiar job. “Ah, of course. Do you want some help with that?”

Shulk laughed, to Noah’s surprise. “As much as I’d enjoy seeing your sword in action Noah, I believe you might have to check in with your captain first.”

Noah winced, forgetting briefly that he’d just enlisted in the Defence Force. Sure enough, he turned around to Leater, only for her to shake her head.

“Ah, right. Sorry, Captain.”

Despite that, she smiled. “Helping people is all well and good, but you were just assigned to me today. It’d be best if I didn’t immediately send you off."

“Don’t want your only other subordinate following in Miller’s footsteps, eh?” Reyn jabbed.

“Oh, like you’re one to talk, Mr. Late-to-Training.”

“Hey, I had a reason!”

As the two Defence Force soldiers had a brief ‘spirited discussion’ with Shulk watching on, Noah turned to Fiora. “You know, I’m surprised you’re not going with them.”

In response she raised an eyebrow. “Now who said I wasn’t? Just make sure you don’t tell them, okay?”

Now that sounded familiar. “Ah, I understand. Don’t worry, I won’t.”

“Thanks, Noah.”

Watching them all walk off, he couldn’t help but miss Eunie and Lanz… and of course, their Agnian friends. Though they hadn’t grown up together, they had become as big a part of each other’s lives as the rest of them.

This did suddenly make him wonder about Manana, though. He felt bad admitting it, but she had slipped his mind until now. Perhaps she was with Mio, just as Riku was with him…

~~~

Manana was missing Mio already. After a brief introduction, Tora’s new ‘friends’ were discussing a bunch of things with him that went way over her head. She couldn’t really contribute until the human boy (Rex, she reminded herself) asked if Tora knew where the army kept prisoners.

“Rex, you’re not planning to…” Pyra (the fiery Blade girl) trailed off, clearly unhappy with the idea.

Thankfully, the Driver was resolute. “We have to save Nia and Dromarch.”

The little thing in his helmet that he called Gramps started talking, but Manana interrupted before he could get a proper word in.

“Are they Driver and Blade from before?!”

“Yeah.”

“Then Manana must agree! We need to save girl who was mistaken for Mio so Manana can talk to them!”

Her assertion seemed to only confuse the newly arrived duo. “Mio?” Pyra asked. “Who is…?”

“Oh, right, new friends not know,” Manana realised. “Mio is Manana’s friend, who was mistaken for…”

Hold on, that not right, the Nopon realised. Is Queen Nia’s name common or somethings? Seems strange coincidence.

“Uh, Nia, right?” Rex finished for her.

“Ah, yes yes, and Mio was arrested for it! Should be held in same place as your friend Nia!”

Rex frowned. “That’d make sense, yeah, but why do you want to talk to her?”

…Now that Rex mentioned it, she didn’t really have a reason anymore. 

“Well, plan was to make her help rescue Mio, but now that both girls captured, point is somewhat moot. Maybe just to ask why Nia is wanted?”

The Driver and his Blade both seemed to get it, at least enough to drop the topic.

“Well, anyway, do you know where they’re being held Tora? Assuming Manana doesn’t know.”

When Manana nodded, Tora was put on the spot. “Mehmeh… Tora have to ask around town for that. But before we do anything, time for food!”

Manana’s eyes lit up at the prospect. “Ohoho! Of course, it dinner time! Manana best find ingredients so Tora and Manana can help properly.”

“Right! All of today’s running around make Tora hungry. Need food to help Rexrex!”

Rex frowned at what must have seemed like nonchalance. “Can’t we eat later? I want to find Nia and Dromarch as soon as possible! …And Mio, of course.”

Manana found it fitting that his stomach immediately growled. Tora couldn’t help but laugh at his new friend’s bad timing.

“Haha! Stomach of Rexrex tell different story!”

Rex looked embarrassed at the reaction. “I… I can’t help it, can I?!”

But then… Manana made herself a dangerous enemy.

“Um, if it’s alright with everyone, I could cook something?”

Even as Pyra said it, Manana was in shock. This girl wanted to take over her duty? To become the cookypon?!

And Rex looked surprised! “Pyra? I didn’t know you could cook.”

This made the girl giggle, of all things! “Well, as long as fire is involved, I can do almost anything! Fry, steam, grill - you name it. If you want ice cream, though… You might have to find someone else.”

“Well, you can’t have everything.”

Manana could hardly believe what she was hearing. “But… Manana is cookypon! Cannot hand over most important duty to stranger!”

Unfortunately, all her righteous fury started dissolving the moment she saw Pyra look so disappointed.

Rex earnestly attempted to mediate. “Oh, come on Manana, surely you can let her cook this time?”

Despite her reservations, Manana couldn’t deny them both. “Mehmeh… So long as Manana can cook another time. Pyra best show friends what fellow cookypon can do!”

“I’ll do my best!” Pyra accepted, having perked right back up.

And sure enough, Manana doubted she could have done better with the ingredients on hand. But she couldn’t admit that out loud.

Manana will wow you next time for sure, Pyra! Just as soon as Manana finishes eating Glitterbake…

Chapter Text

It had been a long day by Manana’s reckoning, in her efforts to save Mio from her unfair imprisonment. 

Well, okay, she wasn’t contributing too much beyond being very adorable and cheering them on, but that wasn’t for lack of trying! It was simply very hard to find information in a town you’ve only been in for two days, or find parts for a project you don’t know much about. She’d ended up going to grab Mio’s flute and diary from their room preemptively just to feel like she’d done something.

…What about the project? Oh, right, the project.  

Well, her fellow Nopon Tora, despite being simply a larger than average teenager as opposed to an adult, had gotten it in his head that he could make an “Artificial Blade,” as he’d called it. Manana thought this sounded silly; she hadn’t so much as seen a Levnis in this town, and the boy wanted to replicate something like Ino?! It was completely absurd.

This was meant to make him reconsider, honest. But that unfortunately failed miserably, and so she and the others were put on a wild tirkin chase for Bion Connectors, supposedly to fix in place a hat. She missed Valdi already, that boy was at least proven with Levnises before he asked their help in gathering materials for Dorrick. Without using Ino as a point of comparison, she doubted she’d even find the idea impressive.

Relaying this to Tora had only left her in an argument about the technical wizardry of actually making an artificial Blade, and how there was nothing on Alrest like it, but this had gone way over her head; she wasn’t Riku after all.

Then again, she was being a little harsh on the boy - the day hadn’t begun with that tedium. Instead, the first thing they had done was to ask around town for information on the military’s latest prisoners. From this Manana learned that the army was supposedly Ardainian, and that this was different to the Gormott that was the name of this landmass, though the distinction mostly just confused her.

When it came to the others, however, two very important details were discovered. First, that Nia and Mio both were on the Titan Battleship now docked at Torigoth Relay Base, the small military installation in town. Second, and most pressing, was that Nia was scheduled to be executed in three days. Though there was no mention of the same being true for Mio, Manana was concerned regardless.

With their time limit and goal confirmed, the group returned to put their heads together back at Tora’s house. This included Pyra, who had come with them despite being wanted; she had donned a Gormotti-themed cloak that covered her Core Crystal, as that was apparently the most common method of identifying her.

Knowing the stakes, Rex wasn’t content with waiting much longer, relaying that he wanted to leave tonight. Tora agreed, but had one condition; Rex, Pyra and Manana’s help in completing his Artificial Blade, so he could fight alongside his new Driver friend. It was only a few parts from completion supposedly, but Tora was broke, a tragedy which Manana could unfortunately relate to. Apparently coming to a new world brought over your cooking pot, but not your gold…

…Still, what Manana couldn’t relate to was why he needed the Bion Connectors! Sure, the Perfect Range Sensors sounded useful for eyes, but why did Tora need an expensive part just to secure a hat? He made it sound as if losing it would prevent important battle functions or something, which she knew had to be a joke, yet he took it completely seriously! Riku would be ashamed… Unless he was interested instead, which she could sadly see happening.

Well, regardless of her efficacy, her job was now done. The parts were installed, and a storm was brewing, an apparent requirement in starting this Artificial Blade. It even reminded her a bit of Ino, to Manana’s surprise.

“Okay Artificial Blade, it’s wakey-wakey time-”

“That won’t do, Tora!”

Manana suppressed a sigh at Pyra’s sudden interruption. Tora was just about to flick the switch; what could be so important?

Tora seemed to feel much the same. “W-What Tora do wrong?”

“You can’t keep calling her “Artificial Blade”! As her creator, the least you can do is give her a proper name.”

Okay, Manana could understand that. It did seem strange that Tora would say this Blade was so advanced that it was comparable to Blades like Pyra, and yet hadn’t been given a name like her. Manana couldn’t help but think of Segiri and her friends initially being known only as their numbers, before Sena gave them all new names they took to like piranhaxes to water.

“Oh, um, well…” Tora began sheepishly. “Actually friends, Tora did think of name for her. Very good name.”

Rex nodded in approval. “Nice. Then I guess there’s no problem.”

“Well, why don’t you introduce us, Tora!” Gramps prompted.

Tora responded with newfound determination. “Right away! Now, wakey wakey! Tora’s very own Blade… Poppi!”

With her name revealed, Tora threw the switch that would activate the artificial Blade, and on cue, the small room resounded with a crash of lightning. As the light in the roof shook back and forth, light fog came from the direction of Poppi, lit briefly with pulses of static. Once the commotion had died down, Tora looked anxiously at his creation, and Manana could feel the anticipation.

“P-Poppi?” he called nervously.

What followed this… Manana would rather not repeat. Suffice to say, after that embarrassment was dealt with, Poppi was alive and well, and rather impressive in her opinion. She even reminded her of Ino in the way she spoke like a Nopon, actually. Just… Tora…

“Well, let’s not dwell on that,” Pyra wisely suggested. “Rex! Let’s go rescue Nia and Dromarch.”

“And Mio!” Manana reminded her.

Rex nodded. “Right, no time to lose!”

Tora, still embarrassed, could do little but “Mehmeh…” quietly. 

But Poppi was there to raise his spirits, turning to him with her hands together. “Anyway, my name Poppi. Poppi try hard to make Masterpon proud.” 

She bowed in respect of her new driver, which was probably more than could be said about the rest of the room. Poppi’s movements, even as she returned to the same standing pose she was in before, reminded her of a Levnis in their rigidness, though Manana could tell there was the beginnings of a real girl underneath. Notably, Manana couldn’t help but think of Segiri once again, in the way she spoke in queries and confirmations, but hopefully she too would come out of her shell.

Of course, unlike Segiri, there was no literal Ferronis shell… but that was a silly thought regardless.

After Tora grabbed his new drill shield that would act as his Blade weapon, and did some last-minute diagnostics, the entire group (now with Poppi) headed out. Under the cover of the night, they stood on the edge of a cliff, with the Titan ship before them.

“There is Titan warship!” Tora said, sounding a little in awe. Manana couldn’t really blame him - Riku would have been much the same.

Gramps hummed at the scale of it, but he didn’t sound quite so impressed. “Quite the impressive Titan. Another sign that Mor Ardain is once again readying for war with Uraya.”

“W-war?!” Manana spluttered. “What they go to war for? Nothing good comes from it!”

It was almost funny how strange that would have sounded months ago, when she was still part of the Agnus military as a Cheffypon. Sure, she didn’t do any fighting, but she didn’t question why either. She just went about her life.

She was not laughing at how Rex of all people was the one to answer. “Well… the Titans are all dying out, and with them, the land people can live on. And with so little land left… people fight over what’s left.”

Gramps nodded. “Mor Ardain’s Titan, in particular, is reaching the end of its life. The Empire, therefore, seeks a new home for its people. Somewhere like Gormott.”

The name sounded almost familiar to Manana, but it still took her a minute to figure out. “Wait, Gormott is land Manana is on now, right?”

“That right!” Tora confirmed. “That’s why mean Ardainians have base here.”

“And’s that why we’re going to Elysium!” Rex suddenly interjected, full of energy. “If the stories about it are true, it’ll be the answer to all of Alrest’s problems. We’ll finally have enough land for everyone.”

“Mehmeh?!” Manana exclaimed. “Such place really exist?!”

“Well, Pyra was born there. It’s gotta be real, right?”

“Manana see, Manana see…”

This world was full of strange concepts, in her mind. But that wasn’t really important for now. What was important was finding the entry point Pyra had pointed out; a large root extending from the cliffside. 

Rex was the first to spot it. “Look! That root goes right to the ship, just like Pyra said.”

“Yes yes!” Tora confirmed, happy to see their planning not go to waste.

“We should be able to climb down over here.”

Rex turned to a path leading down the side of the cliff to some small housing.

With the rescue party in agreement, they all headed out, ready to save their friends. But though they were under the cover of darkness, they had still been spotted. 

A young Gormotti, bow in hand, watched them from a nearby tower as they descended the twisted path. With their target in sight, they turned around and jumped off the tower, dashing through the empty town to their destination. Outside the gates of Torigoth Relay Base, they were met with the woman who had requested their services.

“They’re preparing to enter the ship, Special Inquisitor. It seems they intend to enter from the treetop path. Should I engage?”

Mòrag shook her head. “Negative, Juniper. We’ll let them come to us.”

Juniper nodded. “Understood.”

~~~

Noah’s first full day on the Defence Force had been… interesting, so far. During his training, he met the Colonel of the Defence Force, Vangarre. The name reminded him of Vandham, but if he was related, then it must have been distantly, because Vangarre was about as different from the Vandhams he had met as a man could be. A pointy orange moustache, which he only knew the name of because someone in the City had mentioned it, an abrasive attitude…

Wait, an abrasive attitude sounds just like Ghondor. Never mind.

So maybe there were some similarities in personality, but it was night and day in appearance. Even on the personality front, he couldn’t exactly find any of Ghondor’s hidden depths from a man who called his soldiers ‘maggots.’ Thankfully that hadn’t been directed at him; Noah had been a model soldier so far, to the point he’d actually been praised by the Colonel.

Which he was glad for, because his strict training regimens, amplified by any missteps, reminded him of a much less patient Teach. And Teach was a man who already terrified his new recruits! He couldn’t help but think about one of the strange facets of Aionios’s 10 term limit; a soldier couldn’t really be in a position of power for very long overall, whereas Vangarre had been Colonel for years according to his men, and Lieutenant Colonel before that. That probably contributed to his presence.

With Noah’s drills finally done, Captain Leater had given him his first assignment… finding her only other subordinate. In truth, Noah hadn’t even met Miller yet, but fellow Captain Raoul had spoken highly of his potential… though not much else. This had been in a rant about Emmy, mind you, so perhaps he was biased.

As he wandered through the Commercial District, he couldn’t help but wonder how Shulk, Reyn and Fiora were doing in their search for Ether Cylinders. That may have been due to the boredom, mind you; Miller was slippery, and once he’d gotten wind of Noah being the man assigned to find him he had started running away at frightening speed. The sun was already setting and he was still yet to catch the man.

Despite himself, he chuckled at the memory of the only man he’d seen run faster. Instead of laziness though, Kite had been drawn in by Juniper’s smile for reasons he probably didn’t understand, but Noah could certainly guess. Unfortunately, Noah was not as fast, and he was not exempt from running after him, as Captain Leater had sent him specifically because she thought he could run faster than her.

Whether that would be enough to catch Miller was anyone’s guess, but at the very least he had a solid shot at it; Miller had seemingly hidden himself in an alley with very few exits. All Noah had to do now was walk in and talk to him. As he rounded the corner, and jumped down the ledge in his way, he could see Miller briefly consider running off before sighing in defeat.

“Damn it, should have known you’d come this way…” he rued as Noah approached him.

In response, Noah just smiled knowingly. “Well, you know why I’m here, don’t you?”

“Captain Leater wants me to come back, doesn’t she?”

Noah nodded, leading him to huff.

“What is it with that woman?” he complained. “Can’t she come find me herself, instead of sending her new subordinate after me instead?”

“From what I gather, she’s tried,” Noah suggested. “Apparently you run too fast for her to catch up.”

“Yeah, because a lazybones can outrun a dedicated military officer.”

“Says the man who’s been outrunning me all day. You gave me quite a workout, actually.”

Miller looked shocked to hear the honesty. “…Is that right?” When Noah just nodded, he sighed. “Fine, I’ll go back. I don’t wanna make any trouble for you on your second day.”

Noah gave him a genuine smile. “Thank you, Miller.”

“Yeah, yeah, sorry for the trouble… uh, Noah, right?”

“Right.”

For a brief moment, it was a calm end to a mostly uneventful day in Noah’s new home. But as Noah and Miller walked out back into the central square of the commercial district, the fragile peace was swiftly shattered by a strange siren. It resounded through the Colony as the sun began to disappear from view, unfamiliar to Noah entirely. 

“What’s that sound?” Noah wondered aloud, suddenly worried. “Miller?”

Miller looked briefly just as confused, before he suddenly changed his tone. “Crap, it's Siren 2! And that means it's the Mechon!”

“What?! Isn’t that-”

Noah didn’t have time to consider it before he looked upwards to find huge flying carriers floating overhead. As they hovered above the Colony, from each of them was dropped hordes of… Levnises?! That was Noah’s first thought, and the design was undoubtedly similar, but this was their enemy!  

A million questions ran through Noah’s head. Are they manned? And why are they attacking us?!   

These questions met their abrupt and unfulfilled end as the units dropped into the Colony from above. Noah swiftly drew his Blade and observed the first of the Mechon he saw, attempting to quickly figure out his foe. It didn’t take long to realise these mechanical devices were not manned, and so Noah wasted no time.

Parrying a swipe of its strange claw, Noah attempted to stab the Mechon in its chest… only for his Blade to find less purchase than he would have liked. It wasn’t ineffective per se, but in comparison to most of his foes it was a lacking effort. The Mechon must have noticed this, because it immediately moved to strike him with the other claw.

Noah jumped backwards to avoid the attack, calling over his shoulder.

“Miller! Do you have your weapon with you?”

He was answered by the shot of an ether rifle, shooting clean into the Mechon’s head and knocking it back.

“Yeah!” Miller eventually answered, while Noah struck at the Mechon’s legs to knock it over. 

With his foe helpless, he quickly brought out Lucky Seven to cut clean through the torso and finish it off.

“You need to get these people somewhere safe,” Noah commanded, breathing more heavily than before. “I’ll hold them off!”

Miller gave him his best look of disapproval while he shot at another target. “Are you nuts?! You can’t take on all these Mechon alone, fancy sword or not!”

Noah shook his head, and placed his Blade to his side. “You need to trust me Miller, it’s the best chance we’ve got! If you can get me backup, then I won’t stop you, but we need to get them to safety first!”

Before Miller could refute him, Noah intercepted a charging Mechon by fully unsheathing Lucky Seven, cutting the Mechon down the middle. As his Blade formed into a gauntlet on his left arm, he turned back to Miller with determination in his eyes.

“Okay, fine!” Miller relented. “But I’m getting you help, and you better not die before they get here!”

Noah nodded, and drew his left hand across the Blade to fully prepare it. As Miller gathered up who he could, he stared down his soulless enemies with contempt. Perhaps seeing that a single unit wouldn’t take him down, he was immediately beset by three Mechon at once; two smaller units on four legs, and a bipedal one similar to the ones he’d already taken down.

Dancing between their weapons and striking back with the sharpest sword he’d ever known, Noah didn’t notice as a long-haired man ran past him, looking at his impressive display.

“I can’t let him be the only one who can stop them,” Dunban decided, fueled with newfound determination as he snuck past the Mechon with an unremarkable sword. “I need the Monado.”

But he was not the only one watching as Noah showed off his power. Far away from the chaos, another man watched on, curious as to the unknown variable.

~~~

After a second day in her cell, Mio didn’t expect much to happen. Manana was unfortunately only one Nopon, and as nice as her brief chat with Dromarch had been, it didn’t exactly instill her with confidence that there was someone coming to break him out, and subsequently her.

With this in her mind, she was rather caught off guard by the sudden commotion in the cell next to her. It sounded almost like a small explosion… and with it, many new voices. Yet among the several that were unfamiliar, there was one in particular she recognised.

“Friend please to be moving onto Mio’s cell, quickly-quickly!”

Mio’s eyes widened as she moved to her cell door. “Manana? Is that you?!”

A scurrying of steps heralded her rescue party. “Yes! Manana has brought new friends to bust Mio out of unfair prison! Now please to be stepping away from the door.”

“Um, sure?”

Mio wasn’t exactly sure what made it so important for her to step away until the lock on her cell began to noticeably warp with heat… before being consumed by a torrent of fire. Without the mechanism holding it in place, the door swung open unceremoniously, to reveal a surprisingly large group of people. Very… colourful?

She was struggling to articulate it, but that was because the group consisted of:

1. Two Nopon, including Manana and an unfamiliar boy that she could have sworn she’d seen before,
2. A human boy that was the only other human she’d seen with a Crystal on his chest,
3. The lady that had opened the door, also with a Core Crystal… though it seemed to be missing parts? Regardless, she looked more like a Blade than the rest of them,
4. A girl that appeared to be made of metal, in a way reminding her of Ino,
5. A small creature with wings,
6. And finally, a tiger?

Notably, none of these people seemed to suggest the voice Mio had heard in her cell. In her confusion, she just stood there awkwardly until Manana came up to her. 

“So glad to see Mio safe!” she exclaimed, before launching herself up to have a hug. “These are Manana’s new friends who come help save you… except for Dromarch, but only because Blade was also in jail.”

“And I am thankful for you coming to our rescue,” the tiger responded, prompting Mio to finally realise who the voice came from.

“Wait… you’re Dromarch?!” Mio asked in disbelief.

“Indeed. Is that a surprise?”

“Well, kind of… I haven’t seen anything like you before.”

This seemed to surprise the entire rescue party (barring Manana), so Mio decided to keep the fact that most everyone there was some level of strange to her to herself.

And yet they were all so familiar…

“Well, anyway,” the boy began, probably deciding that conversation was best left for later. “You’re Mio, right? I’m Rex. We’ll have to save the full introductions until we’re out of here; we don’t have much time. Dromarch, do you know where Nia is?”

N-Nia?!

Ignoring Mio’s shock, the tiger (Is he a Blade? Must be…) spoke again. 

“But of course. We are in resonance after all; I feel her presence.”

“Then let’s go! We can’t let her get executed.”

In her confusion, Mio missed that last tidbit. But still noticing her shocked expression, Manana signalled to Mio to whisper something to her. Nodding, she moved Manana to a position she could better talk to her.

“Manana thinks name must just be coincidence,” the Nopon whispered. “Definitely not Queenly person being jailed here and not sure how else could explain.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” Mio sighed. “I didn’t know how else to explain it, either.”

Sensing that they were being watched curiously, Mio put Manana down. 

“Don’t worry,” she assuaged, “I’m ready to go. Dromarch, lead the way.”

He nodded, and started guiding them through the ship towards his Driver. As the group moved through the ship as stealthily as they could, though, Rex started to talk to her again.

“Y’know, I can see how they’d get you two mixed up,” he joked. “You look older than Nia, but if you swore more I’d probably have to double check.”

Mio’s eyes widened. “What, really?”

“Yeah. Are you sure you two don’t know each other?”

The question was innocuous enough, but it just made her think of Queen Nia again. “I… doubt it.”

During their sneaking, she learnt the rest of her rescue party’s names. Pyra was the Blade (as she confirmed) who opened her door, Gramps was what Rex called the small winged creature (a Titan, apparently), Tora was the other Nopon, and Poppi was the metal girl. Poppi also turned out to be Tora’s Artificial Blade, making the comparison to Ino rather apt, right down to how she called Tora her ‘Masterpon.’

Mio was too busy thinking about Poppi that she missed the significance of calling the Titan Gramps, but that would be for much later.

And so, after a speedy takedown of a guard or two, the group reached the hallway just before a cell block, where Dromarch knew his Driver was being held. Seeing two guards outside the cells, Mio summoned her Sundancers to get ready to defeat them. But surprisingly, Rex held back for the moment. 

In her short battles with him so far, he seemed to prefer a quick finish, but now he seemed to have a plan.

“Hey, Mio?”

A plan addressed to her, apparently. “Yeah?”

“Those weapons you’re using, they’re a lot like Dromarch’s, right?”

She had no idea where he was going with this, but she played along anyway. “I guess so?”

Then he donned an expression that reminded her of… Sena? What could that mean-

“What if… You rode in on Dromarch’s back, and used both of your sets of Twin Rings?”

Ah, now she understood. It was a show of pride for his plan… regardless of its efficacy. Unfortunately, the plan he’d proposed just confused her.

“…I don’t get it.”

And there was another expression she knew well… the embarrassment. “Well, Nia rides around on him all the time. I figure it’d confuse them for long enough for you to both get your hits in, easy… Right?”

Manana just looked at him with narrowed eyes. “Guards not only ones confused, Rex.”

“Ouch, harsh.”

Dromarch looked at him in much the same way. “Creativity is a blessing, Master Rex, but I doubt our new friend would even know where to start.”

“Let's just do it the simple way,” Mio suggested. “I’m plenty fast on my own; I’ll rush in and draw their attention, while the rest of you deal with them properly.”

Tora nodded as he readied his weapon. “Much easier for Tora to understand! Will have to try ride on Dromarch some other time.”

“Alright then,” Rex agreed. “Do your thing, Mio.”

Mio gave a curt nod, then gripped her weapons tight. Springing off the floor, she rounded the corner as fast as she could, transitioning directly into a full sprint once she was in the straight. The first guard to see her, the one on the left, didn’t get the chance to bark an order before her Sundancer hit him square in the face, leaving his compatriot to swap straight to his rifle. 

But his attack missed; Mio slid across the ship’s floor, dodging the shot before jumping to her feet.

Rex, Tora and Dromarch rounded the corner shortly after her, and quickly knocked out the first guard. Her opponent, meanwhile, was struck several times by her Sundancers, first knocking out his weapon, and then knocking him out. A clean fight.

“You know, Mio, that was kinda scary,” Rex confessed as he sheathed Pyra’s sword. “You must have a lot of experience with those things.”

Mio looked surprised for a second, but then Manana cut in before she could reply. “Mio trained rigorously! Would be bad form to be sloppy now.”

That almost made Rex more worried. “Really?”

Mio laughed nervously. “Yeah, I did train quite hard…”

The question of “What for?” went unsaid, but Mio didn’t doubt it was on everyone’s minds. Instead of pondering it though, they all seemed to collectively agree to focus on Nia, looting the guard with the pointy hat for the key to her cell.

After a brief check on which key was even the correct one, Rex opened the cell door to reveal the Driver they’d been looking for. 

“You all right, Nia?” he asked.

And at that moment, her name ceased to be a coincidence. The marks on her face, the grey hair, the eyes-

Mio didn’t understand when or how, and yet, in the cell before her sat Queen Nia of Agnus… In a yellow jumpsuit… With short ears like hers.

In truth, the more she looked at her, the less she understood. No more so than when Nia looked at her without a hint of recognition in her yellow eyes. Her Core Crystal was nowhere to be seen, either, which made Mio feel rather uncomfortable. Was she hiding it, like she was?

“Rex, you…” Nia trailed off.

Dromarch spoke up before she could finish. “My Lady. Apologies for my late arrival.”

“…Don’t mention it. I didn’t think anyone was coming at all.”

And that voice. Queen Nia used a rather royal tone when she could, but Mio had seen it slip into a familiar accent every so often, especially when stressed. Here, the royal tone was gone, replaced entirely with a thick accent vaguely reminiscent of the rest of Torigoth… and the same one Queen Nia had.

As she reunited with her companions, Mio turned to Manana to see an equally shocked expression on her face. Moving aside to converse with her quickly, she crouched down to her level so as not to be eavesdropped on.

“Is Manana seeing things, or is that Queen Nia?!” the Nopon asked, hushed but desperate.

“I’m not sure,” Mio answered honestly. “It sounds just like her, looks so much like her… but the rest of the details don’t add up. How could that girl be the Queen of Agnus when she looks younger, has different ears, and doesn’t recognise us?”

“Mehmeh… Manana losing understanding of this new world far too quickly.”

Mio couldn’t help but agree, but she supposed they had bigger fish to fry for now.

As the two of them looked back to their rather large rescue party, Nia turned to Rex in confusion.

“So what’s with the band of misfits you’ve got here? I leave you and Pyra alone for a day and you bring back two Nopon, a Blade, and a Gormotti…”

Her voice trailed off as she looked at Mio, but Rex answered her before she could ask any more questions. “Well, Mio is the Gormotti over there. She was jailed too, apparently because she looks a lot like you.”

Nia practically hissed at the revelation. “Bloody Hell, did they really? Seems there’s nothing they won’t stoop to.”

Rex wisely didn’t press her any further on that. “Anyway, Manana is her friend that asked for our help in rescuing her… ‘us’ being Pyra, Gramps and I, plus Tora and Poppi.”

As keen as she was to learn more about her rescuers, Mio knew they couldn’t do the full introductions. 

“We should keep moving,” she urged. “They’ll notice what’s happened soon.”

“Darn, you’re right. Let’s get out of here!”

“Tora found escape route!” the young Nopon added. “Quickly, friends!”

“Right!”

And so, they were off; the group of 3 Drivers, 3 Blades, 1 Nopon along for the ride, 1 Titan in Rex’s helmet… and Mio, who wasn’t sure where she currently lay. They quickly found the hangar that would allow them to escape, but had to double back to find the door panel’s circuit box. Once they did that, escape was in sight.

“Hey, Mio,” Nia suddenly asked her as they snuck through the ship.

“What is it, Nia?”

“I was just wondering… Have we met before?”

Mio hoped she wasn’t being too obvious, but that question caught her off guard. “I don’t think so, no.”

Unfortunately, her response didn’t seem to satisfy Nia. “Y’know, that’s what I thought too, but I just keep getting this nagging feeling like I should know you… and not just because we look pretty similar. But if there’s anything I know for sure, it’s that I don’t have any family, so I’m a bit lost.”

The last sentence was notably confusing to Mio. “Wait, why would family come into it?”

She regretted saying it almost immediately, as if her memories as M were slow to come to her. Nia seemed to take it in stride though, to her relief. 

“Well, I just feel like if two strangers saw us next to each other, they’d think you were my older sister or something.”

“Ah, right… I guess I could see how that could happen. Guess this is what happens when I cut my hair…”

“Wait, are you saying you cut your hair recently?”

Mio sighed as she remembered yesterday’s events. “Yeah, it was long yesterday morning. But immediately after I left the hairdresser’s, I was arrested.”

Nia winced in solidarity. “Ouch. Still, you’d think they’d release you after they got me.”

“Yeah, about that…”

“Hey, we found the circuit box!”

Rex’s interjection cut off their conversation before it could go any further, to which Mio was glad. She hardly knew the answer herself, after all.

With the hanger door open and the exit secured, the party ran through to their escape route in hopes of a lucky break.

“Not much further to exit!” Tora exclaimed, tempting fate.

Sadly, there was one last roadblock in their way.

“Not so fast my dear intruders!”

The hangar exit opened to reveal a pompous looking man Mio had never met, flanked by what must have been a Blade. It was no small thing, though, more comparable in size to a medium Levnis than Dromarch, and wielding an appropriately large hammer.

“Letting a terrorist from Torna out of my grasp would make me look very bad indeed.”

His attention suddenly flittered from Nia to Pyra, and her Crystal.

“Ah, that emerald Core Crystal! You must be the Aegis! Much as it pains me to admit it, it seems Mòrag was right on the money.”

The title of the Aegis was new to Mio, but it must have been important, considering Rex’s immediate reaction to it. “You know who Pyra is? Are you trying to capture her too, you ratbag?”

The man’s reaction told Mio all she needed to know about him. There was not a hint of shame.

“Now, now, language… But of course. The most powerful Blade in history, with the power rend all of Alrest asunder? Only a fool would know of such power and not seek to claim it! And I am no fool! Therefore, I will claim her as my own! You cannot argue with such logic.”

Before Mio could disagree, Poppi did it for her. “Flaw detected in final step of logic.”

“Sorry, pal,” Nia sarcastically apologised, “but you’ve done all the capturing you’re gonna do today.”

The man looked as if he’d spit back a retort, but then he turned to Mio with a wicked look on his face. “Oh, I see you’ve broken out your compatriot as well! How despicable.”

“What?”

“Your doppelganger has joined you in your escape attempt! No wonder she looks so much like you… She’s your Blade, isn’t she?”

It was a strange assertion to make in Mio’s eyes, but it seemed to anger Nia. “Keep your stupid theories in that thick skull of yours, Dughall. The world will be better off without them.”

Wait, Dughall? Mio suddenly remembered. As in the Consul?!

Dughall seemed to find that dig particularly insulting. “Such impertinence for a dirty terrorist!”

With that, Rex, Nia and Tora drew their weapons on the Consul, and Mio did too… But, before she did that, she was already running towards him. This man was the farthest thing from the Consuls of Moebius, that was true, but that didn’t mean she had to play fair with him.

Trying her best to replicate the energy that she had seen Brighid and Pyra form in their attacks, Mio channelled her power into her Sundancers ready to throw them. As Dughall realised the imminence of the danger and began to retreat behind his Blade, she threw them as hard as she could. The first struck Dughall's side and made him stagger, but the second hit him head on, knocking him backwards into his Blade.

“Woah, girl, you got something against this guy?” Nia joked, Dromarch’s twin rings in her hands.

Mio shook her head as her weapons returned to her hands. “Not exactly. I’ve just had some bad experiences with Consuls in the past.”

“Well, he’s not exactly a good egg, is he? Let's give him what for!”

“Right!”

Dughall slowly got back up from the hit, now firmly behind his huge Blade. “Upstart… girl! You should know to respect your superiors!”

“Says the coward hiding behind his Blade,” Rex accused.

Again the Consul didn’t even flinch at the insult. “Does common sense elude you? A Blade can regenerate from any injury! Whereas if I die, my Blade will return to a useless core!”

“So it’s okay to use them as a living shield?” Nia questioned, disgusted. “You weasel! Even if they can regenerate, that doesn’t mean Blades don’t feel pain!”

“Hahah, how cute! The girl thinks we should care about Blades’ feelings. Heeheehee, I wonder if you can feel pain!”

Mio wasn’t sure if he was directing that at herself or Nia, but she was appalled regardless.

“Let’s go, Pyra!”

“Got it!”

Rex and Pyra sprung back into action as Dughall ordered his Blade to attack. They narrowly dodged a hammer strike, leaving Rex to sling fire in the Consul’s direction… only for the Blade to block it.

“Crush these fools, Dolmes!” Dughall demanded. “Don’t let them get close to me!”

Dolmes complied, spinning his giant hammer around him. Poppi and Dromarch took the brunt of the attack for their Drivers, with Rex and Pyra narrowly avoiding the swing with a jump backwards. Seeing their forced retreat, Dolmes kept up his offensive, readying a devastating overhead swing towards Mio.

But Mio had seen a less predictable version of that attack a hundred times over, training with Sena. She deftly evaded the strike and slashed at his arms, hoping to keep his attention off of Rex and Pyra. Sure enough, the Blade attempted to strike again with a powerful sweep, which she jumped over to allow a strike at the Blade’s head.

“Quickly! While he’s distracted!” Mio called, watching as Dolmes suddenly covered his hammer in fire. She dashed back in time to narrowly avoid another powerful spin, but this time it was followed up by a torrent of fire that she didn’t know how she would avoid in time.

“Tora got you!” the Nopon exclaimed, quickly getting in place before her. He deftly used his weapon to shield her from the blast, leaving her safe.

“Thank you! Are the others-”

“Prominence Revolt!”

Pyra answered Mio’s question in short order, as both team Rex and Nia badgered Dughall while his Blade was occupied. Unfortunately, Dolmes also appeared to notice, and began to change his target in response.

“Dolmes, you lout, stop these ruffians!” Dughall demanded, as he narrowly avoided Dromarch’s attack.

“Poppi!” Tora called in response, passing her the Drill Shield that acted as her Blade weapon. “Time for Poppi Drill!”

“Understood, Masterpon!” Poppi acknowledged, rising into the air. 

As Dolmes readied an attack on Rex and Pyra, Poppi slammed her weapon straight into his head, knocking him over completely, and leaving him unresponsive. With the Blade thudding onto the floor, Dughall sputtered as the party stared him down.

“How…? Two mangy fleabags and a bunch of stinking kids… My triumphant return to Mor Ardain, with the Aegis-”

His speech was cut short by one last knock to the head from Nia. Driver and Blade lay on the floor, defeated in short order.

“Out like a light,” Gramps commented.

Rex seemed rather proud of his efforts. “That’s what he gets for trying to execute Nia.”

But things were never that easy. What should have been a simple statement of fact was met with the surprise of the woman that fact was supposed to be about.

“What? He was trying to take me back to Mor Ardain…” Nia disagreed.

And with the truth revealed, the penny dropped for the rescue party.

“Rex, this is a trap!”

“A trap? So they weren’t actually gonna execute you?”

“No time!” Tora interjected. “Talk later, Rex-Rex. We should escape!”

“Masterpon is right,” Poppi agreed. “Chance of reinforcements very high.”

“Let us make haste,” Gramps affirmed, urgency in his voice. “Getting out of town would be a good start!”

The rest of the group agreed, though Mio couldn’t help but be disappointed that she was already on the run again. Manana seemed to notice though, running alongside her as they ran out the hangar.

“Don’t worry, Mio,” Manana reassured. “Manana picked up flute and diary from room before leaving.”

Mio was surprised, but glad to hear it. “Thank you, Manana. At least that’s one less thing to worry about.”

After all, if Nia’s rescue had been a trap, and Brighid had been involved in her capture… Mio doubted she would let them leave without a fight.

Running out of the ship and through Torigoth Relay Base, as she had learned it was called, they found it eerily quiet. It was hardly a surprise, then, that when Rex ran towards the open gate, a familiar wall of blue flames rose up to stop him. 

“These flames again!” Pyra exclaimed, knowing full well their wielder. And clearly, so did Rex.

“It’s her!”

Mio didn’t need to be told to draw her weapons, and it seemed the rest of the party didn’t either. They watched as the flames split briefly to let their opponents through… both of them.

“And with her Driver too this time,” Nia confirmed.

Dromarch managed a grim nod as he stood ready. “That’s Mòrag, the flamebringer!”

Just like her, though, Rex was mostly unfamiliar. “Mòrag?”

“Special Inquisitor Mòrag of Mor Ardain. The Most powerful Driver in the Empire… and wielder of Brighid, the most powerful Blade.”

So that’s Mòrag Ladair… Mio remembered. And with plenty of compliments from Dromarch.

“So together they’re like… ULTRA powerful?!” Rex guessed, in what was the best indication Mio had seen yet of how young he was.

Regardless of his surprise, Pyra looked pensive. “It looks like they were waiting for us.”

“Yes indeed,” Gramps agreed. “I did feel like we got away a little too easily.”

Mòrag looked almost disappointed to see them for a moment. “I don’t know why I expected Dughall to slow you down at all. Though, admittedly, I did not expect our other prisoner to be among your number.”

Mio grimaced at being singled out, but Nia had more important things to ask.

“It was you, right? You’re the one who spread the rumour that I was going to be executed, just to bring Rex and the others here!”

The Special Inquisitor smiled. “You catch on quickly. Yes, you certainly proved to be useful. However-”

“Rex and Pyra are the real prize.”

Nia’s guess seemed sound, but Mòrag still shook her head, turning to stare at Pyra. 

“Hah, not quite. The emerald Core Crystal is the sign of the Aegis. If that Blade is indeed the Aegis… then there’s something I must do.”

Nia was as confused as she was. “What do you mean?”

The Flamebringer’s expression turned dark. “The power to sunder Alrest itself… I cannot allow that to happen again.”

“Pyra… destroyed the world?” Rex asked, flabbergasted. “Don’t be stupid!”

“You mean you didn’t know?” she questioned, disappointed. “Five hundred years ago, during the Aegis war… The Aegis sank three continents to the Cloud Sea’s bed.”

Mòrag made it sound impressive… and Rex seemed to agree. “Three Titans… destroyed?”

Continents? Titans? Mio wondered. It sounds important, but I don’t understand… I mean, isn’t Gramps a Titan?

She did not explain further. “I speak naught but historical fact.”

Rex took a long moment to consider what she was saying, but when he spoke up again, his resolve was unstirred. “I’m onto you! You want to use Pyra as some kinda weapon! We’re not gonna let you do that!”

“That is precisely the kind of scenario that I mean to prevent,” Mòrag stressed.

“And what if we resist?”

In response, the Special Inquisitor extended Brighid’s whipswords, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Mio readied her own weapons in response, remembering Brighid’s reach.

Mòrag answered with a hint of frustration in her voice. “Then I will have to restrain you by force.”

Despite her warnings, Rex would not be swayed. “In that case, I’ll make this nice and clear. You. Will. Never! Take her!”

He drew Pyra’s weapon as he made his intentions clear. Mio wasn’t sure why, but upon hearing his defiance, Mòrag looked impressed.

“Hah! Then let's see if you have the strength to back up those words, boy!”

Nia and Tora drew their weapons, and the party stared down the obstacle in their path.

~~~

Noah was almost impressed at his stamina as he stared down what must have been the 15th Mechon so far. When the mechanical menaces had realised he wasn’t an easy target, they had started ignoring him in favour of grabbing any unlucky target who wasn’t armed, meaning Noah had started running around the Commercial District to save who he could. It was slowly but surely making him more tired, and he wasn’t sure how long he could go by himself.

His prayers were seemingly answered when, before he could even strike the Mechon himself, a familiar blade snuck between its armour. As it fell down, it revealed Ashera behind it, having pulled her twinsaber free.

“Well, you must be glad to see me,” Ashera joked half-heartedly.

Noah, meanwhile, was absolutely serious. “Oh, definitely. These mudders keep running away from me to kill innocents, and it's wearing me out.”

Ashera managed a macabre chuckle. “I know, right? They’re just the worst. But we don’t have time to stand and chat, unfortunately.”

Noah nodded, and the two set about covering as much ground as possible to keep others safe. Ashera was quickly beset by the bipedal model with the bladed arm and had to evade it narrowly to strike at its weak points. It wasn’t quick, but it would slowly knock them down. Noah, meanwhile, sent a shockwave towards a group of the four-legged models, knocking them around enough to go in for the kill.

As they did, though, more familiar faces greeted them. Shulk, Reyn and Fiora ran through the commercial district, only stopping once they realised who was fighting.

“Ashera! Noah!” Reyn called.

Finishing the last of the Mechon he was after with a slash, Noah turned to the trio. “You guys! What are you doing?”

“We’re trying to find my brother!” Fiora explained as Noah jogged over. “He’s not in our house, and we think he went to the Military District to get the Monado!”

“Dunban?!” Ashera exclaimed, finally finishing off her target. “I haven’t seen him, but that’s got to be where he’s gone. He’s the only one who can wield it after all, and Noah can’t hold out forever here!”

Noah would have retorted, but he quickly yelled “Duck!” instead to send a shockwave to the Mechon behind the trio.

“You guys go find him!” Noah implored. “We’ll keep everyone safe here.”

Ashera nodded. “Yeah, you guys can handle yourself, right?”

Shulk hesitated, but eventually agreed. “Be careful, okay?”

As he ran past them with Reyn and Fiora in tow, the largest Mechon Noah had encountered yet advanced on their position.

Ashera smiled viciously. “An M82? For me? They shouldn’t have!”

“How generous of them,” Noah huffed sarcastically, getting ready to fight once more.

The Mechon immediately struck out with its right arm, the blade on its hand spinning viciously. Noah dodged narrowly, cursing his lowered speed, as Ashera swiftly evaded it to strike back. Jamming one of her twinsaber blades into a vulnerable joint, the M82 immediately moved to stop her, but Noah took the opportunity jumping up to slash at the midsection. Staggering backwards, it was no match for Ashera as she took the opportunity to stab it in its head, disabling it.

As they both breathed a sigh of relief, their moment of peace was interrupted by an explosion. Looking at each other briefly before running in the direction of the bridge to the Military District, they watched helplessly as the largest Mechon they’d seen flew off from the base.

“Hey Ashera?” Noah asked quietly. “What kind of Mechon is that?”

“I don’t know,” Ashera answered. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

But Noah had. He could just barely make out the shape of a face… just like the Levnises of Keves. And if that was true… then he couldn’t stand idly by.

“Ashera, can you hold the fort?” he requested solemnly.

The captain gave an affirming nod. “Don’t worry Noah, my men and I will keep them safe.”

Noah briefly thanked her as she turned back towards the Commercial District, while Noah started to run across the bridge. But before he could make it to the central plaza, he was suddenly stopped by… a man, standing there calmly as if the conflict around him didn’t exist. All he did was stand ahead of him, and command, “Halt.” 

“I’m afraid I cannot allow you to go any further,” the man elaborated after a beat of shocked silence, remaining imperceptible behind his hood.

“What? Who are you?!” Noah demanded, but the man just shook his head.

“Who I am is of little importance to you. What matters most is that you must turn back. There are still people to save… and surely that is your wish?”

Noah’s confusion grew as he tried to figure out what the man wanted. His outfit was covered in a black cloak, as if refusing to give away who or what he was. And he didn’t recognise the voice either.

“Ashera can handle herself,” Noah insisted, resuming walking despite the man’s warnings. “What matters most right now is saving Fiora and the others, and figuring out what that Mechon is-“

Only for the man to abruptly step in front of him. “And I already told you. I cannot allow you to proceed.”

“Get out of my way!" Noah yelled, attempting to push the man out of his path. But, instead of making contact, his vision was suddenly filled with light. When it cleared, he was suddenly far away, on a cliff above the town facing the commercial district. “What?”

“My sincere apologies,” the man resumed, unflappable, “but desperate times call for desperate measures. Here you cannot interfere.”

There's something about this man that feels very wrong, Noah thought amidst his frustration. And that wording…

“Interfere? With what?!”

The man answered quickly, as if it was simply a fact of life. “The passage of fate.”

Something about that phrase stuck in the back of Noah’s mind. Where had he heard it before?

“It’s a wild ride, this ‘passage of fate’.”

D had said that in N’s memories, briefly glanced from his connection to him. But then, what was he even talking to?!

“Who are you?” Noah demanded. “What are you?! Answer me!”

The man shook his head. “I told you, who I am is of little importance. What I am, however… You may think of me as an arbiter of fate. If you so require a name, then you may call me… A.”

“A?”

In that moment, the cloak disappeared from his body, and Noah could finally see his true form. He wore a grey suit of strange armour with glowing blue highlights, contrasting the orange shape on his collarbone that made him think of Mio’s crystal. The crystal shared its colour with the orange panels on the sides of his legs, while white boots and gloves covered his feet and hands. Over his head was a light blue helmet in a familiar design, with three glowing yellow horns on each side of it. With only his eyes visible, Noah could only come to one conclusion.

“It can’t be… Moebius?!”

The idea was strange, almost impossible, but Noah couldn’t understand any other explanation. Somehow, some way, Moebius had snuck its way into his new world, even fooling his still drawn Lucky Seven. And if that was true, then Noah had a duty. Despite a sense of trepidation that he couldn’t quite shake, Noah got back into his ready stance, with the Sword of Origin pointed firmly in A’s direction.

The Moebius looked as if it would be shocked behind the mask. “You resist?”

“Control of our destinies is everything we fought for!” Noah yelled. “I’m not just going to sit here and let you take it away from us!”

A sighed. “I had hoped to avoid this. In that case, I will stop you with the necessary force.”

With battle lines drawn, A summoned an icy blue sword, the same crystal as his chest inset into the hilt. He stood with the blade in front of him, staring Noah down as he dared him to make the first move. 

Noah didn’t often find himself as the aggressor, but he couldn’t let this stand. Rushing towards A, he brought the blade overhead at his opponent, expecting it to be blocked. A did block it, but with only one hand on his sword, deflecting Lucky Seven in short order and prompting Noah to readjust. He attempted this from the left and the right, as quickly as he could manage in his tired state, but A’s guard refused to budge.

Concerningly, neither did A’s sword. The Sword of the End was supposed to be able to cut through anything that wasn’t Origin itself, and yet this Moebius’s blade was unscratched after all his attacks.

Wait, not unscratched, Noah suddenly realised. For a brief second, the point of contact shows. But then it’s gone, like it's repairing itself…

As A once again blocked his strike, he pushed Noah backwards, causing him to stumble. When he didn’t follow up, Noah felt compelled to get answers before rushing back in.

“So how did you escape Aionios?! All of Moebius should have been destroyed!”

A side stepped his thrust, still leaving just one hand on his blade. “I believe that is a question I should be asking you instead. That sword, and those memories… they do not belong here.”

Noah couldn’t help but get angry at his dismissal. “Don’t you dare say that! Everything we went through wasn’t for nothing!”

“That was not the meaning of my words,” A clarified, blocking two more strikes of Lucky Seven. “But, for the security of this world’s future, this tragedy must play on as it was designed.”

“As designed? What the spark… are you even talking about?!”

A briefly held his tongue, considering his words even as Noah attempted to catch him off guard. Catching Noah’s sword and knocking him back, he eventually spoke up once more.

“To return the worlds to what they should be, what is fated to happen must happen. It cannot but happen. There can be no exceptions, not if we are to save them.”

“Them?”

“Keves and Agnus.”

Noah’s eyes widened. “You… you would claim the lives of my friends as bait?!”

“That was not my-” A began, but Noah interrupted him.

“We chose to tear down Aionios, despite the uncertainty, because we believed it was for the greater good… Because we believed in each other that we would meet again! I won’t abide you holding it over our heads while you forcibly control this world’s destiny. No matter what you say, I will save them!”

Noah could see that his determination took A aback, even as he kept a calm voice. “How would you possibly reach them in time? The drop from this cliff could easily kill you, and Tephra Cave is long and perilous.”

“I’ll find a way.” Noah, with his strength renewed, let confidence seep into his voice. “Especially considering that you just confirmed that you are trying to kill someone.”

For a few tense seconds, only the sounds of the Mechon attack far below could be heard as A remained stubbornly silent. When the Moebius finally sighed, Noah could tell that A was no longer holding back as he went on the offensive.

In his thoughts, Noah prayed for those he was trying to protect. Shulk, Reyn… Fiora. Stay safe, please, until I can save you.

~~~

Mio had to hand it to Mòrag, she could see how the Special Inquisitor could have gotten her reputation as such a powerful Driver. She was just as nimble as Brighid was, but with the added problem of Brighid herself blocking their attacks. Tora, Nia and Rex had all been struck plenty of times by Brighid’s whipswords, and Mio’s luck in avoiding them could be chalked up to both experience and priority.

After all, whatever the Aegis was, it was important enough that Mòrag was focusing on its power above all else. 

Brighid, meanwhile, was her main obstacle in reaching her Driver in the first place. Mòrag occasionally tossed her weapons back to the Blade, and these attacks she had been burned by. She would have to thank Nia for the healing later… if she could even speak to the girl that should have been her Queen properly.

“I see you’re as evasive as ever, Mio,” Brighid complimented as she dodged the fiery whips once more. “But I should have expected nothing less… from a Flesh Eater!”

Mio was almost sick of people dropping new concepts on her and expecting her to understand them.

“What are you talking about?!” she demanded. “All I am… is human!”

Brighid was dismissive as she threw her weapons back to her Driver. “A human doesn’t just have a partially red Core Crystal in their chest, you’ll find. Though perhaps most concerning is the fact that you lack this knowledge in the first place.”

In her anger, Mio almost missed Mòrag’s surprise, before it shifted to some sort of understanding. “Is this true, Brighid?”

The Blade simply nodded, but in their moment of distraction, they didn’t notice Dromarch firing off a blast of water at them both. Driver and Blade both staggered, more affected by the hit than most of what Rex had thrown at them. 

Mio had almost forgotten about Nia in the heat of the moment, but she turned to see her stare concernedly. “Mio… Are you-”

“Not now, Nia,” Mio dismissed, remembering her own Core Crystal. “We’ll talk later.”

Nia nodded as she was thrown back her weapons. In their brief moment of respite, the rest of their group ran over to them to talk.

“So what’s the plan?” Rex asked, “She doesn’t seem to take much from our attacks.”

“Fire won’t do much,” Pyra confirmed. “And your wind doesn’t seem to be doing much either, Mio.”

Mio nodded. “But Dromarch’s last attack… that really made her stop.”

I need to work within the rules of this new world, she thought. And there is one idea that’s coming to me… One attack I haven’t tried yet.

“Hey Nia, can you do that again if we keep her off of you? I can follow up from that.”

The Gormotti girl gave a smug grin. “I thought you’d never ask! Let’s thrash ‘em!”

Just in time, the group got back into their fighting stances to avoid the whipswords once more. Tora and Rex ran in, forcing her on the defensive as she dodged and blocked the Drivers’ attacks until Brighid pushed them both back. But as she did, Mio swapped in to follow up, keeping her busy. 

“How curious,” Mòrag comments as she deftly blocked her Sundancers’ strikes. “While the rest of your group are obviously amateur, you are trained… if not military. You stick out like a sore thumb.”

“So what?” Mio jabbed as she dodged a retaliation.

“What army are you from? …Are you a traitor?!”

“Traitor to who?!”

Now it was Mòrag’s turn to look angry. “I would have thought that was obvious!”

Mio didn’t rise to her insult, instead realising what time it was. “Don’t think it matters now, anyway!”

“What do you- Ah!”

Mòrag realised too late the Driver that she’d forgotten, as Nia stood back while Dromarch struck them with a roar of water from his Blade Weapons. Finally realising their plan, she immediately shifted her focus to the water Blade, but Tora made to intercept… in the process, distracting her once again. As Mio charged up an attack of her own, both Mòrag and Brighid were clueless.

“Dominion Flower!”

Sending her power through her Sundancers in the same way M had once taught her, her Blades took on a noticeably more purple tint than normal as she threw them outward in a circular pattern. As one of them hit Mòrag, the residual water Ether exploded outwards in a dark tide, hitting the strongest attack on their foes so far and launching them both backwards.

Rex, eager to finish the fight, quickly called upon Pyra for a follow up of fire. But Mòrag was already on her feet once more, and looked rather unhappy with them, as she held her whipsword out to disperse the blaze.

“This is getting tiresome,” the Special Inquisitor stated coldly. “The Aegis is formidable, but the Driver’s strength betrays her.”

Rex took umbrage with her words in a way Mio didn’t expect. “She’s more than just “the Aegis”, or some kinda weapon! She’s a living being!”

Mòrag did not seem to agree with him, however. She jumped across the arena with surprising speed to meet him sword-to-sword, battering Pyra away in the process. But he was thoroughly outmatched - Mòrag was clearly not lying about his lack of training.

“Stubborn child.” she chastised as he frantically blocked. “Why don’t you just give it up?”

As her last attack made purchase on his arm, Mio was utterly confused by Pyra screaming in pain as Rex stumbled backwards. The sudden shout jolted Mio out of her inaction, leading her and Tora both to frantically push her back from the injured Rex as Nia gave him a boost.

Struggling to stand, Rex still held his hand out to his Blade as she sat on the floor. “Pyra has somewhere she needs to go, and I’m gonna help her. I’m not gonna let you stand in her way!”

As Mòrag stood back from her two attackers, Brighid approached her. “Stay vigilant, Mòrag. An unknown power lurks within this foe.”

Mòrag looked unsurprised. “But of course. This Blade he calls Pyra… your flames burn far stronger than hers. But… her flames hide something deeper.”

In the reprieve, the three Drivers caught their breath alongside Mio. 

“Is everyone… alright?” Rex asked, turning to Tora, Nia and Mio in turn.

“Hangin’ in there…” Nia answered tiredly.

Poppi had to get Tora upright before he could reply. “Those two… very strong!”

“And scary!” Manana added from behind cover.

“We can’t seem to overpower them,” Mio noticed. “We’ll have to escape instead.”

“I know,” Rex agreed disappointedly. “At this rate, we’ll never… There has to be some way… Some kinda…”

As he trailed off, Mio could see the sparks of an idea forming in his head. 

“That's it! She’s a fire Blade, so we’ve got to find water!"

Mio didn’t understand his plan. “What? How would you-”

He pointed to the circular object standing tall on the path out of the base. “The water tower! That’ll stop them in their tracks! All we need to do is get close to it. Are you ready to run, guys?”

When the rest of the party nodded, Rex got ready. “Then follow me!”

Dromarch and Poppi shot one last blast of water and earth at the Special Inquisitor to draw her attention, and then the group quickly ran through the now open exit. It didn’t take long for Mio to see both Driver and Blade running after them, as Rex quickly turned to his Blade.

“Pyra! Can you manage a full powered blast?”

She nodded hesitantly. “Yes! Maybe one or two!”

“That’ll do!”

When he stopped, the rest of the party turned back to see their opponents right in front of the water tower. Rex immediately seized the opportunity to shoot a stream of flame with Pyra’s sword.

“Take this!” 

Mòrag blocked in much the same way as the last one, holding her whipsword out in front of her.

“You’re getting predictable, boy!” she chastised, before knocking the flame aside.

But in her assumption of his plan, she failed to realise that the flames had been cast into the water tower’s legs, heating them up noticeably. When her vision finally cleared of the fire, she watched in confusion as Rex ran backwards, quickly shooting a wire from the device on his arm into the side of the tank.

“Look who’s talking! Poppi, now!”

“Roger roger!”

Poppi immediately jumped over, providing the missing strength to pull the structure down.

“The water tank?” Mòrag finally realised, turning back to see the warping of the tank’s legs. “So that’s their plan!”

Quickly adjusting course, she and Brighid made to run towards the group, but they had been prepared. First Pyra came in, stopping their advance with a wave of fire and a strike of her sword. Then she jumped away, letting Mio throw her Sundancers with the wind behind them, before finally Dromarch overpowered their guard and pushed them backwards with a roar of water.

With their foes in position, Rex and Poppi finally pulled the water tank down, soaking Brighid and Mòrag both. The Blade was suddenly weakened, and in Mòrag’s concern for her partner, she almost forgot what would come next. She could do little but mutter “Curses!” as Rex and Pyra joined together for an attack whose strength shocked Mio.

“BURNING SWORD!”

As they called the attack’s name together, surrounded in a golden glow as they raised Pyra’s sword to the sky, Mio was struck by how familiar it was, only to realise when she’d seen it. When Noah and Ino teamed up together against the Nopon Eater, they had been bathed in that same aura.

As they struck the ground before Mòrag and Brighid, the impact generated a flashy explosion, soon turning to steam amongst the water-soaked grass. And when it finally cleared… they were alone.

“…I feel slighted.” Mòrag said after a long, silent moment.

Brighid looked at her, surprised. “How so?”

“They actually… held back against me in battle!”

Her Blade looked briefly confused, but then reconsidered. “You think that boy…?”

“Did you not see?” Mòrag questioned. “He could have struck me with that blow, but he averted his aim.”

It seemed to make sense to Brighid, as she turned back towards the water tower in something akin to disbelief. “He did have good instincts, too…”

When she turned back to her Driver, she was looking down in contemplation. When she finally spoke up again, her words caught Brighid by surprise.

“The Aegis… If she is travelling with that boy, then perhaps it may be worth letting them roam free for a while.”

“You mean…?”

“We’ll cross paths again. And when we do, we shall see.”

Brighid almost let it go, but there was one last thing that bothered her. “What about the Flesh Eater? I don’t doubt your instincts that she is military trained, but if that is the case…”

Mòrag considered her point carefully. “Perhaps, but that fact of what she is seems to be independent of her training. A soldier does not simply become that way without knowing it, and yet she appeared clueless. If that boy is as pure-hearted as he makes himself out to be, then at the very least she is with company that can keep her in check… if she needs to be kept in check at all.”

Though it nagged at her, Brighid knew Mòrag was right. “I suppose you’re right. After all…”

She trailed off as she thought of Minoth, a Flesh Eater mentioned in her journal that had fought alongside the great hero Addam, in the throes of the Aegis War. Perhaps it was fate that the Aegis would be travelling with one once again.

~~~

Mio didn’t stop running until they were far beyond Torigoth. After a nerve-wracking sprint through the city itself, they had all emerged thankfully unscathed. As they stopped to catch their breath, they turned around in hopes of noticing any pursuers.

“I don’t think they’re following us,” Pyra eventually noted.

“Perhaps we’re safe for now,” Gramps hoped.

Mio couldn’t hear any of them either, so she hoped Pyra was telling the truth.

Between breaths, Rex eventually agreed with them. “You’re right. We should get some rest… I can’t go much further.”

Their young Nopon driver was much the same. “Ah, Tora is pooped as well…” 

He finished his thought with an indicative yawn that Mio could certainly agree with. In fact, she was feeling a bit too sleepy, now that she thought about it. She could almost hear Noah’s voice in her dreams…

…I need you, Mio…

…Except it sounded a little too real. Her last word as she abruptly lost consciousness was simply, “Noah…”

She didn’t see her new friends' shocked expressions as she fell.

~~~

Noah was flagging. Once A had gone on the offensive, he was quickly reminded of how unnaturally resilient Moebius were. Every cut from the Sword of Origin seemed to only temporarily stop him, and for each one, he would strike back with his own strange blade. And worse still, Noah was already tired from the seemingly endless Mechon assault. His paths to victory were quickly diminishing.

Still, he kept going. Blocking where he could, hitting back when the opportunity presented itself, even as A started teleporting around the cliffside. He had hoped to use the opportunity to jump off the cliff, despite A’s warnings, but his opponent wasn’t keen to let him test the possibility, knocking him back when he tried.

In a desperate attempt to finally stop him, Noah sent shockwaves of sharp ether through the air towards A… only for him to just walk through them.

“That sword would cut the armour, wouldn’t it…” A absent-mindedly mused even as he continued to block Noah’s strikes. “In that case…” 

With unnatural speed, A threw his fist into Noah’s gut. The sudden impact jolted Lucky Seven from his hands and left him on the floor, helpless. But instead of finishing Noah off, he walked over to his sword instead.

“Perhaps it's time to even the playing field,” he declared, as if Noah understood what he meant. But he had no such clue.

Noah could barely turn his head towards the Moebius. “W-what are you doing?”

A light suddenly enveloped the sword, the same colour as A’s own blade. 

“Removing a variable from the equation, so this does not come up again.”

With his strength fading, he suddenly thought of Mio. Of their combined strength as Ouroboros. In one last desperate plea, he called to her.

“I need you, Mio…”

And Mio answered. Familiar strength surged through him, as the voice of the one he treasured most called back to him. He could hardly believe it… and neither could A.

“What? How did-”

Noah answered his question with a punch, remembering the feeling of Interlinking once more as his opponent dropped Lucky Seven.

“Noah?!” Mio suddenly called from within. “What are we-”

“No time to explain!” Noah interjected. “All you need to know is that he’s Moebius, and he’s trying to prevent me from saving someone’s life!”

Mio understood, as she always did. “Got it!”

With the Sword of Origin back in Noah’s hands, A abruptly teleported back to the cliff, his stance more aggressive than ever. “It seems that more has gone wrong than I thought… No matter, I will stop you.”

“You can try,” Mio taunted, “but your fate was sealed when you rose against us!”

Noah summoned their Ouroboros blade, quickly meeting A’s sword as he attempted to strike. But with the power of the Interlink, A was no longer winning in strength, and despite their greater size, they were also matching him in speed. Summoning mirage blades, punching with a free hand, attacking with multiple swords… they were finally winning!

“This attack decides it!” Noah declared, as they summoned a large blade from below. 

With A off balance, they jumped on the sword, riding it into the Moebius to send him careening into the hangar that faced away from the cliff face. Finally knocked down, when he didn’t immediately get up, Noah turned to the Residential District.

“I need all the speed we have!” Noah explained as he began to run towards the edge, conscious of the noise that signalled an overheating Interlink.

“I’ve got you!” Mio reassured, as Noah jumped from the edge as far as he could. 

He soared through the air, landing just before the bridge outside the Residential District, but Noah could feel Mio slipping away. They only had one chance.

“One last push!”

Running as fast as they could towards the Levnis-like Mechon, Shulk, Reyn and an unfamiliar man stepped aside in shock. Noah struck the faced opponent with an Ouroboros blade, knocking it far backwards into a building and leaving it sparking heavily. Seeing it potentially almost finished, Noah got ready to run at it again.

But the Mechon did not stay. It took one look at Noah’s Interlink and flew off, but not after levelling a strange look at the man Noah didn’t recognise. Before he could even feel relief, he heard a scream.

“Noooooooo!”

When he realised it was Shulk’s, he also realised who was missing. As Mio finally slipped away, and Noah began to lose consciousness, his thoughts were consumed with the faces of Crys… and Fiora.

From the cliffside, A looked on, his mask cracked but repairing. Seeing their Interlinked form revert, he made one last declaration to no one but himself.

"…It is done."

Chapter Text

Mio woke up slowly, gazing upward into the morning sky behind the leaves. As she realised that she was in the land encompassing Torigoth once more, she also remembered what had happened when she last fell asleep.

“Noah…” she quietly remembered. “I hope you’re still okay.”

She looked around to see Manana, Rex, Pyra, Gramps, Tora, Poppi and Dromarch all fast asleep around a smouldering fire. Well, perhaps it was a stretch to say Poppi was actually sleeping... maybe she was in a low power mode? Either way, though she initially assumed she was the only one awake, a familiar voice called to her as quietly as she could.

“Psst! Hey, Mio!”

“Oh, Nia!” Mio realised. Having shifted her seated position to find her, she stood up and walked to meet the Gormotti who should be Queen.

“Glad to see you didn’t just up and die on us back there,” Nia joked darkly. “We weren’t sure what to think when you suddenly lost consciousness, muttering about a ‘Noah’.”

Mio’s eyes widened as she heard what happened in the interim of her Interlink. “So I was still here, then.”

It might have been a mistake to say that out loud, though. “Wot’s that supposed to mean? Of course you were still here!”

Nia looked at her like she expected an explanation… but Mio wasn’t quite sure where to start. But her stare did not abate, and she felt compelled to at least try.

“Well, my body might have been… but my heart was somewhere else.”

Unfortunately her attempt just made Nia snicker. “Ah, I see, an imaginary boyfriend! Would have thought a girl your age had moved past dreams like that, huh?”

“Imagi- What? No! That’s not what I meant at all!”

“Hey, I kid, I kid! Sorry, I didn’t know that was a touchy subject.”

She sighed. Mio supposed it was touchy in some ways, but that was also mostly before she had suddenly reconnected with him. “It’s not that. I just… don’t quite know how to explain.”

“What, did you have an out-of-body experience or something?” Nia guessed.

Mio paused. “How did you…?”

“Wait, you’re serious? That’s actually what happened?”

She grimaced as she kept trying to think of a way to not sound crazy. “I guess you could call it that. He called for my help and… I answered.”

Nia couldn’t help but look at her suspiciously. “Sheesh, who is this Noah? Don’t think a boy is supposed to be able to do that…”

“Haha, I suppose not… But we do share a special connection. Even if the world has separated us, I know now more than ever that my feelings won’t change.”

If Mio thought Nia had exhausted her surprised expressions, then she was swiftly proven wrong as she stared incredulously. “Mio, how are you simultaneously a girl who is military trained, fell in what I assume is love with a boy and was separated from them, and also a Flesh Eater? How old are you?”

Sparks, my age… Mio cursed. Well I can’t say I’m hundreds of years old, and I definitely can’t say I’m in my 11th term. If I remember what the people in the City said about the pods, then…

“Um… 20 years old?”

“Bloody hell, you had to check?! What happened to you, Mio?!”

And that was a can of worms Mio wasn’t willing to open. If she was going to distract Nia from it, though, then she did have one topic to go with…

“Say, about that… What was Brighid talking about? When she called me a Flesh Eater.”

Nia’s stony silence was only broken by a long-suffering sigh. “You really don’t know? Architect’s sake, no wonder you had to check… Maybe there’s a good explanation for this. Can I, uh… see it?”

“See what?” Mio asked confusedly, before realising her aim. “Oh, right, my Core Crystal. Sure, I don’t mind.”

Undoing her black jacket, her Core Crystal was left visible for Nia to see. Her gasp in response did catch Mio off guard, though; perhaps this concept was more important than she realised.

“Shite, that’s… yeah. I don’t know how else I’d explain it. The red on your Core Crystal, it’s just like…”

As she trailed off, Mio expected her to eventually finish her statement, but she chose to start a new sentence instead. Mio could probably fill in the gap, though; she had noticed the similarities between Nia’s core and her own in their brief encounters. It was curious, though… in this more serious moment, she almost sounded like a Queen again.

“A Flesh Eater is what they call a Blade that has been fused with human cells. The manner of how they’re fused varies, and so does the result, but they are all freed of their connection to their Driver, and subsequently lose their immortality.”

Wait, hold on, Mio thoughts stopped, latching onto that last sentence.

“Did you just say that Blades are immortal?”

Nia’s eyes narrowed at her. “You are missing a lot of common knowledge, Mio. It’s almost a good thing we’re fugitives, saves people from asking questions. Anyway, yes, when a Driver successfully awakens a Blade, that Blade will live as long as they do, provided the Blade’s Core Crystal doesn’t get damaged.”

“What, does that kill them?” Mio was suddenly conscious of her exposed Core, holding her hands over it. “... Does that apply to Flesh Eaters, as well?”

Nia immediately looked apologetic, as if she wanted to assuage her fears, but she didn’t seem to know what to say at first. 

“I… don’t know,” she eventually admitted. “But if I were to guess, then I’d say they probably have enough, well, humanity I guess, to live through it. Almost certainly hurts like a bitch, though, so just… be careful, alright?”

Mio smiled at her concern, its phrasing reminding her of Eunie. “Thank you Nia, for telling me all this. You clearly know a lot about them.”

“Well, I just wanted to make sure you weren’t missing anything important. Especially if you’re going to casually do something that you’re not supposed to.”

After all that explaining, Mio still felt lost at what she meant. “Huh?”

Nia was clearly trying her best to be patient, but she couldn’t help but sigh at the further questions. “Well, Blades are all one element, right? Dromarch is water, Pyra and Brighid are fire, and I thought your abilities were wind. But then you did that thing at the end of the fight, and it was dark element instead.”

“Oh. To be honest, I hadn’t really thought about it too much… I’ve never really fought with consideration to these ‘elements’ before.”

It was curious that an attack she learnt from her other Moebius self would be dark, though, if only because it matched Mio’s initial uses of it before Z took her Moebius powers. She decided to think about that later though, as Nia had more to say.

“Well, the reason I’m telling you this is because Flesh Eaters can have… special abilities, let's say. Things they can do that a normal Driver and Blade wouldn’t even dream of. It’s also a pretty effective method of recognising one at a glance, and that’s a problem.”

“Sorry to be asking again,” Mio apologised, “but why is that?”

“Because…” Nia trailed off, more sombre than she’d ever seen her. “Well, Flesh Eaters are seen as something of an affront to nature. They’re supposed to be shipped off to Indol, and subsequently… executed.”

And suddenly, Mio understood. Nia’s presumably hidden core crystal, her shock at Mio supposedly being a Flesh Eater, Brighid’s reaction to her Crystal… It was all because people weren’t just born with Crystals in this new world. Humans and Blades were two very separate concepts, and the combination of the two must present a frightening unknown. It was enough to give her deja vu.

Mio must have been silent for a while, because Nia looked increasingly concerned. “Sorry, that was an insensitive way for me to tell you that. I just thought-”

“No, it’s okay,” Mio refuted. “It’s better for me to know now than to live and die in ignorance. I was just… thinking about how nothing’s changed. People are still afraid of the unknown.”

When Nia looked at her, seemingly impressed at her resilience, Mio remembered something else on her mind.

“Although, that reminds me… If people don’t really know much about Flesh Eaters, then where did you learn all of this?”

It was a long shot, considering Nia hadn’t even known her for a day, but Mio tried to get the answer out of her anyway. Sure enough, Nia immediately turned to lying.

“Uh, well, I’ve just… met one? Yeah, that’s it. Taught me all about them, a little while ago.”

Mio narrowed her eyes in her best attempt to show she wasn’t convinced, but Nia didn’t budge.

Sensing the unfortunate truth that she wasn’t going to get a real answer, Mio sighed. “Fine, don’t tell me. But, seriously, thank you for all the help.”

“Uh, sure.”

As Mio went to sit back down by the fire, Nia turned away, a million thoughts running through her head at once. How she’d let too much slip, and her disbelief at Mio’s circumstances. But above all that, she couldn’t help but remember someone else.

“Fille…” she whispered, clutching the Core Crystal under her jumpsuit. “Why is it that when I talk to Mio, I can’t help but think of you?”

~~~

…Noah… can you hear me?…

Noah’s groggy awakening would normally have had him wake up in either a bed or a cot. What didn’t normally happen, though…

“Noah!”

“Huh?!”

…was him waking up in the strange space he could occupy while Interlinked, with Mio standing in front of him.

“Mio? What… are you doing?”

He suppressed a yawn in the middle of his question, but Mio definitely noticed. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you… I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“Huh? Okay after… Oh.”

In the midst of trailing off, Noah finally remembered what had happened when he’d last been awake. The Colony 9 attack, A’s appearance, the sudden Interlink… But Mio’s consciousness had disappeared, he was sure of that. So then…

“…How are you even here?”

Mio looked a bit sheepish, surprisingly. “Well, I got the idea to try Interlinking again while I was safe, just so we knew how it worked. But, it didn’t work at all - I just ended up here instead.”

Noah smiled. “Well, it’s not all bad. At least we get to see each other when it’s not a crisis.”

“You’re right. I suppose it’s a blessing.”

For a moment, the two simply enjoyed each other’s company in silence. Before too long, though, Noah’s curiosity got the better of him.

“Hey, Mio?” he asked. “Considering that you’ve seen what’s happening in my new world… what’s yours like?”

Before she could even properly respond, he winced at the way her face was immediately downcast as she sighed.

“So far it’s just been confusing,” she moped. “I found Manana not long after waking up in a small city, which was welcome, but it feels like she’s been the only one left that makes any sense!”

“That bad, huh?”

“Noah, I woke up with my hair long again, and decided to get it re-cut. The moment I left the hairdresser, a soldier attempted to take me into custody over a mistaken identity!”

Despite her frustrated explanation, she quickly looked apologetic.

“Sorry, not that I’m saying it’s worse than what you’ve been through.”

Noah shook his head. “No, we aren’t here to compare our misery. If I was arrested for getting my hair cut I’d be frustrated too.”

He was glad to see her smile, but she must have immediately remembered something else because it soured quickly.

“Right, I haven’t even told you the worst part. The terrorist I was mistaken for was a girl named Nia.”

Well that name was a shock. “What? As in the Queen of Agnus?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t know! She sounds a lot like her, and even looks a lot like her, but she’s younger, and her ears are more like mine! And we both have to hide our Crystals, because apparently having one is punishable by death!”

“What?!”

In her silence, Noah hoped there would be a punchline for a joke in bad taste. It never came.

“…Where the flames are we, Mio?” he eventually asked, knowing full well she didn’t have the answer. “These worlds we’ve landed in, they seem just as dangerous as Aionios. And now we know Moebius even survived…”

“I wish I knew,” Mio replied. “Though, more than anything, I wish I knew where our friends were.”

“Ah, right. That’s one thing I wanted to mention; I’ve found Riku in this new Colony 9, just like you found Manana. But I also found Ashera… except she didn’t remember me at all.”

“Oh. And Riku did?”

Noah nodded.

“Well, perhaps it's not a coincidence that only Ouroboros would remember Aionios,” Mio guessed. “And, though it's a stretch, Manana and Riku were both there when the stone was activated.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

Mio looked briefly satisfied with her answer, but then suddenly remembered something else, as if mentioning the Nopon had jogged her memory.

“Actually, Noah, that reminds me, too… There is one thing about my new world that reminded me of you.”

Noah tilted his head, curious. “Me specifically? Why would that be?”

“You remembered what happened with Ino when we took on the Nopon Eater, right? The big powerful attack you did with her.” 

Seeing Noah nod, though clearly confused, Mio continued.

“Well, someone else did something just like it here. With the same aura, and the same unbelievable strength… even the method.”

Noah was sure she was getting to her point, and the aura was surprising on its own. But saying it had the same method implied something rather unbelievable.

“Hold on, you’re not saying…”

And yet Mio was. “This world seems to be full of people calling themselves Drivers, and just as many beings known as Blades. And when a Driver and Blade come together, their power is a step above.” 

Noah’s eyes widened. “So Ino wasn’t just doing her own thing? She was just… running on the rules of this world? I don’t understand…”

Suddenly, Noah heard a faint voice behind him, calling his name. He thought it almost sounded familiar, but he didn’t understand how he could even hear it. Unless…

“Is someone calling you?” Mio wondered. “I can’t quite understand it, but I do hear a voice coming from over there.”

Noah frowned. “Maybe they’re trying to wake me up? Guess that means we’ll have to cut this short.”

Though he was reluctant to leave Mio again so soon, she was quick to walk up to him and take hold of his hands.

“It’s okay, Noah. We’ll talk again soon, won’t we?”

“Yeah, you’re right. See you then.”

Leaving each other with one last fleeting kiss, Noah closed his eyes as the voice calling him got louder and louder…

~~~

“Noah? Are you okay?”

In response to his caller, Noah slowly blinked his eyes open, feeling sluggish both in his head and his body. He suddenly winced in the sudden influx of aching limbs from his battles, but he pushed through to turn his head towards his visitor.

“Thank goodness… You’re awake.”

The person calling him turned out to be Shulk. By Noah’s tired eyes, he looked as if he also needed the rest, but that was a thought for later.

“Oh, Shulk. Sorry, did I worry you?”

Shulk responded slowly. “Well, not exactly. But you were suddenly shifting around in your sleep, so I was a bit concerned.”

It must have been when I was talking to Mio, Noah realised.

“Well, thankfully I slept quite well. The only issue I’m having seems to be some very sore limbs.”

His attempts to sit up in his bed seemed only to prove his point.

“I’m not surprised. Considering that you were…”

As Shulk trailed off, Noah suddenly remembered where he last saw him; punching the faced Mechon across the residential district in his Ouroboros form.

“Oh, right… that.”

“Noah,” he began pensively, “what was that? I could hardly compare it to anything I’ve seen, but if I had to make a comparison… it would be a Mechon.”

Well that was an angle he hadn’t considered. He wasn’t normally in the business of flat-out lying, so if Noah was going to explain this, perhaps a version of the truth would suffice.

“Well… it’s hard to explain, as you might guess. But it’s an ability I have because of a special connection I have to someone else. It’s not a Mechon… but it isn’t human, either.”

Shulk gave him a funny look, though it was tempered by tired eyes. “I suppose you’re aware that you haven’t told me anything?”

“If it helps, it’s known as an Ouroboros. I didn’t know I could still do it, until I saw you fighting for your life against that Mechon with the face. And then… she answered my call.”

“She?” Shulk repeated, eyebrows raised, before sighing.

Noah realised, perhaps too late, the reason for Shulk’s downcast expression and exhausted eyes. He had come to the realisation just before he fell unconscious, but he supposed there was still doubt until now.

“I’m sorry,” Noah apologised. “I wasn’t fast enough to save her.”

A tense silence was his only answer for some time. When Shulk did speak up again, his tone was dark and despondent.

“Where were you?” he asked quietly. “I saw that sword of yours cut through every Mechon that you came across, like you were unstoppable. But then when I ran back through the commercial district with Reyn and Dunban, you were just gone. Why weren’t you there when that monster…!”

Though he didn’t finish his demand as his voice rose, Noah knew what he wanted to say. It was a question he was already asking himself.

Why weren’t you there when that monster killed Fiora?

“…Someone stopped me,” Noah eventually answered. “A man that called himself A prevented me from going to stop that thing, taking me far from the Colony. And then… I think he did something to Lucky Seven.”

Noah supposed it would sound unbelievable, but instead, a strange recognition appeared in Shulk’s eyes. What did he…

“I suppose that explains this, then,” he began, reaching behind his back to reveal that he had been holding onto the Monado. 

Now that Noah thought about it, he had very briefly seen Shulk holding it before he fell unconscious. But the strange sword looked the same to him as it had only two days prior, so its presence here was strange. As if to answer his confusion, though, Shulk grabbed a second sword from his back… Lucky Seven, within Noah’s Blade. And seeing them side by side, Noah finally understood.

“That symbol… Why is it on both the Monado and my sword?”

Shulk, seemingly satisfied with his recognition, laid Lucky Seven on the wall next to his bed, and put the Monado on his back once more. 

“It’s the symbol that appeared within the Monado when I was using it to cut down the Mechon,” he explained. “It did much the same for Dunban, which must mean… Well, I don’t know yet. But if that man you speak of changed it somehow, it appears to be linked to the Mechon.”

Noah grimaced. “He said he was going to ‘even the playing field’… he must have somehow ensured Lucky Seven cannot be stronger than the Monado.”

His wording caught Shulk’s attention. “I’m sorry… You’re implying Lucky Seven was stronger, before he did something? How could…”

“Sorry, perhaps I worded that wrong. Lucky Seven doesn’t, or at least previously didn’t, have any special properties against the Mechon. But it was very sharp, as you said. Easily sharp enough to cut through their armour. Presumably, even that faced Mechon.”

Shulk nodded. “I suppose in that case, it would have been stronger… the Monado couldn’t even scratch it. There was a strange light within it, but I don’t even know if that was the cause. All I know is that for the first time, the Monado couldn’t cut through a Mechon.”

After their realisation, both Shulk and Noah remained silent for a while, reflecting on what had befallen them both. It was not a comfortable silence, but perhaps the solidarity was what each of them needed.

~~~

Returning to military life was certainly a strange experience for Taion so far. There were plenty of external factors to this, of course, but getting up for Driver training gave him memories of his time in Colony Gamma… though with a much less strenuous taskmaster. He was thankfully doing quite well for himself so far, already having experience with Adenine’s fist weapons thanks to Ghondor, so in that respect things were normal.

But therein lied the crux of Taion’s strange experience. His Blade, Adenine, was insofar an intelligent person he could see himself trusting with his life on the battlefield. Except she wasn’t supposed to be a person; plenty of people so far had already treated her as a weapon more than someone with her own thoughts and emotions… And, sadly, that had been his expectation when he agreed to be a Driver.

Her sudden reveal as to what she truly was had immediately changed the paradigm of his status as a Driver from a necessary choice to gain a method of self defence, to a relationship with a person he was personally responsible for. And that was arguably the scariest part; Taion was completely unprepared for the responsibility of taking care of someone else, even if it was more mutual than how children had been described to him.

As Adenine sat across from him, eating dolphin carrot sliders, he recalled how he was yet to tell her about his own Core Crystal. Perhaps it would give them a common ground, so he would feel less guilty about-

“Oh! Hello, little guy.”

Taion was abruptly knocked out of his reverie by his Blade talking to… his Mondo?!

“What a strange creature you are…” Adenine observed, as she held her hand out below the talisman. “You almost look like an origami Nopon, yet you are definitely moving. How intriguing… Do you know anything about this, Taion?”

Realising he had accidentally summoned it, Taion was in a bit of a dilemma. If he made it disappear, she would doubtlessly go searching for it, but he was also supposed to be keeping his Blade… that is, his weapon of choice from Aionios, a secret. He supposed there was nothing for it.

“I have a theory,” he lied, “but to test it I’ll need something from our room. Once you’re done, we should take it there.”

This made her as giddy as he expected. “Ooh, how exciting! I better eat up, then… Do you mind holding onto it until I’m done?”

Taion smiled, though perhaps a mite disingenuously. “I don’t mind at all.”

Watching as the Mondo floated over to his hand, he sat back upright. It eventually moved over to his shoulder, looking at him as if to demand something from him.

“What?” he asked it, without a hint of sarcasm. “I can’t give you food, you don’t have a mouth.”

That was a shot in the dark, but it still drooped as if Taion was correct.

“You aren’t normally this active… Though I suppose you’ve been entirely inactive these past few days.”

It perked right back up, doing a little spin as if to convey its feelings. He couldn’t help but sigh.

“Look, we can’t have people asking questions about me, so I can’t have you out all the time-”

“Okay, I’m done!”

Taion quickly turned back towards the table to see Adenine had finished her vegetables in record time.

“Wow, you two seem to be getting along well,” she noted as it floated above his shoulder. “This theory of yours must be well researched.”

“Well… I’d hope so.”

Sending the Talisman back to Adenine, he led her to their shared dorm room. Taion had noticed some people seemed to find the arrangement suspect, hearing rumours of an illicit relationship between them despite him having only been in the army for two days, but it hardly affected him. She simply went elsewhere while he changed.

When she was inside, he closed the door, to Adenine’s confusion. Her confusion only intensified when he concentrated and made the Mondo disappear from her hand… only to reappear in his, with several more around his now visible gauntlet.

“Hold on,” she began, “are you… controlling them?”

He nodded. “These are my Mondo, paper talismans that I can use as weapons.”

“I see, I see… But wait, this sounds, and looks, a lot like a Blade weapon. How are you doing that?”

In response, he removed his chest armour. “Sorry about this, but I promise there’s a reason.”

This was the only explanation he gave to Adenine as he removed his undershirt, which only made her more confused… right up until his Crystal became visible.

“A Core Crystal? How do you…”

“I’m afraid I don’t have the answer to that,” he told her honestly. “But what I do know is that I’m not a Blade… at least, not entirely. It could explain why I can still use the Mondo however, and maybe why they occasionally have a mind of their own.”

As he put his undershirt back down and reattached his armour, Adenine considered his words with barely concealed excitement. “So intriguing… And you don’t consider yourself a Blade?”

“No. Though I don’t exactly understand how that would be relevant?”

Adenine grabbed the book from her back, thinking hard as she read it. “Well, when I awoke from my Core Crystal, there were several things I immediately understood. First and foremost was my name, Adenine. But immediately after that, I understood both that I was a Blade, and what a Blade was. Perhaps it's strange to say, but if you truly don’t believe yourself to be one, then I doubt you have simply forgotten.”

The concept was not as strange to Taion as he’d like. After all, he was born with the instincts and skills to be a soldier. A Blade in this new world was not so different.

“It is unfortunately not impossible for me to have forgotten,” Taion revealed, “but regardless, it cannot be the whole truth. After all, a Blade cannot awaken another Blade, correct?”

“From my knowledge I would agree with that, yes.”

Her gaze flitted back to the Mondo dancing around the room and onto her hands. Seeing them together gave Taion an idea…

“Say, Adenine? Would you be opposed to us learning how to use both the Mondo and your own Blade weapons together?

She looked up at her Driver in surprise. “I would be lying if I said the thought didn’t intrigue me. But, didn’t you want them to remain hidden?”

Taion gave his famous smirk as he raised his glasses. “Ah, but that was when they could only be attributed to me. These paper talismans… Are they not an extension of your abilities?”

“Oh? Oh, I see! The fact that they appear to be made of paper, much like my books, gives you plausible deniability! What a devious strategy.”

“It is what I do best.”

The prospect had Adenine smiling again. “Well, who am I to refuse a chance to refine my own abilities? Perhaps we will even learn more about ourselves in the process.”

Taion smiled back, handing her the gauntlet he used to control them. “I look forward to it.”

~~~

Lanz had already learned plenty enough about himself, but Egil seemed determined to test if that was true. He couldn’t tell if he was being held in this city Egil called Agniratha as a prisoner or a curiosity, considering his would-be captor’s interest in explaining his new world. The only reason he’d default to prisoner is because he hadn’t been given a good meal since he got here!

But that was probably the weirdest part of it all. For some sparking reason, Egil himself had done nothing but drink the occasional bit of water and… ether? At least, that’s what Lanz thought he saw. Sure he dressed like his automatons, but he also wasn’t actually a Levnis, you know? 

Despite the ridiculousness of it, he thought Lanz was the strange one when he complained about his lack of food. This did however lead him to meeting Vanea, a fellow Machina that was apparently Egil’s sister. She didn’t exactly get him good food, but he wasn’t feeling as hungry as he ought to, so it got the job done. As he sat and ate his latest meal, she watched him with undeniable curiosity, though it lacked the edge Egil’s stares had. Lanz was thankful for that at least.

“What?” he asked, eating the fish she had given him after her best attempt at cooking it. “Something funny on my face?”

Vanea shook her head. “No, that’s not it. It’s just… the way you eat reminds me so much of a Homs.”

Lanz scoffed. “Egil threw that word around when I first met him, too. What’s it mean, anyway?”

“Homs?”

“Yeah.”

An all too familiar surprise crossed her face. It must have been obvious that he noticed, because she immediately apologised.

“Sorry, I keep forgetting about your… unfamiliarity with our world. Well, as the Machina are the people of the Mechonis, so too are the Homs the people of the Bionis. They are admittedly not alone, with the High Entia and the Nopon additionally living on the Titan-”

“Wait, hold up a minute,” Lanz interjected. “I know what Nopon are… What do Homs and High Entia look like?”

“Forgive my assumption, but would it not be difficult to describe them without a frame of reference?”

He frowned. “Hey, just because I don’t recognise the Titan-thing we’re apparently standing on doesn’t mean I don’t know what they could look like! It’s just that I’m not used to them having separate names… besides the Nopon, anyway.”

His assertion didn’t seem to alleviate her concerns any, so Lanz decided on a different idea. All he had to do was point out the most unique feature among the people of Keves… besides the grey skin of the so-called Machina.

“Here’s an easy one; what do you call the ones with wings on their heads?”

“Oh! That would be the High Entia, who live near the Bionis head.”

He smirked at a plan well executed. “So that just leaves the Homs as… the ones that look like High Entia without wings, I guess?”

Vanea couldn’t help but smile knowingly at that. “Well, from a purely visual perspective, you would be correct. They do however have further physiological differences, whether that be the High Entia’s sensitivity to the ether in the atmosphere or their longer lifespans.”

Lanz couldn’t help but raise his eyebrows at that. His lifespan, along with his friends, had previously been only 10 terms, or years he supposed he had to call them now. Now that his mark was gone, that was no longer true… but having different lifespans was still a strange concept.

“Oh really?” he asked. “How long do they live?”

She visibly thought harder for a moment, attempting to recall something she didn’t often get asked. “I believe the oldest Homs can live to around 100 years, but that is vanishingly rare. 70 is much more common for an upper bound on their age. High Entia, meanwhile, can live up to 400 years old.”

Lanz’s mind was immediately stricken with two very different ideas: one about how strange it would be to hear Eunie say she was 100 years old, and the other about how long Queen Melia must have lived.

“400 years…” he trailed off, contemplative. “That just don’t sound right.”

Something about what he said seemed to tip Vanea off, though. As she looked at him with some amount of concern, she asked him cautiously, “Lanz? Sorry if this is insensitive to ask, but… how old are you?”

“Uh. Well, y’know…”

As he trailed off, panic set in. He couldn’t say 9 terms or 8 years, that would just make him sound like one of those kids from the City! 

Sparks, what did they say about the pods in the City and our ages?! I can’t remember it at all… Maybe I’ll just add 10? Yeah, that doesn’t sound too far off.

“I-I’m 18 years old.”

He resisted the urge to facepalm at Vanea’s instantaneous shock. Snuff it all, he wished he was a better liar…

Yet it was not him lying that had caught her off guard. When she did speak up again, there was little difference that the truth would have made.

“Only 18 years?! That cannot be possible - you should be a barely developed child at that age! Unless… Perhaps the reason you are missing so many crucial details is that-”

“Hey!” Lanz interrupted. “What the snuff are you talking about? I mean, what age is a Machina supposed to be an adult?!”

When Vanea finally answered him, it was with a strange pity. “Lanz… a Machina is a child until they are well over one thousand years old.”

It felt like listening to Guernica all over again… the way his life was rendered small in her revelation.

~~~

Noah’s release from the medical ward of the military district came with stern warnings to get some rest, but before he could do that, there was something on his mind. Walking to the residential district, Mio’s flute in his hands and Lucky Seven on his hip, he stood in the tranquil square and prepared to play.

Instinctively, he chose to perform one of Crys’s modifications to the Kevesian Offseer’s melody. As the notes reverberated through the Colony, Noah couldn’t help but notice how strange it was to see the motes of light missing. Now more than ever, Offseeing was a personal mission; there was no tradition, no feedback, and no result beyond his personal comfort.

Noah was aware of this, but it did little to change his resolve. With unwavering purpose, he played for Fiora, the girl he couldn’t save, and the others he left behind. It was a small thing, but he hoped it would give him some closure on those he failed. However, as he finished the melody and lowered the flute, he was surprised to hear someone compliment him on it.

“That’s a pretty tune,” a gruff man’s voice interjected. “Don’t think I’ve heard anything like it before.”

Turning to his audience, Noah found a blonde-haired older man wearing a red bandanna. He didn’t recognise him, though that was hardly a surprise considering how recently he arrived in the Colony.

“Oh, thank you,” Noah responded with some trepidation. “It’s not much, but I wanted to do something for Fiora and the others.”

The name visibly surprised him. “Ah, I can understand why. That girl really did leave an impact on people.”

Noah nodded. “I only knew her briefly, but I can tell she meant a lot to Shulk and Reyn. And her brother… I haven’t even met him really, but I couldn’t imagine losing your sibling.”

The man made a noise that sounded almost wistful, before he spoke up again. “I don’t think we’ve been introduced… The name’s Dickson. And you must be Noah.”

“That’s right… Who’d you hear about me from?”

Dickson laughed at his caution. “Oh, plenty of people. Ashera seems to think you’re something special, Miss Leater is overjoyed at her latest subordinate, and… Well, Shulk certainly wouldn’t shut up about your sword, even before it started imitating the Monado.”

His familiarity quelled Noah’s worries slightly. Whoever this man was, he seemed well connected to the people he’d already met, but he did still want confirmation. 

“Oh, I see. How do you know him?”

Another wistful laugh… that strangely reminded Noah of Monica. “Well, I did raise that boy. It’d be strange if I didn’t, heh.”

And suddenly it all made sense. “Wait, you’re his father?!”

“Haha! No, not exactly. Just his guardian after his parents passed away. Not unlike Dunban was with Fiora, I suppose.”

There was a mournful silence for a few moments as the two of them looked towards the commercial district. Seeing his gaze drift towards a house near the entrance, Noah couldn’t help but ask.

“Hey, Dickson? Is Shulk… going to be okay? I’ve had plenty of experience with grief, but it’s hard to tell how someone’s going to react to it.”

He grunted at the question. “He’s made of stern stuff underneath his pasty exterior. It’ll change him, but he’ll get back up more determined than ever.”

“Determined? To do what?”

“Well, the only thing us Homs do when we get knocked down; We fight back. And considering how you fought last night, I have a feeling you’re the sort of person who’d join him.”

Noah raised an eyebrow at the assumption. “I may have only just got here, but I do have responsibilities. I can’t just leave on a mission of revenge. A mission I’m not sure I agree with.”

Dickson did not look convinced, but didn’t try too hard to convince him. “I guess I can understand that, even if I think the boys could use your help. But whether you want to follow them or not, you better decide soon. They're just about to leave.”

"…Oh."

Not waiting around for the end of Noah's shocked silence, Dickson started walking off. "Well, see you 'round, kid."

He was unsure what to make of the man. A father figure for Shulk, and yet wilfully wanting him to seek revenge. And if what he said was true, then he was willing to let Shulk and Reyn both run off on their own with only the possibility of sending an almost stranger along as assistance. Noah was hardly experienced in how parents were supposed to act, but that didn't sound right to him.

And then there was the matter of Shulk and Reyn themselves. The idea of running off to avenge Fiora, it was completely antithetical to his ideals. The concept of taking the fight to the Mechonis did not appeal to Noah in the slightest, tethering him to his newfound home as he returned to his apartment. To him, war was still pointless, regardless of his wish for Shulk and Reyn to be safe. As things stood, Noah had no intention of joining them on their revenge…

…Even if he did wish to know why Mechonis was fighting.

~~~

Earlier that day, at a wreckage site a good walk from the colony, Dickson walked up to meet with an old ally. Standing amongst the derelict shells, Alvis was calm and collected, but the same could not be said of Dickson.

“Alvis,” he drawled, “what the Hell was that shitshow back there? I thought your visions were infallible, and yet you had to swoop in to adjust for some random kid with a fancy sword?! You’ve lost your touch.”

Alvis frowned as he turned towards his fellow ‘Homs.’

“It is unprecedented… both in the sword and the boy. Neither are a part of his vision, and both refuse to be present within them.”

Dickson was not placated. “Telling me why you ran into issues isn’t enough, you idiot. I can take one look at this kid and tell that even without your overly dramatic intervention, he’d still be running after the Monado for answers, and that means our whole plan could be up in smoke!”

“We are still on course,” he disagreed. “My modifications to the boy’s blade should prevent any further issues of seeing what should not yet be seen.”

“By tying it to the Monado?! Not sure if that’s as smart a plan as you think, considering there’s now basically two of them. How’s that gonna turn out when he comes back, huh?”

“Then he will have the ability to sever that link. It was the best method I could devise in a short time frame.”

Unsatisfied, Dickson sighed. “Well, pretending that mess is all fine and dandy for a moment, are we gonna talk about what the boy turned into? What source of power was that, and why didn’t you do something to prevent that from happening again?”

To his chagrin, Alvis shook his head. “I could not. There was no physical source of his newfound power. I do have a theory on its origin, but the implications of it are concerning.”

When he didn’t come forth with an explanation, Dickson simply scoffed and turned away. “Tch. Don’t lose sight of our goal while you’re playing with your new curiosity, Alvis.”

As the man left him to his own devices once more, he frowned. “Apologies, Dickson. I’m afraid our goals were, and still are, very different.”

Chapter Text

The ragtag group of fugitives that Mio had somehow ended up with woke not too long after she did. Manana cooked their breakfast at her insistence, seemingly wishing to make up for… something to do with Pyra? Whatever the reason, it was confusing; the closest comparison she had to the way Manana was acting was the cooking competition in the City, but even that was tenuous. After all, she’d seen Miyabi’s competition as more of a fun challenge, but something about Pyra was making her act genuinely competitive.

After several minutes of looking between the two of them and finding no obvious reason, Mio eventually just asked Pyra for the answer. Her explanation that she’d cooked dinner for them a couple of days ago and they’d started alternating since was… well, about as sensible as it could have been given that it was Manana. She always was sensitive about her importance to the team.

Though Mio was satisfied with her answer, Pyra still stopped her as she walked away, genuine concern on her face.

“Hey, Mio?” she asked. “Is it true, what Brighid said? That you’re a Flesh Eater?”

Mio couldn’t help but sigh. “Well, I honestly can’t tell you for sure. But Nia seems rather educated on the topic, and… her response was telling.”

As she explained that, she undid her jacket to reveal her Core Crystal once more. To Mio’s surprise, though, Pyra wasn’t as shocked as she’d expected. There was visible recognition, sure, but there was much more curiosity than anything. From what Nia had told her, Pyra’s response was rather downplayed; it didn’t match blind fear or pity.

“Well, I don’t disagree with her,” Pyra confirmed. “Your Crystal definitely has the signs.”

The thought of Core Crystals had reminded Mio of something she’d previously thought of, though. Looking to Rex to confirm her suspicions, she saw the Crystal in his chest, and immediately turned to Pyra curiously.

“Hey, maybe you can answer some of my questions, actually,” Mio queried. “Do you mind?”

“No, of course not.”

“Right then, the first thing I’m confused about; what’s the difference between myself and Rex?”

She thought her question was simple enough, but she still reacted with more surprise than she had at her Core Crystal. “Huh?!”

“Well, he’s got a green Crystal on his chest. I don’t know a lot about this ‘Flesh Eater’ thing, but he looks about as human as I do.”

She almost giggled at the way Pyra had to visibly piece together her answer, as if trying to figure out what Mio was missing. But she did eventually come up with one.

“Sorry, I had forgotten that you weren’t with us when I first awakened. This might sound strange, but do you notice anything different about my Crystal?”

Mio thought she had, but she couldn’t remember what. Checking the Crystal again, two things quickly became apparent: first, that it was the same colour as Rex’s, and second…

“…It’s in pieces?” Mio noted. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like it.”

For some reason, Pyra smiled at her. “You’re right. More specifically, I split it in two; half with me, and half with Rex.”

And now it all made sense. Imagining Rex’s half of the Crystal within hers made a perfect match. But that just left the question of why.

“I hope this doesn’t sound too insensitive, but I feel I should ask; Why would you want to do that?”

Pyra shook her head. “No, it’s a fair question, though it has a rather unbelievable answer. The reason I gave Rex half of my life force is because, without it… he would still be dead.”

Mio took a moment to process what she said, not quite sure she heard it right. When she looked at the Blade incredulously, she simply nodded, leaving her laugh quietly. At Pyra’s near-instantaneous concern, though, she quickly explained.

“Sorry, I just couldn’t help but laugh at meeting someone else with such a… strong connection to another. I mean, ours is strong and all, but not in the way that he literally holds on to a part of me.”

Pyra smiled in relief, though Mio couldn’t help but notice something else in her eyes. Her curiosity didn’t last long, though. 

“Oh, this must be the ‘imaginary boyfriend’ that Nia mentioned as the reason you’d passed out! I’m flattered you’d compare us as all.”

“He’s not imaginary!”

Her indignant response drew the entire camp’s attention, leaving her to blush in embarrassment and Pyra to giggle.

~~~

Alcamoth did not make Eunie laugh. Growl with frustration, yes, but she did not once laugh at the stuffiest place she’d ever seen. The three days she had spent in the city that she had eventually learned the name of was an exercise in her patience, with her being stared at as much as she was in the average Agnus colony… and these were supposed to be her people!

On that note, her voyage to what was evidently called a ‘Library’, a place for information and books, had given her the revelation that Kevesi with wings were apparently a race called High Entia. Funny name, if you asked her, though it did match how they generally acted so high and mighty. What confused her more than anything was the fact that she didn’t already know it; this place still existed in one form or another as Keves Castle in Aionios, yet she’d never even considered the possibility that her wings were something that truly differentiated her from her Kevesi friends.

More curious still was the fact that she seemed to have found that people like Noah were called Homs, but there was no mention of anyone like Lanz. They were about a third of the Keves military if she had to guess, maybe a little less, and yet she’d not seen one. She had seen a Homs, though; earlier today she’d noticed a grey-haired Homs man walk past her and shoot her a glance. She glared back, naturally.

Maybe that was rude of her, but she couldn’t really help it. Not after that weirdo she’d talked to yesterday…

Taking odd jobs was a frustrating but necessary part of life for Eunie as things were. With that in mind, taking said odd jobs from a kid that looked as young as a first-termer was kinda embarrassing… But, he really wanted to find some bugs to research, and he was paying her, so she wasn’t going to complain too much.

Having to do research on where to find them was the real annoying part. Sure, Teelan was probably doing a great job telling her where to find them in Eryth Sea assuming she knew where to go, but she didn’t actually know her way around, so that was a moot point. So, after what she imagined was an hour of navigating the library she barely knew her way around, just in order to find where she needed to look, Eunie was rather frustrated as she finally walked towards the entrance of Alcamoth.

Eunie must have been mumbling something as she did, though, because she caught someone else’s attention as she attempted to leave. 

“Excuse me, Miss.”

“Huh?”

She stopped and turned to the person in question to see a surprisingly short-winged man, seemingly a bit older than she was. It was hard to tell though, partially because he was constantly squinting. His outfit was noticeably purple, and still extravagant for her tastes, yet something about the man felt different to the average High Entia.

When he took too long to reply, seemingly out of surprise, Eunie cut in again. “Yeah, wot?”

“Oh, my apologies.” He apologised. “I simply overheard you talking as you passed by.”

That didn’t explain squat. “Don’t think it was particularly important for you to stop me just to tell me you’re an eavesdropper. I’d rather you skipped the fluff and told me what you want, if you don’t mind.”

“Ah, of course. What I meant to say, is that it sounds as if you’re taking on this odd job just to keep yourself afloat.”

Eunie scoffed. Somehow, he made that sound more pitiful than she thought necessary.

“Well yeah, a girl’s gotta make a living somehow. And to be quite honest, the whole ‘undisturbed paradise’ look you’re going for in this city doesn’t help me find somewhere I can make money in the slightest!”

She’d expected some level of disgust from the man at her so flagrantly dissing his home, but to her surprise he seemed unusually receptive.

“Ah, yes. I’m afraid I know this travesty quite intimately myself.”

He was silent for a moment, stewing on his own response as far as she could tell, before he suddenly changed tune.

“Forgive me, I am being rude once again. My name is Gael’gar, a soldier in the personal protection division of the Alcamoth guard regiment.”

“Uh, right. Name’s Eunie.”

Before she could ask him another question, Gael’gar resumed his earlier thought. “My employment as a soldier came from much the same place as your situation. It was the only option of stable income I could find for people like us.”

Hold on a minute, Eunie thought to herself, that felt strangely specific. More so than just ‘us High Entia.’

“Sorry, what do you mean, ‘like us’?”

“Well, for people who are half-Homs, of course.”

Her reaction died in her throat. It was such an unprecedented thing for him to suddenly say; she had barely begun to understand the concept of different races, and now he was telling her she was half-Noah? Okay, not actually Noah, but the point still stood.

Though Eunie didn’t say anything, her face must have told at least part of the story. Gael’gar looked at her with an undeniable pity, which pissed her off despite not looking ingenuine.

“Judging by your reaction, I suppose you weren’t aware we were the same at all. Though my hair is undoubtedly more similar to our progenitors, the pure-bloods have an unfortunate tendency to notice my smaller wings. I doubt half-bloods like you have had much luck either, considering.”

He hadn’t read Eunie’s expression correctly at all. Her knee-jerk reaction was that of vitriol - to respond that the Queen told her they were the same, so she was the same as the flickering Queen, damn it! But when Eunie stopped herself to think about it, she realised that there was no way of knowing who her parents were. If one of them was Homs, and one of them was High Entia, then she didn’t see anything wrong with that!

That raised another question, though, it being the real heart of the matter.

“So?” she asked, frustrated. “Why should that matter?”

Gael’gar’s sigh was mirrored by an immediately darkened expression. “It should not matter. But the wicked pure-bloods, the moment they believe you are different, then who you are no longer matters. Staring and ignoring, those are the best case scenarios. At worst, their torment morphs from exclusion to revulsion at your very existence.”

Eunie was suddenly aware of the fact that she had kicked a metaphorical hornets nest. She didn’t need her medic training to know that this was a very personal topic that he had very strong opinions on, and the way he was talking about it started to creep her out. It was time to escape this conversation before she thought about it more.

“Look, buddy,” she cut in, “that’s all well and good, but I think what I need is a solution to my problem instead of you unloading yours. And if you don’t have one for me, I’m just gonna head out and do my job alright? Cool? Cool.”

Eunie didn’t look back as she walked down to the transporter, though she heard him sputtering a bit as she did.

She shook her head to try and forget the memory again. Ever since he’d called her half-Homs, it felt like her very fragile understanding of what she even was had been called into question again. Seeing a Homs just made her feel annoyed, and seeing a High Entia just made her angry…

…Except for Teelan. He was innocent, and also probably half-Homs himself. Maybe she just had a weakness for the idea of kids.

With yesterday’s conversation still on her mind, and her Caduceus Gunrod in her hand, Eunie wasn’t in the best mood as she walked to the transporter once again. This time she was doing some pest control instead of bug collecting, but it was still just as annoying-

“Excuse me, Miss-”

“What?!”

Her instant shout at the voice of a man stopping her for the second time in two days was done in frustration, but she immediately softened her expression to a more shocked one when she realised who was calling her. Not Gael’gar, but someone Eunie knew rather well. Unfortunately, she didn’t actually pick her jaw up off the floor fast enough to beat the boy to speaking again.

“M-my apologies, Miss. I’ll leave you alone now…”

As he turned and quickly walked away, Eunie finally broke from her stupor to chase the boy down. With his rather small wings, very light brown hair, and the sword and shield on his back, there was no mistaking the former Commander of Colony 9. Even with his new outfit typical of the city… and even if he didn’t seem to recognise her…

“Wait, wait!” she called, stopping him in his tracks. “Sorry about that, I thought you were someone else.”

Eunie almost laughed at the way his expression changed to a happier one. It was a subtle change, so she was sure most people would have missed it. But, before she became Ouroboros, she would probably have put Zeon just below (or similar to) Riku in her list of best friends, so she’d like to think she knew him pretty well.

“Ah, I see,” he responded after a second. “Still, I apologise for catching you off guard.”

“Nah, don’t sweat it. Wasn’t your fault. Oh, I’m Eunie by the way.”

Eunie almost asked how Zeon was going without even asking his name, but something about the way he was speaking gave her the impression he didn’t remember her. So, banking on the idea he would just find her to be acting weird if he did remember, she introduced herself again.

She was still disappointed when she was right.

“Of course, how rude of me. My name is Zeon.”

Guess he doesn’t know anything Aionios, then, Eunie mused. But if that’s true, then what was that about?

“Nice to meetcha, Zeon. Well, with all that decorum crap out the way, why’d you stop me back there?”

“Why’d I- Oh, right. I wanted to talk to you because I’d seen you heading out of Alcamoth with your weapon twice, and I was a bit concerned.”

Eunie couldn’t help but snicker. “What, you don’t think I’m strong enough to be on my own?”

“Ah, that was not my intention,” Zeon disagreed humorlessly. “Rather, as a member of the guard, it is my duty to protect the citizens of Alcamoth. The fact that you’ve needed to bring a weapon with you each time suggests that you don’t think you are safe out there.”

“I see… how noble of you. But, you do know you’re allowed to just be concerned about me, right? It’s a dangerous world we live in.”

Judging by Zeon’s awkward answer, she hit the nail on the head. “Uh, right. Well, if you are sufficiently confident in your skills, I suppose I have nothing to worry about.”

“Aw, come on Zeon,” Eunie prodded. “Surely you’d rather at least see me in action, first?”

“I…”

“Oh, don’t tell me you’re actually busy or something. That’d just be disappointing.”

To her surprise, he shook his head. “No, actually. I’m currently off duty, but I was considering consulting with my mentor…”

Taion would probably have recognised the mischievous glint in her eyes the moment Zeon admitted that. It meant his fate was all but sealed.

“Well then, guess that’s that! We better get going, don’t wanna be burning daylight just standing here.”

Firmly grabbing his hand, Eunie began pulling him along to the transporter.

“Wait, hold on!” he protested weakly. “Don’t I get a say in this?”

He did not.

~~~

“Mighty Swing!”

“Muscle Uppercut!”

As the combatants traded strong but careful blows, the Garfont Mercenaries watched the sparring match eagerly. The Blade girl, a potential new hire for all they knew, had come out and asked the boss directly for a quick training session. This was practically unheard of; Vandham’s fierce reputation for his skill with Roc’s twin scythes was rather terrifying to new recruits, yet here she was on Day 4, already asking to swing at the big man himself.

Sena, meanwhile, just really wanted to know how Blades worked. Sure, Zuo and Yew had their own as well, but something about this new Vandham gave her the impression he would be the best to learn from. And so far she was learning a lot! Vandham was still the main combatant, but the weapons he fought with were summoned by his Blade, and not him. For the majority of the fight it was muscle vs. muscle, and it was surprisingly close!

No, seriously, he was actually challenging her strength. That revelation was a bit of a shock, but thankfully she soon realised it must have been because of Roc’s support. There was this golden line between them that she could somehow feel, and it was quite strong! Clearly their bond was powerful.

More surprising was the moments when Vandham would actually throw the weapons back to Roc and they would perform a strong attack. Sena honestly didn’t have much of an answer to these wind-based specials; she was only one girl, after all. Though she did try something similar at one point, bouncing on her Comet Mallet in its dumbbell form, that powerful link was missing…

…She missed Mimi. Lanz, too… really, just all of her friends.

That moment of distraction came shortly before she was knocked over by a torrent of wind, ending the fight in a pretty decisive loss. Her pride was somewhat injured, but she was fine physically at least.

“Well, for a Blade by her lonesome you sure pack a punch!” Vandham commended as he dismissed his Blade’s weapons, extending a hand down to her.

Taking it to pull herself back up, Sena smiled unconvincingly. “Really? You were matching me blow for blow…”

The burly man shook his head. “Nah, mate, that’s the extraordinary part. Not many people I know can keep up with me like that.”

Sena couldn’t help but be a bit embarrassed by that. “Wow, thanks.”

Roc nodded in agreement. “And that was without your driver! Your strength together must be truly formidable.”

“Y-yeah. She’s really something else.”

“I’m sure. You did catch me off guard there, though. I had you pegged as a fire Blade, but that attack you used was electric instead.”

It was an innocent thing to ask someone who actually knew what she was doing, Sena was sure, and yet the way they worded that was very strange. She’d done plenty of vaguely elemental things, all of very different elements. Sure, her hair looked like it was on fire, but one of her Arts was Maximum Voltage, and her Ouroboros had used Earth Crusher. But Roc only ever used wind…

“…Guess I’m full of surprises!” Sena quickly answered, realising she had been quiet.

Thankfully, Roc and Vandham didn’t seem to take much notice of her hesitation. Vandham just gave her a hearty laugh and patted her on the shoulder, which would probably have knocked her off balance if she hadn’t just been sparring with the man. 

“You’re alright, kid,” he called back as he walked away. “Feel free to join us on a job sometime!”

As the crowd dispersed, murmuring to themselves all the while, Sena was suddenly made  aware of the fact there was a crowd at all. She had somehow missed it while she was fighting, and she couldn’t help but feel even more embarrassed that she’d attracted so much attention. That used to be more Mimi’s thing, after all, all those years ago.

Keen to take her mind off things, she walked up to the Tavern to get some food. As she sat down to dig in, though, Sena was suddenly not alone; a shockingly familiar face walked over to her, leading her to choke on her Armu beef stew. Of course her coughing only made said familiar face quicken her steps.

“Oh no, are you alright?!”

Sena attempted to reassure the girl that she was, in fact, okay, but she still had to sputter a bit first. “Yeah, I- hagh! I’m alright now. It just… went down the wrong way.”

Now that she was breathing again, and the new arrival was right next to her, it was hard to deny who it was; somehow, someway, she was looking at Nimue. But, though her crystal-like arms and horn on her head was the same as Sena remembered, she looked older than she had at the Lost Colony. Maybe it was related to the fact that Taion had known her in her previous life?

Nimue smiled at her, relieved. “I’m glad to hear it. Sorry for catching you off guard.”

Sena shook her head at the apology. “No, no, it’s okay! You were just walking over, that’s hardly anything for me to have gotten choked up over.”

With the apologies out of the way, Nimue took a seat across from her, looking like she had something on her mind. What could it be…

“My name is Nimue, by the way. I’m glad to see you’re okay, Sena.”

Ah, so she didn’t remember me after all- Sena mused, until she realised the implications of her second sentence. Wait, what?

“…Whyyy do you know my name?” she asked, confused. “Or just, y’know, me in general.”

“I asked around about you, and your name came up,” Nimue explained calmly. “As for why I know you, I found you passed out several days ago in the stomach area. I was concerned, naturally, so I set up a camp for you, then left briefly to find some supplies. When I got back, you were already gone.”

Sena’s eyes widened in realisation. “Ohhh, you were the one who set up the tent! Well, though it’s a bit late to say it, thank you for your help.”

“You’re welcome. After that, I figured you might have gone to the mercenaries, and sure enough, here you are.”

“Yeah, they’ve been very kind to me while I wait for my Driver.”

Nimue looked at her with renewed understanding. “Ah, is that why you came to Uraya?”

Sena had to stop herself from audibly exclaiming “What?!” The Saffronias came from their world, she knew that much, and obviously the Urayan Mountains did too because the Queen recognised them. But if this strange, cavernous place was called Uraya, then… was she inside the tunnels?! They looked so different!

Brushing off her surprise, Sena answered. “W-well, I figure it’s the best place for her to find me. Though, admittedly, I don’t know my way around here very well…”

Thankfully that had seemed believable, as Nimue nodded. “Within Uraya, the only other place I’d recommend to meet them would be the capital, Fonsa Myma. But as a city, it’s naturally much larger than this lovely village; it would be much harder to actually find each other.”

Sena wasn’t actually sure what a capital was, but she could agree with Nimue that trying to find Mio in the City without knowing where she was could have easily been impossible, and this Fonsa Myma place must be similar in size. Well, with that worry out of the way, she suddenly had a thought about her meal companion as she ate.

“Hey, Nimue?” Sena asked, in-between mouthfuls of bread.

“Yes?” Nimue answered, after a pause to eat her own meal.

“You’re a Blade too, right?”

When she nodded, Sena continued with the rest of her query. 

“What are you doing here, then? Waiting for your Driver, too?”

Nimue didn’t respond immediately, though not because of her food this time. Instead, she looked pensive, hesitating on saying anything. It was a stark contrast compared to Sena’s brief meeting with her younger self when she had asked exactly what was on her mind, much to the chagrin of Taion and his attempts to not spill the beans on her past life. After an awkward silence, and a resigned sigh, she finally spoke up again.

“I guess you could say that. The person I’m looking for is my Driver… But, the problem is that I don’t know who that could be, or where they are.”

Sena attempted to suppress her widened eyes as much as she could, but judging by Nimue’s expression she had unfortunately failed.

“Sorry,” she apologised, “I’m just a bit shocked. I mean, I’m quite new to this whole ‘Blade’ thing myself, but I do get the impression that’s not how it works.”

“Indeed. Any Blade should know exactly who their Driver is… and yet all I can remember is that I have one. But even that is hardly a surprise; a Blade cannot exist without one. I can only hope that our resonance allows me to find them.”

Sena had heard much the same about a Blade’s existence. It didn’t sound a lot like her, or anyone in Aionios to be honest, but if she was pretending to be one then she had to keep the lie going. The part about resonance was new, though.

“Do you think that’ll work?” she asked, curious.

Nimue looked at her as if she didn’t understand the question. “Resonance is the core of the connection between Blade and Driver, as I’m sure you already knew. Without it, the exclusivity of a Blade’s power to their Driver would not exist. Therefore as a Blade exists, that connection must also exist, however faint.”

You know, she had been wondering about that too, considering she’d never seen a Blade team up with a different person. She guessed that explained it nicely, even if Nimue phrased it like something she should have just known. It reminded her of Taion, funnily enough.

“Oh yeah, right, of course you’d know if it was him,” she agreed, pretending it was just something she forgot. And yet Nimue just looked more confused.

“…Him?”

“What?”

To which Sena was also very confused. When she didn’t say anything else to answer her initial question, Nimue elaborated.

“You said, ‘of course you’d know if it was him.’ But I never said anything about a boy or a girl.”

Sena could do little but wince as she realised her mistake. Nimue had been previously little more than a past event in Taion’s life as far as Sena was concerned, if a tragic one, and so she couldn’t help but associate the two. But Nimue was right, there was no indication that the two of them were still connected. At least, not a direct one.

But then Sena worked her thinking muscles a little harder. The only other person she’d ever heard use Taion’s Blade was Nimue, both young and old. Considering that Sena was only pretending to be a Blade to blend in, if Taion was here, then he’d almost certainly still have his crystal, just hidden away. Which probably meant he was still able to use Nimue’s weapon… and that sounded as close to a Driver as she could imagine.

“Okay, so, I’ve got a theory,” Sena began, cautiously. “There’s a friend of mine that uses these paper talisman weapons to fight, and I couldn’t help but think of him as I looked at you.”

Nimue raised an eyebrow. “Is he a Blade? I don’t see how someone could use those weapons and still be a Driver.”

Sena cursed internally. Spark, that was the wrong question! How am I supposed to explain that? All I can think of is honesty…

After a moment of intense concentration, she had decided. It was a risk, but what was a friendship without some give and take of the secrets variety?

“Well, okay, but this is supposed to be a secret. Can you promise me you won’t tell anyone about this if I don’t tell anyone about who you’re looking for?”

Nimue’s mission being a secret was a complete shot in the dark on Sena’s part, but it seemed to have hit the nail on the head. She looked almost relieved to be in a potentially better position after reluctantly telling her something sensitive, and for that Sena was glad. Nimue nodded in agreement to her terms.

“Great!” Sena exclaimed before her explanation. “Okay, so strictly speaking, both my ‘Driver’ and this friend of mine have Core Crystals just like us, along with their own Blade weapons. But we’re definitely not Blades… at least in the traditional sense. I don’t think it’s impossible for him to still be your Driver, considering all that.”

Her confession made Nimue look a bit like Manana after eating one of Taion’s attempts at cooking... So, basically, a bit shell-shocked.

Eventually, though, she responded. “I’m sorry, this is all a bit hard to believe…”

“Nah, don’t worry about it too much. I’d probably think I was crazy too if I didn’t know better. But I told you anyway because once I find Mimi, I’m gonna go look for him. It’s a long shot, I know, but it’s better than nothing.”

Nimue was reluctant to agree with her, probably because they were still relative strangers, but she still agreed hesitantly. “I suppose I will know for sure when I meet this ‘Mimi’, won’t I?”

Sena smiled at her earnestly. “That’s the spirit!”

~~~

The trek through Gormott had been an interesting experience in Mio’s opinion. Sure, that was partly because she had belatedly realised that this place was probably the ‘motherland’ Queen Nia had mentioned, but it was also because she could almost see parts of Aionios within it. It became especially obvious when Nia mentioned they were walking through Melnath’s shoulder, a name she recognised from the Aetia region.

As for why they were heading this way in the first place, Tora had spoken of a shipbuilder named Umon at the rear of the Titan. With the Ardainian military controlling every other ship in the nation, it seemed their best bet for leaving it was to get a new one. And so, they had set out in that direction, away from Torigoth. It reminded her a little of Samon building the Boundary so they could traverse Erythia Sea in reasonable time.

Speaking of the sea, she was still getting her head wrapped around the Cloud Sea as a concept. They had briefly wandered into it at one point, and Mio and Manana both were shocked at its similarity in consistency to water despite its appearance, especially because it didn’t leave them wet like they had expected. The fact that the ground beneath their feet was a living creature too was just as strange, if not stranger, but she had little time to reflect on this.

And that was because her ears had been working overtime during their journey. Mio couldn’t place the source of the noise, to Manana’s frustration, but she also couldn’t help but feel like something was following them. Despite this nagging feeling, they had made doubly sure that the Ardainian military wasn’t following even a good distance behind, leaving them stumped as to the origin. Rex had even asked Nia about that Torna group she was apparently a part of, and she’d shook her head, muttering something about subtlety and them actually being alive. It was a little strange, to be honest.

Either way, after running past some Tirkins, they’d arrived at Umon’s shipyard. It was a picturesque view of the Cloud Sea as the sun set at the workshop, but what Mio was most glad about was that Umon was willing to let them borrow a ship he was currently building, on account of knowing Tora’s grandfather. Well, on the condition that they went and got some extra materials for it, at least.

Though Mio was mostly glad for the Nopon’s charity, Manana vocally rejoiced at the Umon’s proof that Tora was larger than normal, much to his frustration.

Following the agreement to find the materials, Rex and Pyra volunteered to go get the Diamond Oak, while the group had already picked up the Puzzletree Wood. Tora, Nia, and their Blades all agreed to go with Rex to help with the materials, while Mio and Manana decided to stay behind, Manana getting Mio’s help to prepare some soup for dinner. Once that was done, there was little to do but wait by the campfire as it got dark.

With Manana watching the food, Mio was curious about talking to Noah again. Eager to try, she slowly closed her eyes… only to immediately hear that noise again. Despite her instincts, she didn’t open them just yet, in the slim hope that if she stayed still, she’d finally figure out what it was. 

When a new sound entered her senses, her realisation was almost too late. Flinging herself away from her position as quickly as she could, she turned around to see familiar Ether arrows embedding themselves in her previous position. It was the last piece of proof she needed to realise who had been following her, even as Manana recoiled in shock of the sudden violence, almost losing her grip on the ladle.

Juniper…

Sure enough, Mio could just barely make out the faint glow of an ethereal bowstring from the hill to the left of the shipyard, and she immediately prepped her Sundancers to throw at their location. She watched as the shadowed figure, barely even illuminated by the light of the moon, dodged out of the way of her first one, and how they were forced to stay on the move as Mio threw her second.

Seemingly unconvinced at their ability to remain hidden any longer, they dropped down the cliff face, slowly becoming more visible in the firelight. Their outfit, too, became more visible; Mio could no longer see the Core Crystal on their left shoulder, leading her to wonder if it was still there at all, but the long orange scarf and puffy pants remained, in a style more fitting to Gormott.

“You’re sharper than I gave you credit for,” Juniper began, bowstring taut, “despite your group splitting up. That’s why you’ve been on edge all day, isn’t it? You heard me in the trees.”

Mio pleaded with her attacker. “Juniper, please! Whatever you’ve heard about us, it isn’t-”

“You’ve already heard of me, too? I seem to be losing my edge.”

“Tch…”

The two Gormotti circled each other suspensefully, Mio unsure how to convince them to stand down.

“If you need to know why I’m here, Mio,” Juniper began, “it’s because there’s a bounty on your heads; You, the Torna terrorist, and the Driver of the Aegis. And, from what I saw last night, taking you out first would be a considerable advantage.”

“But still, why would you do this?! We’re the same!” Mio pleaded. “I know there’s a Core Crystal in your shoulder- ah!”

Mio dodged with milliseconds to spare as the arrow flew into the cliff behind her. Juniper’s expression had gone from almost business-like to… fearful. It was something she didn’t think she’d ever seen on their face.

“Then you know too much, Miss Flesh Eater. They may have preferred you all alive, but if your fate is to be sent to Indol to be executed, then I’m willing to bend those rules for my safety.”

Mio grimaced. Though she wanted a peaceful resolution with her former friend, she couldn’t let Manana get hurt because of her naive ideals. Reluctantly, she got into her proper battle stance, just in time for Juniper to shoot again.

Knowing their accuracy but aware of the bow’s literal drawbacks, Mio figured her best bet was to move as quickly as possible. Dodging the arrow with a roll, she ran towards Juniper, careful not to run directly at them and give them an easy shot. When they next prepared to strike, Mio quickly tossed her Sundancer towards her attacker, throwing their aim off for just long enough to avoid the arrow.

Now in close range of the archer, Mio thought she was within her power to end the fight there and then. But Juniper was always resourceful, and clearly this time was no different; shooting a luminous arrow towards the ground, a column of light erupted from near their feet, pushing Mio backwards… into Juniper’s effective range. The quick volley was mostly avoided, but one arrow grazed past her leg, leaving a thin, bleeding cut.

Mio hissed at the sudden pain, but willed herself to keep moving as she dodged the onslaught of arrows. Juniper looked eager to take advantage of her injury to further reduce her mobility, but Mio remained nimble despite the wound. Not all of it was adrenaline and her natural mobility, though; Juniper’s eyes subtly widened as Mio appeared to be surrounded in a faint yellow glow, not unlike their own arrows.

Seeing a moment to strike as she ran directly towards them, Juniper prepped a shot in defiance of this new strength, but it was in that moment that Mio’s true intentions were revealed. Jumping over the arrow before it could hit her, she flipped around and threw both her Sundancers at the unprepared archer, coated in light. In desperation, Juniper raised their bow to attempt to block them, but though one collided with the Blade weapon, the other hit their left shoulder, cutting into their cloak and revealing their Core Crystal.

As Mio landed once more, still clenching her teeth from the cut on her leg, Juniper hissed away their own injury to keep their bow up and taut. But that was only before three drivers appeared behind them, weapons ready to fight off the unknown attacker. Turning briefly to see the new company, Juniper looked immediately aware that they weren’t going to win the fight. Yet their bow was still taut.

“Guess this is it, then,” they muttered towards Mio. “Goodbye… and good luck.”

Before Mio could realise why, Juniper aimed their bow at the ground once more. Shooting off an incredibly bright arrow, a pillar of light appeared once more, only this time it was blinding. By the time their vision was clear again, the Gormotti archer had all but left, running up the same hill they had arrived from.

“Damn it!” Mio swore, running after them despite her cut. “Juniper, wait!”

Pooling the strength of her weakened leg to jump up the cliff, Mio ran after Colony Tau’s old commander in desperation, ignoring her friends’ pleas to come back. Relying on her hearing to track them down, she ran through the trees, finding a clearing where Juniper turned around to aim their bow at her once more.

“Please, Juniper. I don’t want to hurt you.”

Despite themselves, Juniper’s bowstring loosened slightly. “Why not? I was willing to hurt you for my safety. You should be prepared to do the same for yours.”

Mio shook her head. “No, I shouldn’t. I made a decision that I wouldn’t hurt others unless absolutely necessary, and you… you’re just like me. I can’t hold that fear against you.”

The bow lowered hesitantly. “Just like you? I was told you were a Flesh Eater.”

That wording made Mio suddenly aware of a possibility she hadn’t considered. “Wait, you’re not?”

Now it was Juniper’s turn to disagree. “No. I was born with this Crystal, and the ability to summon my bow, but I was born. Not awakened.”

“But… people would assume you were if you told them you weren’t a Blade.”

“Right. You sound rather familiar with it.”

As a sign of faith, Mio undid her jacket to reveal her Core Crystal. “I’ve been told by others that I am a Flesh Eater, as you heard. And Nia at least believes I match the signs. But that statement, that word… it always sounds wrong, somehow.”

Juniper looked at her curiously, before asking a strange question. “Do you… not remember your parents?”

Mio narrowed her eyes at the implication. “Parents… No, I don’t. Do you remember yours?

They nodded. “Vaguely. I lost them when I was young, and so I remember so little about how they even looked. But I know for a fact I had parents, and so I know that I’m not a Blade, despite my Crystal.”

Now, Mio wasn’t exactly an expert on the subjects of parents and children, but something about that was very strange to her.

“Hold on. If you have a Crystal, doesn’t that mean one of your parents did, too?”

Juniper smiled at her. “For someone who doesn’t remember their parents, you seem to be very good at deciphering mine. I don’t know for sure, of course, but I do have a theory; one of the strange little details I remember about my Dad was that he didn’t have my ears like my Mum did. And I’m pretty sure they died at the same time, because I don’t ever remember them being apart.”

“Which means?”

“Well, a Blade returns to their Core when their Driver dies. If my Dad was my Mum’s Blade, it would almost make sense.”

Mio’s eyes widened. “You don’t mean… you think you’re half-Blade?”

The archer laughed lightly at her surprise. “I know, it violates all the rules of what Driver and Blade means. And yet, I don’t know how else to explain… me. Maybe it can explain who you are, too.”

“Who I am…”

It wasn’t something Mio had properly considered up to now. If all the people of Aionios were human in Keves and Agnus before they merged together, then they would naturally have parents like the City folk did. But that included her, too… and yet she remembered nothing of her blood family.

“Well, I’ll leave you be then,” Juniper interrupted, knocking her out from contemplation. “Thankfully I’m no longer reporting to the Special Inquisitor, so you should be in the clear. No hard feelings?”

“Wait, hold on,” Mio questioned. “You were working for Mòrag?”

“Before your fight last night, yes. I was tasked with watching your friends’ every move leading to their entrance onto the warship. However, once you had given her the slip, she suspended my activities, thankfully after paying me appropriately. It was still my choice to go for your bounty, though I do regret it now.”

Mio laughed lightly. “We’ll call it water under a bridge. I hope I’ll see you again someday.”

“Indeed,” Juniper agreed.

Just as they were turning to walk away, though, they stopped suddenly.

“Before you go, one last thing. Keep your eyes and ears open for others like us. From what I’ve heard… I doubt we’re the only ones.”

With that last ominous warning, they disappeared into the midnight green, leaving Mio with much on her mind.

Chapter Text

Noah woke up a bit later than he normally did, feeling… Well, he wasn’t sure if ‘refreshed’ was the word he was looking for. Though his sleep was good, before truly waking up he had talked with Mio once more, and learned of her encounter with Juniper. Seemingly his theory was correct; no-one else from Aionios remembered the Endless Now, leaving the 6 Ouroboros and their Nopon companions as the sole outliers. She had also talked about people known as Flesh-Eaters and the new definition of Blades, but though the similarities between Ino and Poppi were curious, the rest mostly went over his head.

Either way, he was at least less sore than yesterday. Not being one to sit around and wait, Noah got himself ready and headed out to the Military District as usual, or at least what would have been usual. He briefly remembered Fiora, and shook his head, trying to keep it out of his mind as much as he could. To that end, he figured he would help with any cleanup of the battle-torn Colony.

Walking over the bridge to the District, Noah proceeded through the entrance to survey the damage. He was at least glad to see a piece of rubble that had closed off the weapons development lab had been moved, but the complex as a whole had seen better days. The acting Colonel Kantz, in the absence of the injured Colonel Vangarre, oversaw the efforts to clean the place and the entire Colony up.

Though Noah had intended to find his Captain before even talking to Kantz, the acting Colonel beckoned him over as he was walking past, and so Noah went to meet him.

“Yes, sir?” he affirmed, having stopped in front of Kantz.

“You and the rest of Leater’s squad have a new assignment,” Kantz explained. “Report in to your Captain for the details, then prepare to depart.”

Noah was confused as to what reason, or where, they were being sent, but he nodded regardless. “Yes sir.”

He found Emmy inside a conference room in the command building, with Miller already present. Judging by their stony expressions, whatever it was that they’d been called in for, clearly it was serious.

“Reporting in, Captain,” Noah announced as he walked in the room, somehow startling her.

“Oh! Noah…” Leater exclaimed. “Good to see you present. Even though I feel like you should have been kept in the medical bay for longer…”

Noah shook his head. “I can’t sit still for too long, unfortunately. Don’t worry, I’ve dealt with worse.”

Miller looked at him like he was crazy. “That is not reassuring.”

Emmy looked at Noah like she agreed, which was disappointing, but regardless they had more important things to do.

“Anyway,” he redirected, “what’s this new assignment we’ve been given?”

Leater nodded. “Right. With the attack on Colony 9 confirming the Mechon are still kicking about, concerns have been raised about our neighbours, who we haven’t heard from in a short while. We have been ordered to make contact with Colony 6 in order to find out their status, whether that be unaffected or overrun.”

Noah frowned at the sudden drop of another Colony. He supposed he should have seen it coming, considering that this new Colony 9 was named in much the same way as they were in Aionios, but it was still something new to consider. While he pondered this new information, though, Captain Leater sighed.

“It is, however, not our only assignment,” she continued. “We are also to search for Captain Ashera, who is currently missing.”

“What?!” Noah exclaimed, eyes wide. “She’s gone?”

Miller gave a sombre nod. “She hasn't been seen since yesterday. Dickson told us that when he last talked to her, she said something about being a real hero, so we’re pretty sure she’s gone the same way we’re going.”

Dickson? Noah considered. Fancy that, someone runs off after a talk with the same man who encouraged me to run after Shulk. Still, I can’t exactly ignore her…

Steeling himself, he turned back to Leater. “Guess we better go after her, then. When do we head out?”

“As soon as possible,” she explained. “We do have one more person joining our group for this mission, but for now you should get yourself ready.”

After agreeing to meet at the entrance to the Commercial District, Noah did just that, putting his flute, extra clothes, and supplies into a bag he purchased on the way. Though he missed his red jacket and casual attire, his new military uniform would take precedence, considering it was an official mission. It was styled in much the same way as the rest of the defence force, mostly grey with orange highlights, but the orange scarves that both Emmy and Miller wore was notably not standard issue. 

Perhaps it was a show of solidarity, or maybe he was just thinking of Taion, but Noah ended up buying a red one to match.

Either way, once he was ready, he stood at the front of the Commercial District. Though he tried to ignore it, he couldn’t help but notice the house nearby, the house that Fiora had once lived in. Dunban remained, but Noah hadn’t mustered the courage to apologise or even talk to him directly. After all, what did Noah know of family? The closest thing he had to a family in Aionios was his friends… though N did have a son.

But his world seemed to care little for his cowardice. The door opened to reveal the Hero of the Homs himself, slowly walking over to meet him.

“Dunban…” Noah tried, but he couldn’t muster up another word.

To his surprise, Dunban didn’t acknowledge their last meeting at first. Instead, the man sounded more concerned for him.

“I hear you’re heading after Ashera.”

Realisation dawned on Noah’s face. “Oh, right. She does seem to model herself after you.”

Dunban raised an eyebrow at his observation, leaving Noah concerned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh! No, no, I had just briefly forgotten about her efforts to reach your status. Of course you’d be asking about her.”

Satisfied with his answer, Dunban nodded. “Indeed. Even before I took up the Monado, she was determined to get stronger than me. But, once I took up that sword, and especially after my injury, she refocused her efforts on becoming my successor… with or without the Monado.”

The mentions of the mythical sword made Noah frown. “I suppose that choice has been made for her, now. What with Shulk taking it up instead. You… don’t think that’s why she left, do you?”

He was at least a little glad for Dunban’s immediate dismissal. “No, I don’t think so. After all, even while I was the Monado’s chosen, she was determined to somehow surpass me… as if she believed her sheer willpower could substitute for the Monado. Or at least something like your sword.”

As Dunban’s gaze turned to the blade on his hip, Noah grimaced. In his brief attempts to practise with the sword since the attack, he had found no visible or quantifiable signs of it being changed beyond the symbol in the sheath. And yet, every swing, with or without the sheath, had felt simply wrong. He supposed that if Shulk’s theory was correct, he would only know upon encountering a Mechon, but that was cold comfort.

“Well, if Shulk’s right, Lucky Seven is basically the same as the Monado now, anyway…” he mused grimly.

For some reason Dunban’s expression turned suddenly serious in response. “Shulk told me what you’d said to him. About that form you took… and what happened to your sword.”

Noah’s words caught in his throat. “Dunban, I’m-”

“No, don’t apologise. You did what you could, and for that I’m grateful. Though I won’t pretend to understand the bigger picture. The thought of another enemy besides the Mechon is… unsettling, to say the least.”

Seeing the man stand unwavering even after what happened… Noah couldn’t understand it. But the thought of Moebius returning was a sombre one. 

“…That, we can agree on.”

As Noah turned to see his Captain and Miller walk towards them, Dunban bid him farewell. “Well, look after yourselves. And good luck out there, Noah.”

Noah nodded back, before the man turned away. “Same to you, Dunban.”

After he walked through his door, Noah turned back to his squad, now packed and ready. Except, as Emmy had said, there was another person that joined them.

“Hold on, Riku? You’re our fourth?”

The enigmatic Nopon nodded. “Indeed. Riku has decided to join friend on his journey, as he did before.”

Miller just gave him a frustrated look. “Okay, so you and the furball know each other. Still, that doesn’t explain why he’s coming along.”

“Come on, Miller,” Leater chastised, “you heard what Kantz said. We’ll be going a long distance away from the Colony, and none of us are particularly skilled at weapon maintenance. At least, I presume you aren’t, Noah?”

Riku answered before he could. “Indeed! Without Riku, Noah would not have gotten anywhere with his sword.”

He was technically right, but he was definitely being coy about his job. 

“Says the Nopon who can’t fix this old thing,” Noah joked, pulling his Power Frame out of one of his bags. It had become inoperable since he arrived in this new world, leaving it little more than a memento.

“And Riku already told Noah that ‘old thing’ is beyond saving! No-one, Riku or otherwise, could fix in current state.”

“If you say so.”

Eager to get moving, Emmy cleared her throat. “Okay, we can leave that talk for later. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s get going to Tephra Cave.”

Noah nodded, turning towards the cave that would take them towards Colony 6. “Right.”

And with that, the party of four set off on their mission, with the sun still rising in the sky.

~~~

Umon finished work on the Titan ship around midday. It was shortly before this point that it dawned on Mio that she didn’t actually know where they were going. This thought was somewhat dampened when she remembered that she didn’t know any locations that weren’t Gormott, but she still wanted a name at least. After all, long shot though it was, any sign that this new location might be where Sena or Taion ended up would be much appreciated.

It was with this thought process in mind that she came to Rex to ask about their destination… and where her contention arose from.

“You want to go to the World Tree now?!”

Rex scratched his head nervously. “Well, when you say it like that…”

She’d barely even learnt what the World Tree was, thanks to some cursory explanation from Manana. But from what she’d been told, this was their end-goal; to find Elysium so the people of this new world, Alrest, wouldn’t have to worry about the dying Titans that served as their land. Mio supposed she could understand their reason for going there eventually, but it felt premature to say the least.

When he didn’t explain further, she sighed. “Look, I understand that you’re desperate to find this place, and save Alrest… Trust me, I know all about running out of time.”

Manana looked at her sadly. “Mio…”

“But we can’t rush into this. If this ‘Elysium’ is anything like I think it is, then it will be the most dangerous place in Alrest.”

What she imagined it was could best be summed up as another Origin. A massive structure at the centre of the known world, supposedly the home of its creator? That sounded almost too familiar… and the figure known as the Architect felt uncomfortably similar to Z, especially with the knowledge that Moebius lived on in Noah’s world.

Rex looked unsure how to answer her, though he eventually spoke up anyway. “I get that, but… I mean, where else would we go? What with Mor Ardain after us and all.”

Something about Nia’s half lidded stare at him told Mio that this wasn’t the proper argument, though she was obviously missing the context. In his stead, Pyra tried her hand at convincing her.

“We don’t have to climb the World Tree now. If we find ourselves against strong opposition, or we can’t climb any further, we can just retreat and try another day. Then we’ll come back with whatever we need, right?”

Mio supposed that made sense, but she was still reluctant. “I don’t know…”

“Friends will be found, Mio, don’t need to worry about them so much. And Mio cannot rush such task, anyhow!”

Manana’s consolation caught her a bit off guard, but it was appreciated. 

“Heh, I suppose you’re right, Manana.”

Though she didn’t speak up again at first, Mio quickly became aware of the eyes of the rest of the group on her… Manana included, the cheeky Nopon. Figuring she had all but lost the battle, she sighed before putting on her best authoritative face.

“Alright, fine, I’ll go to the World Tree. But we are not going to be reckless, okay? The moment there is sufficient proof that we are in danger, we are turning this ship around and taking it somewhere else! Understood?”

Looking back around to their faces was a mixed bag. Rex and Pyra had agreed, but just seemed happy to have her aboard, and Manana seemed to find her sudden attempt to leverage her age humorous. Nia also seemed to be holding back laughter more than anything else, but at least her Blade seemed to get the memo. Poppi was more confused than anything, while her Driver nodded nervously.

Well, two out of seven wasn’t great, but she supposed that was better than nothing.

A short while later, and the Titan ship was ready. ‘Unclepon’ Umon told them to enjoy their ‘boaty jaunt’ just before they left, which felt silly if only for the supposed importance of their destination. But regardless, they were quickly off, sailing across the Cloud Sea on the back of a Titan. Rex, piloting the ship, directed them straight towards the towering World Tree in the distance.

As the minutes passed into what must have been an hour on the clouds, it grew larger and larger. Soon, as the clouds darkened above them, it took up a sizable portion of their horizon, revealing its baffling scale to all who were aboard.

“So that’s the World Tree…” Rex marvelled as they approached.

Nia crossed her arms, but sounded impressed. “Wow, I’ve never seen it so close before…”

“Me neither, to tell you the truth. But it’s just as awesome as I’d hoped.”

What had soon become apparent, though, was that the Cloud Sea didn’t actually reach the Tree itself. All around its tremendous trunk, a huge void was left that the clouds flowed into but didn’t fill… leaving Mio confused about their plan.

“The current’s really strong…” Nia noticed. “Fall in that and you’re a goner.”

Rex nodded. “It’s great that we’ve made it this far… but how do we get over there? Any ideas?”

Nothing came to Mio’s mind, and Manana looked just as clueless. Figuring that she was the one who wanted to come here, she turned to Pyra instead, but found her looking unusually tense.

“We…” Pyra trailed off.

“Huh?”

“Rex, we need to leave! We can’t stay here!”

Her Driver looked at her, obviously confused. “What, why? What are you talking about, Pyra-”

Before Mio could tell him to just listen, he was interrupted by… something coming out of the Cloud Sea in front of their ship. It was long and slithery, like an aspar, but it still looked metallic like a Levnis. And it was far too large to take on in their small ship.

“Ophion!” Pyra called, seemingly to the thing itself.

“Ophi-who?!” Rex asked, clearly as in the dark as she was.

As Ophion towered over them, Pyra encouraged her Driver to turn them around.

“Quick!”

“Uh? Gotcha!”

Responding as fast as he could, Rex fully turned the wheel to perform a U-turn, racing as fast as the Titan could travel away from the monstrous guardian. As he did, Pyra called to it with a clear but lost familiarity.

“Ophion, stop this!” 

Still, it stared her down.

“What’s wrong? Can’t you hear me?”

As it suddenly raised its tail from the clouds, Mio saw her come to an unknown realisation. 

Shocked, she was unable to say more than, “It can’t be!”

Slamming its tail down, Ophion pushed the ship away and left it rocking. Now with its entire body free from the Sea whence it came, the aspar-esque automaton appeared as if it would chase. But as Rex turned around to it nervously, it turned away, somehow satisfied.

Mio sighed deeply, relieved she hadn’t become Ophion’s lunch. “That was far too close for comfort.”

Rex seemed to agree, but he was naturally still confused about the very nature of what they’d just seen. “What was that? Thought we were done for!”

And then they turned back towards the bow of the ship, and Mio cursed internally at her hubris once again. 

Blocking out the darkened sky was what Mio presumed was a Titan. A strangely familiar one, she thought as it moved ever closer, but more importantly an incredibly large one. As it opened its inconceivably huge jaw, she was suddenly aware that the Titan ship they had boarded was small enough for it to eat, and a pit formed in her stomach.

Rex looked just as shocked as her, but for slightly different reasons. “Is that…”

“Uraya’s Titan!” Gramps finished, and suddenly the familiarity made sense.

“What?!” Mio exclaimed. “That’s Uraya?!”

But no-one had time to answer her. The open jaw began to suck them in, and Rex couldn’t even turn the ship around.

“This is NOT good!” he yelled, panicking. “Ack, here it comes!”

As the Titan ship was pulled down into the Cloud Sea, and the Urayan Titan’s jaw closed, they could do little else but scream.

~~~

A safe distance away, another Titan ship lay still on the Cloud Sea. One of its crew members, her eye in a spyglass, spotted the chaos from afar. As the Titan rose from the clouds, she ran to the stern of the ship to see its captain.

“Cap’n! We got a visual, port side!”

Receiving the spyglass from her, the captain turned it towards Uraya just in time to see a small Titan ship be sucked in.

“Well, would ya look at that,” he mourned exaggeratedly as it disappeared into the Titan’s great maw. “Another wayward ship taken by the Cloud Sea’s leviathan.”

Though he gave a hearty laugh as he put the spyglass away, his first mate was not as amused. She kept a more serious expression as she walked up to the wheel, but still left some levity as she ruffled the crew member’s pink hair.

“Don’t be so dramatic, Tri, this happens every other week. More importantly, did the Titan ship have the Aegis aboard?”

The captain nodded, holding his hat with one hand. “Aye, I think so, matey. Apparently they made a right mess in Torigoth, and that’s where the ship set sail from.”

Though his first mate was initially satisfied with his answer, the crew member realised something about his answer.

“Hold on, wouldn’t that mean it definitely wasn’t the Aegis? They would have definitely locked down the port to prevent them from leaving…”

Her reasoning left the captain a bit flabbergasted.

“Ah… I suppose you’re right. Could have sworn there was a reason I suspected it was them, though.” He scratched his chin through his grey beard, but no memory came to him. “Drat, I can’t seem to remember if they came from Torigoth, or somewhere else on Gormott…”

His first mate could only respond with a long-suffering sigh. “I don’t know why I asked. Well, guess we’ll leave them alone for now, see if they survive.”

“Ha! Guess so.”

Satisfied for now, the captain turned his ship away to plunder elsewhere.

~~~

Sena was busy training when a rumble resonated through Garfont. Her sparring partner, Nimue, didn’t seem too bothered, which made her naturally curious.

“Hey, what was that?” she asked.

Nimue shrugged noncommittally. “I’m not completely sure, but the Titan has probably eaten something again. It happens pretty regularly. I believe Vandham and his group even go and check on it, sometimes.”

“Really…”

Though she was glad to have her question answered, something still niggled at her. Eventually, as her brief spar finished, she had an idea on how to fix it.

Maybe I can go see what happened by going along with Vandham…

~~~

Noah couldn’t help but be reminded of the Urayan Tunnels as his squad progressed through Tephra Cave. The group’s walk through it had been the longest period of time they spent underground in their journey through Aionios, and one of vanishingly few times it actually happened. There were even arachno scuttling about, some of which had to be dealt with on the way.

The amount of arachno paled in comparison to what they soon found, though. As they reached a cavern with a small pool of water on the left side, they found a strangely large quantity of arachno carcasses.

“The hell is this?” Miller asked, concerned. “There’s so many of them… what could have taken them all down?”

Emmy sat down next to one to examine it closer. After a second of concentration, she stood up again.

“Well, I don’t know if this is good news or bad news, but what I do know is that these arachno were killed by Homs. Their injuries are definitely cuts from weapons, and I don’t think Igna ever venture in here.”

Noah nodded. “So it could have been Shulk and Reyn, Ashera, or both. I see why you’re unsure about this, considering we don’t know who won in the end.”

While they were surveying the dead monsters, Riku stumbled across something more interesting. “Hold on, friends. This is remains of camp fire!”

When Noah walked over to the burnt-out wood, he could definitely agree. “So at the very least, they got this far, and stopped here… We just don’t know if they went further.”

“Nah, I think they did,” Miller contended. “I can see footprints in the dirt here.”

With the mystery of this part of the cave solved, at least for now, Captain Leater clapped her hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Alright then, we know we’re on the right track. Do you boys think you can make it out to Leg Pass before we stop for the day?”

Miller shrugged noncommittally, Noah nodded, and Riku sighed.

“Meh… Riku supposes he can make do, even if rations are so tempting…”

Noah raised an eyebrow. “And here I thought you didn’t care for rations anymore.”

“Riku is allowed to desire food even when cheffypon is not present! How rude Noah is, forgetting who gave him his sword.”

“Hey, I’m just kidding! Sorry, Riku.”

“Riku supposes he can accept.”

Leater cleared her throat again. “Okay, let's leave that to later. We’re wasting daylight here!”

With that call to action, the party of four set off through the cave again. They didn’t stop for too long elsewhere, though Noah briefly admired the view of Vilia Lake, until they found a web-covered cavern. And this one had another carcass in it.

“Holy crap!” Miller swore, as he stared at the remains of the Arachno Queen, alongside her children. “Well, if we’re lucky, they got out of the cave alive!”

“Not without a fight, though,” Emmy commented, walking over to the lifeless husk. “Yep, it’s got the same marks. They definitely look more like Reyn’s Driver on closer inspection, as opposed to Ashera’s Twinsabre. Think I even see some ether burns… must be the Monado’s handiwork.”

Noah let out a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness, they made it. With a bit of luck Ashera must have made it, too, considering the biggest threat was already dead.”

Riku nodded, but then shivered. “Regardless of liveliness of monster, Riku suggest friends keep moving. Cave give Riku serious case of creeps, and Riku normally enjoys caves!”

Leater laughed at his honesty. “Well, I can’t blame you for that. We’re almost out, so let’s get this done.”

She wasn’t wrong. A short walk through a narrow cave later, and the party was out in the open again… and were treated to a spectacular view.

“Don’t think anyone could ever get used to this,” Miller commented as he stared at the massive figure ahead.

Noah could understand. Only now, seeing it head on, did he really understand the scale of Mechonis. And that sword in its hand, it was unmistakable as the Great Sword… which only left him with the same questions he had before.

Riku’s quick nod of solidarity was at least reassuring.

“Well, don’t gawk at it too much,” the Captain chastised lightly. “After all, Mechonis is our enemy, no matter how impressive it looks.”

Noah frowned. “Our enemy, huh…”

But how did it come to this?

~~~

On the edge of consciousness, Mio drifted through a strange dream. She hadn’t experienced many in Aionios, even considering what D revealed about those dreams being from her past lives. But this one… it was no life that M had remembered.

“Mam?” a young girl’s voice asked, seemingly coming from her mouth. “Is it true that Uraya used to be a living creature?”

Her ‘Mam’ lightly chuckled at her curiosity, stroking her hair all the while. “It was. Uraya was one of the greatest of the Titans, living in the Cloud Sea. Nowadays, though, it sleeps, letting its people live on.”

“Wooow… I couldn’t imagine being that big.”

The girl’s ‘Mam’ snickered a little at that, too. “Well, you could always ask Gramps. He’s a pretty big Titan.”

“But he’s not that big, Mam.”

“Ooh, don’t let him hear that, his poor old heart might break in two. Now then, my Princess, you better go to-”

“Mio!”

Jolting awake, Mio found herself laying on her back, with Nia staring down at her. She couldn’t see the sky, which was strange in and of itself, but the ceiling itself looked weird too.

“Nia?” she asked, groggily.

The Gormotti Driver breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness, you’re still with us. Gormotti may well be able to swim, but from experience, we don’t dive very well… especially by accident.”

As Mio slowly sat up, she saw that Dromarch was sat next to her, and the rest of the group was nearby. Pyra had seemingly conjured a ball of flame to light the way, while Rex and Poppi had turned on torches (though Poppi's were in her eyes - how familiar).

More awake now, Mio could finally ask the obvious question; “Where are we?”

Nia sighed, but explained. “Pretty sure we’re in Uraya now, if in the dumps of it. There’s a whole kingdom in this Titan somewhere, but I couldn’t tell you how far. Either way, I don’t think we’re sticking near the mouth of this thing… Yeuch, gross.”

It was with this comment that Mio finally remembered how they must have got there. Turning to her side, she could see the now-closed jaws of the Titan, with their ship‘s remains barely visible.

“Umon’s going to be so disappointed,” she mourned. “But you’re right. Let’s get out of here.”

Their group proceeded through the strange caves, which Mio couldn’t help but be weirded out by. Not only because they clearly belonged to a living creature, but because they were very different from the Urayan tunnels she was used to. Just about the only similarity she’d noticed so far was that grass had somehow found its way in… though it looked a little different to Gormott’s, somehow.

Finally coming into a larger open space, these stark differences continued mounting. It was increasingly alien… but still somehow beautiful.

“There’s some kind of dim light…” Nia noticed, and she was right. Their lights were no longer as necessary, though it was still getting late in the day.

“If I remember,” Gramps began, “the Urayan Titan has a translucent hide. I bet that’ll be the light filtering through.”

Rex seemed to think this made sense. “So the Titan’s above the clouds now?” he guessed.

“I dare say!”

Pyra, meanwhile, looked towards the ceiling as if it was a welcome sight.

“If we can make it to the source of that light, she suggested, “maybe we’ll find a way out of here.”

Mio didn’t even get a chance to agree with her before a gruff man’s voice interrupted them.

“Hold it!”

Turning towards the source of the voice, she found… three men and their Blades, standing on a natural bridge above them. Satisfied he’d been noticed, the man and his crew jumped down from their perch to the floor below, with the exception of the centre man’s bird-like Blade hovering down with its wings.

That voice, and that face, Mio recalled, unsure of their origin. I swear I’ve seen them before…

The man didn’t care for her consternation, walking towards them threateningly. “Looks like a bunch of mushes I ain’t seen yet. You’ve gotta have pretty damn bad luck, ending up in a Titan’s guts like this.”

His introduction was interrupted by him suddenly focusing his eyes elsewhere. First he have Mio a curious look, leaving her to step back, but then he turned his attention to Pyra.

“…Huh? That Blade… An emerald Core Crystal!”

She instinctively moved to cover it with one hand, but the damage was done. The man’s laughter boomed through the cavern, leaving Rex to scoff.

“Bwahahahaha! So, the rumours are true!”

Rex was not as amused, but was also rather confused. “Huh? What rumours?”

“The tale that every Driver worth his salt knows. The legendary Aegis. Folks been saying she just woke up from a 500 year nap. Wouldn’t have thought she’d show up with a pencil-neck shrimp like you for a Driver, though.”

Mio could see the bait clear as day, and she didn’t doubt Pyra saw it to, but Rex still responded, eager to prove him wrong. “You think I don’t have what it takes?”

The man shook his head, his companions still eerily silent. “Nah, I mean… Maybe you could handle a normal Blade. But a greenhorn like you, with a beaut like her? Don’t kid yourself. Come on, boy. Hand her over to a grown-up.”

Something about this whole thing felt wrong. Not just the fact that these men apparently wanted to steal Pyra, or the fact Mio almost recognised their leader, but those two things together made her feel rather uneasy. Or maybe it was because she was recovering from her earlier experience? Still, this man almost sounded comically evil…

Rex clearly wasn’t interested in his idea. “This crap is getting real old. Leave her alone!”

The man seems to find his defiance amusing. “Y’got heart, kid. I like that. Yew, Zuo, you take care of the others. I wanna squash the kid.”

To his left, the brown-haired driver chuckled. “Heheh. Leave it to us, boss.”

“We’ll take real good care of them,” the glasses-wearing driver to his right affirmed.

As the three men drew their Blade weapons, Rex, Nia and Tora did too. But before Mio could draw hers, the leader of their opponents turned back to her.

“You might wanna sit this one out, girl. Don’t wanna disappoint your friends while you’re still recovering.”

She wanted to disagree, but Nia shook her head. “We’ve got these goons, Mio. Rest up.”

“…Fine,” she relented. “But don’t be silly about it!”

“Hey, who d’you think I am?”

With that defiant declaration, she dodged a swing of the glasses-wearing Driver’s axe, while the brown-haired Driver’s lance was blocked by Tora. Their leader, wielding two scythe-like Blade weapons, was on Rex immediately, quicker than she’d have expected. It didn’t take much to guess that he was a veteran.

And yet he still felt familiar. Worse still, the names of his subordinates just made the feeling stronger, which didn’t make much sense to her. Manana, who naturally also sat out, didn’t have any ideas either, though she did say something about imagining him with an eyepatch.

In the meantime, it was Driver versus Driver. Mio was at least glad to say that they were holding their own, even against their clearly experienced foes. But she couldn’t help but notice how much power Rex was flinging around, calling on Pyra’s help for waves of fire that his opponent either blocked or blew away. It made her worry about his stamina. Before long, Rex had been pushed onto the defensive, as the leader slashed his scythes repeatedly.

“What’s the matter?” he taunted. “Are you the Aegis or aren’t ya?”

Rex blocked a heavy uppercut with Pyra’s sword, but found himself knocked backwards in the lock, leading his foe to run towards him with an overhead slash. Pyra rushed in to block it, pushing the man away after a strangely long staredown, leaving them at even footing once again.

The man refused to be impressed, beckoning Rex to try attack him with two fingers. “That all you got, mate? Pathetic.”

It was strangely playful, a stark contrast to Mòrag’s dead seriousness. But the Aegis’s Driver took it to heart, glowing with the power Pyra transmitted to him.

“We’ll show ya! We’ll show you what me and Pyra are made of!”

Rex launched another shot of fire towards his opponent, but the man just sidestepped, effortlessly avoiding the attack.

“He dodged?!” he exclaimed.

The leader continued to sound unimpressed, if amused. “Course I did, kid. Any slower and you’d bore me to death.”

As terrible as it sounded, he had a point; Mio thought the attack looked slower than she’d seen Rex do at his best.

It must be their energy, she considered. They can’t keep this up.

“How about this, then?!

Rex continued to volley flames at the Driver, who grunted in exertion but still swiftly avoided each and every one. All the while, Pyra grew more and more strained.

“Rex, wait!” she called desperately. “I can’t supply power this fast!”

Her Driver didn’t answer her, flinging off a couple more blasts and leaving his opponent against the wall of the cave.

“Nowhere left to run!” Rex declared, self-satisfied, as he prepared a larger blast above his head. “Eat this!”

But the man just looked at the Aegis and smirked. As Rex attempted to gather more power, Pyra’s sword suddenly shut off, leaving the gathered flames to fizzle out. The boy could barely grunt in surprise before he switched his scythes to a backhand grip and rushed.

“Playtime’s over. Take this!”

Mio tried to get herself upright to stop him, somehow, but she was too late. The man reached Rex before her Sundancers even appeared… and stopped his scythes just short of the boy’s neck.

The leader suddenly spoke with a more grounded tone than before. “Hah! If you’re a Driver, then you’re a new one for sure! Drivers, see… We borrow our Blades’ energy, channel it into our weapons… And let rip with an Art!”

Finally, it made sense. The almost theatrical air to his entrance, the paper-thin taunts, telling her to sit out. His trio of rough-and-tumble Drivers hadn’t even hurt any of them. At this point, standing next to Rex without an ounce of malice, he sounded more like a gruff instructor.

“But you gotta be careful - there’s a limit to it,” he continued, even as Rex stared at him in confusion. “If you go in all bull-headed like that, kid, even that Aegis of yours is gonna run out of energy before too long.”

Directing Rex’s attention to Pyra, panting on her hands and knees, the message became clear. The true purpose of their spar began to dawn on the faces of Rex, Nia and Tora, as Yew and Zuo stood down with smiles on their faces. But the answer to the last mystery only became apparent as he put his Blade’s weapons away and spoke up once more.

“The name’s Vandham,” he introduced, sending Mio’s blood cold immediately. “I run a little firm, out of the nearby village.”

Mio barely heard the second half of his greeting, because she was too busy going into a meltdown. The face, the hair, even the voice… it was like some strange alternate version of the man who had made her and her friends Ouroboros. The scale-like features on his face did dampen the resemblance somewhat, but that just made him fit with typical Agnians more than he did as one of the City’s people.

“A… firm?” Rex asked, ignorant of her internal dilemma.

Vandham nodded, but when he looked to see her in the background, he did one last thing to shock her.

“Hey, Blade girl!” he called to the bridge above them. “Look who I found!”

Mio could hear a faint, yet familiar “What?!” in response. Her confusion was quickly answered, though, when her friend jumped down to their cave and ran towards her.

“Mimi!”

“Wait, Sena-”

She barely got to finish her sentence before being tackled into a hug, which was slightly painful on account of her rough experience getting there. But all that paled in comparison to the relief she felt at finding her friend again.

“Mimi, I’m so glad!” Sena cried. “I had no idea where you were when I woke up here which is apparently Uraya but I didn’t want to go to far in case you found me so-”

“Woah, Sena, calm down!” Mio urged, patting her friend’s back. “It’s good to see you too.”

Sena sniffed, but nodded, separating from the crushing embrace. The slight bit of extra freedom did make Mio realise that they were being stared at, though. With Vandham it was at least more amused and satisfied, and the same could be said of Yew and Zuo. But with Manana also coming up to hug Sena, her party looked at her newfound friend curiously.

“So, uh…” Nia began, unsure how to phrase it. “Who’s this, then?”

Mio’s attempt to answer was cut off once more, with Sena doing it before she could. “I’m Sena! Mio is, well… She’s my Driver!”

The cave was suddenly dead silent. As her friends looked at each other in confusion, the silence was broken only by Tora’s quiet “Huh?”

Chapter Text

Rising from the cloud sea it had hidden itself under, the Monoceros slowly made port in Torna’s hideout. Once it had finally settled, the hatch opened to reveal its three passengers, who walked out to rendezvous with their ally.

“Welcome home, Jin,” Akhos greeted as the masked man stepped across the bridge to meet him.

The leader of Torna was far less smarmy than his compatriot. “Hey, Akhos.”

Once Malos and Sever were also across, Akhos continued with a familiar smirk. “I hear the Aegis awakened. Nasty shock for you? Of course, my script revealed how everything would play out from the start.”

His Blade, Obrona, flew down to meet them, and rebuffed him with a tone belying that she wasn’t convinced… If you could discern it from her high-pitched voice, anyway.

“Sure, you say that when it’s all over and done with,” she began. “It’s easy to act smug when hindsight’s on your side.”

“Shut your mouth, Obrona.”

“I’m shaking to my Core!”

Malos let himself smirk at the way he swatted away his Blade in frustration, but he had more important things to do. “Where are the other two?”

Akhos sighed, but didn’t let himself get distracted. “Mikhail’s inspecting the Ardainian ‘factory’… And my beloved sister is out hunting, as always. I’m sure she’ll have found plenty of Drivers to chew up and spit out by now.”

“She likes to hunt, alright. Not sure we can use all of those Core Crystals, though…”

“Do we know where the Aegis is right now?” Jin asked him, leaving Malos’s concern for now.

Akhos’s smug expression returned, turning away from his Blade. “Have no fear, Jin. Of course we know her whereabouts! Obrona?”

Having been signalled by her Driver, she reluctantly agreed. “Yeah, yeah…”

Gathering energy in her hands, she raised them upwards, dispersing the energy into the air around them as small, mostly yellow, balls of light. They partially formed into the recognisable shapes of the Titans of Alrest. Akhos pointed towards the shape of the four-limbed Titan, where several coloured dots could be seen.

“Hm! It seems they’re currently travelling away from the urban area of Gormott,” he explained.

“Leaving the town?” Malos confirmed, confused by their direction. “But there’s nothing out that way.”

“Perhaps they’re on their way out of Gormott itself. Oh, and…”

“What?” Jin queried him, seeing his attention turn to the winged Titan to his right.

“It seems a certain shipment has set out,” he clarified, pointing towards a blue dot heading towards the Praetorium.

Malos scoffed, putting his hands on his hips. “The Core Crystals heading to Indol for cleansing, huh? How pious of them… Shall we handle them?”

Jin, to whom he had pointed his question, declined. “I’ll deal with that myself. You concentrate on the Aegis.”

“Understood,” Akhos affirmed, gesturing towards Gormott once more. “I look forward to clapping eyes on the legendary Aegis…”

But his mood suddenly shifted. Turning back to the masked leader of Torna, he asked solemnly, “By the way… what of Nia?”

“You know where she is?” Jin asked to confirm.

“Yes. Look. This dot here.” He pointed at the group of dots once more, this time focusing on a blue one. “Without a doubt, this is Dromarch’s wavelength. It seems they’re travelling together with the Aegis.”

Jin’s barely noticeable surprise remained hidden behind his mask. “With the Aegis?”

He paused for a moment, his allies’ gaze on him. Eventually he gave Akhos his order.

“…Do as you see fit.”

Akhos smiled. “Understood. You don’t need to ask me twice.”

Before Malos could agree, he noticed his Blade looking increasingly confused. Well, his face didn’t change much, but Sever was scratching his head, which was unusual.

“Sever, what’s up with you?” he asked, curious.

“Don’t know if I’m just being silly,” Sever began, “but aren't there a lot of dots there? More than the three I’d expected, anyway.”

Akhos raised an eyebrow, but turned back towards the light show regardless.

“Well, that one back there is a little bit far removed, by my estimation,” he began. “Perhaps the Aegis's band already has a stalker. Either way, one of these green ones is the Aegis herself, I presume.”

Malos hummed in agreement. “The other one must be her Driver, considering she split her core with him.”

“Ah, right, that tracks. But then, this red one reminds me of the factory. And this blue one… Nia?”

The name made Jin stop. “Why would she be there? Doesn’t this light show active Blades?”

Akhos nodded. “Indeed. So that would mean she’s running around in her true form… How unlike her.”

Malos couldn’t help but laugh. “Hah, she sure moves on quickly. Guess I overestimated her fear.”

“Wait, hold on. It’s similar, but it’s not quite the same as Nia after all. How unusual.”

Sever grumbled in confusion. “So what, they’re travelling with another Flesh Eater?”

Akhos shook his head. “No, all Flesh Eaters appear differently, as with any Blade. This is too close for that.”

“Well there’s only one way to find out,” Malos suggested, figuring that was enough speculation. “We’re gonna take the Monoceros, but perhaps we should bring along the new recruit, too…”

“Ah, I see. A test of his loyalty, I suppose?”

“Something like that.”

Jin began to walk away as the light show dissipated. “Hm. As you wish.”

After a second, Malos called after him. “Hey! Don’t do anything too reckless.”

He briefly stopped, considering the suggestion, before resuming his walk.

~~~

In the hallowed halls of the Indoline Sanctum, a warrior monk walked swiftly to an urgent meeting. He had been called at the insistence of Praetor Amalthus himself, marking the matter as unusually important, but being called at all was usually a grim affair. After all, the Praetor let him live specifically to do his dirty work.

Unlike most of his meetings, though, he had much more of an idea of why he had been called. The Blade had once been under his protection after all, before it escaped on a merchant ship. Her importance was not something he understood yet, but that too was not unusual. The Praetor only ever gave him the information he needed to complete a task.

It was with those sobering thoughts that he walked into the Praetor’s study, other monks closing the door behind him. As they did, he saw Amalthus standing behind his desk and looking towards the window, not bothering to turn to acknowledge him.

“You wished to see me, Your Eminence?”

The Praetor turned slowly, disappointment briefly showing beneath his veneer of pious tranquillity. “Indeed, ‘Teach.’ I trust you are aware of our escapee?”

The monk nodded solemnly. “I am. My sincere apologies for the lapse in security.”

Amalthus frowned, but shook his head. “As much as it grieves me to say it, we had relieved you of your duty when she escaped. Your platitudes will be better served in retrieving the anomalous Blade.”

“Of course, Your Eminence.”

The Praetor proceeded to sit behind his desk, a map of Alrest already rolled out upon it. After beckoning Teach to view it more closely, he pointed towards a particular Titan.

“The Kingdom of Uraya?” Teach queried.

Amalthus nodded. “The port manifests suggest that the merchant vessel was heading there to make a delivery. If I were to guess at her actions after that point, she would likely have disembarked as soon as possible to avoid being found out.”

He supposed the logic followed. Regardless, though he didn’t say it out loud, there was another reason Teach believed his assertion to be accurate. She had spoken with him about the Saffronias of Uraya more than once, seeming to believe they were important. He wondered if Amalthus somehow knew that.

The Praetor took his silence as agreement, and continued. “Prince Ozychlyrus has chartered a vessel to head to the Kingdom. I would recommend joining him before he leaves.”

Teach couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. “The Prince of Tantal? For what purpose is he heading to Uraya?”

“He is to make contact with the Aegis and her Driver, and… ascertain their intentions. Do not attempt to do the same; for time being it would be best if you remained unassociated in the eyes of the Aegis.”

Teach frowned at the phrasing of the Prince’s mission. That could mean any number of things, in regards to his purpose or even his method. But the fact that Amalthus knew about it happening certainly suggested he was doing it with the Praetor’s blessing, at a minimum. Still, there was no point agonising over his plans; it wasn’t like Teach got to debate his mission.

“Understood,” he confirmed. “It will be done, Your Eminence.”

Bowing to the Praetor, he turned to leave, but before he did, Amalthus called after him.

“Bring her back swiftly, Oleg. You, of all people, should be well aware that power is dangerous in the wrong hands. In this instance, I cannot tolerate failure.”

The sudden emphasis on the importance of the Blade was surprising, but Teach gave an affirmation regardless. He pushed open the doors to the Audience chamber, walked past the monks guarding the Praetor, and returned to the Seoris Plaza, where his two compatriots awaited him.

His Blade was the first to greet him, clearly eager to hear the news.

“How did your meeting go, Sir?” Isurd asked him, remaining professional despite his concern for the missing Blade.

“As well as could reasonably be expected, Isurd,” Teach answered honestly. “I am to depart for Uraya at once, to track her and eventually retrieve her.”

“So Nimue went there after all…”

Isurd gave a knowing frown, the kind he gave off when he thought hard on a topic. He’d been doing it a lot recently, clearly in response to Nimue leaving.

His second underling, a brown-haired girl with a dark blue Core Crystal by her collarbone, was quick to express concern. “With the rumours of the Kingdom preparing for war, it’s far too dangerous for her there. I don’t want her to get hurt…”

Teach gave her an understanding smile, in an attempt to ease her concerns. “I agree, Miyabi. We won’t be waiting long, thankfully, as Prince Ozychlyrus has already chartered a vessel to Uraya. He will be leaving quite soon.”

Her eyes widened. “Zeke is joining us? That’s a bit strange.”

“Prince Ozychlyrus has his own reasons for heading to the Kingdom. Our destinations have simply aligned for the moment.”

“The Aegis…” Isurd guessed, watching as Teach nodded to affirm him. “Shall we prepare to depart then, Sir? I couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to her…”

Hearing his Blade be so passionate, Teach couldn’t help but sigh. He knew what came next wouldn’t go over well.

“…I’m afraid you won’t be joining us, Isurd,” he elaborated reluctantly. “Miyabi will be my sole accompaniment for this mission.”

His declaration surprised even Miyabi, who could do little else but squeak in response. Isurd, meanwhile, looked visibly shocked immediately as he said it, leading him to question Teach with as much decorum as he could muster. 

“What?! But Sir, I-”

Teach shook his head. “My decision is final, Isurd. You must understand that this is a potentially delicate situation we’re dealing with. Though I know you are typically a well-reasoned individual, you’ve grown far too invested in Nimue’s wellbeing for me to trust you to keep a cool head.”

“Sir…”

Though Isurd didn’t answer back any further, Teach could tell his decision wasn’t sitting well with his Blade. He at least hoped that some of his Blade’s anxieties were over a perceived lack of work, which he could remedy somewhat.

“I still have a job for you to do while you remain here on standby. The Praetor is expecting a shipment of Core Crystals for cleansing, and I am unable to supervise them while I am absent. If you could head up their security, I would be most grateful.”

Isurd nodded, though clearly unsatisfied. Unfortunately, Teach could not delay his departure any further; a long discussion with his Blade would have to wait.

“Well then, Miyabi,” he called to his companion. “Let us be off.”

Chapter Text

After their initial shock, Nia and the others were eager to hear Mio’s explanation for what her relationship with Sena was, and more importantly why she hadn’t mentioned it. But Vandham didn’t much care for it, quickly dismissing their questions to be asked later after Mio had recovered a bit. Unwilling to argue with the muscley man, Nia in particular seeming reluctant, the group instead brainstormed the best method of getting Mio moving after some quick introductions.

Funnily enough, this ended up being achieved by having her ride on Dromarch’s back, much to Rex’s poorly-hidden delight. Though she didn’t seem to find it as amusing, Mio was at least grateful for the soft carriage. If anything, she figured out where to hold onto Dromarch rather fast. The Blade even commented as such to her, which she dismissed, though with an enigmatic embarrassment.

However, as they walked on the path back to Garfont, something quickly became apparent to Sena. While Mio was off-limits, and Rex was more interested in talking to Vandham and Roc, the rest of the group could just ask Sena instead. She guessed that made sense, but she had only just got over the fact that Nia had the Queen’s name (and several other features), so it was a little bit anxiety inducing.

Sure enough, the Queen’s doppelgänger quickly sidled up to her, giving a mischievous smirk that told Sena she was interested in being nosy.

“Hey Sena?” she began, burning curiosity evident in her tone. “You said you were Mio’s Blade, right?”

Sena nodded, curious as to where she was going with this. “Yeah, I did… Why do you ask?”

“What were you doing so far from each other? Mio and Manana didn’t even mention you.”

Sena pursed her lips, tilting her head and resting her chin on her fist. She had to think about her answer carefully; not only to be believable, but because she didn’t want to overstep from what Mimi would say.

“Well, we got separated not too long ago,” she eventually answered. “I’ve been waiting for her in Garfont since then.”

Pyra nodded at that, seeming to connect some dots in her head. “Right, Manana did say something about finding friends.”

Sena smiled at that. It was a silly thing to consider, she knew, but it was good to see that her friends wouldn’t forget her.

“I think we were worried about not seeing each other again,” she continued. “The separation was… very sudden. To be honest, I’m shocked that Manana's even here.”

Her Nopon friend gave her a wide smile. “Manana would not leave friends so easily! Trained to have heart of iron, and to never give up - on food or friends!”

The big Nopon that was with them, Tora, snorted at her declaration. “Certainly determined… perhaps too much sometimes.”

“Tora dare say that? After insist on Artificial Blade?! Takes one to know one, stripy boy!”

Sena resisted the urge to laugh at the sudden argument, not used to seeing Manana so peeved. But there was something else she said that caught her interest.

“Wait, Artificial Blade?” she asked. “Hold on, is Poppi…?”

The Blade gave her an enthusiastic, if robotic, nod. “Indeed! Poppi is Artificial Blade, creation of Masterpon!”

“Huh… Now that I look at her, I do see the resemblance.”

Right on time, before any of Mio’s new group could ask her who she was comparing Poppi to, they arrived at Garfont Village, heralded by Vandham’s introduction.

“Welcome to Garfont. Ain’t much, but it’s home.”

The Village was clearly a new sight to all of them, judging by their shocked faces. If anything, they all looked rather enamoured with the small Colony, with Pyra commenting on the amount of children, and Tora noticing all the Drivers and Blades. But more than anything, Sena’s gaze was drawn to Mio, and the way she wistfully took in the peaceful sight. It was hard to explain it, but she almost looked… nostalgic? Weird.

Still, she definitely didn’t miss Mio’s expression changing when Vandham explained where the children had come from.

“Most of the kids are war orphans. Took ‘em in while on the job.”

The mention of war had certainly soured Mio’s mood, but underneath that gut reaction she was probably wondering the same thing Sena was. After all, the term ‘orphan’ hadn’t ever come up to them before, not even in the City. But the way Dromarch talked about it, prompting further explanation from Yew and Zuo, suggested they didn’t have anyone looking after them, which would mean…

“…No parents, huh.” Mio muttered under her breath.

If Dromarch heard her, he wisely didn’t pry. At the very least, Vandham didn’t seem to be raising these ‘orphans’ as child soldiers, letting them make their own decisions in stark contrast to Moebius. Not that it was too surprising - this was a Vandham after all.

They didn’t get to stew on those thoughts for too long though, as the burly man had insisted on dinner for the lot of them (something about ‘good eggs,’ but Sena had missed that context). All clearly hungry, they headed off to the Vargel Tavern to grab some grub from Guldon, Zuo giving Sena a reassuring look as they did. Once they finished their short walk, Mio dismounted from Dromarch, giving him a polite thank-you as she steadied herself on tired legs, before sitting down between Sena and Manana.

The meal certainly began auspiciously enough, even if the concept of a talking tiger Blade eating food off the ground was weird. But after Sena had a quiet giggle at the way Vandham said “Cheers, love!” to Pyra, the mood suddenly shifted when Rex asked a rather serious question.

“So, do you fight in wars too, Vandham?”

It was strange to say, but Sena had never really considered it. She had fallen into the trap of thinking that war was just a thing of the past, a memory to remain in Aionios, but she should have realised it would never be that simple. Especially knowing that Vandham certainly didn’t seem bothered by it.

At first, the following conversation seemed to almost avoid the topic of war entirely; she certainly hadn’t heard of mercenaries in the war of the Endless Now, so hearing them be suggested as a common point of connection felt incorrect. Beyond that it seemed more concerned with Rex asking if he was attempting to recruit them. But once that had been discussed, Vandham seemed to come up with another non-sequitur.

“Rex, you’re a salvager, ain’t ya?”

Upon the boy’s confirmation, he continued unabated.

“You musta fished out your fair share of military supplies, right? You fine with that?”

“Nah,” Rex assured. “I don’t wanna get involved with it.”

Sena could certainly admire that viewpoint, but Vandham swiftly and calmly rejected his supposed distance.

“It’s all the same. Compasses, valves for ether stoves… armies need all these things. That bread you’re eating? It’s made from ruska flour, supplied by the Ardainian government. Don’t matter if you’re a soldier or not - as long as you’re alive, you’re in the war, some way or another. Don’t you think?”

Mio’s expression darkened as he spoke. It was just about the last thing she would have wanted to hear, and Manana wasn’t looking much better. But it was that last comment, that last question, that prompted her to scoff, much to Vandham’s surprise.

“Sounds as though you’ve got some thoughts on that, Mio,” he noticed. “What’s on your mind?”

She frowned deeper at being called out, but didn’t shy away from his question.

“It seems to me to be an overly cynical view of this world,” she answered, voice stiff. “And not one I particularly enjoyed hearing.”

Vandham frowned at her explanation, carefully considering his response.

“You’re not a kid any more, I can see that much,” he eventually posited. “I don’t think I need to tell you that life can be cruel.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Mimi…”

Sena squeezed her hand, attempting to support her friend. Mio stopped to glance at her as she did, giving her a quick nod as if to reassure her.

“We’ve seen too much war not to know that,” she quickly continued. “But I don’t want to believe that’s all there is to our lives. There’s more than conflict in this world… I know it.”

Sena certainly hoped so. 

Vandham took the information she’d shared to heart, looking almost wistful as she stopped. 

“It’s noble to want peace, Mio. But even peace is a resource to be fought over. After all, that’s why Mor Ardain and Uraya are at each other’s throats… because they want that peace and security, even at the expense of others. In the end, that’s why I set up this little band - so I could protect the people I care about.”

Mio regarded the mercenary leader’s wisdom with clear trepidation, though she didn’t refute him. But she wasn’t the only one taking on his words; Rex had been listening to their discussion intently, looking equal parts impressed and concerned. Not long after Sena noticed him, Vandham did too, and he resumed their conversation in earnest… either to finish his prior talk, or just to give the boy more context.

“Rex, you’re the Driver of the Aegis. The whole world’s gonna try and scalp you, you realise that? How’re ya gonna live… when you’ve got everyone gunning for ya?”

“And now, the whole world will be your enemy. I wonder how your lives will turn out?”

Sena couldn’t help but wince at the chill of deja vu, and she wasn’t alone. Mio didn’t speak a word, or eat another bite, for the rest of Vandham’s talk. Only when he took Rex elsewhere for what Sena assumed was training did she let out a long sigh, finishing what she could of her meal in silence… Not even making a sound when she slipped away, briefly shocking her friend.

When Sena found her again, she was sitting beneath a Saffronia with a storm behind her eyes. She sat next to Mio quietly, not saying anything for quite some time, letting the view of the glowing Saffronia petals fill their senses instead. Sena made a conscious effort not to ask her what was wrong, opting to let Mio talk when she was ready.

Despite that, her first question caught Sena by surprise.

“Were we naive, Sena?”

“…In what way?”

“Were we naive in our expectations for this world? It seems silly to forget, but when you asked Queen Nia if we could change the world, she… hesitated. And yet despite that, I honestly expected this world to be free from the shackles of war, as if it was nothing more than a Moebius affectation. But it isn’t gone at all - just changed.”

Sena had to think hard on how to approach that serious question. And yet, when she did finally answer, her response was almost obvious.

“Well… does it matter?”

“Huh?”

“Sure, we were wrong about what this world would look like. But even if we did know everything about it, it still wouldn’t matter any more. We can’t change our pasts, but we’re here now - we can change this world instead!”

Mio looked at her friend with wide eyes and an open mouth for several seconds, before quietly giggling. Sena pouted at her, but this just made her laugh a little harder.

“Sorry, sorry,” she apologised. “But you’re right, I can’t change any of that now. We’ve got more important things to do than wallow in our pasts… we’ve got a new world to live in.”

Satisfied that her friend had been cheered up, Sena returned to gazing at the beautiful Saffronias before Mio suddenly spoke up again.

“Well, now that we’re alone, we can talk properly about what’s going on here. And trust me, there’s a lot to talk about.”

Some time later that night, a shocked “What?!” rang out over Garfont, following the much quieter revelation that Mio and Noah had talked to each other since the worlds split.

~~~

Noah almost felt giddy as he made breakfast in Leg Pass. It had only been a short time since he’d woken up, but before then, Mio had told him the best possible news.

She had found Sena… and Sena remembered everything.

Now their Nopon friends weren’t exceptions - now they were a rule. A rule that gave him the much-needed reassurance that Lanz, Eunie and Taion were out there somewhere. Sena had even seen Nimue, and she looked older than what she had at the Lost Colony. Even if their memories hadn’t followed, other friends of all kinds had shown up in this world already… he was almost curious about who he’d find in his journey ahead.

Although that was still tempered by the nature of his new world.

“Hey, that smells good!” Miller suddenly complimented, catching Noah unawares. “Are you a pro at making stew or something?”

Noah shook his head. “No, I just had a good teacher. When I travelled with her, she often made us help out, and I think I learnt a lot… I’m not sure Riku would say the same, though.”

His gaze had turned from his squadmate to their Nopon companion with half-lidded eyes. Miller just gave a short chuckle at their expense.

“Well, his loss I guess. Do you want me to wake the others up?”

“Yes, please.” 

Some time later, when the sun was a little brighter, Leater’s squad set out from their packed camp and into Gaur Plain… though it did suddenly make Noah think. The sun used to move in Aionios, from East to West. On the Bionis, it just… turned off? That didn’t seem right, but now that he was remembering his other days on the Titan, he’d never seen it change places. How bizarre.

For some time, though they hunted some monsters for food supplies and marvelled at the scale of the plain (especially Noah), the only thing of note that happened to them was a scare from the so-called Territorial Rotbart; a huge Gogol that reminded Noah far too much of Jingoistic Gigantus. They had just finished running from the damn thing when Riku happened to spot something in a forest to their right, just as they reached a guidepost.

“Meh-meh? Does Riku spy Homs?”

Sure enough, Noah turned to see a Homs man standing underneath the trees, for reasons Noah couldn’t guess. And, seemingly, Captain Leater couldn’t either.

“Huh? We’re not at Colony 6 yet… wonder what they’re doing out here? Well, there’s only one way to find out.”

Emmy quickly moved to go talk to the man, while the boys stood to the side. They didn’t have to wait long though, with the Captain calling them further into the forest shortly after their conversation began. Noah couldn’t really figure out where this was leading, though surely not to the Colony. They walked through a narrow pass, and found themselves in a larger crevasse with a cave at the back of it. In its middle was a small pool of water with some sort of Levnis in it, marking it as definitely populated.

And there were a few people, too… people who looked about ready to give up. Their faces didn’t light up from the new arrivals, not even looking at them suspiciously. Instead, they appeared to check who they were briefly, before dismissing them as a reason to hope more. It was quite a mournful sight.

“What happened here?” Miller couldn’t help but ask.

Noah frowned deeper. “I don’t know… but I have a bad feeling about what it could be.”

Just before the cave entrance, Leater turned around and raised a hand to stop her squad from following, then headed inside. When she returned, it was with an unfamiliar face, a woman in tall boots with mid length black hair.

“Sharla, this Miller, Noah and Riku,” their captain introduced, “from the Colony 9 Defence Force.”

“So you’ve all come from Colony 9, too,” she noted. “We heard what happened there from Shulk and Reyn.”

Noah’s eyes widened. “Shulk and Reyn were here?”

“They still are, just inside the cave. They found us here when…”

His captain let her trail off before interjecting. “We’ll talk to them soon. But for now, the Defence Force sent us to Colony 6 to find out what happened. I can probably guess, but… why are its people in this refugee camp?” 

Sharla sighed, but eventually explained herself. “A month ago, the Mechon occupied our home. Civilians tried to escape from the Colony, but much of the Defence Force stayed behind to let them escape…”

Leater winced. He supposed it was fellow soldiers she was talking about, so she would feel their loss more than most. And yet still she surprised him, by mentioning a name.

“So Colonel Otharon isn’t here?”

She shook her head. “No… most of the leadership stayed. Lieutenant Colonel Ethel, Captain Bolearis… even Gadolt.”

Perhaps in Noah’s excitement over Mio finding Sena, he had forgotten about this world’s dangers to those he cared about. Just hearing those names again frayed his confidence, and he had to resist the urge to say something about them. 

“Silvercoat Ethel, too?” Miller repeated in disbelief. “Those blasted Mechon…”

But still there was more. 

“And just yesterday, their leader took my brother, Juju. A Mechon with a face. But not the same one from Colony 9.”

“You know about that?” Noah questioned.

“Shulk and Reyn were with me. And still, despite having the Monado, our attacks couldn’t dent its armour even a bit.”

Instinctively, Noah looked to his sword.

‘Removing a variable,’ indeed. Of course there’d be more of them…

“And we’re going after ‘im.”

Their conversation was intersected by the arrival of Reyn, alongside Shulk, from the cave behind Sharla. 

“Shulk, Reyn,” Leater acknowledged. “Good to see you both in one piece. You really did a number on those Arachno.”

“That was… rather stressful,” Shulk remembered, something about the experience clearly staying with him. 

“Too true,” Reyn agreed. “But we’re more surprised to see you guys out here. Whatcha doing with just a small squad?”

“We were sent mainly to make contact with Colony 6, which is exactly what we’ve done,” the Captain explained. “But we’re also going after Captain Ashera, who ran off from the Colony just behind you.”

“Ashera, really?! Well, that’s not good. We haven’t seen hide or hair of that maniac.”

“Reyn…”

“Uh, I mean, we haven’t seen the Captain, no sir.”

Leater didn’t look particularly satisfied that her scolding had worked, but didn’t bother to push it further.

“Do you think she went to Colony 6?” Shulk wondered.

If Noah knew anything about her, he would be inclined to agree, and the rest of their group seemed to have the same expectation.

“There’s only one way to find out,” Noah suggested. “And we can’t afford to wait around while Juju is in danger.”

“Right,” Shulk agreed. “As Reyn said, we were just about to head out ourselves. Do you want to team up? We’ll stand a better chance of defeating the Mechon together.”

There was a beat of silence, as the entire group collectively turned towards Emmy. At first visibly thinking, her concentration was broken by the multiple stares.

“It’s your call, Captain,” Miller encouraged.

Leater couldn’t help but sigh.

“I can’t say I’m happy with taking on so many Mechon with a group of this size,” she reasoned. “But I also know that we have two swords with us that could make the difference. As long as we agree not to be reckless, I’ll do it.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Sharla agreed. “Though I’d hoped us not being reckless was a given.”

The Captain dropped her officer’s demeanour in exchange for a pointed smirk.

“Oh no, I’m not worried about you Sharla. I’m worried about those boys you’ve found instead.”

“Wha’?!” Reyn exclaimed. “Even Shulk?”

“He’s your best friend, Reyn. He might be less impulsive than you, but that doesn’t mean he’s not impulsive - after all, he’s out here on this journey!”

Said best friend laughed awkwardly, but didn’t dispute her.

“Well then,” Leater declared, “if that’s all sorted, it’s time we set off. To Colony 6!”

~~~

Of all the things Eunie had expected to do today, taking a walk with Zeon through Alcamoth wasn’t really on her agenda. Yet here she was, called up by her old comrade from Colony 9, and she hadn’t really been told why.

It was still a lot of fun heckling him, though.

“Look man, all I’m saying is that when you told me you would protect me from the big, scaaary monsters, I didn’t realise that was dependent on you getting heals from me!”

“That’s hardly fair!” Zeon contended. “It’s my job to defend others, and that necessitates taking attacks that would otherwise be meant for someone less fortunate.”

“Sure buddy, if that lets you sleep at night.”

Zeon wasn’t unwilling to return the favour, though.

“And while we’re at it, you seem to have a proclivity for running headfirst into danger! How do you expect me to protect you flawlessly if I have to overextend to get there?”

Oh, right… she had been a bit gung-ho about having backup again. It’s not like Eunie couldn’t go solo if she needed to, and she had the day before, but she’d long-since gotten used to the backup of Noah, Lanz and… well, Taion and the others. Having Zeon back with her, she must have lapsed into her old habits.

“Ah, right,” she acknowledged, a little stiffer than usual. “Suppose we’ve just gotta work out our synergy a bit more.”

Zeon looked at her quizzically. “You… expect us to work together again?”

“Well duh. You’re stuck with me now, Potato Boy!”

“Come on, now, I only mentioned them once…”

“Nope, you mentioned them unprompted, you’re Potato Boy. I don’t make the rules!”

Zeon sighed, and yet it wasn’t a frustrated one. He certainly sounded more comfortable than he had on their first outing, which was an improvement in her books. She’d get him to really smile, slowly but surely!

“Well, anyway, where are you taking me?” Eunie eventually asked. “Not familiar with this part of town.”

“There are some people I’d like you to meet,” Zeon explained. “They’ve been my biggest source of strength whenever I’m faced with the harsh realities of the High Entia.”

She couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow. After all, she honestly couldn’t remember many other High Entia that he counted among his close friends. Closest Eunie could think of was Trish, and yeah she was cordial, but she couldn’t say they were much closer than necessary.

“Some trusted confidants, eh?” she repeated. “Now this I gotta see.”

She didn’t have to wait long. Led into the administration building for the Royal Guard, she was directed through some twisty hallways until she found a break room of sorts. At the front door was an older looking man, which made him rather old if the library was to be believed about her species’ ages, and with shorter wings than the average High Entia.

“Ah, Zeon,” the man greeted. “Good to see you. And you must be Miss Eunie, the new friend he told me about. My name is Maxis, a soldier of the Imperial Guard, and Zeon’s mentor. It’s good to meet you, too.”

Eunie let herself smirk. “A mentor, huh? Not exactly what I was expecting, but yeah, nice to meetcha.”

“Maxis taught me how to best use my sword and my shield,” Zeon explained. “And he has served as a pillar of strength for this unit.”

“Ohh, taught you how to- Wait, did you say, ‘unit’? Are there more of you?”

“Oh, you didn’t tell her about us, Zeon? How rude.”

Sure enough, a familiar red-headed woman rounded the corner, smirking all the while. 

“Ah, my apologies, Easel. I suppose I didn’t make it very clear to her.”

Of all the people to be in this unit, Eunie lamented, it’s this psycho? One of the Three Ravens?! And without Ashera to keep her in line, too… This'll be fun.

Of course, Easel didn’t acknowledge her internal frustration. 

“Well, as long as it doesn’t happen again, I suppose we can let you off. Now, who is this you’ve bought to see us?”

“Name’s Eunie,” was her curt introduction.

“Just Eunie? No job or military position to mention?”

“Nope.”

There was a moment of tense silence before Zeon interfered, unwilling to see the friction go further.

“Ah, Easel is one of our squad’s best, and a talented soldier with her rifle,” he interjected, not so subtly pulling Eunie away. “Though she also takes great pride in her monster hunts…”

“Too much free time on your hands, eh love?” Eunie called back in between his explanation, not bothering to see her reaction.

“Well, regardless, the person I probably most wanted to see you meet would be this woman here. Eunie, meet Oleshandra, our talented medic. She’s probably the best person I know with a staff, and seeing you in action reminded me of her work.”

And yep, there was Colony 4’s blonde-haired captain of the medic squad, still with the same red eyes that contrasted her gentle disposition. Said eyes widened when Zeon explained her fighting style.

“A fellow medic?” Oleshandra asked. “Well then, Eunie, it’s lovely to meet you. I think Zeon’s praise is rather too high for someone of my skill, but if there’s anything you wish to learn from me I will gladly do what I can.”

Eunie couldn’t resist a joke at his expense. “Well, maybe he’s exaggerating a little, but if I’ve learnt anything about Zeon so far, it’s that he’s very earnest. He means a lot of what he says, as long as he actually says it.”

“Must you, Eunie?” her target pleaded half-heartedly.

Oleshandra, meanwhile, laughed lightly at her teasing.

“Well, you’ve got that right,” she agreed. “It makes him quite a pair with the Captain…”

“What about me?”

The two High Entia women turned to see a lighter blonde-haired woman that Eunie had to think about the identity of. Sure, part of the problem was her clothes being assuredly different, but beyond that she got the feeling this girl was met at a later part of her journey.

“Ah, Captain! Guess I shouldn’t be surprised you showed up now.”

“I do try to keep my ears out as much as I can. So, who is this?”

She was almost grateful for the chance to introduce herself, so she’d finally know the answer.

“Ah, right. Name’s Eunie. Just a friend of Zeon’s, don’t mind me too much.”

For some reason this made the girl look rather dubious, though she did her best to hide it. She gave a cursory look towards Zeon for confirmation, only answering her when he nodded.

“I see. My name is Sigrún, Captain of the Syra squad. It’s good to meet you.”

Eunie was busy remembering the Sigrún of Aionios when she held out her hand, but she did eventually shake in order to not be too rude.

“Oh, uh, likewise.”

One thing was for sure, though; even from that brief interaction, she could see where Oleshandra was coming from. She certainly remembered Sigrún being kind, even too kind, as Captain of the Keves Castle Guard, but she spoke to her with a rigidness characteristic of when Zeon was uncomfortable. Kind of weirded her out to see it on someone else, to be honest.

“Not that I’m not glad that you have someone who would make a social call, Zeon,” Sigrún suddenly began, “but I have to ask. Was there any particular reason you brought her to meet our unit?”

It quickly became apparent that Zeon wasn’t too comfortable with answering that question, which would at least explain why he’d taken some prodding to tell her most of it. He eventually settled with explaining it to his apparent Captain in private, leaving Eunie to direct any further questions to Oleshandra.

“Say, you’re all part of the… Syra Squad, right?” she queried the medic. “You got anyone else in it?”

“We are, and we do,” Oleshandra confirmed. “Although Maxis is not part of our unit, instead providing mentorship. Mostly to two soldiers in particular.”

“Let me guess, Zeon and Sigrún?”

“Got it in one. But yes, our core membership numbers 8 in total, split into pairs with different roles. 

The captain partners with a man named Heath as her Lieutenant, who also serves as a long-range offensive complement to her rapier with his own staff. I work alongside Solon, who procures my valuable medical supplies and provides cover fire with his rifle. Easel handles most of our other military and food supplies, leaving her partner Branden to cook for the unit and provide front-line sword work. And finally, Zeon works alongside Trish’s healing as our best defence.”

Queen’s wings, Eunie couldn’t help but think. Not only is Trish here, but I recognise all of those names. Beyond the old guy Maxis, this is a full squad of former Aionios soldiers… and that means they’re all Half-Homs, most likely. Actually, Maxis probably is too - those wings weren’t very different to Gael’gar’s.

“Well, I think I’ve figured out why he brought me here,” she couldn’t help but realise.

That took Oleshandra by surprise. “Oh? Why’s that?”

“He probably doesn’t want to embarrass me or something, but he met me when I was doing odd jobs. I think he brought me here to show me a bunch of people like us living a normal life, as his best way of telling me not to give up.”

“You think so? Well, I suppose that certainly sounds like him. But if he tells the Captain that, then I can imagine what would happen next.”

Eunie couldn’t help but notice that she sounded strangely certain of her unspoken prediction, but she also hated people beating around the bush.

“And what would that be?” she asked, more insistently than her previous questions.

“I don’t think it’s my place to say,” Oleshandra deferred. “I’ve got some jobs to do, but I’m sure I’ll see you around, Eunie.”

“Uh… bye?”

And then she left, only leaving a very confused Eunie with her enigmatic assurance that they’d see each other again. 

Sparks, she held out on me! she thought. What the snuff could they possibly be planning that she wouldn’t want to say?!

Well, at least she wouldn’t be waiting long. Zeon and Sigrún soon finished a last bit of discussion with Maxis before returning to her.

“Eunie,” the Captain began, notably softer in comparison to earlier. “We have a… proposal for you, if you’d hear it.”

Their strange hesitation earned them both a raised eyebrow from Eunie.

“Well, this oughta be good. Fire away, then.”

~~~

“How the snuff did anyone ever use this thing? It’s infuriating!”

Lanz wasn’t inept when it came to technology, at least in his opinion. He could appreciate the complexities of Ferronises and Levnises, and he could use a Levnis if need be, but he also had never made an effort to learn the mechanisms that made them tick. 

With that in mind, the data centre he was currently using to try and learn more about his so-called people was the least intuitive piece of tech he’d ever seen! Seriously, the two circular plates he was supposed to command it with were the most unreliable controllers he’d ever had the pleasure of using, inconsistently showing helpful information one minute and something completely unrelated the next. Was it something in the wrist movements? Spark if he knew!

“It is not controlled by movements, but by intentions.”

Egil’s quiet entrance briefly surprised Lanz, but thankfully he wasn’t too absorbed into the machine.

“Was I supposed to know that?” Lanz asked, turning towards him. “Seriously, it’s not like there’s a manual that tells me it’s supposed to read my mind… Wait, do you have technology that can read people’s minds?!”

Egil raised an eyebrow in that enigmatic way he just effortlessly demonstrated.

“Indeed, we do. I had intended to eventually ask you about it, as a potential method of… properly diagnosing your memory loss.”

Well, that wasn’t where Lanz expected him to go at all. He could only guess that the bout of concern had come from a talk with Vanea post their discussion about ages.

It had occurred to Lanz in the time he’d spent in Agniratha that he probably should have some memories of his old/new world. So, in that regard, perhaps this mind-reading device would unearth his true origins, stuff like parents and all that. But on the other hand, he still remembered Aionios… and looking at those memories had one of two very different outcomes; either the machine wouldn’t even work, or it would raise far too many questions for Lanz to answer with any degree of believability. 

“Nah, I wouldn’t worry about it,” Lanz decided. “That stuff’ll come back to me eventually. Best not to rush it, right?”

Egil didn’t really look like he agreed, but he relented anyway. 

“If you are so sure, then I won’t push it further. Regardless, have you learnt what it was you were searching for yet?”

Lanz scoffed. “Mate, you saw me struggling, you know full well the answer to that question. Just about all that I’ve learnt so far is that the two Titans are, uh… very big. That and the fact they’re more like your Levnis than I thought.”

“Like my ‘Levnis’…  Do you mean my Face? How so?”

“Since when did I bring up your face? I’m talking about that big golden thing you met me in!”

It was almost funny seeing Egil’s face contort in his confusion, but the old man eventually explained himself.

“Ah, I see. That ‘big golden thing,’ as you called it, is known as a Faced Mechon, or more simply as a Face. I believe that is where your confusion has come from.”

“Oh.”

Lanz would have preferred if Egil didn’t make him sound like an idiot in the process, but he supposed that was just how he spoke. After all, he certainly was doing his best impression of a Consul when they first met, even if he’d chilled out considerably now that he actually knew who he was.

“Well, anyway,” Lanz continued, “it mentioned two names as being the ‘souls’ of the Titans. Uh, I think it was… ‘Meyneth’ for the Mechonis, and ‘Zanza’ for the Bionis. Guess even if they’re dead now, they were once piloted… just like your Face, as you call it.”

Of course, in the short time Lanz had looked away from him, Egil’s face had darkened considerably. Lanz wasn’t exactly sure why, but if he had to guess, it must have been one of those names.

“Uh… you okay there?”

The awkward silence that settled over the Data Centre seemed to ensure that question wouldn’t get answered. Even more so when, instead of either of the Machina breaking it, a Mechon drone swooped in, apparently wishing to communicate something to Egil.

“Excuse me, Lanz. I will need to answer this.”

Then he turned and began to respond before Lanz could even say anything back. Of course, Lanz was also rather stubborn, so despite getting effectively hung up on, he followed Egil into the lift. The dirty look he shot was rather menacing, but still, Lanz didn’t feel like staying and researching anyway. Egil would just have to deal with it.

“Yes, I’ll meet with them post-haste,” he began, ignoring Lanz’s curiosity. “No, I am simply with Lanz, who has seemingly finished his research for the day… I suppose that may be beneficial. It would certainly be easier than convincing him to go elsewhere.”

And with that, the drone departed, leaving Lanz and Egil alone together again as the elevator reached the ground floor.

“Was that Vanea?” Lanz couldn’t help but ask.

“It was,” Egil confirmed, with a frustrated tinge to his voice.

“Suppose that part was obvious… but then, who are you meeting? You two are the only ones I’ve seen here.”

“You are correct in that we were the only ones in this city. But just now, two others returned. We will meet them at Worship Terrace.”

“You’re actually taking me with you? Seems out of character, honestly.”

“Hmph. While your childish attitude can certainly be frustrating, in this rare case, you will find our returnees uniquely qualified to discuss your… situation.”

Well, he didn’t have to make it sound so ominous, but that was certainly interesting. Neither Egil nor Vanea knew what to make of his assertion that he was 18, after all, so if that was what he was implying… then Lanz was rather curious.

And so he followed Egil all the way to the Terrace in question, only to find it empty.

“Uh… are your friends supposed to be here?” Lanz questioned. “I don’t exactly see anywhere for them to hide- Woah!”

He was interrupted by the sudden noise of engines whizzing overhead, culminating in the arrival of two Levnis-looking things, probably Faces. And yet, as they landed before him, unfolding into more humanoid forms, they were distinctly familiar - more than Egil’s had been. One was grey and gold with blue ether highlights, and the other replaced the grey with red, but it was their faces that struck him. The fin sticking out above them, and the singular red eye… It reminded Lanz a lot of-

“Egiiiiill!”

And then the pilots emerged, and he was seeing double. The girl who called out to Egil emerged from the red Face, and her friend emerged from the grey face, and suddenly he remembered. Number 13 and Number 7… they did look just a little bit too similar for it to be coincidence, didn’t they? Of course they would be together. Although they did look a little different, mainly in that they were a bit taller, and were both wearing Machina-typical clothing.

But still… It was Segiri! Finally, someone he recognised in this empty city… but did she recognise him? At first glance it seemed like not, considering the way Number 13 called after Egil instead, but hey, best not to lose hope immediately.

“Egil, we’re back!” Number 13 announced proudly, stopping in front of him with a skip.

“We have returned,” was Segiri’s addition, though she quickly changed her focus to Lanz instead. “Though you are not alone, we see.”

“Yeah, who’s this? A new friend of yours?”

Egil snorted at her suggestion, a strangely kind smile on his face.

“Ah, not exactly. Segiri, Fugiri, this is Lanz, a man who is suffering from some memory problems. There is the possibility his circumstances are similar to yours.”

Fugiri? Lanz repeated internally. Guess that’s Number 13’s name here. But what did he mean by similar circumstances?

Fugiri gasped at the implication. “You think he left his pod early too?!”

“I am unsure as of now. It is simply a possibility.”

“Okay, hold on,” Lanz interjected. “What do you mean, you left your ‘pod’ early?”

Fugiri’s confused expression was surprisingly alleviated by Segiri starting up a rather extensive explanation.

“When Machina are born, they live out their childhoods in Adolescence Pods, protecting them from our people’s weakness to diseases until they can resist it. In best conditions, a Machina child leaves their pod some time after reaching 1000 years of age, emerging with their adult body. However, shortly after Egil and Vanea found my twin sister and I, my pod began to eject me early, and stubborn as she is, Fugiri forced her own pod to do the same. This erased the memories of our childhood up to that point, around 700 years or so, leaving us with only our names and bodies which were not quite an adult’s.”

Lanz had to just stand there and process what she’d told him for a second. It was quite the tale, including the new tidbit of them being ‘twin’ sisters, but the explanation of those pods was crazy in its own way.

“Wait…” Lanz realised suddenly, “is that why Vanea thought I was crazy when I said I was 18? Because I was supposed to be in a pod?!”

Segiri’s eyes widened slightly, though she still kept a rather passive face. “It may have been a reason, though even in a pod, an 18 year old would be rather undeveloped.”

“Ah, right.”

It might have been a mistake to let out that bit about his age, though, considering what Fugiri said next.

“Wait, you’re only 18?! Well, if you did emerge from your pod early, then there’s only one thing we can do, huh sister? We hereby dub you our little brother!”

“Little brother? To you shorties?! No way, if I’m a brother at all it’s gotta be a big one.”

“She is making a reference to your supposed age, as opposed to your height,” Segiri corrected.

“I think the designation is quite fitting,” Egil chimed in, with an unapologetic smirk. “He could use some older sisters to keep him in line.”

“You what?!” Lanz protested. “I’m not some kid that needs to be-”

Before he could even finish his sentence, Fugiri had grabbed his hand and started dragging him away.

“Come on, little brother! We have so much to talk about!”

“What?! Wait, wait! Hold oooooon!”

Lanz barely had time to register Egil’s smug face as he was pulled along when it finally hit him. Segiri, even as she followed her sister to parts unknown, didn’t remember who he was at all. He was still alone.

Chapter Text

“Ha! Yah! Rrrrah!”

“You got this, Mimi!”

Bright and early in Garfont Village, Mio stood in the training grounds with Sena, practising with her friend’s Meteor Smasher weapon. The hammer wasn’t exactly unfamiliar to her, as she had learnt her way around it during their time in Aionios, but now she could no longer rely on the edge being Ouroboros gave her in quickly understanding how to use it.

Both Mio and Sena had woken up early unintentionally, perhaps too used to living on the run, or just excited after yesterday’s events. But, once they had met up after breakfast, they quickly decided on making sure their story of being Driver and Blade was convincing. That meant learning how to fight in this new paradigm of teamwork… but they were having some trouble adapting, as evidenced by Mio’s frustrated sigh.

“Did it work?” Sena asked her, hopeful.

Unfortunately, her ‘Driver’ only shook her head.

“There’s something we’re missing here,” Mio assumed. “This doesn’t seem anything like the visible connection I saw between Rex and Pyra… or even Noah and Ino.”

“Yeah, I suppose you’re right about Ino,” her friend agreed. “They were acting almost in-sync, weren’t they? But that can’t be exactly it… After all, I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to give you my weapon, and then mostly stand back. At least until you pass my Blade back to me for a big attack.”

“Right. Perhaps we should ask someone for some advice… Though hopefully in a way that doesn’t make it too obvious what we don’t know.”

Sena initially reacted to her proposal with a furrowed brow and narrowed eyes, but quickly changed her tune as she raised a finger in realisation.

“I’ve got it! We should talk to Nimue!”

Her earnest and confident smile took Mio off guard. Was there something Sena knew that she didn’t?

“Not to doubt you too much, Sena, but… Why her, specifically?”

Sena immediately reacted to her probing question with embarrassment, scratching her head for the best way to phrase her answer.

“Oh, right… It’s just, when I first talked to her, I miiight have let slip something about Taion. And that might have just led to telling her about our… unique circumstances? Maybe?”

Mio reacted to her reveal with half lidded eyes and a frustrated stare. “…Sena? Just how much did you tell her?”

“Uhh… only that we had Crystals like Blades, but weren’t actually Blades.”

“Come on, Sena… you need to be more careful with this. Even if they look like people we used to know, they’re still strangers. We can’t be so trusting, especially with information that could land us all in serious trouble.”

“I know, I’m sorry… Though, in my defence, I think she’s avoiding something too.”

Now that detail was new… and bizarre. “Really? Nimue is?”

“Yeah! She’s looking to find out who her Driver is, but she doesn’t want too many people to know that. Honestly, it sounds a lot like-”

“What was that about me?”

Sena jumped at the sudden interjection, leading both herself and Mio to turn to their surprise visitor.

“Oh, hi Nimue!” Sena exclaimed. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there.”

The older Nimue gave a patient smile. “I wasn’t intending on letting myself be noticed, in all fairness. Now then, I presume this is your ‘Driver’ Mio, Sena?”

“Yes, I am,” Mio answered for the flustered ‘Blade.’ “We’re sorry for talking about you behind your back.”

“Ah, I wouldn’t agonise over it too much. You’ve only just reconnected, it’s natural you’d talk about the people you’d met. Even if you are talking about supposed secrets…”

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Sena pleaded. “I’ll be more careful from now on, I promise.”

Nimue smiled in acknowledgement of a small victory. “Well, as long as that’s clear. Now, was there something you two needed me for? I can’t help but wonder why my name has come up during training of all things.”

Before Mio could even ask her for help, Sena butted in. “Hey, those are rather silly words for the girl that sparred with me the other day! Come on, show Mimi your cool Blade weapon!”

The surprising insistence led Nimue to laugh lightly, but she did summon her Blade weapon… and it wasn’t what Mio had expected at all. Instead of the gauntlet used to control her and Taion’s Mondo in Aionios, she had summoned a slender blue baton, covered in what appeared to be crystallised Saffronia blossoms. Any doubts about the functionality of the weapon were quashed by her making subtle movements with it that summoned the talismans in lines around her, before swiftly disappearing.

Perhaps the most interesting difference, beyond the weapon itself, was what the Mondo left behind. Instead of the fire-like effect that heralded a weapon being summoned or dismissed in Aionios, the talismans appeared to leave behind faint snowflakes, and the area around Nimue felt noticeably colder. It appeared her element was that of ice.

“Impressive,” Mio complimented. “It’s almost beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Nimue graciously accepted. “But if I’m done parading for Sena’s amusement, I didn’t get an answer to my question.”

“Right. Considering you know Sena’s not actually a Blade, we need your help with making our team look more convincing. We seem to be having trouble replicating the… I believe it’s called affinity? Well, whatever it’s called, we’ve not managed to make the proper Driver and Blade connection.”

Taion’s old mentor took her explanation on with slow nods, and a familiar frown that told Mio she was considering her options in her head.

“I see why you wanted to come to me,” Nimue conceded. “Well then, this is going to be difficult to explain, but I’ll do my best. To start things off, I’ll need Sena to hold her weapon once more.”

Sena didn’t understand why, but complied regardless, receiving the hammer from Mio.

“Now, I want you to think more about this hammer. You created this weapon, didn’t you? Summoned it forth as naturally as breathing.”

“Uhh, I suppose so?” Sena agreed sheepishly.

“Think about what that means. That Crystal inset into your weapon, it’s the same as the one in your chest. And, just like the Crystal is a part of you, that weapon is a part of you too.”

Sena couldn’t help but feel a little surprised at the way she explained it. “Wow… I’d never thought of it that way. Is that what I’m doing wrong?”

But still, Nimue shook her head. “No, not exactly. This is just an important first step… though the average Blade would know it instinctively.”

“Haha… yeah.”

“Now, hand the weapon back to Mio.”

Her friend graciously took the weapon once more, though it didn’t feel any different in her hands.

“One question for you now, Sena. Is this weapon still the same one you created? That is all but a part of you?”

“Umm, yes?… Uh, I mean yes! Definitely!”

“Good. If it’s still a part of you, then it still has a connection with you. And you need to bring that connection to life. Imagine you’re still holding it, and channel your ether through it.”

Sena seemed apprehensive, but nodded. She closed her eyes, knitted her brow, clenched her fists, and concentrated as hard as Mio had seen her do. This didn’t seem to do anything at first, but it suddenly resulted in the Meteor Smasher glowing a faint blue from its crystals, and she could feel the hum of ether power course through it.

“And now the connection has been made manifest.”

Mio wasn’t sure exactly what Nimue meant until she turned back towards Sena, and spotted the blue line connecting her friend’s hands and her weapon. Sena slowly opened her eyes to see the sudden offshoot of energy, and looked down at her hands with fascination.

“Woah!” she exclaimed. “Is it supposed to do that?”

Nimue couldn’t help but sigh, though she lightly smiled as she did. “Yes, it is… but you can do much more than that. After all, a Blade is only half of a pair. If you can channel your power through your weapon… then surely you can use it to channel power into your Driver, right?”

“I see, I see… Well, here goes nothing-”

“With your eyes open, this time.”

“Ah, right. Will do.”

Sena concentrated once more, but this time she stared right at her friend and held her hands out. As she did, Mio could feel a peculiar sort of power wash over her, the same colour as her Blade weapon was glowing, and. Suddenly, she could almost hear Sena calling her Mimi back in Colony Theta, or see herself stand up to Teach in Colony Gamma…

…Or even see herself fade away with eclipse behind her-

“Woah!”

Mio’s shocked exclamation accompanied a sudden shift in the aura from blue to gold, the same colour that surrounded Rex and Pyra as they blew away Mòrag and Brighid. Or even the same colour that had encompassed Noah and Ino against the Nopon Eater. It filled her with a rush of strength, and as she instinctively swung Sena’s hammer into the ground, it made a much more sizable dent than it would have done previously.

“And there you go,” Nimue announced, looking rather pleased. “That is the affinity link between a Driver and their Blade, in its strongest form. I was concerned your lack of experience would result in a slow build, but clearly you two are intensely familiar with each other. Even I could feel the sudden rush of ether.”

Sena looked pleased, though sheepish at the praise. “Haha, thanks! I think.”

“Perhaps moderation will need to be learnt, but that is the heart of the Driver and Blade connection. All you need to understand now is when best to return the weapon to the Blade in order for a special attack, and how best to defend the Driver, which should come with time.”

“Right,” Mio agreed, “I’ve seen some rather devastating blows with this ‘affinity,’ and some difficult to overcome defences too. I suppose it only makes sense that the connection would make them stronger.”

“Indeed. Well, I believe my job here is done. I’ll let you return to your training in peace.”

And so she left Sena and Mio with a bow, followed only by Sena’s earnest “Thanks, Nimue!” Once she was out of sight, the two friends nodded to each other, and returned their training in earnest.

~~~

“Arcing Horn!”

The powerful Megalance thrust would certainly have done Taion in if he stood still. But he had done enough training with Ghondor to not make that mistake, twisting out of the way in time to avoid being impaled. His opponent realised their mistake and attempted to counter his dodge with a sweeping attack, but Adenine ensured that strike was blocked with certainty. And that left the perfect opportunity for a strike of his own.

“Mach Straight!”

Taion’s powerful strike with his Knuckle Claws left the Ardainian Driver reeling, and his Blade was quick to cover his fall. But while Taion knew he was faster, and certainly more agile than the Blade was, he had a better strategy than brute force. Summoning his gauntlet, he gathered the Mondo in a ball above his head, before sending them downward in bird form to catch him off guard, throwing off his defence.

And with both Drive and Blade off-kilter, it was the perfect time for a proper finish. Taion dismissed the gauntlet and threw the claws back to their Blade, standing back as Adenine gathered wind ether around her raised hand. Their opponents could only look on in horror, throwing up rudimentary guards that wouldn’t withstand the power of the attack.

“And now, I harness the wind!”

Adenine’s declaration marked the end of the fight, as a single orb of wind shot between her foes and detonated into an explosion of ether. With both seemingly incapacitated, Captain Barham called off the spar.

“Alright lads, that’ll do! Let’s not go overboard. Taion, be a good man and heal Jac up, would you?”

Taion nodded, having received Adenine’s weapons once more. “Understood, Captain.”

Walking over to his sparring partners, he drew on Adenine’s power to cast a soothing aura of wind, refreshing the fallen Driver and subsequently his Blade. With the fight over, Jac sat up rather stiffly, before taking off his helmet to reveal his brown hair and ears that Taion had learned belonged to the people of Gormott.

“Ah, dang it,” Jac sighed. “You really are good at this Taion, for having only become a Driver on the same day I did.”

Taion couldn’t help but push his glasses up. “Well, I was military trained prior to becoming a Driver. The skills do transfer somewhat, though there are also many differences. I’m sure that both Yachik and yourself will be able to reach your potential with practice.”

“Aw, thanks! Man, though, having a Blade like Adenine certainly helps. What was with those paper bird things you summoned at the end there?”

Adenine helpfully chipped in. “A simple extension of my paper-based appearance, wouldn’t you agree?”

Jac shrugged, but didn’t question it.

“Eh, I suppose so.”

As both Jac and Yachik got to their feet, Barham spoke up once more.

“Alrighty then, as for a quick review of your performances today… Jac, Yachik, your teamwork has greatly improved. You did get overwhelmed by Taion’s offence, but you made him think about his attacks more today. A commendable improvement for a soldier that has been a Driver not even a week.”

Jac looked rather relieved to hear the praise, and there was even a hint of emotion on Yachik’s face.

“As for you two,” Barham continued, turning to Taion and Adenine, “your affinity has improved greatly. I would still recommend working on your teamwork to get the best of each other’s strengths, but I can see the strides you’re taking. Good work.”

Adenine clapped her hands together, and Taion gave a respectful nod as the Captain left the training ground, shortly followed by Jac and Yachik. Only once they were all out of earshot did Taion sigh.

“What’s wrong, Taion?” Adenine asked. “You sound disappointed.”

Taion took a second to formulate his words, but in that time Adenine came to a strikingly correct conclusion.

“Is this about the Mondo?”

Her Driver looked as if he wanted to disagree, but eventually relented.

“Unfortunately… It was a frustrating setback to learn you could not use them, and nonsensical to boot. Yes, a Blade cannot use another Blade’s weapon, but I am not a Blade. Yet there was no reaction, no matter what we tried.”

“It’s a mystery to be sure, but it’s not all bad, right?” Adenine consoled, finger to her temple. “It means you can use your prior experience with them and not have to coordinate with me so much.”

“That is true. But it sounds like more coordination is exactly what we need… and yet my fear of how others will see me rears its ugly head once again, preventing us from working to our full potential.”

“You know, Taion, it may be fear stopping you, but I don’t believe it's irrational. Your circumstances are irreconcilably different to those around you, and from what I know that tends to cause issues.”

Taion smirked subtly. “Well, that wasn’t exactly reassuring, but it was accurate… Besides, this is only a temporary measure until I find them.”

Adenine, who had opened her book to read in the time her Driver wasn’t looking, was naturally slow to respond.

“Them? …Oh, that’s right. You’ve previously mentioned that you were looking for some old friends of yours. Have you found any leads?”

“Just the one so far, that being Gormott. Running purely on assumptions is folly, but if I do assume my friends ended up in places that matched their features, then the fact that one of my friends is very likely Gormotti means it would be my best guess for where to find them.”

His Blade frowned, but nodded.

“I think I understand, though you’re still being rather vague about why you ended up in different places to begin with.”

“Sorry, but it’s-”

“-a long story, right? There’s no need to tell me now, but I would love to hear it someday, when we know each other better. You know I’ll listen, right?”

“…Of course. Thank you, Adenine.”

Wistful smiles on their faces, the still learning Driver and Blade combo left the training ground. But, as they did, another Driver emerged from the shadows, watching them leave with a scowl.

“Tch… I don’t know what’s up with that brat, but I don’t like him one bit.”

His red-armoured Blade followed him into the sunlight, the purple snakes on its shoulders hissing as he did.

“He’s certainly arrogant, though rather talented for his short time as a Driver. Is that what’s annoying you, Dirk?”

Dirk considered the idea, but shook his head.

“Nah, that’s not it. At least not entirely. There’s something else about him that just makes me want to… well, deal with him.”

“Ha. Well, the Blade girly certainly gets on my nerves. Perhaps we should give them a proper welcome to the military.”

A devilish smile overtook Dirk’s face.

“Perhaps we should, Zahak.”

~~~

“Monado… Buster!”

On their way to Colony 6, Noah and the others were expecting some resistance. But they weren’t exactly expecting a pack of scouting Mechon just before what was known as the Raguel Bridge. Shulk and his group had apparently seen another group there when they first set off after Juju, but either way, the wielder of the Monado was quick to ambush them in hopes of finishing the fight as fast as possible.

It was the first look Noah had seen at the legendary sword’s abilities, and he could certainly see why it was so highly regarded. At the start of the fight, Shulk used it to give his allies an aura that allowed them to hurt the Mechon almost as much as he could, and at the end he finished it with a powerful ether attack that devastated what mechanical adversaries remained.

In between observing his ally, though, Noah also got his first experience with using Lucky Seven after A’s alterations. Just like Shulk had predicted, it now cut through Mechon armour with little effort, even in its sheathed state. In fact, unsheathing had almost lost its teeth, with little difference in the performance of his attacks. It certainly wasn’t sharp to the touch anymore, as Reyn had demonstrated.

I over-swung and hit him, and it didn’t even leave a scratch… Noah mused, still frustrated at what had happened to it.

“Noah? What’s wrong?”

His quiet musing had gotten the attention of the newcomer Sharla, who he had quickly discovered was a combat Medic, in the vein of Valdi. Her rifle was a lot more… offensive-looking, though. Noah absent-mindedly wondered if she’d get along with Eunie.

“Nothing, Sharla,” he assured. “Just lost in my own head for a bit.”

The medic frowned in that concerned and slightly dubious way that he’d seen Oleshandra do more than once to her patients.

“As long as you’re sure. Say, while I’m here… what is that sword you’ve got there? If I didn’t know better, I’d have probably guessed it was the Monado - it’s not like I saw it myself before recently.”

“I can see where you’re coming from. Admittedly, that battle was my first time seeing the Monado at its full effectiveness, but I certainly notice the similarities.”

Sharla nodded, but the reason she next gave was one he hadn’t actually considered yet.

“That ether blade is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before,” she noted. “Is that what gives your sword similar abilities?”

The observation finally brought into focus a fact Noah had been slowly realising as he journeyed on. All of the weaponry in this new world, whether that be rifles or swords, were less technologically advanced than he was used to. The only other weapon to even imitate the Blades of Aionios was the Monado, the legendary weapon supposedly created by the very Titan they were standing on. Why was that? What could have possibly changed…

“Noah?”

“Oh!”

Sharla’s attempt to call his attention interrupted his reverie, finally prompting him to answer her question.

“I don’t think that’s exactly it. While it is true that Lucky Seven now has very similar abilities to the Monado, that wasn’t always the case. It was only during the attack on Colony 9 that a mysterious man altered it, giving it the same strength… or, at least some of the same abilities. Prior to that, though, it was sharp enough to damage Mechon armour, and I suppose the ether blade may have had something to do with that.”

Sharla nodded as she considered his response. “I see… But, I suppose I’ve got one more question for you. Those abilities you mentioned… they don’t include visions of the future, do they?”

The bizarre question caught Noah off guard. “…No? Why would you think that?”

“Well, apparently the Monado gives visions to Shulk. He used them to track down Juju the first time we went to find him, and then to know when to save us from the Mechon’s attacks.”

And somehow, her next answer had been even stranger.

“Visions of the future?! That’s insane…”

“I was apprehensive, too. But I’ve seen proof they exist, so I can’t really stay sceptical after that.”

“Guess that makes sense. Still, though… visions. I can’t imagine having a power like that.”

“Me neither… But at least he’s using them to help us.”

With that last reassurance, the group continued on a short distance further to their first destination; Raguel Bridge. A short way into the bridge was the broken-down buggy Juju had used to start his journey towards Colony 6, but after his crash it was no longer in any state to drive. It was Leater’s hope that Riku would be able to repair it, possibly with Shulk’s help, giving them quicker travel towards the Colony for at least some of the group.

“How’s it looking, Riku?” Miller asked the Nopon as he inspected the buggy. “Do you think you can do it?”

“Riku can,” he confirmed, “but it will take time. Best if friends keep moving while Riku do fixing.”

“I can stay behind and help, if you’d like,” Shulk offered.

But the Nopon tacitly turned down his help with his usual confidence. “Shulk really push all Mechon-busting onto Noah? Sneaky, but Riku understand… even if Riku could fix with eyes closed.”

Sure enough, Shulk got the message, and rescinded his offer. “Okay, okay, I’ll go with the others. Well, now that that’s sorted, I suppose we best keep moving. Do you need someone else to stay with you?”

Noah’s old friend gave Shulk a familiar look of self-assurance and shook his head. “Surely not! If Sharla’s brotherpon can get further than here, then Riku can survive empty bridge.”

Shulk and the others were satisfied with his answer, but Noah couldn’t help but feel worried.

“Are you sure, Riku?” he asked concernedly. “I know you’ve fought with us before, but you never exactly took on a monster by yourself. We don’t want a repeat of the Nopon Eater, do we?”

“Riku positive,” the Nopon confirmed. “Noah need not worry about such Nopon as Riku, or threat such as oversized predator bird. Now, friend Noah best be moving! Friends have boy to save.”

“Heh, I suppose you’re right. We’ll be off then, but best of luck.”

“Mehmeh?! Riku not need luck! Will be by friends side momentarily.”

“I’ll hold you to that, furball!” Miller interjected over his shoulder, leaving Noah to laugh at Riku’s frown as the group began to cross the bridge once more.

~~~

Mio and Sena had paused for a break in their training when Rex and Nia approached them. For the moment at least, no-one else from the Aegis’s cohort had joined them at the tavern, which was curious if only because Mio seemed to believe Rex and Pyra were nigh inseparable. Dromarch too seemed dedicated to his ‘Lady,’ but not obsessively, so that was pretty easy to explain. But it did likely mean they weren’t here for ‘grub,’ as Vandham put it.

“Hey, you two!” Rex greeted as he strolled over, in his rather… unique attire.

“I see the Driver and Blade are getting along famously,” Nia added snarkily, standing beside him and wearing that yellow jumpsuit an eerily similar colour to the Queen’s battle outfit.

Sena couldn’t help but giggle at their contrasting introductions.

“Hey guys!” she returned, after her amusement had subsided. “How’d the training with Vandham go last night, Rex?”

“Pretty well, actually!” he answered. “He taught me a neat trick with my anchor to knock someone over, so I’m sure that’ll be useful.”

“Oh, nice!”

Mio laughed fondly at her enthusiasm, before turning to her fellow… Gormotti, if she remembered correctly? Either way, she turned to the new Nia.

“What are you all up to today, then?” she asked.

“We were just coming to ask you about that, actually,” Nia explained. “Vandham’s offered to take us out on a job, and the rest of us are joining him. But, I know the conversation last night left you guys on… kinda awkward terms, so it’s fine if y’ don’t want to.”

Sena didn’t have any real objections, so she turned to Mio instead.

“Do you want to, Mimi?” she asked. “I’ll stay with you if you don’t.”

But her friend was as strong of heart as ever, calmly shaking her head.

“Maybe I disagree with Vandham,” Mio began, “but I still respect his experience as a Driver if nothing else. Considering we’re relatively new to this, I think this sounds like a good idea.”

Sena barely had time to acknowledge her decision when Rex chimed in, looking rather chuffed at her choice.

“Oh, that’s right! We finally get to see you two in action, don’t we? I think we were all looking forward to it.”

“Oh, really?” Sena wondered awkwardly. “Haha…”

“Hey, don’t expect too much from us,” Mio contended. “I may have had military training for a long time, but that was not always with Sena… And, perhaps more importantly, that training was very different to how most people fight with a Blade. We’ll be learning as we go along, too - just perhaps a bit faster.”

Her last note of confidence caught Nia’s attention immediately. 

“Ooh, I see you’re a confident lot regardless. We better get going to the rear gate, then; Vandham’s meeting us there.”

As much as the last conversation had made her somewhat trepidatious, Sena still followed alongside Mio to meet the group. She couldn’t really afford not to; they had expectations of her and Mio now, and she’d hate to be the reason they couldn’t meet them.

“You sure know how to keep us waiting, rookies,” Roc greeted as they approached. “But I’m glad to see you both joining us on this job.”

“Aw, thanks!” Sena returned, ignoring his first comment. “Though we’d both like to hear what this ‘job’ actually entails, I think.”

“Heh, too right!” Vandham agreed heartily. “Let’s get down to business. We just got a job to check out some kind of crazy energy effect, somewhere up around the blowhole. If that tickles your fancy, then what do ya all say to being a mercenary for a day?”

There was a murmur of agreement, but Nia had a condition.

“Well, as long as we get paid, anyway.”

“Haha! Don’t worry kids, you’ll get paid. C’mon, we better be off.”

And so they joined the experienced mercenary, and their new companions, on their first mercenary job. Well, Sena had helped out a little around Garfont, but nothing she actually got paid for; as far as she knew, she was given food and lodgings purely out of hospitality. Perhaps Manana would help with that; she seemed eager to repay Sena’s potential debts with her cooking, hence her staying behind from their short quest.

Leaving through the rear gate, they walked briskly through the picturesque Titan (as Mio had identified it) until they reached a plateau near the blowhole. It wouldn’t have even been a worthy stopping point, considering how closeby their objective apparently was, but a couple of territorial Ardun were standing firmly in their required path.

“Well, I don’t see any way around ‘em,” Vandham piped up. “Seems like as good an opportunity as any to test out our skills. Nia, Tora, and Mio, you focus the one on the left. Rex and I will take the one on the right. Come on, kid, show me that new trick I taught ya!”

Rex nodded.

“Gotcha!”

“Ready!”

With the plan set, Mio drew the Meteor Smasher from her back as Sena got ready to channel power into her friend. Nia, Tora and Rex did much the same, but Sena could hardly afford to concentrate on them; she had Mimi to worry about.

The extra weight of the hammer slowed Mio down a bit, meaning Nia was the first person to actually reach the Ardun, slashing at its ankles with her Twin Rings. To prevent her from being immediately attacked in retaliation, Tora launched a shot from his Drill Biter as he ran in, right next to Mio and Sena. And their enemy took the bait; the Ardun was quick to charge towards the Nopon, but thankfully their party of six avoided the strike.

“Hammerhead!”

Mio took the opportunity with ferocity, slamming the side of the monster and blowing it backwards. She gave the monster a couple more hits, with Nia doing much the same, but clearly the thin slashes she was putting out paled in comparison to the giant hammer. The Ardun quickly turned to disregard Tora, but as it did, Tora took his opportunity.

“Biiiig… Boost!”

Striking hard with a drill, the Ardun was knocked to the floor, flawlessly toppled, and it gave Sena an idea.

“Mimi! You ready?”

With a supportive smile clearly visible through her blue aura, Mio tossed Sena back her weapon, transferring power to her as she did. Emblazoned by her friend’s trust, she transformed the Meteor Smasher into its dumbbell form, and jumped towards their enemy.

“Let’s go! Pressure Drop!”

Landing hard in front of the Ardun, Sena bounced on her weapon twice, launching the monster skyward as lightning cracked around her. Tora immediately took advantage, striking the monster with the drill as it fell to the floor, and Dromarch was given Nia’s weapons to launch a wave of water at it too.

“Monster no match for Tora and friends!”

Sena was inclined to agree as she threw her hammer back to Mio, but the Ardun wasn’t so amicable. If anything, it was furious now, and all its rage was directed towards the Driver and Blade who’d thrown it skyward. It snorted as it stared Mio down, signalling its immediate intentions to charge the pair.

“Mio!” Nia shouted desperately, unable to draw the monster’s attention. “Get outta there-”

She was interrupted by the Ardun suddenly beginning its deadly charge. Weighed down by the weapon Sena had just given her, Mio’s ‘Blade’ was forced to rush recklessly in front of her, bringing up her guard fruitlessly as Mio held the hammer in her best defensive posture. It didn’t do either of them much good, as the Ardun threw them backwards into the wall behind them, leaving them both hurt and winded.

Thankfully, before the Ardun could strike again, Tora finally got its attention back with a “Noponic Storm!” from Poppi. The artificial Blade quickly handed her weapon back to the defender, leaving Nia to heal the struggling duo with an Art.

“Ah… Sorry, Mimi,” Sena apologised as she slowly returned to her feet. “Guess we haven’t quite got this Driver thing down yet, huh?”

“Guess… not,” Mio reluctantly agreed. “But let’s just get this done for now, and figure out what went wrong later.”

“Right!”

With Mio and Sena back in the fray, the fight was finally back in their favour, and it wasn’t long before the Ardun finally went down. This left the trio of Drivers and Blades to turn their attention back towards Rex and Vandham, just in time for the Driver of the Aegis’s new trick. Using his anchor shot on the Ardun’s legs, he toppled the monster just in time for Roc to rain feather-like projectiles and defeat the second foe.

“Heh, you got it after seeing it once,” Vandham complimented Rex as the party converged together. “Not bad, kid.”

Rex couldn’t help but giggle at the praise.

“Listen up, kid,” the mercenary continued. “Drivers use Arts, but that doesn’t just mean using the powers your Blade gives you. There are Arts that use your own strength, or take advantage of an enemy’s… there are all sorts. A Driver’s job is to be smart with his Arts, and protect his Blade.”

His last note even surprised Sena a little, though Rex was the one to voice it. The way Mio had described that man Dughall and his Blade, Sena believed that her relationship with her apparent Driver would almost appear strange. Yet here Vandham was, asserting that it was a two-way thing… and if Vandham said so, chances are it was true.

“You gotta be aware of the power comin’ out of her. Don’t waste it, channel it through your Arts, and protect her. If you can do that, then you’re a true Driver, kid.”

Mio looked almost regretful as his explanation concluded. 

Maybe because of the last fight? Sena wondered. But that can’t be right… That whole thing was my fault, not hers.

She was brought out of her idle musing by Nia’s insistence she would spew at how sappy things were getting. When Tora chimed in that ‘Biggipon’ was nicer than he looked, the man couldn’t even deny it…

Although, if she considered Ghondor, maybe a younger Vandham would have.

~~~

Though it had been a long walk, and they had lost much of the day, there was no denying that Noah’s group had made progress. As they walked across the bridges below Kasharpa Falls, they had finally reached the Bask Cave Passage that would soon lead them to Colony 6. Unfortunately, Riku had not yet returned with the buggy, but Noah hoped it would not take him too long, if only so he could know that the Nopon was okay.

And yet his thoughts were quickly directed elsewhere when the noise of hurried footsteps began to echo through the cave. The makeshift squad, consisting almost entirely of trained soldiers, stopped their own movements in anticipation of the oncoming threat… But, when they did, it quickly became apparent that said footsteps weren’t as uniform as the average soldier. They didn’t sound mechanical, either - rather they sounded close to boots.

The wait quickly appeared to test Reyn and the Captain’s patience, but the mystery oncomer did appear. And it managed to shock Noah just as much as the rest of their group.

“Captain Bolearis?!”

Sure enough, as Leater had exclaimed, limping through the cave was the former Lieutenant of Colony 4. It was a bizarre sight, so similar to his escape from Keves Castle that Noah began to wonder if he had a knack for it. The squad of six certainly didn’t appear to surprise him!

“Oh, you guys are a sight for sore eyes,” the newly crowned Captain responded as he hobbled towards them. “I see good old Captain Leater, and… is that the Monado? Without Dunban?!”

The wielder of said sword could only awkwardly scratch his head, leaving Emmy to actually explain why he was holding it.

“Ah, right. Bolearis, this is Shulk, who now wields the Monado with Dunban’s blessing. Next to him we have Reyn, and my two squad members Miller and Noah. Finally we have Sharla, who you might recognise?”

The Captain’s eyes lit up at the realisation, turning to the Medic. “Oh yeah, it is you! Thank goodness for that, I think I need a bit of healing… Didn’t exactly get out of Colony 6 unscathed.”

“I think we can see that, Captain,” Sharla replied exasperatedly.

Regardless of her apparent frustration, she did get to work on patching him up where she could as he sat against the cave wall, though it quickly became apparent that his leg injury was going to take longer to heal.

“How in Bionis’s name did you escape from the Colony?” she asked as she worked. “We may know its secrets better than the Mechon, but it’s still built like a fortress!”

“Easier than you’d think,” the Captain joked. “By which I mean the Lieutenant Commander helped me escape. Ethel’s always been like that, never letting her safety stand in the way of others. Normally I’m right there with her, but this time she was the one saving me, holding the Mechon off.”

Miller’s face darkened in realisation. “So you don’t know if she’s safe, then.”

Bolearis could only shake his head, leaving an awkward silence in Bask Cave Passage. It took some time before Noah broke it with a less loaded question.

“By the way, how did you get that injury, Bolearis?” he asked as Sharla bandaged around his leg. “It looks more serious than the rest of them.”

“Well,” the former Lieutenant began, “I snuck out of the Colony through the ruins of the town, but that meant I had to climb over the gate. My landing was unfortunately rather sloppy.”

Miller couldn’t quite believe his ears.  “Wait, this was from falling?! Did the Mechon even get you?!”

“Nah, not really. I just had to swat a flying one away with my Driver, but I think its reinforcements stayed inside the Colony. That did mean I had to leave my weapon behind, though…”

Noah’s first thought, beyond how insanely lucky Bolearis was, manifested in wondering why he was talking about Drivers and Blades in the complete wrong world. Thankfully, a quick glance at Reyn reminded him of what Bolearis was actually talking about - the shield and point weapon that Reyn also used. That was somewhat surprising, considering that in Aionios, he’d actually used a very similar weapon to Lanz… Pre-forging by the Legendary Smithpon, anyway, as his friend’s Blade had become much stronger from the quest, much like his own.

The explanation of his missing weapon did prompt a disappointed look from Reyn, actually, though the reason why didn’t become obvious until he spoke.

“Well, that’s a shame. Guess you won’t be helping us raid the Colony, then.”

Sure enough, Bolearis shook his head. “Yeah, I’d just be a liability. Better get back to Colony 9… eventually, anyway. Oh right, I should probably make sure - it’s still around, right?”

Leater nodded, but Sharla didn’t agree with his plan.

“It is still around, but there’s no point in taking that long journey and going through Tephra Cave. What you should actually do is head to the refugee camp, about halfway down the Bionis Leg.”

“Ah, right. That does sound a bit smarter… though I suppose it’s still gonna be a long walk.”

“Riku can help with that.”

The sudden appearance of Noah’s deep-voiced Nopon companion caught the entire group off guard, but in the midst of his surprise Shulk seemed to realise something.

“Did you fix the buggy, Riku?”

Sure enough, the enigmatic mechanic nodded. “Of course. But friends were faster walkers than anticipated, so only now reached. Buggy currently just outside Bask Cave Passage, perfect for Bolearis to take to camp. And Riku will drive him.”

The Nopon’s assertion surprised even his old friend. He wasn’t exactly courageous at first, but he did get braver over their Aionios journey.

“Are you sure, Riku?” Noah couldn’t help but ask.

“Indeed. Friends are best equipped to take on threats ahead. Riku will return when Colony is safe to pass through.”

“Well, if you’re sure, then we’ll leave you with the furball, Captain,” Miller acknowledged. “Get him to safety, alright? And don’t crash the buggy!”

“Mehmeh?! Riku is ace pilot! Such slander from Miller.”

“Yeah, especially considering I’ve never seen him drive anything,” Reyn chimed in. “Think he’s the one we’d probably have to worry about.”

Miller scowled at their fuzzy ally, as Leater helped Bolearis to his feet, his leg properly bandaged for his necessary recovery. He began to walk away when Sharla stopped him.

“Wait, hold on. Do you think your escape route will work again, Bolearis?”

Bolearis took a moment to consider her question, but quickly shook his head. “Nah, I doubt it. I used the passageway to and from the mine in the town itself, but if they saw me leave through it, then they’re probably gonna barricade it. You’ll have to get into the mine from the Splintered Path, I bet, and that’s almost certainly where Ethel would be.”

Sharla sighed, but held strong as much as she could. “Well… that’s about what I expected. At least the drainage outlet hasn’t been sealed.”

“Don’t think they can, funnily enough. The water would probably build up and burst their wall, heh.”

Satisfied with their intel, Leater sent her fellow captain on his way, towing behind Riku as the Nopon led him to the buggy. As he hobbled off, Bolearis turned his head for one last request.

“Thrash those tin-cans for us, Shulk!” he demanded. “We’ll have Colony 6 back in no time.”

“You’ve got it, Captain,” Shulk agreed.

With the safety of Ethel’s forever Lieutenant confirmed, the group of six continued through Bask Cave Passage to the Watchpoint Junction, the sun returning to their faces as they stared down the besieged Colony.

“It really is like a fortress,” Reyn noticed as he stared at the imposing steel walls. “Did people really live here?”

“They did, but so much has changed in a month…” Sharla explained, face downcast.

It was a strange moment to notice it, but Noah couldn’t help looking at how Reyn took Sharla’s disquiet and sought to alleviate it. His confident declaration that they’d “find Juju and then smash some metal!” didn’t go over so well with the rest of the group, Shulk especially, but at the very least it seemed to reassure the Medic somewhat.

“We’ll need to enter through the mine,” Sharla explained. “On the splintered path below us is a drainage outlet that we can use to enter the Ether Mine. The first settlers here built right on top of a massive ether deposit, and then the Mine was built - it’s like a network of tunnels, much more complex than the city streets above. From what Bolearis said, the survivors of the Defence Force must be hiding out there.”

“Suppose that makes sense,” Leater reasoned. “Haven’t been in it myself, but I’ve heard it's a maze, like a man-made Tephra Cave… No way they’d have figured out all of it in the space of one month.”

“Right. That’s what we’re counting on, anyway. We just need to take this elevator down to the Path itself, and be wary of the Ansels.”

As they set off down the path to the elevator, Noah couldn’t help but think of how he was raiding enemy territory once again. Almost like he’d never left the Endless Now.

Some day… he prayed in his heart. Some day, the conflict will be over. Some day, we’ll all have peace.

~~~

What awaited the mercenaries-for-a-day at Soulcrown Summit wasn’t what Mio had expected, though she couldn’t say what that would be. It was the corpse of some sort of creature, though not one Mio recognised… even if it did seem vaguely familiar.

“Like I thought…” Vandham remarked as he approached the body, though he didn’t explain further.

Rex was left to answer her question for her, with a question of his own. “A Titan?”

That would explain the familiarity - it certainly didn’t look like the average monster. Sena didn’t really seem to get it, but Mio supposed that would be the next thing she would explain… no matter how weird Gramps being one was.

“So that weird power effect they clocked…” Rex continued. “Maybe this is the cause?”

“Yeah, sure looks like it,” Vandham agreed.

Speaking of Gramps, the little Titan chimed in as well.

“I’ll hazard it wasn’t death by old age either,” he guessed. “Might have been an accident… But on the other hand, it might have been attacked.”

Mio briefly wondered if Gramps was related to Triton at all, because the moment he finished saying that, the ground began to shake. It heralded the heavy footsteps of an Elder Arachno… and something else entirely. If Mio wasn’t mistaken… the monster was being followed by a Blade.

“Hey, look!” Vandham called, drawing Roc’s Twin Scythes. “Seems like this Titan dying off has stirred up something else! Get ready!”

Heeding his call, Mio drew Sena’s Meteor Smasher from her back and lengthened the handle to its proper size. Her allies did much the same, but she had the feeling they were not having the doubts that she was. That last fight had been an eye-opener - she couldn’t overly rely on knowledge that had been practically transmitted to her about Sena’s weapon, and she needed to learn its weaknesses all over again. She needed to know her own limits, and Sena’s, better.

So as Mio rushed towards the Arachno and its red glowing fins, she had something to prove. No more recklessness… just calculated offence. 

1: Don’t draw its attention.

Hopefully, this part would be simple enough, even if it did go against her usual strategy. Everything had fallen apart in the last battle when she gave the ardun enough reasons to target herself and Sena. This time, she had two foes to watch out for, too - the Blade had eyes of its own, and a dangerous-looking lance to boot.

So as unusual as it was for her, she didn’t attack right away. Instead, she let Tora and Vandham strike first, dividing its attention between a dangerous man and a frustrating Nopon. With its eyes off her, she had the opportunity to get her hits in, working alongside Rex’s Aegis Sword and Nia’s Twin Ring slashes. She even had the opportunity to break its stance, preparing the monster for Rex’s trusty anchor to topple it on its side.

2: Be ready for anything.

Yet the Elder Arachno didn’t fall over like Rex had hoped. In response to the 5-pronged attack it was receiving, the monster leapt into the air, slamming down onto the mercenaries and knocking them backwards. As if to capitalise, the blue aura surrounding it suddenly flowed back towards the monstrous Blade, and it took the opportunity to rush at Mio with its lance, slashing rapidly.

But this time, Mio was ready. Throwing the hammer to Sena, she drew the Blade’s attention away from her friend and dodged its strikes, even as it finished with a brutal slam into the ground that erupted into rock and rubble. When it was done, Rex took the opportunity to try to knock the Arachno over once more… and this time it worked.

“C’mon guys! Let’s get a combo going!”

3: Talk with the team and plan our attacks.

Rex’s call to action came amid Vandham launching the monster into the air with shocking strength.

“What do you have in mind?” Mio asked as the monster flew backwards, giving them a moment of respite.

“Maybe start with lightning! Then I can follow up with fire, and Vandham can finish off with Roc’s wind!”

Mio turned to Sena in confirmation, and the stalwart friends gave each other a nod. As the Elder Arachno rushed the group, they dove to each side, splitting in two to avoid the monster’s wrath. But the monster’s attention was firmly on Vandham now, so it was time to move. 

“Let’s go, Sena!”

“Right!”

Throwing Sena’s hammer back to her, Mio cheered her friend on as she bounced and shocked their foe.

4: Fight and win.

With the Arachno coated in the electric ether, now it was up to Rex to get the next hit in. Thankfully, Roc was with Mio to block its attacks, even as its Blade fired a powerful beam of energy towards the two Drivers and their Blades.

“Thanks, Tora!” Mio responded graciously, the Meteor Smasher back in her hands. “You’re nifty with Poppi, aren’t you?”

“Friend very welcome!” Tora accepted, even as he blocked the Arachno’s mandibles. “As long as friends win, anyway, mehmeh!”

“Oh, of course!”

Right on cue, Rex passed Pyra her sword, and the Aegis leapt into the air. As she returned to the ground with her sword downward, pillars of fire erupted under the Arachno, combining with the electric ether to create a flame bolt of power. But they weren’t done yet. Vandham was already prepared, all healed up thanks to Nia and ready to fire off the last attack.

Emblazoned in the golden affinity aura, Vandham stood victoriously as he threw Roc’s scythes back to his Blade and crossed his arms. With a practised efficiency, Roc rose into the air, before flapping his wings furiously and summoning a tornado of wind ether. As it mixed with the residual ether already clinging to the Arachno, Mio would probably call the resulting explosion of power an electrofire storm.

The Elder Arachno did not fall to the devastating combo, but it wasn’t far off. Thankfully, they weren’t tapped out either; after all, two of their Drivers still hadn’t unleashed their best attacks on the monster.

“Tora! Nia!” Vandham called, catching Roc’s weapons once more. “Finish this monster off!”

Nia snickered at his demand, but casually threw her weapons to Dromarch regardless.

“Well, if you insist! Let’s thrash ‘em, Dromarch!”

“Poppi ready for battle finish protocol!” Tora agreed, passing the Drill Biter to Poppi to finish the fight.

As the Artificial Blade rose into the air, spinning drill faster and faster, Dromarch gathered all the water ether he could into his weapons and used them as a conduit, shooting it forward in a wild roar. With the Arachno knocked to the floor, Poppi’s critical strike to the head was all it took to finish it off, leaving it to finally succumb to its wounds.

As it did, Mio and Sena finally witnessed what ‘death’ meant for a Blade. The monster’s stalwart ally faded into nothingness as the Arachno’s life died, leaving only a grey Core Crystal behind.

“We did it, but…” Rex exclaimed, still panting from the fight. “The Blade returned to its core…”

“So that monster really was in resonance with the Blade,” Pyra realised.

Tora had a perhaps predictable reaction of frustration.

“Tora cannot resonate, stinky monster can resonate. Not fair!”

“But Masterpon have Poppi…”

“Oh, Poppi!”

Well, perhaps short-lived frustration.

Amidst happiness from winning the fight, and Tora’s reaction to the Blade, Vandham turned to Rex with a familiar look of seriousness.

“If a Blade loses its Driver, it winds up like this.”

His all-but-pupil was quick to ask the mercenary further questions. “So, is it, like… dead?”

“Nah! The crystal’ll start glowing again after a bit of time. Then a new Driver can resonate with it. But…”

“There’s a but?”

“Its memory will be totally zapped. It’ll be reborn as a new Blade… Won’t remember a thing.”

Mio was feeling deja vu all over again. These Blades, they already operated much like the soldiers of Aionios with their summoning weapons and fighting for the cause of another… but now they even lost their memories like them. The mechanism of rebirth was different, sure, but the chilling similarity stuck with her.

Rex responded to Vandham like he always did, blissfully unaware of Mio’s internal turmoil.

“Yeah? That’s pretty rough… To have all your past wiped out like that.”

To her surprise, when Pyra continued the conversation, it was to disagree with him.

“But memories can be… painful as well. They can be a terrible burden. And a Blade can live forever, as long as the crystal exists. It’s just as well… eternity is a long time to collect bad memories.”

It was kind of shocking that Mio could understand where Pyra was coming from. They only really remained as fragments, now, but she could still vaguely remember what M had seen… the aeons of repeatedly dying as Noah was helpless to save her, and himself died soon after. Perhaps it was to be expected that she would agree, in hindsight - M had willingly given up the eternity she was granted from the suffering of others.

But all those thoughts were distracting her from something she hadn’t yet realised; Pyra spoke as if she was familiar with what this eternity of memories was like. Did she… remember her past lives? That was definitely something to talk to her about later.

“Pyra…”

Rex’s concerned tone belied the fact that he didn’t understand either.

“I’m sorry,” Pyra apologised. “I was just thinking, sometimes being able to forget is a… blessing.”

Those words sounded far too familiar for Mio’s comfort. Turning back to Sena revealed an uncharacteristically stormy face, and she had a feeling who her friend was thinking about. Of the group, Shania’s death had easily hit Sena the hardest.

“Sena?” Mio called.

“I’m fine,” she lied, hiding her expression away. “Don’t worry about me!”

Before Mio could check on her friend further, Vandham called after them all, thawing the sobering atmosphere slowing building around the group.

“C’mon! Let’s get finished up here!”

As the leader of the Garfont Mercenaries walked over to the corpse of the Titan, it slowly began to fade away, eerily similar to the Blade she’d just seen. Yet, when Vandham returned to his group, it was not empty handed; in his hands was a shining blue Core Crystal.

“That’s…” Rex began quietly, realisation slowly setting in.

“A Core Crystal!” Tora finished with his typical enthusiasm.

“What?!”

Vandham started his explanation as casually as ever. “Well, that’s where they come from - out of Titans. This one’s brand new and ready to resonate, like a big steak, right before you take the first bite. It’ll probably end up buddying up with a bunch of Drivers… And every time the Driver dies, it’ll forget everything and return to its core. Eventually it’ll resonate with a new Driver.”

Rex and Tora in particular were intently listening, but even Nia was keeping her ears on the man as he spoke. And of course, Mio and Sena were keen to learn what they could about Alrest.

“Drivers dyin’, Titans dyin’… the Blade just keeps on livin’ through it all… It’s a never-ending cycle. An eternal history. As mortals, we’ll never be able to understand.”

Though Rex could only respond that it was incredible, Mio wasn’t feeling the same way. The way Vandham had explained it… he had almost described the Endless Now. Was that what it was like to be a Blade, with humans as your Moebius? It sounded awful… and yet Rex found it beautiful, and there wasn’t a malicious bone in that boy’s body if she knew him at all. 

Perhaps she was letting Aionios colour her impressions too much. As the Titan finally faded away under Pyra’s watch, Mio knew she needed to know more about this world, and about how it had become this way… And she knew Noah felt the same. It would have to be their new mission, as they explored their new horizons.

Chapter Text

Entering through the drainage outlet, Noah was immediately beset by a sense of familiarity. The mines weren’t the same as the Urayan Tunnels, but the rusty metal architecture was remarkably similar to the mining structures present there. Perhaps, despite the Tunnels being Agnian (as Mio had confirmed), the mines themselves were Kevesi.

But his almost-nostalgia was revoked quickly. Leaving the Drainage Control Room, and farewelling its strange resident Nopon Merchant, Sharla quickly spotted a patrolling Mechon ahead of them.

“I can’t believe they’ve taken the mine, too!” Sharla mourned with a whisper. “That means the Defence Force and residents are… Oh no, Juju!”

“Keep it together, Sharla!” Reyn assured. “Don’t start panicking now!”

“Reyn…”

“You said it yourself, they can’t have seized the entire area, right? I bet you they’re holed up somewhere safe. Juju is alive, and we’re gonna find him.”

“That’s why we’re here,” Shulk agreed. “You can count on us.”

Hearing the earnest support, and seeing the reassuring gazes of Leater’s squad, Sharla was briefly silent as she slowly calmed down.

“Yes, it’ll be fine,” she responded, her breath slowing. “Reyn… Shulk… all of you. Thank you.”

“Ah, we’re just doing our job,” Leater deferred. “Let’s keep going, as stealthily as we can.”

“Right.”

Traversing onward turned to be mostly impeded by a small spider-like Mechon that Miller called M42 Scout Units. Noah and Shulk had to quickly take it down lest it run off and alert others, and it was a closer call than Noah would have liked. But after they turned it into scrap, they continued through the winding and mossy tunnels until they reached Test Pit 3, where Sharla suddenly stopped in the middle of a shallow puddle.

“An Ether Rifle?” she wondered aloud, clearly having heard something Noah didn’t, before gasping in surprise. “Gadolt!”

Noah barely had time to listen himself before she bolted off, leaving the remainder of her party to chase after her. As he followed, though, he suddenly heard a familiar voice, telling someone they didn’t fear death. His suspicions were quickly confirmed when he rounded the corner and spotted two soldiers in a room fending off a small group of Mechon; a bald man with an ether rifle, and the Undying Blade, Ashera.

“I know that voice…” the man trailed off, taking cover from the Mechon’s attacks. “Medic, is that you?”

“Otharon!” Sharla returned, confirming the man’s identity as Colony 6’s Colonel as she rushed over to assist him.

“Well look who finally decided to show up!” Ashera chimed in, batting away a flying drone with her twinsaber. “And Emm, too? Oh, it’s a party now, tin cans!”

Noah jumped over the railing and knocked away an opportunistic Mechon looking to take Ashera out.

“Let’s save the reunion for after we’re safe!” he suggested as he landed with Lucky Seven unsheathed.

Ashera scoffed, but didn’t disagree. “Ah, spoilsport. Let’s do this quickly, then!”

Shulk, Reyn and Leater were quick to join them in the storage depot, with Miller staying above to provide distance support. Emmy tussled with a scout unit alongside Ashera, and Reyn batted another one away from Otharon and Sharla. Bolstering them both was Shulk’s Monado Enchant, along with Noah’s sword’s own mighty power.

“Power Raiser!”

The familiar Art had taken on a new life as what appeared to be his version of Enchant, allowing Miller and Otharon to hurt the drone Mechon as if Shulk had assisted. With that knowledge in hand, and his own skills, the Mechon were no match for the raiding party, soon leaving the depot much quieter.

“Wow, that was fast!” Ashera complimented, sheathing her blades. “You guys are quite the Mechon-slaughtering task force. Is that why you’re here, Emm?”

Captain Leater shook her head sternly. “No, Ashera. We came here for you. Being here to help save Colony 6 is a coincidence.”

For once, her fellow Captain looked almost put-off by the seriousness, briefly unsure how to respond. “Oh, well… I suppose that’s all the better, then! We need all the hands we can get to punt this bronze-faced menace out of the Colony.”

Leater sighed at her colleague’s flippancy, though it was clear she had experience. “Come on, Ashera! You know full well that you left without permission. If the Colonel wasn’t injured, you’d have probably been dishonourably discharged even before we came to find you!”

“Oh, really? What’s Reyn’s excuse, then?”

“Ashera!”

“No, seriously, I’m worried for the guy. Bionis knows what he’d do if he was fired…”

“Oh, like you’re one to talk!” Reyn contended, rising to her jab. “Besides, I was given permission!”

As Noah unfortunately expected, Ashera proceeded to respond in kind. “Oh yeah? You know Dickson’s a little biased, right? And more importantly, he doesn’t have an official position in the Defence Force anymore.”

“Hey, that’s not-”

“Guys!”

The two runaway soldiers jumped at the sudden interruption, turning to find an irate Noah standing between them, his arms folded.

“I don’t care what the reasons you’re here are,” he reprimanded, “but you can leave discussing them for later. We are in enemy territory, if you haven’t forgotten.”

Ashera only responded to his scolding with an awkward laugh, while Reyn looked a bit more apologetic. The rest of the group, though, looked astounded at Noah’s sudden backbone, Leater in particular. In contrast, the newly present Otharon was rather impressed, and honestly seemed thankful for the halt in the argument.

“Medic,” the Colonel began, turning his attention away from the Colony 9 soldiers. “Why are you here?”

“Sir,” Sharla responded, clearly familiar with his procedure. “Isn’t Gadolt with you?”

The name immediately sparked a change in his expression, turning away from the group as if to hide his trepidation. “We have much to discuss. You’d all better come with me.”

Otharon, followed closely by Ashera, led the party into the more secure Mining Base for any further discussion. Sharla was the first to do this when prompted, explaining her brother’s capture and their quest to save him, along with anyone else still trapped in Colony 6.

“So, Juju has been taken by the bronze-faced one…” the Colonel recapped, facing a wall in contemplation.

Sharla didn’t fault his description, but quickly asked another question of him instead.

“Sir, what about Gadolt?”

Otharon turned back around to his Medic, his expression darkened as he shook his head.

“Gadolt is gone.”

“Gone?! What do you mean, gone?”

Her question, straight to the point as it was, brought a pensive frown to his face briefly. Clearly Otharon was a man with little time for subtlety, because he quickly began his explanation of where the missing soldier was.

“Gadolt and I planned a surprise attack to set everyone free. But we failed… miserably. And when I woke, Gadolt was nowhere to be seen. Only his rifle remained.”

His gaze had shifted to a corner of the room, where an ether rifle lay against the wall.

“But he is alive,” he continued, to Noah’s surprise. “I can feel it. We may not be joined by blood, but he’s like a son to me. I’d know if he were dead.”

Sharla reacted to the end of his explanation with understandable grief, catching Reyn’s attention once more. Considering his next words, perhaps his mouth was working faster than his brain.

“Some of the people in Colony 9 got eaten…”

“Reyn!”

Shulk immediately chastised him for the careless comment, leading to a slow realisation of the effect of his words. “Sorry. Forget I said anything.”

Perhaps eager to distract them from the sudden awkwardness, Miller quickly asked Otharon a question of his own. “What about Lieutenant Colonel Ethel? We found Bolearis on the way here and got him back to the refugee camp, but she’s not with you either…”

“So the Captain got out alright?” Otharon confirmed, sounding relieved. “Well, Gadolt had attempted to convince Bolearis and my Lieutenant to join our fruitless attack, but he didn’t succeed. Instead, Ethel planned on letting Bolearis escape, in order to bring backup from Colony 9. Ethel got him out of the Colony, I knew that much, but whether he escaped the Mechon after that point was beyond us.”

“So you have seen her since?” Noah queried, noticing the way he worded his explanation.

“Indeed. She was here not too long ago, but she then saw a new prisoner being taken in during some surveillance. Fearing their life, she went to free them herself.”

“What?! But that Mechon-”

“Will eat her alive? I told her as much. She wouldn’t listen.”

“That must have been Juju,” Leater guessed. “We must not have much time.”

The Captain was seemingly worried they might be too late already, but Otharon was surprisingly resolute.

“They don’t kill Homs right away,” he explained. “If that bronze-faced one took him, we still have some time left.”

This was news to the entire party, but Shulk was the one to voice it. “Are you sure?”

The Colonel didn’t respond to his question in the end. Instead, he turned his focus to the Monado, slung across his back.

“Boy, that blade was once Dunban’s. I’m not sure why you have it, but we’re going to need its full power.”

“Don’t count out Noah’s sword over there, either,” Ashera interjected. “Seems like it’s doing much the same job nowadays, huh?”

Though it was a little awkward to be called, Noah nodded. “You can count on us.” 

Shulk nodded alongside him, sharing a reassuring glance. But after that, a thought finally occurred to him.

“That reminds me… When did you get here, Ashera? And how come Bolearis didn’t mention you?”

“I got here just before you did, honestly,” Ashera explained nonchalantly. “I didn’t see Bolearis at all, but I have been going through the mine rather slowly. Didn’t exactly know about the Colony 6 situation until I found the front gate closed, and ran into Old Man Glasses here. Just in time for the Mechon to find us… and you guys, too! I love it when a plan comes together.”

“You don’t seriously call that a plan, do you?” Miller asked her incredulously.

Noah was inclined to believe she did. 

“Speaking of plans…” Leater redirected firmly away from Ashera’s questionable strategies. “Colonel, what’s our next move?”

“We’re heading for the Central Pit,” Otharon briefed. “It’s where they take all the Homs they kidnap. If Juju and Ethel are alive, that’s where they’ll be.”

Moving towards the doorway, he briefly turned back towards the assembled group and issued his last command.

“Gather your things. We’re moving out.”

Noah and the rest of the Colony 9 Defence Force personnel did just that, while Sharla looked briefly pensive before doing the same. But, for some reason, Shulk hesitated. He did follow them back through the Storage Depot and down the stairs to the rest of the mine, but he was lagging behind, to the point Reyn noticed.

“Hurry it up, slowcoach!” his friend insisted, turning around at the base of the stairs.

Sharla was more eager to get to the root of the problem, having noticed the troubled look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

When he didn’t answer right away, Otharon turned away and kept moving, with the rest of the group trickling behind him. This eventually culminated in Shulk running down the stairs, and yelling towards the group, “No!”

The soldiers stopped again, turning to the wielder of the Monado with confusion. Even Reyn was more confused than concerned, insisting once again that Shulk tell them what was wrong. His continuing hesitation prompted Otharon to speak up.

“This battle is for my people. If you can’t handle it, drop that weapon and head home.”

“That’s not it!” Shulk contended, finally speaking up. “I… It’s just that…”

“Out with it!”

“Listen… Maybe we shouldn’t just rush in head first.”

“What?”

“We got this far,” Reyn reminded, his confusion matching Otharon’s frustration.

But Shulk wasn’t convinced. “I think we should observe them, and plan our attack afterwards.”

The suggestion was simple enough, but it was enough to finally boil over the Colonel’s anger. “You insolent… We don’t have that kind of time! You don’t know a damn thing about these machines. I have observed their movements; I’ve planned this attack for a month! I know full well what’s going to happen to my brothers and sisters!”

Despite the determined speech, though the brothers and sisters phrasing briefly confused Noah, Shulk was still uncertain.

“It’s just…”

“We’re going! Captains, Medic, fall in!”

Ashera and Leater were quick to respond with “Sir!” and Sharla wasn’t far behind. But while they immediately followed the Colonel, alongside Miller, Sharla turned back to Shulk with a growing concern.

“What’s gotten into you?” she asked the boy, echoing Noah’s own sentiments.

Shulk’s confidence continued to waver, responding only with a half-finished “I…” 

But Reyn knew his friend better than they did, and his guess was quick and accurate. “A vision again? Don’t tell me, another death?”

Finally, his behaviour made sense, confirmed by his despondent “Yeah…”

“I knew it. The Shulk I know doesn’t just chicken out for any old reason.”

“This vision…” Sharla slowly pieced together. “Was it like before?”

“Kind of,” Shulk explained. “I saw an underground ether river. And Otharon…”

“An ether river?” Noah couldn’t help but question. “Does such a thing exist?”

“I believe there’s one under the Central Pit,” Sharla confirmed. “I suppose that would make sense for where it would be.”

Reyn, who had been folding his arms and seemingly deep in thought, returned to the conversation after their idle theorising.

“You know what? That sword lets you see the future. All that power, and you still keep getting it wrong.”

“Better to use my brian than my fists,” his friend contended, surprisingly frustrated.

“Shulk, I may rush in head first, but at least my head’s useful for something.”

“Okay, okay. I get the idea.”

“I ain’t done yet!”

Reyn’s sudden continuation seemed to catch even Shulk off guard.

“You’re useless on your own, Shulk” he began again. “That’s why we’re here.”

“Reyn, I…” Shulk protested, but his insistence fell on deaf ears.

“Next time you have a vision, you tell us. We bear the burden together, as a team. You have a vision you don’t like, we’ll change the future together. Got it?”

His tone brokered no disagreement, but at its heart was a deep concern for his closest friend. Noah couldn’t help but imagine Lanz in his place, scolding him for doing something reckless.

Shulk’s first response was a quiet “Got it…” but that only frustrated his friend.

“What was that?!” Reyn questioned incredulously. “Say it like you mean it!”

“I got it, all right! Next time, I’ll tell you.”

Reyn looked satisfied that the message had gone through, though Sharla was quick to insist further. “He’s right, Shulk. You two saved Juju once before; I know we can do it again. I believe in you.”

“Thanks.”

Shulk gave her a welcome smile as he thanked her, but even as they continued onwards, it was clear the wielder of the Monado had a lot on his mind.

These visions… Noah mused. I’ve never heard of anything like them. But, despite their usefulness, I can’t help but notice that they seem like a terrible burden.

~~~

The glow of sunlight through the Titan’s exterior was gone by the time Mio and Sena had returned to Garfont village. Eager to capitalise on their recent battle, or just recover from it, the entire group had gone to the training grounds. What they were doing certainly varied, though; Tora practised punching with his small arms into Poppi’s metal hands (though it seemed less useful than practising with his wings), Nia groomed Dromarch’s fur, Pyra fussed over Rex’s injuries, and Vandham sat back to back with Roc as they preened their wings.

Mio and Sena, meanwhile, continued to practise their teamwork. At first, this was completely unsupervised, but not long afterwards Roc rose from their sitting position to watch.

“Oh, hey Roc!” Sena greeted as she noticed them. “How are you going?”

“I’m doing just fine, thanks. But I saw you training together and I figured I should give you some pointers.”

“You have some tips for us?” Mio repeated, curious to hear them. “If it helps us get better, then you’re more than welcome.”

“Well, I certainly hope so. The power of the Aegis and her Driver is formidable, no doubt, but no-one stands alone. And you two look to have a great potential; I feel I would be doing Alrest a disservice not to.”

“That’s very kind of you, Roc.”

“Yeah!” Sena agreed wholeheartedly. “It reminds me a lot of Vandham, actually. I guess you two are even more alike than I’d thought!”

Roc’s reaction was somewhat hard to read, on account of the bird-like face, but it still looked familiar. Mio’s guess was that the resemblance to Vandham must have extended further than the spirit of their actions and into their mannerisms. Sure enough, when they spoke up once more, it was in service to teaching them something.

“It is often said that Blades take on characteristics of their Drivers. Supposedly the first person to awaken a Blade has the most impact on their personality, and even their appearance. Perhaps, despite the loss of their memory each time, all the Drivers a Blade had in the past influence how they act when they’re reawakened.”

Mio couldn’t help but narrow her eyes at their recollection. The memories of past lives seeping into the actions of new ones was taken straight out of Aionios; Ashera could attest to that. Sena probably realised this too, but she was doing a better job at pretending it didn’t bother her. Maybe it had something to do with pretending she was a Blade too?

“Really?” she asked curiously, with a subtle edge of worry. “I wonder if that’s the case with Pyra? She seems like a pretty big deal…”

Roc seemed to ponder this seriously, but as they did, Mio’s gaze drifted over to the Blade in question to see something a bit strange.

“Hey, speaking of Pyra… What’s Vandham grilling her and Rex about? Seems uncharacteristically serious…”

“I can’t help but agree…” Roc concurred. “Let us go and see what’s up.”

What followed their short walk was a full-scale explanation of how Rex and Pyra had met, in service of explaining something Mio had briefly noticed during their battle with Mòrag; Pyra getting hurt when Rex did. The conversation was more enlightening than she had expected, not only covering how Rex had died, but also delving into the apparently surprising idea of Blades being visibly injured. In the end, it attracted Rex’s entire group as an audience, and even Yew and Zuo joined in.

Discovering that Blades were supposed to simply bounce back from every injury they attained was rather shocking to Mio and Sena both. It at least explained why they always played defence until the time was right for a special attack, but it would likely be something else Sena had to watch out for in her Blade charade. Yet they weren’t the only ones - as Vandham explained, the fact that Pyra sustained lasting damage from Rex’s injuries indicated that she was as mortal as any human was.

Selfishly, Mio thought to herself that she at least got to keep her immortality, before pushing that thought deep, deep down.

Regardless of her internal considerations, Vandham was concerned for Rex and Pyra’s safety, with a fundamental facet of Blades being rendered moot for her. But Rex was resolute, insisting that he would protect the Aegis.

“Easier said than done, kid,” Vandham contended, though Rex’s resolve remained.

“Listen,” the Salvager began. “Pyra… She saved my life, brought me back from the dead. So I won’t die again! I’ve got to live, for her sake! Until we get to Elysium, at least… We can make it together.”

Mio couldn’t help but marvel at how he made it sound so simple, while Vandham focused on his destination far more. “Rex. you mean…”

“Going to Elysium? I can’t let that stand.”

Mio cursed internally, having ignored the sound of footsteps consciously in belief of their safety. She spun around to see that their adversarial interloper was… a Driver and his Blade. His pompous voice, combined with his red-rimmed glasses and messy brown hair, gave her the strange impression of an overly stuck-up Taion.

“It won’t do,” the Driver continued self-importantly. “A bunch of amateurs stealing the show? The script exists for a reason!”

And toss sounding like Z and his obsession with ‘the Flow’ on the arsehole impression pile. Still, all her familiarity paled in comparison to Nia knowing his name, catching everyone’s attention.

“Akhos!”

“Please speak only when you’re spoken too, traitor,” Akhos refuted whilst pushing up his glasses.

“Traitor, traitor, traitor!”

And yet, if Akhos was mildly frustrating, his Blade was plainly and simply annoying. Her high-pitched sing-song voice quickly overrode any lingering familiarity in her horn-like appendages to give Mio a poor opinion of her.

“Nia, you’re one of the baddies now. You villain! Teeheehee!”

“I didn’t betray anyone!” Nia insisted, but Akhos remained unconvinced, tilting his head in mock confusion.

“Then why do you stand with them? You think that is where you belong?”

Nia, more distressed than Mio had ever seen her, fumbled out half of an objection before trailing off. In her place, Mio was compelled to step forward, furious with the stranger whose identity was being slowly pieced together in her head.

“And what makes you believe your group is anything close to where she belongs?! If your behaviour is any indication, you’re nothing but a bunch of self-important arseholes!”

Sena covered her mouth in surprise at Mio’s outburst, not used to her friend swearing at others. But Akhos reacted far more strangely, as if recognition slowly dawned on his face as well.

“So that’s why…” he mumbled quietly, utterly confusing her before he spoke up properly.

“And who might you be, to claim yourself such an authority… A deluded fan, perhaps? You’ve certainly done your homework in copying her look. Who knows, maybe you’d belong with us just as much…”

To even her surprise, Mio hissed at the glasses-wearing prick. Sena was the first to react, and instinctively grabbed her arm to hold her back from approaching further.

“It’s not worth it, Mimi!” she insisted, doing her best to act the reasonable one. “Not yet, anyways.”

When Akhos only scoffed at her implication, Vandham finally got to ask the question he was dying to know.

“Hmph. Who are these goons?”

“Torna,” Rex guessed, just as Mio had. “They’re trying to get their hands on Pyra.”

“Torna?!”

Vadham’s shocked exclamation surprised her. It was a rather strong reaction for a group he hadn’t met, which could only mean one thing. Perhaps oblivious to this, Nia was compelled to ask what the Driver and Blade were after.

“Akhos! Just tell us what you’re ‘ere for!”

“Well, the Aegis of course,” Akhos responded, as pompous as ever. “I just had to come and see the leading lady with my own eyes.”

“Jin put you up to this?” Nia guessed, bringing up the name of the man that was both Torna’s leader and Rex’s former killer.

“Well deduced. Oh, by the way… His orders were to deal with you in whatever manner I see fit. So, you know what that means.”

The thinly veiled threat struck Nia harder than Mio could explain, leaving the Gormotti to fervently deny his words.

“He wouldn’t… You’re lying!”

Akhos just relished in it, acting the mastermind all the while.

“Why the surprise? Did you think he would still care about you? Oh, to live in your reality…”

Despite her tenacity, Nia had no more comebacks to his assertion, leaving her only to wince audibly. The brief silence did suddenly bring into focus a set of advancing footsteps that Mio barely caught before Akhos resumed his theatrical spiel.

“Well, well. Your part in this play is coming to an end. So! Time for you to shuffle off the stage… to be replaced by a better actor.”

His declaration marked the approach of the footsteps from earlier, and in an instant, Mio’s righteous anger shifted to pure shock. The flaming red hair and white armour of the newcomer marked their unmistakable appearance as that of the Crimson Lotus, the man known as the Smouldering. He had even summoned his flaming lance.

“This is Cammuravi,” Akhos introduced almost jovially, “the latest member of Torna… And fittingly your replacement, Nia. I’m sure he won’t disappoint us, unlike you.”

Cammuravi’s face remained as impassive as ever, leaving Mio unable to get any sort of reading on his emotions. She couldn’t fathom what he was doing here; in Aionios, Cammuravi was a paragon of honour, only being imprisoned because he was allowed to live by Ethel. And yet, here he was, working alongside terrorists?! It didn’t add up!

Oblivious to her frustrations, Vandham responded to Akhos’s declaration with an anger of his own.

“What’s wrong?” Rex asked, noticing his sudden shift in demeanour.

“I know the name Torna,” Vandham growled. “They’ve taken the lives of too many Drivers, including some of my crew. Good people. Rumour says it’s because they’re collecting Core Crystals. So, if these two are part of them…”

He turned to his lieutenants, desperately barking out his order.

“Yew! Zuo! Get everyone out of the village!”

“Yes, sir!” they responded in unison, leaving the Drivers, Blades, and those somewhere inbetween, to stare each other down.

Once they were gone, Vandham turned back to Akhos with a snarl.

“You ready?” he called, rallying their group.

Rex, Pyra and Mio all affirmed him, joining Tora and Nia in drawing their weapons. As they did, Nia turned to Rex gratefully.

“Thanks for this.”

“No problem!” Rex responded earnestly.

“It’ll be tough. His Blade, Obrona… She can manipulate ether in the air. It lets him counter elemental attacks by generating fields of the opposing element!”

Nia’s explanation went over Mio’s head, but it gave Vandham a wicked grin.

“Finally, a decent opponent for a change! Let’s go!”

Mio nodded, but even as she hefted Sena’s hammer into position, she didn’t feel quite ready to face Torna.

~~~

It had taken much effort, but Noah and the rest of the Colony 6 raiding party were finally a stone’s throw away from the bottom of the Central Pit.

Though the cramped tunnels that had made up the test pits had concluded shortly after meeting Otharon, what had replaced it was a winding descent down the huge drill that occupied the Central Pit’s centre. Running across rotating components, traversing along paths inset into the cavern walls, and using elevators, the group had some close calls from Mechon, such as M84’s. But still, despite the encounters, they managed to make their way to the base of the machine, where they suddenly heard the sound of booming, terrible laughter.

“That can’t be good,” Leater realised. “Let’s get down there, quickly.”

Sharla looked ill at her implication, but still ran ahead, quickly entering the last elevator platform with the rest of them. When it reached its final destination, and she could finally see the bottom of the pit in full, there was a faint spark of hope. But she only felt more despair, because…

“They’re… gone.”

…The pit was empty. In the place of captives and their captors, all that littered the metal floor were discarded weapons and fresh bloodstains.

“So whose blood is… Oh no!”

Following the desperate Sharla, the entire group except Otharon ran down the ramp off the elevator down to the floor of the pit. Following the noise of metal on metal, they found a large, bronze-plated Mechon, that had been staring down at something Noah could not see. But the Mechon did notice their entrance, turning around to them with a laugh.

“Ahh, here at last! Haha! I’ve been getting hungry!”

As it turned, the Mechon’s face quickly appeared, and its identity soon became obvious.

“Shulk,” Noah asked, “isn’t that…?”

“It’s him, alright,” Shulk confirmed. “He’s the one who took Juju!”

Emboldened as she was, Sharla had no qualms about firmly pointing her ether rifle in the Mechon’s direction and demanding it answer.

“Juju and the others! Tell me where they are!”

The Mechon laughed at her defiance, letting Noah feel for the first time how unsettling it was to hear a voice coming out of what mostly consisted of autonomous machines. And its voice was so uncomfortably jovial, too; he was unwillingly reminded of K, especially with its more round appearance as compared to the Faced Mechon he sent off in Colony 9.

“You want the brat?” the Mechon taunted. “Well, he’s right here.”

On cue, a strange holding device descended from the direction the Mechon pointed at, holding a boy in stasis. Any doubts about its inhabitant were quickly quashed when Sharla called her brother’s name.

“Juju!”

“He’s still alive… but don’t think he will be for long!”

The confirmation should have been a relief, but it only filled Noah with dread at what the Mechon would say next.

“As for the others, well… I just couldn’t help myself. I ate them all up! Baha!”

Noah grimaced at the terrible boast. He could barely will himself to look towards Sharla, who doubtlessly was the most affected… And yet a terrible thought of his own occurred to him. In his sudden anger, Noah thrust Lucky Seven towards the bronze monster.

“And what about Ethel?! She wouldn’t have been killed by someone like you!”

The Mechon turned to him with what almost appeared to be curiosity, having not paid Noah any mind before now. To his surprise, it didn’t answer him with a confirmation or boast at all.

“Can’t say I’m familiar with that name… But, there might be one silver-haired morsel hiding around here. Can’t tell if I already ate her - my memory ain’t what it used to be…” 

Its memory? Noah repeated, his confusion briefly overtaking a sliver of hope about Ethel. It speaks like a human does… like one of those older people in the City. Why would it-

“Now, where was I? Ah, yes!”

Interrupting his contemplation, the Mechon raised its metal hammer to the sky, gesturing to the mineshaft around them.

“Welcome to our banquet hall,” it continued, unburdened. “Tonight, the main course will be… you! And if I’ve still got room, the brat will make a tasty dessert!”

“Murderer!” Shulk cried, readying the Monado in fury.

And yet, despite his anger, what the Mechon said next made him pause.

“I’m Xord, your host tonight.”

“Xord? So you have a name?”

The Mechon - Xord, it said - was silent for a moment, strangely slow in his response. “That’s what they all say. Can’t say I remember it myself!”

Noah couldn’t help but freeze at Xord’s statement. There it was again, the fractured recollection that made the mechanical monster sound almost human. The rest of the Mechon were little more than murderous Auto-Levs; why was this one so comparatively alive?  

His allies didn’t quite appear to have the same reaction. Leater and Miller stared down the Mechon in rage, not quite mirroring Ashera’s mix of fury and potentially excitement. Sharla looked despondent with a hand over her mouth, though he doubted it was from similar thoughts, while Shulk could only respond to Xord with a quiet question to himself.

“What’s he talking about?”

Xord didn’t answer at all, instead suddenly shifting back to his metaphors, punctuated with a slam of his electrified hammer. “Oh yes! It’s good to see fresh meat on the table. These colony folk just didn’t fill me up!”

“Gadolt…” Sharla mourned, doubled over in shock. “The others…”

“Come on boys, dinner’s ready!”

Xord didn’t give her long to despair, quickly sending his M55’s to attack their group. But as Shulk quickly cast Monado Enchant to prepare them, Sharla slowly stood up, hatred burning in her eyes.

“I swear I won’t stop… until I’ve scrapped each and every one of you!”

And she didn’t waste any time in proving her declaration; gripping her rifle tight, she fired shot after shot into the first of the Mechon approaching her, walking over to it furiously as she did. When it lay motionless beneath her heel, she gave it one last blast to make sure it was too far gone to rise again.

In her vengeance-fueled haze, however, Sharla didn’t realise how far she overextended. As she belatedly shielded herself the best she could, Reyn and Noah quickly rushed to her side, fending off the incoming horde of Mechon.

“Get behind me!” Reyn commanded, blocking the M55’s leg strikes with his Guarder long enough for Shulk to blow them all back.

“Reyn! Sharla!” Shulk rallied, holding the Monado ready. “All of us… We are Homs. We won’t just stand here, waiting to be eaten!”

Their opponent laughed at his defiance.

“The Monado?” Xord taunted. “Do you think that thing can dent me?

“How about this?!”

“Wait, Shulk!”

As if determined to prove Leater’s fears about his recklessness true, Shulk ran towards the Mechon, ignoring Noah’s shout. But just as Shulk had described to him as happening before, the Monado bounced helplessly off the metal plating leaving Xord unharmed.

“Heh heh! I’m not Metal Face. You’ll have to try harder!”

Noah rushed towards Shulk as Xord taunted him, barely pushing him out the way of the Mechon’s hammer. As the two swordsmen briefly retreated, Shulk could only speak in a frustrated realisation.

“It’s the same as before - the Monado’s useless against this guy!”

Leater and Miller’s faces took on a worried parlour at his reveal, but Ashera laughed it off. “Oh, all the better! I think we need to savour killing this bastard. Come on boys; less talking, more stabbing!”

“Not how I would have worded it, but she’s right,” Noah agreed. “We can’t afford to waste time - how did you guys hold off the last one?”

“We had to immobilise it,” Reyn explained, holding off a Mechon for Ashera to slash away. “Until we knocked it over, nothing we did worked.”

“That still leaves the question of how we’re going to knock it over!” Miller complained as worked alongside his Captain.

“It’ll have to do,” Leater compromised. “Miller, Reyn, focus on keeping it busy while Sharla heals you up! The rest of us will have to work at its joints to find a weak spot.”

“And there’s the stabbing I was looking for!” Ashera agreed enthusiastically. “Now… Let’s get moving!”

~~~

Cammuravi was just as fierce as Mio had remembered him. Admittedly, she had only ever fought him twice, and neither of those times were typical situations, but the overwhelming finesse behind the attacks of his Ferronis was equally as present here. This would have been worrying on its own, but she wasn’t exactly fighting at full strength, either.

It hadn’t helped that she’d belatedly realised he appeared to be a Blade without a Driver… and therefore, quite possibly a Flesh Eater like Nia. As if she needed more things on her mind.

“Hyah!”

Mio hissed in pain as she felt the flame of Cammuravi’s lance, attempting to retaliate with a strike of Sena’s weapon. But her attack met thin air, as it had repeatedly during their fight so far. Thankfully Sena was there to block the Smouldering lancer’s next strike, pushing him back to a more comfortable range, where Tora could shoot at him with Poppi’s assistance. He evaded them, too, but the pressure was at least maintained.

“Spark…” Mio cursed. “He isn’t any duller than he was in Aionios, that’s for sure.”

“He doesn’t fight like he did under Y’s control, either,” Sena realised. “He’s fighting willingly.”

And still, he remained stone-faced and silent. His stubborn refusal to be anything but impassive was quickly wearing on Mio, but she had to break through somehow. If the direct assault had so far been fruitless, breaking his concentration was their only option.

Mio nodded to Sena before rushing forward. Seeing her reckless attempt, Cammuravi quickly returned to his fighting stance with both hands on the spear. He was ready for her… but she was ready for him this time, too.

When he moved to intercept her with a quick thrust, Mio immediately dashed to the left to avoid it. The Seraph immediately noticed this, and twisted his grip to sweep the spear towards her, but that left him with much less focus on Sena, who had rushed to join her. Lacking her weapon, she was only going after him with her fists, but it did make Cammuravi hesitate just enough.

As he attempted to simultaneously attack Mio and dodge Sena, he was sloppier than he had been previously. When Mio moved just far enough away to avoid the spear’s flames, she immediately countered with a mighty swing of her own into his gut, landing the first decisive hit on the Crimson Lotus since their bout had begun.

When Tora moved in to capitalise, he jumped backwards to get to relative safety. But unlike previously, it wasn’t a practised motion, clearly evidenced by the gritting of his teeth. He was done being stoic; it was now or never to get through to him. 

“Cammuravi!” Mio shouted. “Why are you fighting alongside Torna?!”

The Smouldering lancer couldn’t help but widen his eyes at the very direct question. Mio supposed it made some sense, considering he likely didn’t remember either of them, that he would find the personal callout unusual. Surely enough, when he did respond, it was out of confusion.

“And who are you to paint them so disparagingly? I do not even know your name - I should hardly take your word as gospel.”

“My name is Mio,” she answered, purposefully but hurried in the chaos of the fight. “And I suppose you’re correct that I know little of your group’s purpose. But I can tell you’re an honourable man, Cammuravi. I just… I don’t understand why you would work with a group so clearly counter to those ideals!”

Shockingly, Cammuravi scoffed at her appeal. “Those ideals? You presume too much of a ‘man’ like me… of a world like this one. I am not blindly following chivalrous ideals to my detriment, Mio. The only answer I need give you for why I am here… is that Torna is my last chance.”

“Last chance?” Sena asked confusedly. “I still don’t get it… What happened to your ‘Warrior’s Way,’ Cammuravi?”

The specificity naturally caught him off guard, doubtlessly confused as to how Sena even knew about it. But his confusion was quickly overtaken by narrowed eyes and a grimace. When he finally spoke up again, it was out of an uncharacteristic anger.

“This world does not deserve my Way!”

Cammuravi surged towards them, spear ready to strike hard and fast, and leaving them little time to react. Mio raised Sena’s hammer at the last second to block the strike, but it was too little, too late, and the spearpoint made painful contact.

“Mio!”

Sena cried as she was launched backwards, landing in stacked boxes that fell atop her. In her daze, she barely noticed as Cammuravi immediately approached Sena with the same ferocity, quickly overwhelming her defences. Her barrier didn’t take long to break, and when it did, she heard Sena scream.

Unwilling to ignore her friend in danger, Mio forced herself up, and got herself ready to summon her Sundancers. But before she could, Poppi swooped in to protect her friend from further harm, immediately followed by Tora’s defence.

“Stand aside, boy!” Cammuravi demanded as his spear was blocked by the drill biter.

“Tora… cannot do!” the Nopon returned, struggling against the Blade’s might. “Cannot abandon… new friends!”

Despite his tenacity, Tora’s strength was wavering against the continued assault. But it did capture Cammuravi’s full attention, leaving Mio with one opportunity to stop him.

“Yaaah!”

The Smouldering lancer barely had time to shift his gaze before it was met with the Meteor Smasher. It ploughed into Cammuravi’s face as Mio barreled towards him, bathed in that golden light once more, and knocked him across the training ground until he hit the rock wall on its edge.

Satisfied with him being down for the second, Mio immediately turned to her friend.

“Sena, are you okay?”

Her hiss in response wasn’t a particularly good sign, but she clearly tried to look her best as she rose from the floor. “I’m… fine. Just a little burned, I think.”

Nodding at her friend’s somewhat strained reassurance, Mio turned back towards Cammuravi just in time to see what Akhos was doing. He’d been left in the hands of Rex, Nia and Vandham, but things didn’t seem to be going well; Pyra was slumped against the cliff face, and Akhos was slowly approaching her with Obrona’s blades in hand.

But then, when he moved to strike her, he was suddenly blown back by an explosion of ether, courtesy of Vandham.

“Kids these days, I swear!” he chastised. “Can’t leave you alone for a minute.”

Rex, who was also on his knees and in pain, was rather glad to see him.

“Could use a hand!”

“Leave it to me. I’ll take this dog down!”

And Vandham made good on his promise. Launching a tornado of wind ether ahead of him, he blinded Akhos for long enough to pass his twin scythes back to Roc. The Blade summoned an even larger tornado, throwing off any attempts to deflect the ether flow and leaving the Torna Driver with little choice but to charge head-on… straight into Dromarch’s slash.

Knocked backward, the pretentious Driver did his best to make the landing look smooth despite his damage, rolling to break the fall and quickly stand up again. But as Akhos pushed up his glasses one last time, he took a look at Cammuravi’s state and frowned.

“My interest has waned. Obrona, Cammuravi! Perhaps it’s time for another tale.”

Cammuravi was more than willing to join him, but Obrona seemed to find his reasoning unconvincing as she followed. “Sure, sure…”

Torna’s trio of assailants, seemingly spent, quickly jumped up the cliffside to the gate, finally giving Garfont back its peace. But the damage was done… and Pyra still hadn’t woken up.

“Is Mio okay? Blade man knocked friend quite far…”

Mio was distracted from her concern by Poppi’s question, leaving her to turn to the Artificial Blade in surprise. “Oh, I’m okay. Just a little sore, I think.”

“Glad to hear! But… what about Blade friend?”

“Sena? Umm… she’ll recover. Just a bit burned, she said.”

At this point Sena noticed their conversation and jogged over to join them, quickly agreeing with Mio’s recollection. “Yeah, his lance got me pretty good. But still, I’ll be fine after a little trip to Nia, I think. Maybe I’ll need something for the burn, but it shouldn’t take too long to fix.”

Something about Sena’s reassurance felt off, but Mio couldn’t place it until after Poppi tilted her head in confusion. “Isn’t Sena Blade? Shouldn’t friend not need to see healer at all?”

And then it finally hit Mio what was wrong. As they had just learned, Blades healed themselves without assistance, and yet here Sena was, casually talking about needing a healer’s help with no room for misinterpretation. Sena seemed to realise her faux pass eventually, giving Poppi an awkward half-smile.

“Oh, uh, right… Well, the thing is, I’m not quite a normal Blade? Little secret of mine, though Mio knows it pretty well.”

Mio gave her friend a half-lidded stare at her admission, unable to prevent a sigh. “I suppose that’s out of the bag, then. Listen, Poppi, can I ask you a favour?”

The Artificial Blade nodded fervently at her request. “Of course! Poppi is programmed with ability to perfectly remember list of favours if necessary. Masterpon has already used to great effect!”

“Alright then. Do you mind if you keep Sena’s… unique circumstances a secret? Kind of like how we don’t tell everyone we meet that I have a Core Crystal, I’m worried about what will happen if too many people find out.”

“Understood! Poppi will not tell soul unless instructed!”

“Thanks, Poppi!” Sena returned gratefully, before watching her return to her Driver’s side. “Wow, she’s quite different to Ino, huh? Acts a lot more like an early termer, but also just talks a lot more like…”

“Like Segiri?” Mio finished.

“Yeah… I wonder if she’s with Lanz right now, on the other world.”

“I’m sure you’ll find out eventually. You may not have been able to communicate with him yet, but I bet it’ll work after you’ve Interlinked, right?”

“Right!”

As her gaze turned back to the still-sleeping Pyra, Mio felt a pang of regret. She hadn’t even attempted to call out to Noah during the fight, and she couldn’t help but wonder if it would have made a difference. All she could do now was hope for Pyra’s swift recovery.

~~~

Slowly but surely, Noah felt the growing urge to call out to Mio. He didn’t, of course; there was no telling where she was, and it hadn’t yet gotten so desperate as to need their Interlink to succeed, but the length of the fight was getting to him.

“Tachyon Slash!”

The sharp waves, released as Noah pulled Lucky Seven from its sheath, finally finished off the group of M55’s advancing on him. He would be relieved if not for the fact that he had slain them already, and Xord had called more to his aid. But speaking of Xord…

“There you are!”

Noah barely avoided the Mechon’s titanic hammer, the impact sending a tremor through the floor. Reyn and Miller had been doing their best to keep the Mechon’s attention, but they weren’t the ones looking for weaknesses in Xord’s armour. And, unfortunately, their enemy was not immune to noticing their activity.

But then again, not all of them quite minded the attention.

“Hey, scrap-face! You’re looking at the wrong soldier!”

Ashera’s taunt caught Xord’s ire, helped by her thrusting her twinsaber into one of his joints. The titanic Mechon slowly turned to her, letting Noah go for now.

“And just what sorta bug are you supposed to be?”

Ashera didn’t take much stock in his derisive question, her expression remaining unchanged. “I’m Ashera, you bronze bastard. And I’m not afraid of you. You monsters don’t know it yet, but someday, my name will be enough to send you all running back to the rotting Titan you call home.”

Her self-confidence was obvious, but it did little to sway Xord beyond making him laugh. “You're not afraid of me? Heh heh ha! That’s what so many of those colony folk said. Didn’t matter in the end - I ate ‘em all the same! Just like I’ll eat you!”

Eager to find his next morsel, Xord punctuated his rebuttal with an attempt to squash Ashera. But she saw it coming well in advance, avoid his hammer with a theatrical twirl.

“Sorry, Xord. I have no intention of dying to something as pathetic as you. So let’s send you packing properly! Emm!”

“Got it!”

Right on cue, Noah’s Captain came in to help knock Xord off balance by striking a vital joint. Noah quickly joined her, and Shulk wasn’t far behind. With his movements impeded, there was only one thing left to do.

“Miller, Reyn, now!”

Sharla’s call prompted the two soldiers to rush at the bronze-faced Mechon. Slamming into his side with their guarders, Xord was unable to prevent his fall, tipping over and finally giving them a chance to attack.

“Everyone, attack!”

The moment Shulk gave the order, everyone piled on the Mechon. Stabbing and shooting at whatever key machinery they could find, it was the first time in this fight that they did real damage.

But it refused to last. As quickly as the opportunity had come, Xord regained control of his limbs, pushing himself back on his feet and throwing his attackers off his chest.

“I think a fly bit me, haha!”

The soldiers stepped backwards alongside Shulk and Reyn, frustration evident in their expressions.

“He’s a stubborn piece of junk, huh?” Ashera commented, joking in spite of the situation.

Leater wasn’t so jovial. “Yeah, I noticed!”

Amidst the turmoil brewing as they caught their breath, Shulk remained acutely aware of their goal… and how far it was from their reach.

“We’ll never get to Juju at this rate! I’ve got to think of something…”

Before Noah could even theorise a plan, his ears suddenly caught the approach of rapid footsteps, a holdover from his time with Mio. Turning towards them, he could only make out a streak of silver before they jumped on the Mechon’s back, stabbing with their dual rapiers.

“I think you’ll find that this bug stings!”

“Ethel?!”

Noah could hardly believe it! Out of nowhere, Silvercoat Ethel had appeared to save him once more, jumping onto Xord’s back and immediately distracting the faced Mechon, who was just as surprised as he was.

“Huh? Who’re you?!”

“I am Lieutenant Colonel Ethel… of the Colony 6 Defence Force! And I will be glad to send to your grave, you monster! Now, Otharon!”

Noah had honestly lost sight of the Colonel since the fight began, but her call brought the older man back into his focus. Noah had no idea what she meant until what appeared to be a Levnis slammed into Xord, attempting to push the Mechon towards the ether river in the centre of the pit.

“Ay?” Reyn exclaimed, a reasonable reaction in his eyes. “Where did you come from?”

Though he didn’t exactly answer Reyn’s question, any doubts as to the mining mech’s pilot were quashed when Otharon’s voice rang from it, just as Ethel leapt from the Mechon’s back.

“You feeling hungry, eh? Chew on this, scrap-for-brains!”

The Colonel railed the machine against Xord, pushing with all the power the device could achieve. Slowly but surely it moved the mechanical menace towards its potential doom, finally giving the rest of them a chance to do something as the Mechon was preoccupied.

“Boy! Now’s your chance - save Juju!”

The Colonel had known just that, rallying them to do what they came to do. Noah was quick to agree, and the rest of the soldiers followed behind, but Shulk lagged behind.

“Otharon, don’t do it!”

His desperate cry finally reminded Noah of what they’d discussed before - a death foreseen in this very location. But Otharon didn’t know or care, eventually answering with little more than a reminder.

“Hurry up!”

Noah didn’t hesitate for a second longer. Readying Lucky Seven and jumping into the air, he slashed out from his side, sending targeted waves at Juju’s holding device. Its propulsion disabled, the cage slowly fell towards the floor, until it completely shut down, dropping Juju as it fell apart.

Thankfully, Ashera was ready. Jumping into the air, she grabbed Sharla’s brother and shielded him from further harm, before landing and carefully setting him down. Sharla was naturally by his side in an instant, looking him over with a combination of methodical actions and familial concern.

With Juju safe, Noah’s attention returned to Otharon and Xord, where it quickly became apparent that the Mechon was fighting back.

“Old man, you think you can stop me?”

Xord’s words were more questioning than anything, but Otharon took them far differently than the Mechon could have expected.

“No I don’t,” the Colonel accepted. “But I can do this!”

Perhaps Otharon had simply been lulling Xord into a false sense of security, because he suddenly kicked the mech up a gear. Its wheels pushed forwards with previously unseen force, managing to overpower even the faced Mechon’s might. And Otharon was more than ready to finish off the monster.

“Let’s see if that Mechon body of yours can withstand an ether river!”

As Sharla continued to check on Juju, pleading for her brother to wake, Reyn was suddenly up and about, seemingly realising something Noah hadn’t.

“Sharla, leave the rest to us!” he assured the Medic, before running towards Otharon. “Hang in there you old fool!”

In a moment of realisation, Noah finally saw the danger Shulk had foreseen. As the pit floor began to fall into the ether river, and Xord with it, there was no way Otharon wouldn’t join them. And hearing the Colonel yell at his foe in desperation, it quickly became obvious that he was willing to sacrifice himself to do it.

“Fall, you damn machine!”

His battle cry precluded the floor finally giving way, as Ashera and Noah ran frantically to catch up with Reyn. Even as he fell, Xord cursed their efforts, most of all that of the man who would fall with him.

“D-d… Damn you!”

“Otharon! Hold on!”

But as the vehicle began to tip off the edge, the previously missing Shulk’s voice ran out across the mine. Noah turned towards it to see him piloting a crane of some kind, just as he fired its claw towards Otharon. 

By some miracle, it grabbed one of the craft’s wheels. As Shulk pulled the claw back, his crane was pulled closer to the pit, but it eventually held firm.

“What a shot!”

Reyn had never been more accurate. The man Shulk had narrowly rescued was not as jovial, sounding to Noah’s ears to be in quiet disbelief.

“Boy…”

 As Shulk slowly pulled him from danger, he explained his resolve. “We can change our destinies. Otharon… you won’t die here. Not today.”

And yet it wasn’t a tick after his declaration that Otharon was suddenly pulled backwards, jerking Shulk in his seat and shaking the ground. The wielder of the Monado strained to keep the Colonel safe, but it quickly became apparent that their foe was not yet dead.

“You… cannot… defeat… me!”

Xord’s desperate insistence would have sounded pathetic if not for the very real danger of Otharon still falling, yet Noah had no clue how he could stop him. Shulk was just as desperate, pleading to the Colonel to get to safety.

“Get out of there… quick! It’s giving way!”

And yet Noah had a strange feeling Otharon wouldn’t listen. He remembered what the old man had said about Gadolt, the man he likened to a son, and how he was more than likely dead.

No soldier of sound mind would leave the cockpit and take aim with his rifle. But revenge was a blinding motivation, and it gave Otharon all the reason he needed.

“It won’t be long now, my friends. But not before… Gadolt! This is for you. This is for the people of Colony 6!”

As Otharon fired one last shot, Noah reached forward helplessly. Xord was finally dislodged, screaming like an ordinary human as he fell to what should finally be his death. But as the massive weight let go, the Colonel lost his sparse footing.

Shulk called the man’s name in desperation as he tumbled through the air. And yet he looked content. Though his Lieutenant Colonel watched on in horror, Noah couldn’t help but remember Ethel fighting to a death on her own terms.

“Gadolt…” he welcomed. “I’ll see you before long.”

Noah couldn’t help but watch in his helplessness as Shulk turned away in his despair. And yet, despite the situation, there was still hope - in the most unexpected form, that he perhaps should have still expected.

“That was close!”

Barely holding on to the arm of the crane, Reyn had managed to grab the end of Otharon’s rifle, saving the old man for the second time today, and in perhaps the most dangerous way he could have done. Not for the first time, Noah was reminded of Lanz… though this time for his self-destructive bravery.

“You wanna hurry up? My arm’s about ready to drop off!”

Reyn’s joking reminder finally spurred Otharon to action, leaving the old man to pull himself up his own rifle.

“Thank you,” Otharon responded, clearly still shocked to be alive 

“Save the thanks for Shulk and his vision,” Reyn redirected. “As soon as I saw an ether river, I knew this had to be the place.”

As Shulk moved them both to safety, Noah let out a long sigh of relief. For a while, no one managed to even speak, until…

“This has been a very long night,” Miller suddenly posited to break the thankful silence.

“That…” Leater began, pausing for breath, “is the most true thing you have ever said. Thank the stars it’s finally over.”

“Hey, don’t count your Tirkins before they hatch, Emm,” Ashera cautioned sardonically. “He clung to life once already, after all…”

“Oh don’t you start. If he somehow comes back, it is entirely your fault, Ashera!”

“That’s what you always say. I only deserve it… half the time!”

Leaving the arguing captains, Noah remembered Ethel’s late appearance. Walking over to her, he finally got to see the new Silvercoat in her entirety. The silver coat remained, though a bit different, but beneath it was a slightly more typical Defence Force armour… but with some design changes similar to her appearance in Aionios.

“It’s good to see you safe, Lieutenant Commander Ethel,” Noah greeted.

He instinctively began to perform the Kevesi salute, before stopping it awkwardly half way. Ethel noticed, as she had a tendency to do, but only nodded in response.

“My apologies,” she began, “but I’m afraid we haven’t been introduced. Are you from the Colony 9 Defence Force?”

“Yes. My name is Noah. I serve under Captain Leater.”

“…The woman arguing with Captain Ashera?”

“Uh, yes. They seem to get on each other’s nerves.”

“So it would seem.”

It wasn’t much, but seeing the quirk of a smile on her face was reassuring to Noah. Even in this strange world, she was still the same Ethel. She looked as if she wanted to say more, but a conversation with Shulk, Reyn and Otharon suddenly took her attention.

“A boy who can change the future… I stand corrected, young man. You’ve done a great deed here today.”

Shulk was unwilling to shoulder all the praise. “I didn’t really do anything. I couldn’t have done it without you guys.”

Noah couldn’t help but smile at his acknowledgement, his comrades doing much the same. But there was more Otharon wanted to say.

“Tell me - your vision saved me. But what of the others? What happened to Gadolt?”

Shulk only responded with an awkward noise and a shake of his head. Noah supposed seeing the future didn’t exactly allow you to divine the past. Though Otharon was disappointed to hear it, he took the truth gracefully.

“I see…”

As Sharla gave Juju one last look over, her Colonel called her over. Perhaps in the spirit of honouring those who weren’t with them, Otharon pulled a second rifle from his back… the one he said was Gadolt’s.

“Sharla, take this,” he requested. “Gadolt would have wanted you to have it.”

The Medic slowly took the memento of her fiancée from him, clutching it close without saying a word. In the mournful quiet, Noah came to a resolution.

“Colonel Otharon?”

He looked somewhat surprised to hear Noah’s address, but responded as he likely would to any soldier. “Noah, correct? What is it?”

“Sir. Before we leave, do you mind if I do something? It’s not much, but I want to remember the people of Colony 6 that didn’t make it.”

The Colonel looked apprehensive, doubtlessly confused as to what he meant even as he pulled the flute from his pack. But his Lieutenant was much more readily accepting, turning to Otharon with a smile that seemed reassuring.

“Alright, then. But after that we’re heading out. Juju needs medical support.”

Shulk nodded, and Reyn punched a fist into his palm before agreeing too.

“Time to head back to the camp, then. What’s our best way outta here?”

Though he heard Sharla mention a freight elevator, Noah began to tune the discussion out, readying Mio’s former flute for the performance.

Before, he had played one of Crys’s variations in memory of Fiora. This time, he played one of his own versions of the Keves Offseeing melody. Though it was not for one specific person, not even Gadolt, he directed his music towards all those from Colony 6 whose lives were cut short by a senseless invasion.

When the last note sounded, although no motes appeared once again, Noah couldn’t help but feel the gaze of someone else on him. When he turned back towards the rest of the group, it quickly became apparent that only one of them had remained to watch.

“Ethel,” he acknowledged, briefly forgetting her title. “I’m surprised you stayed behind.”

If Ethel took any offence to the casual form of address, she didn’t make it obvious.

“I couldn’t walk away,” she admitted. “That melody was beautiful, Noah. It may not mean much to the others, but from the bottom of my heart, thank you for honouring my fallen friends and comrades.”

“You’re too kind.”

Putting his flute away, Noah began walking back to the remainder of the group with Ethel. As he did, he suddenly remembered about her old Lieutenant.

“Oh, by the way, did you hear that Bolearis got out safely?”

Ethel nodded. “I did, though I also heard his luck with avoidable injuries continues. It’s the one thing we were never able to train out of an otherwise reliable leader.”

“Haha, that sounds like him.”

After a surprisingly long walk, they finally reached the freight elevator. But, just before they boarded it, Ethel suddenly turned towards him, something akin to determination on her face.

“Halt a moment, Noah.”

He did just that, unsure what the reason for her request was.

“Perhaps this may sound strange, but… Have we met before?”

The rules of this new world made answering that question difficult. Noah had certainly met an Ethel before - he’d met two, in fact - but he hadn’t yet met Ethel in this new world. Perhaps he somehow knew her before the worlds merged together and became Aionios, but there was no way of knowing for sure.

“I don’t believe so,” Noah answered after a short delay. “What makes you think we might have?”

“At first it was more of a coincidence than anything,” Ethel explained. “Simply the fact that you were so sure that monster hadn’t killed me. But having met Bolearis, I suppose it’s not impossible for that oaf to rub off on you. And yet, when you played that flute, I was haunted by just how familiar it sounded. But I know for a fact I haven’t watched you play before, so I’m left rather lost on why I feel this way.”

Perhaps Noah should have seen it coming. The melody of an Offseer was ingrained into every soldier in Keves and Agnus both, so it wasn’t so strange that they’d still find it vaguely familiar. And yet, it still gave Noah a strange and fragile hope that it could mean more.

“That is certainly strange,” he admitted, “but perhaps we’ll find out eventually. Regardless, I’m glad that you made it out of here safe, Ethel.”

“And you too, Noah.”

With their enlightening conversation over, they boarded the freight elevator. As they did, and the elevator began rising, Noah noticed Juju slung over Miller’s shoulder. Perhaps their ordeal to save the boy was finally over.

…And then the elevator suddenly halted.

“Ay? Why’ve we stopped?”

Reyn’s worried question was one none of them really wanted to answer, but eventually Shulk gave the only one he could.

“I don’t know. But I think we’re about to find out…”

Shulk’s guess immediately heralded the loud thrusters of a Mechon that was proving to be far too resilient. Xord, still somehow alive, landed on their platform, mostly intact but missing something important - the red glow was gone from his damaged armour. And Shulk notified it too, though any contribution he could make was interrupted by Emmy’s frustration.

“See?! This is exactly what I’m talking about! You just had to tempt fate, and now he’s back to terrorise us again! This is all your fault, Ashera!”

“Okay, to give me a little credit,” Ashera began awkwardly, “I wasn’t aware he was this stubborn. But that’s okay with me - now I get to kill him properly!”

“Right,” Shulk agreed, though Noah wondered if he was actually agreeing with the spirit of Ashera’s reasoning. “This is our chance, guys! His armour won’t protect him from the Monado any more.”

Xord doubtlessly heard his declaration as the group got their weapons back out, but he seemed hardly phased. As Noah and the others stared him down, he cackled menacingly.

“Oh, the Monado still won’t save you, boy. I’ll eat you all up regardless! Starting with… you!”

As Noah tried to trace Xord’s gaze, what he found was the worst possible outcome. He began slamming his hammer towards Miller, with Juju still on his shoulders, and there was no way the encumbered soldier would be able to dodge in time for both of them. Noah had to do something.

Rushing towards them both, he dropped Lucky Seven and ran with both his hands outwards. As he reached Miller, he pushed with as much force as he could muster, forcing them both out of the way faster than he would have by himself… and thankfully, just out of range of Xord’s hammer.

“Noah!”

But as Shulk’s scream reminded him, there was someone else now in danger. With all his momentum and energy spent saving Miller and Juju, he had no time left to escape from Xord’s attack on his own. And yet, for some reason, Shulk hadn’t done anything to help. He was reaching for the Monado frantically, perhaps attempting to cast a shield on him at the last moment, but Noah knew he wouldn’t make it. Despite the Monado’s visions, Shulk hadn’t seen it coming - he was on his own.

Noah could only raise his hands towards the Mechon’s weapon… and call out to his other half.

MIO!

And as the word finally resounded through his consciousness, she answered him once more. The Interlink formed just in time, bursting into existence in a flash of light, slowly revealing their hands holding the titanic hammer at bay.

“What?! It can’t be! You’re that- gah!“

Xord’s realisation was cut short by Mio forcing the hammer to the floor beside him, thankfully long since vacated by his allies, before getting a powerful punch to his metal jaw. Blown onto his back, Noah quickly resumed the assault, summoning the Ouroboros’s blade to strike the downed Mechon.

“No wonder Metal Face scarpered off… You’re real! Hah!”

Xord’s continued exclamation did little more than tick Noah and Mio off, even as the rest of their group began to join in. But even now the Bronze Face refused to stay down, pushing his attackers away one last time. He tried once more to squash someone, this time being Otharon, but Mio was more than ready.

“Still… hungry!“

“Bounding End!”

Throwing the Ouroboros Blade in a boomerang, it both deflected Xord’s hammer and attacked its wielder, piercing through what remained of his defences. The gaping wound left only one thing to do, and Noah knew just how to do it. Rushing in and holding the weapon back one more, Noah turned their Interlinked head towards the woman he had so personally tormented.

“Now, Sharla!”

She didn’t need to be told twice. With Gadolt’s rifle in her hands, she rushed towards her foe, and gave Xord one last bullet straight to his chest… finally disabling the rampaging Mechon.

“Did we get ‘im?”

As Reyn asked the hopeful question, Noah, Mio and Sharla all stood back and kept a careful eye on Xord. When he finally moved, it was only to slowly drag himself towards the edge of the elevator, facing down the shaft towards the pit. As Shulk approached the Mechon’s side, Noah couldn’t help but feel haunted by Xord’s strange, hard breathing. It was as if he wanted them to see the monster as almost human one last time.

“Got to hand it to you,” he admitted as Shulk stared at him, his red eyes flickering. “You beat me without even releasing the true power of the Monado.”

Shulk was understandably confused as to what he meant. “True power? What do you know about the Monado?!”

But even on the brink of death, the Mechon was defiant. “Sorry, boy. I can’t tell you that. You’ll have to find out the truth on your own.”

“The truth?”

“…When I became what you see now, that’s when my eyes were opened. Was a good ride while it lasted.”

“When you became like this?!” Shulk questioned, understandably as concerned as Noah was about the implication. “What do you mean?!”

Xord didn’t give him the answer they craved. “Time’s up, pipsqueak. I’m gone!”

As he declared it, Xord launched himself off the elevator and down the shaft, ignoring Shulk’s shout. Seconds later, he exploded in a blinding flash, taking the chance of answers with him as they shielded their eyes.

That thing… Mio suddenly spoke up in their head, her discomfort evident. It looks just like the robot that attacked Colony 9, but it speaks as if it were alive.

I know, Noah agreed. And yet I killed it all the same.

He could have sworn he heard Mio sigh.

Don’t start blaming yourself, Noah. You were left with no other options, and no shortage of people to protect. As long as you’re trying to find out why, you’re doing the best you can.

…Thanks, Mio. I’ll talk to you more later; I think I’m about to get bombarded with questions. Love you.

Love you too, Noah.

And with that brief farewell, Mio returned to her world, leaving Noah alone to return to his human body… and receive the stares of almost everyone who was present. It was quiet until the elevator began moving upward once more, leading everyone to break the silence at once.

“What did I just-“

“Are you okay-“

“-and I could have sworn you were going to kill us-“

“But why didn’t I-“

“So you’re the thing that showed up in the Colony-“

“GUYS!”

Reyn was forced to shout as loud as he could just to calm everyone down.

“If you wanna ask him a question,” he continued, “you can do it one at a time, alright? Pretty sure we’ve got bigger first to fry at the moment - we need to get out of the mine quickly.”

The sudden quiet returned in a much more awkward shade, but it was soon enough broken by Ethel’s agreement.

“You’re right, of course… It does us no good to lose our composure at a time like this. We’ll discuss this later, once we’re all safe. I trust Noah not to endanger us in the meantime.”

Though she had directed most of her speech to the gathered soldiers, for her last sentence she turned back to Noah. He gave her a respectful nod in thanks as he picked up his sword from the ground.

Though the mood remained sombre for the short remainder of the ride, even as the sound of an explosion grew in the mine beneath them, Noah wasn’t phased. Instead, he was confused; Shulk and Reyn knew full well he had Interlinked before, and yet Shulk looked like he’d seen a ghost.

Eventually curiosity got the better of him, and he approached Shulk himself.

“What’s wrong, Shulk? You’ve seen my Ouroboros form already, but you still seem rattled.”

Shulk hesitated on answering, but perhaps remembering Reyn’s earlier heroics, he eventually responded.

“…When you saved Miller and Juju from Xord’s hammer, you were absolutely going to die in their place. There was no way anyone could have saved you.”

Noah nodded, a grim expression overtaking his face. “If it wasn’t for the Interlink, I would have been crushed.”

The confirmation did little but sour Shulk’s own expression. “But that’s the thing. You acted because you knew there was no other option. I know, because just before it happened, I got a vision of their death.”

So it was about his visions after all, Noah realised. But something about that seems off…

“…You didn’t do anything to make me act, did you?” Noah pieced together. “But you still got a vision. Is that what’s eating you?”

To his shock, the wielder of the Monado shook his head. “That’s not it… not really. The thing that’s making me so worried isn't a vision I shouldn’t have seen - it’s a vision I didn’t.”

Shulk’s lip was trembling now, mirroring his clenched fist as he stared at the floor.

“Noah, when you were about to die, the Monado didn’t show me anything. I used the same power to save Juju and Otharon, and yet it refused to save you! If you hadn’t used that power of yours, you would have died, and it would have been my fault!”

His revelation was concerning, but Shulk’s self-flagellation was getting neither of them anywhere. Noah sent out a little thanks to Mio for the words of encouragement earlier - now was the perfect time to borrow them.

“I see where you’re coming from, Shulk. And I agree, it is concerning. But you’ve got nothing to beat yourself up over - you did what you could, and I’d never hold that against you.”

Hearing his words, Shulk slowly met his eyes once again, sincerely grateful.

“Thank you, Noah.”

Right on cue, the elevator reached its final destination, but the remnants of Xord’s death were catching up with them fast. The raiders of Colony 6, and those they rescued, quickly ran from the platform, thankfully making it a safe distance away before the explosion of ether erupted from the elevator shaft.

With their work finally done, Miller set Juju down on the rock wall, leaving him to his sister’s watchful gaze.

“We smashed that bronze idiot,” Reyn declared, putting a close to Xord’s reign of terror. “Now the people of Colony 6 can rest in peace.”

Sharla agreed, but as she did, Juju finally began to wake up, groaning as he did.

“Are you okay?” she questioned, fretting all the while.

“Sharla…”

Juju’s response was hoarse and tired - a clear sign of what he’d been through. But it was at least confirmation he should pull through.

“Thank the stars you’re all right.”

“…Where are we?”

“Just outside Colony 6. Thanks to Shulk, Reyn, and everyone else, we destroyed that… thing. But not everyone made it.”

“Oh…”

After some sort of realisation, Juju forced himself to his feet, leaning on Sharla to do it, and turned towards Shulk and Reyn.

“I’m so sorry,” he apologised. “Shulk, Reyn… I didn’t mean to cause any more trouble, running off like that.”

“Forget about it, kid,” Reyn dismissed. “We settled the score.”

“Thanks.”

Shulk was not so convinced. “Yes, but there’s still no sign of that Mechon with the metal face. He’s the one we’re really after.”

“The one Xord called Metal Face, right?” Ashera confirmed. “Yeah, I’d be happy to send him packing.”

Her fellow Captain sent her a death stare, but it was too late - a new voice had already made itself heard. And it sent chills down Noah’s spine.

“Hope I’m not interrupting!”

As the familiar and threatening Metal Face rose from below the cliff, Leater couldn’t help but throw one last curse at Ashera.

“You just had to say something, didn’t you?!”

Chapter Text

“It’s him! Metal Face!”

Shulk’s shocked exclamation heralded a concerning enough arrival, but as Noah unfortunately realised, it was not the only one.

“Not just him,” Reyn corrected. “A whole bunch! And tons of ‘em look like Xord!”

Indeed, while the majority Mechon gathered were the standard variety, Noah could see that about 6 of them were Faced Mechon. Their appearance was practically identical to Xord’s, seemingly solidifying them as a model type instead of an individual. And yet that somehow wasn’t the most concerning thing he saw.

“Pathetic!” Metal Face derided, his filtered voice dripping with malice. ”After all that talk, Xord was crushed by worthless maggots like you.”

The revelation that Metal Face could speak didn’t exactly go over well with anyone who was present, but for Noah in particular it had an additional wrinkle. He didn’t believe it was really him, but the spirit of the words gave him uncomfortable flashbacks to D and J’s Moebius form bearing down on them, just after he shot his claw through Guernica’s chest.

“Aw, this one can talk ‘n’ all!” Reyn grumbled, his weapon drawn.

“I can talk all right…” Metal Face was more than willing to confirm. “And I got a good memory. ‘Fiooora! Get outta there! Get out!’ A-hahahaha!”

Noah grimaced at the monstrous foe’s glee, worried about how Shulk would react to the riling words. It even seemed to be a bridge too far for Ashera, who looked more uncomfortable than she would usually be against such an enemy. But he didn’t stop there.

“Her screams were music to my ears, as my claws slid right through her soft flesh. Like a hot knife through butter!”

As Metal Face’s terrible laughter filled their ears, the Monado roared to life in Shulk’s trembling hand.

“Talk all you want,” he growled, inconsolable rage behind his eyes. “Because those words… will be your laaast!”

Noah was not the only one to call after Shulk as he ran towards Fiora’s murderer, but none of them could sway his anger. Yet despite that resolve, when he reached Metal Face, the Monado still couldn’t pierce his foe’s long claws, allowing him to effortlessly block Shulk’s attack and push him backwards.

“The Monado?” Metal Face named, seemingly familiar with the blade from their last encounter. “Heh, it’s been a while! But you should know by now - the Monado can’t stop me!”

The Faced Mechon punctuated his declaration with a swipe of his claws tha Shulk barely blocked, knocking him all the way back to his friends. Reyn and Sharla were quick to rush towards him, calling his name in concern. Once he confirmed his friend was okay, Reyn turned back to the mechanical menace in fury.

“I’m gonna…”

His unfinished threat was hardly of concern to its would-be recipient, who resumed his taunting unabated.

“Any way you slice it, the Monado ain’t gonna work, boy. Didn’t work then, won’t work now.”

The reaffirmation of their powerlessness was frustrating, but Noah still stepped forward, his Blade pointed at their foe. Metal Face didn’t acknowledge him, instead quickly readying his claws once more.

“Now, time to cut you down to size!”

He appeared ready to swipe, and Noah got himself ready to dodge the attack the best he could. But before the Mechon could attempt it, a blast of ether interrupted him, striking one of his legs.

“What?!”

As he exclaimed in surprise, Metal Face turned towards the cliff on Noah’s left. Otharon followed his gaze, and found a surprising sight.

“That’s…”

Hearing the Colonel’s reaction, Noah turned there himself, only to notice a familiar red bandana. To his shock, it could only be Dickson… and judging by what he said next, he wasn’t alone.

“Now! Let ‘em have it, Beast!”

On his call, a familiar man somehow ran down the side of the cliff, a thin, curved sword in his left hand, and wearing a black cape over his shoulders. As he reached the bottom, and his long, brown hair became more visible, some of the smaller Mechon moved to intercept. But they didn’t last long - somehow, his sword cut right through them, leaving him unharmed as he reached the party’s side… and his face became much more visible.

“Dunban!” Reyn called as he ran over to meet the Hero of the Homs, ecstatic as to their saviour.

Shulk, meanwhile, seemed just as perplexed as Noah was about his new weapon. “How did you…?”

“Sorry to have kept you. Looks like we were just in time.”

The Hero of the Homs didn’t answer him directly, but that was probably for the best - there were still the approaching Mechon to deal with. Ashera couldn’t help but laugh at his comment, a new confidence emerging in her expression as she brandished her twinsaber at her enemies.

“Right you are, Teach! Let’s settle the score this time - once and for all!”

“Indeed! We fight as one!”

As Dickson slid down the cliff to join them, a combination sword and rifle in his hand, the rest of the soldiers charged at their adversaries. Sharla and Otharon stood back, receiving the effects of Shulk’s Enchant to provide cover fire, and damage the bipedal M64X’s with their rifles as they approached. Leater was quick to rush towards the tripedal M53X’s, quicker than their counterparts thanks to their small size, and attack them with her sword while blocking with her shield.

One of the M64X’s ran to intercept her, but by then Dickson was in the fray. He shot at the Mechon to distract it, before striking it with the blade end of his weapon’s barrel, just in time for Miller to deal the last blow with his driver. Not far away, Reyn held off two of the smaller Mechon to give Shuk the chance to intercept, which he took gladly. Ethel wasn’t far behind, taking on an M64X alone and piercing its armour with her dual rapiers in short order.

As their companions took on the swarm of more basic Mechon, Ashera was quick to set her sights on a more threatening foe. Emboldened by the presence of her mentor, she ran forward alongside Dunban towards Metal Face, but she found herself quickly intercepted by another of the multitude of Faced Mechon. Though the sight of such a towering foe could have left other soldiers terrified, Ashera could only scoff.

“So eager to die in his stead?” she questioned the machine. “Well then, we’ll be happy to oblige! Dunban?”

The Hero of the Homs gave her a reassuring nod. “On my mark! Ready… Now!”

When the Faced Mechon finally swung its electrified hammer, they dodged in two separate directions. Ashera went left, calling after her foe with her trademark irreverence and stabbing at whatever joints she could find, while Dunban went right, doing the real damage to its rear with his new sword. But by the time it realised what was happening, and swung its weapon across the ground towards the Hero, not only did he effortlessly leap over the strike, but Ethel took the opportunity to leap onto the Mechon’s back.

“Hey Silvercoat!” Ashera jeered. “Don’t steal our kill!”

“There are more important things at stake… than a kill count, Ashera!” Ethel reminded her, dodging a metal hand as she did.

As the Mechon fought to try and grab the Lieutenant Commander, Reyn and Shulk were quick to assist, finally knocking the Face to the floor. The five fighters were quick to deal as much damage as they could to it in that limited time, but too soon it rose from the floor, its armour damaged, yet no less deadly.

“Resilient bugger!” Ashera cursed. “Okay, what’s the plan now- Teach?”

Her turn towards her mentor found nothing, Dunban nowhere to be seen. His location only became obvious when a thin blade pierced through the Mechon’s small neck joint, shortly preceding its entire head falling off and the Hero of the Homs jumping down from its back. Ashera could only look impressed, unable to say anything particularly meaningful at the display, but in her absence Dickson cut in with a quip of his own.

“Hey, don’t you start slacking on the kill, Dunban!”

He punctuated his admonishment with a shot from his rifle, perfectly placed to make the downed Mechon explode before it got any better ideas. Dunban didn’t even turn around, smirking at his old friend with an almost nostalgic look in his eyes.

“Ah, but isn’t that what I keep you around for, old man?”

Dickson didn’t sound impressed, but still smirked back. “Tch, don’t push your luck.”

Before they could make any further quips, Dickson was forced to resume his shooting against another approaching wave of the faceless smaller Mechon. The remainder of the soldiers, not content with watching the Dunban and Ashera show, had already been fighting off the horde, and yet despite their efforts they were nowhere near done.

“There’s no end to them,” Reyn complained. “Where are they coming from?”

At his frustrated question, Ethel seemed to consider something for a moment, before cursing under her breath. “Damn it! The grunts must come from the rest of the force holding Colony 6. This was just a trap!”

“Sparks…” Noah cursed with her, cutting down an M63X as he did. “No wonder we got into the Colony so easily.”

“Well hey, it’s not all bad!” Ashera reasoned. “That means if we get rid of these scrap-heads, Colony 6 will be free!”

Noah supposed she had a point, but Sharla was quick to remind her of the real problem.

“I can take the smaller ones, but the rest will be like fighting Xord over and over!”

At her unfortunate truth, Shulk could only grimace, looking worriedly towards the 6 remaining Faced units.

“If only the Monado would work on these things!” he lamented in his frustration, taking his eyes away from the action. 

“Focus, Shulk!”

Dunban was quick to reprimand him for the lack of attention, but his sword was preoccupied holding back the claw of a Mechon. In the end it was Reyn, shouting at his best friend to “Look out!” that saved his back from an M53X’s arm.

“Reyn!”

Sharla was quick to shoot at the perpetrator, covering for the boys as they stood back up. And yet, in the background of their seemingly endless strife, Metal Face only laughed with glee, flexing his claws in twisted amusement.

“Hahaha! Look at you all.”

“Look at this, metal brain!”

Dickson was keen to shut him up, but his attempt at blasting the Mechon’s face failed due to some sort of energy shield from his right arm.

“That it, grandpa?!”

“Running out of ideas here,” Dickson sighed, evidently aware of the enormity of their task.

But Dunban was undeterred, rushing towards the monster that killed his sister with an unwavering determination.

“You may be able to block a projectile…” he conceded. “But let’s see if you can block this!”

Leaping into the air to attempt to strike at his face, Dunban’s blade met Metal Face’s claws as he fell. Though he struggled against the defence, the sharp metal refused to budge against even his sword, leading the Mechon to laugh at his expense.

“Tell me - How does it feel to be such a pathetic hero?”

When he finished his irreverent question, Metal Face pushed Dunban off him, sending him right back towards Shulk and forcing him to brace with his right arm. As he skidded across the dirt, his former sword arm began to shake, leading the Hero of the Homs to suppress a wince.

“You okay, Dunban?” Shulk asked, concerned for his hero even as Metal Face continued to laugh at him.

“Oh, does it hurt? I bet it does. It hurts because the Monado won’t work for a bunch of losers, like you!”

His declaration was shortly followed by a stab of his claws into the dirt where Dunban was standing, almost certainly skewering him if not for a last-second dodge.

“What are you?!” Dunban demanded, crouched against the grass.

Metal face didn’t bother to answer his question, far more interested in killing them. “Save it, I ain’t interested. You little maggots need to learn when you’ve been stepped on!”

And clearly he was serious about that. Leaning forward, the large point behind Metal Face’s head was revealed to be some sort of ether cannon, and Noah could only watch in horror as blue energy gathered at its tip. As it continued to charge, Dunban came to much the same realisation as he did.

“That light… Everyone! Fall back, now!”

“Won’t change a thing,” Metal Face assured, almost finished. “I’m gonna wipe you out, once and for all!”

Noah had no idea what to do, but he tried to run ideas through his head as quickly as possible. He was about to call for Mio and attempt to Interlink once more, despite the likely risks, when Metal Face stopped charging of his own accord. Instead, he jumped backwards, narrowly avoiding a rain of what appeared to be green lightning. 

For all he had seen in his life, Noah had no idea as to the cause until he followed the Mechon’s gaze once more. There he saw it - a strange creature flying through the sky, with a green body and what appeared to be glowing yellow feathers on its wings. A creature Metal Face seemed to recognise… but one Aionios had never seen.

“A Telethia?!” the Faced Mechon named, watching as it flew back towards the horde of metal.

When it returned to the cliffside, it rained the lightning once more, destroying most of the small Mechon and forcing the Faces to take to the skies… all save for one. And Shulk was ready to take the opportunity.

“Noah! Now’s our chance!”

“Alright!” he agreed, following the wielder of the Monado as he ran towards the distracted Face.

Together, they jumped on Metal Face’s leg, before slashing their ether-enhanced blades into the plating of the Mechon’s right arm. At first, this seemed to be just as ineffectual as usual, but as Shulk pushed harder, Metal Face appeared to grunt in pain, two burning gashes appearing on the metal.

“You’ll pay for that!” their foe insisted, still bewildered. “How are you- agh!”

His sudden reaction to the weapon was soon overpowered by Shulk shouting louder and louder, as both he and Noah leaned in further and the damage got more severe. However, in the midst of his exertion, Shulk suddenly went quiet, easing off his push slightly as he got an unfocused look in his eyes.

“Shulk?” Noah asked concernedly.

He didn’t answer Noah right away, but when he did, it didn’t exactly alleviate his concerns.

“Another one…”

The response left Noah bewildered enough to forget about the Mechon they were supposed to be fighting, leaving him unnecessarily surprised when Metal Face finally got the strength to push them back.

“Enough of this!” the Face spat, using his damaged arm to knock the swordsmen away. “You got lucky, brats! Next time, your heads are mine!”

And with that promise delivered, he quickly leapt into the air, changing his form slightly to one more reminiscent of a flying Levnis… As he flew off, he took the remaining Faced Mechon with them… and left vengeance far out of reach, to Shulk and Reyn’s frustration.

“You’re not getting away!”

“Get back here!”

Keeping a surprisingly level head, the still recovering Dunban was quick to tell them both off for their impatience. “Shulk, Reyn, let it go!”

“You’ve gotta be kidding!” Reyn exclaimed. “He’s the one who killed Fiora!”

“Know your limits. We’ll get another chance.”

Shulk was clearly hesitant, but relented, letting the Monado deactivate in his hand.

“…Fine.”

Satisfied at his friend’s resolve for now, Dunban’s gaze returned to the night sky with curiosity. “That thing saved us… whatever it was.”

Noah supposed it had, but that raised more questions than answers. Whatever the ‘Telethia’ was, it was strong enough to concern a not insignificant amount of Mechon, including Faces, and force them to retreat… if they weren’t already destroyed by it. Add to that a strange sense of deja vu despite certainly not seeing them before, and Noah was stumped as to what it could be.

He didn’t exactly have long to consider it, though. With the small fry confirmed to be, well, fried, the newcomers had proper introductions from someone he should have considered in hindsight.

“I thought it was you,” the Colonel noted, almost strangely cordial. “Nice to see you, Dickson.”

Dickson didn’t quite share his desire for serious discussions. “It’s been a while, grandpa - one year if my memory hasn’t left me. Good to see you haven’t kicked the bucket.”

The Colonel laughed at his jab, though he soon told him to “Put a sock in it.” As he did, though, the gears turned in Sharla’s head, leading to something of a late realisation.

“Wait…” she began. “Dickson? Dunban? You’re the heroes who risked your lives a year ago, in the battle to defend the colonies.”

Her question made her catch Dickson’s attention, having seemingly not really considered her presence. Walking over to where she stood next to Otharon, he gave her an inquisitive glance, before asking her a strange question.

“What’s a pretty lady like yourself doing hanging around with this bunch of slackers?”

Sharla took an unusually long time to answer that question. Noah could see why - if nothing else, singling her out above Ashera or Captain Leater seemed strange. He supposed they were captains, but Sharla was still a soldier. Regardless of his ruminations, and perhaps sensing her fellow soldier’s discomfort, Ethel interjected with some diplomatic introductions of her own to save Sharla the awkwardness.

“Dickson, Dunban. Thank you for your assistance in that skirmish.”

Dunban was dismissive of his efforts, surprisingly, claiming “I don’t believe we did much of anything.” And Dickson agreed.

“He’s right, Miss Silvercoat. Save your thanks for that giant bird.”

Ever inquisitive, Shulk was the first to ask him what it was, to which he answered with the same name as Metal Face had earlier.

“A Telethia. A mystical beast that protects the sleeping Bionis… Though I’ve never heard of one venturing down to where us Homs live. Strange.”

Strange was right, but at least there was a semblance of an explanation to their absence in Aionios, now - if the Bionis didn’t exist in the Endless Now, he supposed the Telethia wouldn’t either.

Following that rumination, the conversation turned remarkably mundane, as Dunban asked what Shulk and Reyn’s plans were and got predictable answers. What mattered more to Noah was the location Dunban suggested for where Metal Face had run off to - Galahad Fortress in Sword Valley. Apparently in the midst of construction during the battle one year ago, it was an incredibly strong tactical position to launch attacks from.

The majority of the gathered soldiers agreed with Dunban’s assessment of their next move, only for Shulk to cut in with a detour. It was at this point that Noah and Reyn both realised Shulk had received another vision, but that only sparked a whole load of questions from Dickson. 

In the midst of their explanation, they realised how late it had gotten. After a quick deliberation, a decision was made - For the night, they would camp in the ruins of Colony 6. Noah was in no position to disagree, seeing as he fell asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

~~~

It was almost amazing how much less safe Manana now felt in Garfont village. After those Torna meanies (and Cammuravi) had strutted in and gave the residents a scare, what was once a place that felt overwhelmingly relaxed was now noticeably tense. Sena even corroborated this, considering she’d been there for considerably longer, and Mio must have felt it too, because she was quick to retire to her bed. Almost too quick, actually… nah, she must have been imagining it.

With Mio conked out, Sena and Manana had gone to check on Pyra, who was unconscious for markedly more concerning reasons. Something about Rex getting injured, according to Sena, but that wasn’t really in her wheelhouse. Regardless, they weren’t the only ones with her - Tora, Poppi, Nia and Dromarch were in the same room, and Rex had been there before he left somewhat awkwardly.

She figured it was to talk to Vandham and Roc about something, but they didn’t exactly know for sure. After making sure she was as okay as she could be under Nia and Dromarch’s care, Sena suggested they leave, and she was happy to oblige. Their new destination would be to check up on their friend; Mio hadn’t eaten dinner, after all!

But before they left, Sena suddenly stopped them before the door out of the room. Manana was initially rather confused as to why, but the answer became apparent when she listened a bit harder… and heard Rex and Vandham talking.

“...a just fight?” she heard, disjointed from some part of the conversation she’d missed. “I’m tellin’ you now, there’s no such thing. What people call justice? It’s just an excuse to fight - war is war.”

This rhetoric sounded familiar. Perhaps it was best Mio wasn’t here for this.

“The more you stand up for yourself,” he continued, “the more people wanna fight you. Before you know it, you’re in a war.”

There was an awkward pause in his explanation as Rex presumably reacted to what he said, but the mercenary resumed it quickly.

“Look, all I’m saying is, we got our fight, and he’s got his.”

Rex was quick to protest, though it was quiet, almost subdued. “But what he’s doing is-”

“Yeah, it’s bad. But war isn’t about right and wrong. Power - that’s all it is. And power can take many different forms. It depends on the heart of the wielder. If we don’t use our power just ‘cos we’re scared, we’re done for. As for who’s right and who’s wrong… No one knows for sure. So all we can do is protect what’s important.”

“…I think I understand.”

The acceptance seemed to be enough for Vandham. When he spoke up again, it was with a sense of finality to it.

“We all got our own war, kid.”

The phrase seemed to make Rex consider himself. “My… war?”

Manana listened for more, but all that seemed to happen after that were pleasantries, followed by them both leaving. Taking that as their cue, Manana led Sena out into the village air once more, only to look up and see her with a complicated look on her face.

“Is friend okay?”

Sena reacted to her concern with a knitted brow that was uncharacteristic of the girl. She did answer Manana eventually, but if she hesitated that much, Vandham’s words must have really done a number on her… again. For as much as he was a nice guy, he seemed to do that on the regular.

“Kinda. I’m just thinking about what Vandham said, and… I don’t really get it.”

That was a little different to what she expected. “Meh? What has Sena so confused?”

“It’s that part about right and wrong. He made it sound like what we’re doing is no better than what Torna is doing. I just… I don’t know, maybe it's the years of being a soldier talking, but I’m finding it hard to accept that Torna could be anything but the bad guys. They certainly act like it.”

Her last line was uttered with a noticeable distaste… probably for the way one of them treated Mio, if Manana had to guess. Truth be told, nothing about this group had really made her think of them as particularly good in her books either, but there was one wrinkle in that idea that Sena seemed to be forgetting.

“But if Torna is all supervillainpon,” she realised, “then wouldn’t that make Nia supervillainpon, too?”

“What?!” Sena exclaimed, unable to help her surprise. “No, of course not! She must have just been with them because… Because she was forced to! Yeah, that’s the only thing that would make sense.”

Manana knew it was a hard pill to swallow, but Sena’s denial still felt strangely fervent.

“Sena, friend Nia left Torna on purpose, Nia said. Can’t have been forced.”

“Oh. Well, then… Look, it doesn’t matter! Let’s just go check on Mio!”

With that conversation well and truly stopped, Sena was quick to start walking at a brisk pace towards where Mio was sleeping. Manana was okay with that, even if she resolved to ask her about it again later. No, the problem she was actually having was that she was doing it a little too fast for Manana’s stubby legs.

“Sena, wait! Manana not that fast! Please, waiiiit!”

~~~

They awoke next morning to the best possible news first - Pyra was awake! Manana wouldn’t have forgiven herself if she never got to have a cooking contest against her. Unfortunately, it did make her a little worried for Mio in her stead, considering that she’d not woken up when they went to visit her either.

But that worry didn’t last long, quickly extinguished when Mio appeared at breakfast. She was seemingly her usual self, but it didn’t take too much effort to realise she wanted to talk with Sena and Manana in private later. Clearly something had happened, and she couldn’t help wondering what it might be.

Perhaps that talk would have to wait for a little later, though. Once Rex’s entire group had gathered, Vandham was quick to ask the Aegis’s Driver about his intentions with Elysium, apparently reminding Mio that Torna had interrupted their last talk. Taking that as his cue, Rex explained their difficulties getting to the World Tree on account of Ophion.

To Manana’s shock, Vandham even had a suggestion for where to go to alleviate this issue. He had some sort of friend in the capital city of Uraya, Fonsa Myma, who might have known a way of dealing with the beast. The party agreed on their destination, so the leader of the mercenaries told them to meet by the entrance to the village once they were ready.

Mio seemed relieved they had a new destination, but quickly paused that to tell Sena and Manana to come back to her room… Well, their room. The village wasn’t made of space. The moment their privacy was confirmed Sena was quick to check on her friend.

“Are you okay, Mio? You didn’t wake up at all last night.”

Mio nodded, thankfully not straining to do it. “Mm. I’m well rested now. I was just tired last night because I Interlinked with Noah.”

Manana’s eyes widened a little, and she gave Mio a cursory “Meh?!” Sena, in contrast, had eyes as wide as dinner plates, and had to force herself not to exclaim too loudly.

“What?!” she eventually whisper-yelled. “But you were still here!”

Ah… that’d explain it.

“I suppose we forgot to tell you that,” Mio admitted. “When I Interlink now, my mind goes to Noah’s new world, but my body stays behind. It was very confusing for everyone the first time it happened.”

Sena reacted to that reveal about as well as they could expect.

“Oh… okay. I’d ask if the reverse was true, but you haven’t actually Interlinked in Alrest yet, right?”

“Yeah. We’ve been relatively lucky so far… though I’m worried that luck may soon run out.”

“Manana worried too…” she couldn’t help but agree. “Torna meanies most likely not leave Pyra and Rex alone just yet.”

“Right. And now we’re leaving the village to go see the rest of the Titan… It just gives more places for them to ambush us.”

Manana would admit she hadn’t thought that far, but she supposed Mio wasn’t wrong. They often had at least some idea of the lay of the land in Aionios, and even that didn’t save them from the occasional ambush, never mind these new lands with completely unfamiliar topography.

“Ah, we can’t let that get us down too much,” Sena reassured. “Gotta stay at least a little positive, right?”

Manana was quick to agree. “Sena is right! Friends cannot stop now!”

Mio laughed lightly at her friends’ tag-team pick-me-up. “Haha, I suppose I am being overly mopey. We’ve got more important things to talk about, right?”

“Right! Mio still need to explain what happen to Noah!”

Sena nodded, quickly agreeing with Manana’s insistence, and so Mio began her explanation.

“When I was called, Noah was about to be killed fighting one of those Faced Mechon called Xord, the same sort of robot that attacked Colony 9. But there was one major difference - it was talking to us.”

“Meh?” Manana exclaimed. “Aren’t Mechon without pilot?”

“Right, it doesn’t make any sense. Though that was concerning, we didn’t really have time to dwell on it. With my help, he was eventually defeated, and then seemed to… blow himself up. Perhaps he would have exploded regardless, but either way, I left Noah after that.”

“Let me guess,” Sena interjected. “Only after interrupting some sort of brooding, right?”

Mio couldn’t help but stare at her friend with a frown.

“…Are we that predictable?”

“Itsy-bit,” Manana reaffirmed. “Very adorable, though.”

Mio couldn’t help but flush a bit, before clearing her throat and resuming her story.

“Anyway! I didn’t have any more context until this morning, where I talked to him again… Though not before he gave me a bit of a scare.”

~~~

Mio felt herself waking up in Garfont once more after her exhausting day yesterday, but before she could do that, she had an important meeting. Sending her thoughts to Noah, she was relieved when she opened her eyes to see that familiar orange space that represented their minds.

“Mio?”

A equally familiar but sleepier than usual voice greeted her, and she turned around to see-

“Ah! N?!”

Judging by the way his eyes widened in surprise and he shouted “Where?!”, Mio was entirely off base.

“Sorry, Noah…” she regretfully apologised. “I just got a little startled by your hair.”

Noah initially looked at her quizzically, until he realised what she meant. “Oh, right… I’d forgotten that I took my hair tie out last night, after it felt awful. Sorry about that, Mio.”

“Hey, don’t you apologise! I’m the one who made a big deal about you letting your hair down. It’d be like if you’d freaked out over me taking the braid out of my hair.”

“Heh… Sorry?”

At his continued apologeticness, Mio gave him an exaggerated frown.

“Really, Noah? I swear, you’re just as bad as Sena sometimes.”

He seemed to consider saying sorry again as a joke, but Mio noticed and shot him a glare, so he settled for scratching his head instead.

“Anyway, now that we’re both in safer waters…” Mio redirected. “We should talk more about last night. Why were you fighting another one of those Faced Mechon, anyway?”

“Well…”

“Oh, Mio…”

Sena was quick to check on Mio’s wellbeing, but she shook her head preemptively.

“I’m fine, Sena. It was silly of me more than anything.”

“Just because friend feel silly does not make Mio’s feelings not matter!”

Manana’s surprise nugget of wisdom caught Mio off guard, but she appreciated it all the same.

“I suppose you’re right, Manana. But come on, don’t worry about me. I’m fine! Really!”

The half-lidded eyes Sena gave her in response to that seemed to be referencing something she couldn’t remember. Though, come to think of it, that did sound like a very Sena thing to say…

“Besides, we’re getting distracted. I didn’t even finish telling you what Noah said yet…”

“I still can’t believe that after all that, you were ambushed by Metal Face!”

Noah regarded her frustration as if he’d expected it. “Yeah. If not for that Telethia, we’d all be in dire straits.”

He’d mentioned that word the first time around in his explanation, and she’d put it aside to ask about now. “Hey Noah, what is that? I’ve never heard of one before.”

“Me neither… before last night anyway. Dickson described it as a ‘mythical beast that protects the sleeping Bionis,’ so it seems rooted in this world, perhaps the same way that Blades are rooted in yours.”

She supposed that made sense… Though it reminded her of something she hadn’t yet considered properly.

“Wait a minute… How come Nopon are the only creatures that exist in both worlds? …Is that why they were a neutral party to the war between Keves and Agnus?!”

Now that made Noah’s eyes widen. “Come to think of it, you might be right. I still remember what X said about Nopon ‘not being supposed to interfere,’ so they were clearly treated as a special case. How weird…”

“I guess Titans are common to both too, but not only were they not in Aionios, they seem much larger on your side. And ours definitely aren’t sleeping, either.”

She’d mentioned the Bionis being asleep as an aside, just for a point of comparison. But the moment Noah heard it, he furrowed his brow.

“Sleeping… Hm.”

“What’s wrong, Noah?”

“It’s probably nothing, but… Up until now, I’d gotten the impression the Bionis and Mechonis were dead, not sleeping. I remember Riku saying something about our world being built on the backs of their lifeless corpses, and yet Dickson said ‘sleeping.’ How… interesting.”

Something about the combination of his unusually low voice and ominous way of ending a sentence gave her far more flashbacks to N than she’d like, so she did the only sensible thing she could in this situation… and held his face in her hands.

“Wha- Mio?!”

“Come on, Noah,” she chastised, putting a loving smile on her face. “Judging from how you’ve been talking about this guy, you’re suspicious of him, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah…”

“So just ask him about it! It’s not like he’s Moebius - he clearly existed before Origin did. So what are you so suspicious of, you dummy?”

Maybe calling him a dummy was unnecessary, but it had the desired effect - Noah has quickly gone from imposing to embarrassed, leaning into her hands.

“You’re right, of course…” he accepted, taking her hands into his own. “I’m just a little on edge from all that happened yesterday. Everything from seeing Ethel again, to those uncomfortably human words from Xord…  I don’t know what to make of it.”

“I know, but I also know that you’ll get through it, like you always do. You just have to keep moving forward.”

“Right. Thanks, Mio.”

He looked at her so gratefully, showing that honest smile she loved so much, and she couldn’t help but-

“Mimi?”

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

Sena’s interjection caught Mio off guard, though it wasn’t a particularly loud one.

“You haven’t said anything for, like, 30 seconds,” she explained. “You’ve just had your eyes closed and a happy smile on your face.”

Oh. Whoops.

“Sorry, I’m just a bit tired,” Mio lied.

“Oh really?” Sena questioned conspiratorially. “Manana, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

And her Nopon friend began smirking just as much as Sena was. “Yep yep! Manana think Mio too busy thinking about Noah to finish story!”

“What?! No!” she defended indignantly, appearing to convince no-one.

Sena certainly didn’t buy it, judging by her attempts to get her friend to trust them with the truth.

“Hey, come on now, Mimi! We’re all friends here, aren’t we? You can tell us about your daydreams of your boyfriend.”

Manana clearly looked like she agreed, and all Mio could do in the face of the nosy tag-team was sigh.

“You’re both terrible,” she complained. “Look, what I think about my boyfriend is my business, okay?”

“So you were thinking about him!” Sena immediately latched onto, though her excitement was sufficiently toned down by Mio’s half-lidded glare. “Okay, fine. But was there anything else he mentioned?”

“Mm, not really. After that I told him about Cammuravi, but neither of us have any guesses for why the Faced Mechon can talk or anything like that. Although we did find it weird that we found Ethel and Cammuravi on the same day.”

“That is weird, but it does sound like just a coincidence. Right?”

Mio nodded confidently. “We seem to be the only people connecting our two worlds for now. That level of connection from two people that weren’t even Ouroboros seems unlikely, and we’ve seen no proof that Torna and Mechonis could somehow communicate, or why they’d even bother setting that up. It’s much more reasonable to assume it's a coincidence.”

“Good to know!” Manana appreciated. “So main problem for Noah is concerning Faced Mechon, but otherwise okay for now.”

“Right.”

“Well, if that’s all we need to talk about,” Sena suggested, “we should get ready to go. We are following Rex and Pyra to the capital, right?”

“Yeah,” Mio confirmed. “If we want to learn more about this world, following them seems like the best bet.”

“Indeed!” Manana agreed wholeheartedly. “Plus Manana want to follow other Nia, girl seems important.”

“Right, can’t forget about Her Majesty,” Sena added. “Let’s get ourselves packed up then!”

They didn’t have much to pack, admittedly, with the largest amount of bag space going to Manana’s ingredients and cooking equipment (apparently mostly taken from Tora’s place before the breakout). But as they were putting on the final touches, Sena suddenly sprang onto her feet with wide eyes.

“Wait, I forgot about Nimue!”

Her sudden exclamation only made Manana look at her confusedly, and Mio was inclined to agree, tilting her head quizzically.

“What about her?” she asked, yawning as she did.

“Well, you remember what I told you about Nimue looking for her Driver, right?”

“Yeah?”

“If her Driver is Taion, like he seems to be… then she needs to come with us!”

Manana interjected before Mio could question her logic. “Hold on, hold on! What this about Taion being Nimue’s Driverpon?”

Sena initially looked at her friends with much the same confusion as they were giving her, before she suddenly seemed to gain an understanding and sighed.

“Ohh, right… I never explained that part. Okay, look, here’s the thing; Nimue’s missing Driver that she can’t remember being Taion would have to be quite a coincidence, especially considering that no-one here has recognised us yet, not even the Queen. But if he isn’t, then that means the equally ridiculous idea of him using the Mondo without being her Driver is true, and that just sounds silly.”

Mio frowned, but she nodded as she took in her friend’s explanation. Though it wasn’t exactly in Sena’s normal wheelhouse to theorise like this, her idea did seem sound enough to her ears. It raised a lot of questions, but so did the opposite being true, just like she said.

“I suppose you’re right,” Mio relented. “We definitely shouldn’t force her, but if we’re going to be looking for Taion anyway, then we should give her the chance to come along. She deserves that much.”

“Manana suppose she agree,” the Nopon assented, “but must additionally protest at amount of servings needed for dinner increasing. Manana is just one Nopon - cannot feed whole army!”

Sena laughed lightly at her caution. “Ah, don’t worry too much Manana. After all, there’s two cooks in this party now, right?”

“Hey, Manana is not the same as Pyra! Both very different cookypon!”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Mio supposed. “That means twice the variety.”

“Friends not understand at all! …Well, leaving Manana’s cookypon duties to be discussed later, friends best go to talk to Nimue, then. Don’t want to be left behind!”

“Oh yeah,” Sena conceded, “that wouldn’t be fun. Let’s go quickly, Mimi.”

“Right.”

Leaving the room in Manana’s wings as she finished her packing, Mio followed Sena on her mission to find Taion’s former mentor/potential Blade. Thankfully, they didn’t have to wait long to find her, spotting her enjoying a meal at the tavern.

“Hey, Nimue!” Sena quickly greeted, jogging over to their target.

Nimue, for her part, paused her eating to greet them cordially, though perhaps with a hint of questioning. “Good morning, Sena, Mio. Good to see that you both look alright after last night’s altercation with Torna - I must apologise for not being there to assist.”

“Oh, don’t say that,” Sena dismissed. “You couldn’t have known we’d need help. And in the end, we kinda didn’t, so it’s fine!”

“…You could at least try to sound a little more confident in your reassurance, you know.”

Watching as her friend awkwardly laughed off the observation, Mio continued in Sena’s stead.

“Well, if you are okay with the idea of fighting Torna… Then this part should be a little easier.”

The sudden change in mood caught Nimue off guard, though she disguised this as best as she could with a curious hum.

“Nimue, we’re leaving Garfont Village today,” Mio explained, “following Rex and Vandham to Fonsa Myma. The reason I’m telling you this is because we’re also following Rex to try and find our missing friend.”

“Missing friend?” Nimue repeated, slowly piecing it together. “Wait… Are you suggesting what I think you are?”

“That depends!” Sena responded. “If you think we’re asking you to come with us because our friend could well be your Driver… then yes! Otherwise, probably not.”

Nimue laughed at the nonstandard method of confirming Mio’s proposal, but still took it seriously. Once she’d returned to quiet, she seemed to briefly but carefully think it over, before nodding to herself.

“Well, conveniently, that was exactly my guess. And I would be glad to join you both on your journey… so long as the rest of your group agrees to have me.”

“The rest of our group? What do you- Oh. Right.”

Sena’s initial confusion unfortunately matched Mio’s own, as they both belatedly remembered they were no longer the same group of 8 they had come to know intimately.

“Sorry for getting your hopes up prematurely, Nimue,” Mio apologised. “We’ll talk to Rex and Vandham about it as soon as we find them.”

“Find us for what?”

Mio spun herself around to see that the voice belonged to none other than Rex, walking alongside Vandham, and felt a little disappointed in herself.

“Oh, speak of the gogol… Should have heard you coming. Suppose I still have to get used to the sound of your boots.”

“That’s…” Rex began, almost speechless. “Do you normally know people are coming like that?”

“Not specific people, normally. I’ve just been slacking lately on people walking up to me, so I’m considering trying to find specific tells… Okay, I think I’m making this sound weirder than it actually is.”

“Kinda, yeah.”

“More importantly,” Vandham thankfully redirected, “what did y’ want to ask us? Something about our trip?”

“Yeah!” Sena confirmed. “We think we might be able to help Nimue find someone she’s looking for, so we want her to come with us! If that’s okay, of course.”

“Nimue?” Rex queried, having never met her before. “I suppose that’d be this lady here, then?”

“I am indeed,” Nimue confirmed. “It’s not much, but I am a Blade; I can assist in defending the group.”

“Well, we could always use more of that. I don’t see a problem with her coming along - How about you, Vandham?”

The leader of the mercenaries took one look at Nimue’s face, quietly resolute in her goal, and nodded.

“Heh, she’s alright with me. Welcome aboard, love!”

“Thank you,” Nimue accepted gracefully, though Vandham’s choice of words seemed to throw her off a bit.

“We’re glad to have you with us!” Rex added, beaming his infectious grin. “Though I suppose you’d better get packed, in that case. Don’t think we’ll be here for much longer.”

“You needn’t worry for me in that regard - I’ll be packing light.”

“Well then, we’ll meet you all at the Village entrance!” Vandham reminded, before he resumed his walk with Rex quickly following.

Thankfully, they all made it on time. This even included Manana, whose several cooking bags ended up being handled by the otherwise lightly packed Sena and Mio. The surprisingly large group, consisting of 5 Blades, 4 Drivers, Manana, and whatever Mio and Sena counted as, turned back towards Garfont one last time as the Mercenaries’ Leader gave his orders.

“Time to head out,” Vandham signalled. “Yew, Zuo! Take care of this place, yeah?”

“Nae worries,” Yew agreed casually. “Leave it to us, Boss.”

“Boss,” Zuo responded, though still with a friendly smile. “You’re in a good mood, somehow!”

Vandham laughed at his observation heartily.

“Hehe, I guess so. Take care!”

Their goodbye complete, the party of the Aegis turned away from the home of the Mercenaries, either with a purposeful stride or a curious step. But while her friends continued unimpeded, Mio couldn’t help but turn back to the tranquil village that she’d briefly known, and Sena noticed her too.

“We’ll be back someday,” Sena assured, a hand on her shoulder. “Don’t worry about them.”

Taking stock in her friend’s words, Mio gave Garfont Village one last gaze before turning away.

“You’re right. Let’s go.”

Jogging to catch up with Rex and the others, Mio didn’t turn back to see the hooded figures watching their exit from the end of the short tunnel. If she had, she would have been hard pressed to miss their flamboyant outfits.

~~~

The ruins of Colony 6 were not a particularly beautiful place to wake up in, but Noah supposed he had to live with it… No matter how much it was an unfortunate reality compared to his talk with Mio.

Speaking of Mio… I’d better tie my hair up.

The action was rather moot now that she was no longer with him, but he didn’t want to inconvenience her if she called on him again. Leaving his cot, he found breakfast in progress at the hands of Sharla, accompanied and perhaps assisted by Ethel and Juju.

“Ah, Noah,” the silver-haired Lieutenant Colonel greeted as he approached, though he noticed her silver coat was actually missing for once, highlighting the more mundane Defence Force outfit underneath. “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” he returned. “Though it's all the better for seeing breakfast already in progress.”

“I’m a little disappointed you weren’t up to help me, to be honest,” Sharla revealed. “Miller spoke highly of your cooking after the trip through Tephra Cave.”

“Oh, really? Well, I’m not amazing, but I’ve travelled with quite the incredible chef previously. With how I was made to help her prepare meals, I learned a bit on the way.”

“A travelling chef?” Ethel remarked, a small smile on her face. “I must say, I’m rather envious. Our meals recently have been functional and little else.”

Noah nodded soberly at the reminder of her previous strife, though Ethel’s smile remained as it was. In the midst of noticing her, though, his thoughts suddenly went in a different direction.

“You know, speaking of Nopon…”

“Of Nopon?”

“…I wonder where Riku is. He took Bolearis back to the refugee camp in the buggy, but he only did that to see him healed up. If he’s feeling better, then I’d expect Riku to come back and meet us.”

“The buggy’s fixed?” Juju asked curiously, to his sister’s chagrin.

“And no longer for your use, thank you very much,” Sharla admonished.

“Oh.”

“Still, you’re right, Noah. It’s been about half a day since - I wonder if he’d come back to us so soon or not.”

As Noah pondered the likelihood, Ethel spoke up to break the short silence.

“I expect we’ll see them both soon,” she predicted. “If anything, Bolearis will have walked off his injured leg by now.”

“That seems a little far fetched-” Noah contended, but he’d barely finished saying it before a low rumbling sound could be heard in the distance. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Sure enough, as the familiar sound got closer, it was soon revealed to be the very same buggy, piloted by Riku and with the Captain as its passenger. Noah wasn’t sure whether to smile or frown at the sheer coincidence.

“Speak of the gogol,” Sharla laughed, barely turning from her food preparations. “You’d both better go meet them.”

“I suppose we should,” Ethel agreed, her smirk now undeniable.

Noah followed her somewhat reluctantly, though he was playing it up a little. He still smiled when the duo noticed them approaching and looked relieved.

“Well looky here,” Bolearis exclaimed. “If it isn’t Ethel and Noah! Glad to see you both alright.”

“And I’m glad to see you both unharmed, too,” Ethel returned. “You’ll be pleased to hear we suffered no further casualties, though that unfortunately did not include the rescue of any civilians.”

They both grimaced at her reveal, though the Captain was much more visibly pained about it.

“That right? I suppose we should count our blessings, but still… Wish we could have done something.”

“As do I. But we cannot stew on our failures forever - There are plenty of Homs we still need to protect, Captain.”

“Heh. Damn right, Lieutenant Commander.”

Though Riku had been quiet so far, he piped up following Ethel’s reassurance with a question Noah should have expected.

“Ethel say no civilians saved, but Riku notice several new faces. Care to explain?”

“Oh, of course,” Noah accepted. “Well, one of our new arrivals is Otharon, the Colonel of the Colony 6 Defence Force.”

“Would he happen to be bald-headed one?”

“That he would,” Bolearis confirmed. “Quite the contrast to 9’s Square-Tache, eh?”

“That he is… though no less old, seemingly.”

“Heh, if anything he’s older! Buuut, don’t say that to his face, alright?”

Riku gave the Captain a surprisingly serious nod, prompting Noah to resume his explanation.

“The boy next to Sharla is her brother Juju, as you may have guessed, and Ashera has also been found.”

“Oh! Good to see them safe and sound.”

“And finally, we were joined last night by Dickson and Dunban, both from Colony 9.”

At the mention of their names, Bolearis’s jovial expression fell away to shock. “Well I’ll be… It really is them. And here I thought Shulk only had the Monado as a temporary measure.”

“If you’d seen him use it, you wouldn’t have reason to believe so,” Ethel supposed. “As much as Dunban is a fierce soldier, in his hands the Monado was barely more powerful than a specialised sword. In Shulk’s, it appears to have many new and powerful abilities.”

“I see, I see… No wonder you sent that Faced tin-can packing.”

Riku regarded her explanation enigmatically, as he often did, but seemed no more familiar with Dunban than he should have. Once Bolearis had stopped, he turned to Noah and asked a more pointed question.

“If Colony free once more, what are soldiers doing here?”

“We camped here overnight,” Noah explained, “but we won’t be sticking around for long. Shulk’s next plan is to head to the Bionis head, where a place called ‘Prison Island’ is apparently located.”

Bolearis couldn’t help but pick up on his wording, and chuckled a little. “Can’t help but notice you don’t sound too convinced, Noah.”

“Not exactly, but… We wouldn’t know where it was unless Dickson had told us. He said it was built by the High Entia, who everyone else assumed were a myth. But he was pretty confident they were real.”

“Dickson, eh? Well, he is rather well travelled. I seem to remember hearing that he was the one who found the Monado, actually.”

Noah couldn’t help but narrow his eyes. “That’s… interesting.”

In the midst of his suspicion, Riku surprisingly stepped up to assuage him. “Riku think Noah being too suspicious. After all, Noah have friends who aren’t like Hom-Homs.”

“Huh? What do you… Oh!”

Noah’s sudden change in attitude was the result of a realisation that was perhaps a little too late.

Of course! Noah thought. If I haven’t seen Eunie or Lanz yet, and no-one I’ve seen has their more unique features, then one of them has got to be a High Entia!

“Sorry about that, Riku,” Noah apologised. “I see what you’re getting at.”

“Good. Would not do for Noah to lose his head, now.”

In the midst of his realisation, he forgot about the still-present Ethel and Bolearis. Once he did remember they were present, their discerning faces made him laugh nervously.

“Friends who aren’t Homs?” Ethel questioned. “That’s an interesting thing to say. Taking into account what happened yesterday, I’d lean towards calling you more suspicious. Care to explain that to us, Noah?”

Before Noah could format his explanation, Riku stepped in once more, quick on the draw. “Not much for Noah to explain! Friend simply has other friends who don’t quite match Hom-Homs.”

“What, and they didn’t tell you what they were?”

Bolearis’s question would have probably been easier to answer if anyone knew what to call each other in Aionios, but thankfully Noah had one idea to spin it.

“I didn’t ask.”

The response seemed to take them both off guard, though Bolearis in particular couldn’t help but laugh lightly at it.

“Ah, that’d explain it! Too much of a goody two-shoes to ask them why they look weird.”

Ethel’s initial suspicion was replaced with a hesitant understanding, leading to her to ask a much less pointed query.

“Well, could you at least tell us what they looked like?”

Noah could, but he had a bit of concern about making himself believable, or even which one of them was a High Entia. Still if he has to guess one…

“The only real difference was on their head. It had two small wings atop it.”

“Wings?” Bolearis repeated in disbelief. “Okay, that sounds made up.”

“Riku suppose he understand,” his Nopon friend allowed, “but Noah being truthful. Can trust Riku on this.”

Ethel chuckled at Riku’s insistence, suspicion seemingly gone from her face. “Heh… Alright, Riku. I suppose it’s a strange thing for you both to lie about if nothing else. Well, in that case, I eagerly await your explanation of what happened yesterday… though we’ll save that for later.”

With finality in her voice, Ethel quickly turned away to return to breakfast, and Bolearis followed her.

“She’s going to be rather disappointed in my explanation,” Noah guessed. “Nothing about an Interlink would be easy to lie about.”

“Perhaps so,” Riku conceded, “but Noah only used for good. Should accept with only small amount of bartering.”

“Bartering, huh? You really are a Nopon.”

After some light-hearted bantering, and thankfully good breakfast, it was almost time to leave the ruins of the colony. Their goal was set; head through the Satorl Marsh and slowly make their way towards the Bionis Head. But as they packed their things and prepared to go, they were being watched.

On a hill above Colony 6, a man in a black cape watched the soldiers and their allies as they marched onwards to the marsh. Grabbing a device from his pocket, he pressed a button and placed it to his ear.

“You’ve got a report?” a tinny voice asked, emanating from a speaker.

“The Monado’s on the move,” he responded. “Heading towards the marsh, then likely the forest.”

“Copy that. Keep us updated on their progress.”

“Understood, ma’am.”

With his communication complete, he vanished back into the green, and Noah was none the wiser.

Chapter Text

An arrhythmic tapping sounded across the small courtyard near the Imperial Guard HQ. Its origin was Eunie, tapping her new shoes on the floor beneath her seat as she impatiently waited for her friend’s arrival. The sound was unfamiliar even to her, but that could be chalked up to the reason she wanted to see her friend in the first place.

That clod better have a good explanation when he gets here, or-

“Who is- Oh, Eunie! There you are.”

Zeon’s interruption of her internal ramblings probably gave her a rather impressive side-eye. Well, judging by his reaction to her turn, at least. But it didn’t last long - clearly he was getting used to her.

“Took ya long enough,” she complained half-jokingly, rising from her seat… and wobbling a little as she did.

Zeon was quick to steady her, which she both appreciated and resented, considering that he was partially responsible. Once she was confirmed upright, and Zeon had stepped back to a more normal distance, he was quick to compliment her.

“You’ve got a new outfit! It suits you well.”

His earnest smile did sand down her stare, but only a little. “Uh-huh. Like you weren’t the one to arrange this.”

“I’m sorry?”

She could only fold her arms and sigh at his obliviousness. “Look, getting me to officially help out the Syra Squad was very generous of you-“

“You’re very welcome.”

“-but that shopping trip you got me roped into after the mission was a cruel and unusual repayment!”

The specificity seemed to finally make realisation dawn in Zeon’s face, but it also just gave Eunie flashbacks of the… ordeal.

“Whew, that was harder work than I’m used to.”

Eunie had mostly exaggerated her tiredness for solidarity, but she wasn’t lying about that. Teelan’s little jobs were nothing compared to dealing with those Kromars, as Easel had called them. They kinda reminded her of a more primitive Igna, which… she decided not to think about.

“They certainly made a show of it,” Zeon corroborated, walking beside her. “No wonder we were called in.”

“Too right. They even tried surrounding us or somethin’. Would not have been pretty if you were alone.”

It was a fairly innocent thing to say, Eunie thought, but Zeon didn’t actually respond to her after she said it. Confused, she stopped and turned to find him pulling something out of his pocket, which turned out to be… money?

“Hang on…” she began, “isn’t that-“

“Your payment for today,” Zeon explained. “Courtesy of the Captain.”

“Oh! Well, thanks for that, but are you sure you’re givin’ me the right amount? This seems like a bit much-“

The moment the Gold was in her hands, her fate was sealed. Suddenly flanked by Oleshandra and Trish, the girls were quick to link their arms with hers, holding her between them with little chance for escape.

“Huh?! What are you two doing?!”

“Eunie,” Oleshandra began, “we simply must chat about your healing work today.”

“Yeah, Eunie!” Trish agreed conspiratorially. “Your weapon is so intriguing… And while we’re at it, we heard something about you needing a new outfit.”

“New outfit? Who said anything about-“

Eunie abruptly stopped mid sentence to gasp in horror. Turning back to her supposed ‘friend’, she stared in disbelief as she put the pieces together.

“Zeon! You traitor!”

The traitor, unbothered by his part in this, only gave her a genuine smile. “Ah, it looks like your presence is required elsewhere. I shall see you again another day.”

His judgement final, Zeon simply waved goodbye and turned away.

“Another day?! Zeon, get the spark back here! …Zeon?!”

She didn’t see him at all after that. Quickly whisked away to the commercial district for what Oleshandra insisted was ‘retail therapy,’ she was made to try on various outfits in hope of finding her a new one. 

Eunie had never been on something as benign as a shopping trip as far as she could remember, so nothing about the experience was particularly familiar. The closest analogues she could find were to when she first picked her new Ouroboros clothes, and the change in outfit that came with swapping classes. But this was a completely new experience even considering that, if only for the pure volume of things she was forced to try on. It felt like she was drowning in fashion!

Her pleas to this effect were swiftly ignored by Trish as she gave her a pair of boots that Eunie foolishly tried on, only to almost fall over.

“The snuff are these?!” she demanded, barely caught mid-tumble by Oleshandra. “What’s with the huge heels?”

Trish ignored her rightful concern to look rather pleased with herself.

“Aren’t they gorgeous? I think they complete the outfit!”

“I’d have to agree,” Oleshandra concurred. “The colours are a perfect match, and the rest of the shoes go the perfect distance upwards.”

Eunie could only stare at her, dumbfounded.

“But… they go up most of my legs!”

“Yes?” Trish confirmed, as if the reasoning was obvious. “Come on Eunie, just look in the mirror!”

This demand felt completely superfluous, but she did anyway, and…

“…Oh.”

She hadn’t really looked at the whole ensemble together, until now, and admittedly… Trish and Oleshandra had good eyes. What she’d ended up with was an ensemble arguably closer to her style of dress than the typical High Entia clothes, but still with some extra embellishments to mirror her people’s look.

The main part of the outfit was a short dress that was mostly separated into two parts, the bottom resembling a short blue skirt with what appeared to be white wings on the side, and the top resembling a white crop top that left her shoulders bare. But they were connected by blue stripes on the front and a white section on the back, only really showing skin around her sides. It then reached its collar with a translucent material, though only in two thinner strips on each side.

That wasn’t the end of her outfit, though. To cover her arms, she wore long white gloves that puffed and ended a little bit before her shoulders, while on her legs she wore strange shoes that seemed to be combined with a stocking that went up her legs beyond her knees. The combination of the two gave her outfit a strangely refined look, despite the core dress resembling something more casual from the front.

“So?” Trish prodded, unsatisfied with Eunie’s silent considerations. “What do you think?”

Eunie held her words for as long as she could, but the stares of Oleshandra and Trish quickly became too much. “Fine, it looks good. Great, even.”

“Thank goodness!”

Trish looked proud to hear it, but Eunie was quick to raise her hand to stop her from celebrating too early.

“Hold it, love. If I’m gonna be wearing something like these shoes, then I’m gonna ask for smaller heels! Seriously, how does anyone walk in these?!”

“Oh, Eunie,” Oleshandra consoled. “Surely you can at least give them a try?”

From a lot of people, that would have sounded like a dare, but it seemed Oleshandra was serious. Eunie sighed, forced to relent to a kinder heart.

“Look, if you’re so desperate to see me trip everywhere, then I’ll keep ‘em. But I need options- I’m not gonna wear heels on a snuffin’ mission!”

Oleshandra took that as a victory, smiling earnestly.

“Well, I think we can do that. We won’t be a tick, Eunie.”

And sure enough, when they soon returned, they did find the same shoes with smaller heels. But, in a moment of foolish hubris, Eunie had worn the tall heels to see Zeon anyway. Whether it was because she wanted to rise to the challenge or because she was just being stupid, she didn’t really know, but here she was… and she’d already half tripped in her attempt to stand up.

“What makes you think I was the one who set that up?” Zeon asked, snapping her back to reality and the reason she was remembering yesterday to begin with.

Eunie huffed at him, unsure how he was still missing the picture. “Because you’re the only one who heard me say I didn’t feel like I fitted in with your lots’ fancy clothes, duh! How else would they have known about it?!”

Finally he seemed to realise what she meant, actual clarity dawning on his face. “Oh, right… You did call me a ‘traitor’ yesterday, as I recall.”

“And the coin finally drops! You even gave me extra money for the clothes and everything.”

She figured Zeon would finally accept the truth and apologise at this point, but he still had more to say. And it wasn’t what she expected.

“I may have told someone else about what you said, Eunie, but I didn’t tell Trish and Oleshandra… The Captain did.”

“…Huh?”

“I mentioned it to her off-hand during our meeting yesterday, and she seemed determined to fix it. Before I knew it, Sigrún had roped in Trish and Oleshandra and concocted the plan, before giving me the extra salary after the mission. So, when you asked for me to ‘save’ you, so to speak, I was unfortunately indisposed - it was the Captain’s orders, after all.”

Eunie could only stare at him briefly, before laughing heartily. “Oh, you cheeky mudder! Trying to sneak your way out of responsibility with the rules! Honestly, Zeon, you’re hilarious sometimes.”

The normally overly serious soldier thankfully laughed with her, though more reserved as he always was. “What, only sometimes?”

“Yeah, ‘cause the rest of the time you’re a wet blanket!”

“Oh come on, surely I’m not so… un-fun.”

Seemingly, Zeon actually believed it. Eunie could have almost pitied it, but she had a much better idea.

“Come on, then,“ she goaded, a devious grin on her face, “tell me a joke! But fair warning, if you mention spuds even once I’ll be laughing for a different reason.”

Predictably, Zeon found her specificity disappointing. “Spuds? Do you really have so little faith in me?”

“Hey, it’s not a bad thing! It’s just that you joking around kinda feels like a Tirkin trying to be a chef, don’t it? No-one’s good at everything.”

“I can’t help but feel like you’re still making a jab at me.”

“Whaaaat? Noooo, I believe in you wholeheartedly! Go on then, Zeon… Tell me a joke.”

Her smirk would have probably made most people back down, but Zeon was stubborn. She’d got him now - he had no choice but to tell her the best joke he could think of. This realisation seemed to dawn on his face as she stared him down, but his self awareness didn’t go far enough to give up, and so he geared himself up for the attempt.

“Uh, okay then… Ahem! Why did the Nopon come to Eryth Sea?”

“I haven’t a clue.”

“To look for a Gold Burdock!”

Eunie waited and waited, but despite her patience in the awkward silence, no more joke ever came.

“Is that it?” she asked Zeon, incredulous. “Really?”

“What? Isn’t that funny?”

“I don’t even get it, never mind about finding it funny.”

“Well, it’s supposed to be a joke about how much Nopon love…”

In the midst of his sentence, Zeon suddenly trailed off, looking a little rattled. Eunie took this as a sign that he’d finally come to his senses, and she got the impression that the person who’d just walked up to her felt the same.

“See, now you feel me. I see what you were going for now at least, what with the Nopon loving Gold angle, but the execution was just… lacking. Come on Melia, you agree with me right?”

It was only after Eunie had properly processed what she had just said that her face paled. Turning slowly back to where Zeon was looking, she found herself face to face with, judging by her first real look, the snuffin’ Queen of Keves! And she seemed to be finding their banter rather amusing.

But that sentiment wasn’t quite shared by the two people who accompanied her. One was Maxis, which was surprising mostly because of the Queen’s presence, but he was pretty normal beyond his gobsmacked face. The other one though… Eunie wasn’t sure who he was, but with his long wings, and a commanding presence in spite of his more youthful face, his shocked expression seemed especially alarming.

Meanwhile, Melia seemed notably less concerned than her entourage. Instead, she looked more curious than anything, or perhaps just confused. But then again, that may have just been Eunie projecting, considering how confused she was! That face was so similar to the one she knew from Aionios, and she even had the curls framing her face, but her hair was definitely shorter… Actually, was Melia just shorter in general? She might have been imagining that.

Regardless, she wore a very different attire, mainly on account of its overwhelming pink colour. Eunie was probably exaggerating that, too, but not only was it her shorter dress’s most notable colour, accompanied by pale blues and whites, but it was also the colour of her headdress. Above the dress she wore an identically coloured cape of sorts, and she also wore gloves, which mostly followed her existing colours barring the black… underglove? She didn’t exactly have a word for it, but it was very similar to her black stockings.

It was only when she returned her eyes to Melia’s face that Eunie remembered she should probably be apologising. Forcing her mouth to finally close, she cleared her throat awkwardly.

“I’m terribly sorry, Your Majesty! That was quite a rude thing for me to ask ya.”

Unfortunately for her, the accompanying men’s reactions didn’t improve much from her apology. Perhaps they were even replaced with a frustration at… something. She was quickly starting to panic at her apparent complete failure to make something of this conversation when Zeon graciously leaned over to her and whispered something.

“It’s ‘Your Highness,’ Eunie.”

She had to fight the urge to turn and ask him what the spark he was talking about. From most people she would have assumed that to be a joke or a prank, but knowing Zeon he wasn’t telling a smidge of a fib. For now, she’d follow his advice.

“I mean, my apologies, Your Highness.”

This finally seemed to be the correct answer, judging by the way Melia in particular actually smiled in response. Her friends didn’t exactly mirror her, but they lightened up a bit anyway. Maxis actually seemed to sigh in relief, which only solidified in Eunie’s head that Mr. Long Wings was important somehow. But the way Maxis was acting, he made that man out to be more important than Melia, which was… practically treason, she thought? None of this was making sense.

Before she could think about that much longer, Maxis cleared his own throat, trying to dispel some lingering awkwardness before properly introducing his guests.

“Your Royal Highnesses, prince Kallian and princess Melia, please allow me to properly introduce you to Guardsman Zeon, and his friend Eunie.”

“Ah, pleased to meet… you…”

Eunie couldn’t help but trailing off again, finally realising what Maxis had just told them. Melia wasn’t a Queen… she was a princess? And that man, Kallian, was a prince?! What did… How?!

Sparks alive! she cursed internally. I knew I should have studied harder on the Royal family, but nooo! I just saw ‘Antiqua’ and assumed I wouldn’t need to know anything else! Great job Eunie, if you don’t get executed then you’ll be about a thousand Fourtune Clovers deep in karmic debt!

All the while, as she tried her best not to have a meltdown, Melia only looked at her curiously.

~~~

This girl was certainly unique - that was an unmistakable truth. Melia had admittedly lived a rather sheltered life for her childhood, but her brother’s face suggested that even in his 150 years he had not seen someone around her age mistake a princess for the Emperor. Despite knowing her face, seemingly… Actually, that was rather strange, now that she thought about it. No wonder Kallian was acting suspicious.

Well, despite her brother’s overprotectiveness, she didn’t find it overly concerning. If anything, Eunie probably just saw her brother first and assumed her to be the princess. After all, though she hadn’t met too many people outside of her family, and her appearance was something of an open secret, her existence was well known. One could figure out who the girl followed by the crown prince was with only a little guesswork.

All these mental gymnastics didn’t mean much, anyway - after all, they were here for a reason.

Standing in the throne room on the Emperor’s right-hand side, with the crown prince on his left, Melia watched as a man entered the Audience Chamber followed by Imperial Guards. She soon recognised them as Aizel and Damil, which brought into the focus the truth that this man was a member of the Guard himself. As was custom, the trio all bowed before the Emperor and his successors, not raising from their kneeling position even as they began to speak.

“Your Majesty, Your Highnesses,” Aizel began, “I bring you Sir Maxis, of the Imperial Guard.”

“Thank you, Sir Aizel,” her father accepted, before turning to the real subject of this meeting. “Please, Sir Maxis, speak.”

“You are most gracious, Your Majesty,” Maxis thanked. “I appear before you today to humbly offer the assistance of one of my proteges.”

Melia suddenly noticed his short wings, laying bare his mixed heritage. She hadn’t met too many, especially not as old as he was. And yet he was offering the services of another, perhaps half-Homs just like him… just like her.

“Word has reached my ears of the upcoming task bequeathed to the princess,” Maxis continued. “I would be most grateful if one of the Guardsmen I mentor, Zeon, was able to accompany her.”

Kallian was quick to speak up, wishing to confirm the credentials of both Maxis and this ‘Zeon’ fellow.

“I have taken the liberty of researching your record,” he explained, “and you have served commendably through your years. Your protege Zeon, however, is young and significantly less proven, arguably only elevated by his squadron’s performance and your assurances.”

“I understand, Your Highness. But I must implore you to consider him properly despite this. I have taught him all I can, and he now is a deft hand with his sword and shield, despite maintaining a kind heart.”

The Emperor nodded in recognition of his proposal.

“Lord Kallian is correct that your protege is relatively unproven, and such late adjustments to a deployment are far from standard. But it is also true that you have given much of your time and effort for the sake of protecting your people. In this instance, provided that Melia accepts your proposal, I will be willing to grant your request.”

Suddenly, all eyes in the room were on her, demanding an answer from their princess. Her first instinct, petulant as it was, was that she didn’t need any further protection on her mission. Adding to this frustration, as princess, she would be expected to lead him as she was already expected to for the four subjects already entrusted to her. It was well within her power to veto this request… especially considering that she couldn’t help but assume it was partly being granted because of this Zeon’s likely similar age.

But when that initial instinct quickly died down, she mused on the much more reasonable conclusion that more manpower could only be a boon. After all, her task was to destroy a Telethia that had caused havoc for far more experienced soldiers than herself. But that danger… it applied just as much to any new additions as it did to her existing guard. If Zeon was to accompany her, she would need to judge his character.

“I must ensure his suitability for the task,” Melia finally answered. “With your blessing, Your Majesty, I wish to meet with this Guardsman with whom I will be entrusting my safety.”

Her father did not refuse the suggestion.

“That would be pertinent, Melia. I accept. Sir Maxis, if you could, please escort the princess to meet with Guardsman Zeon.”

“Thank you, your Majesty,” Maxis responded, bowing his head.

“Your Majesty,” Kallian suddenly cut in, “if it would be allowable, I too wish to accompany the princess to meet with Zeon.”

“You may,” Sorean accepted. “Kallian, Melia. Return to me with your final decision.”

“Understood, Your Majesty,” they answered together.

And so she was here, outside the headquarters of the Imperial Guard, meeting with the Guardsman Zeon… and his much more curious friend. Eunie seemed a little star-struck, perhaps, judging from her suddenly restrained attitude as compared to her raucous banter from earlier that she had heard even as they approached. Zeon, meanwhile, seemed to be considering whether or not to bow. Judging by the fact that Eunie didn’t seem to be in a state to do so, Melia simply shook her head to dissuade him.

“So, you are the Guardsman Zeon, of the Syra Squad?” she queried the young man, whose wings were much smaller than even her own.

Hearing himself be addressed directly, he stood up straighter, nodding in affirmation. “Yes, Your Highness. If it is not too presumptuous of me to ask, for what reason have you come to speak to us?”

She couldn’t help but notice that peculiar specificity. Melia had yet to even address Eunie herself, and yet Zeon already assumed she was here to speak with the two of them?

Kallian would end up answering for her. “Your mentor has volunteered your service in aiding the princess on a mission. Her Highness has come to speak to you to assess whether or not you are fit for the task.”

“To be considered at all is an honour. For what task have I been suggested for?”

“The elimination of a violent Telethia that has retreated to Makna Forest. If you are accepted, you will accompany four other Guardsmen and the princess to the forest, where you will hunt down and defeat the threat before it can harm anyone else.”

“I understand, Your Majesty.”

“Do you believe that you will be up for the task?” Melia questioned.

Zeon took stock of her query for quite some time, clearly hesitant on answering somehow incorrectly. When he did respond, it was with far less confidence than one would hope.

“If I am to speak honestly, Your Highness… I am yet to battle a Telethia in my time as a Guard. I have fought many other violent monsters, and am confident in my skills in dealing with them, but I understand that Telethia are an entirely different beast, so to speak.”

It was relieving that he opted for honesty, but that did little to reassure her… or her brother, for that matter. Kallian looked rather unimpressed with his confession, seemingly re-evaluating his opinion on the spot. Melia had the impression that Maxis had noticed their concerns and would attempt to remedy them.

And yet, when a voice spoke up to vouch for him, it was not Maxis - it was Eunie.

“Hey, don’t let him sell himself short!” she cut in, somewhat reverting to the more casual tone of voice she’d heard earlier. “Zeon can handle just about anything you throw at ‘im. He’ll keep you safe no matter what, as long as you’ve got a healer keeping him alive.”

Eunie’s interjection left her brother frowning once more, but Melia found the insight rather valuable - she didn’t seem to be the sort of person to over-exaggerate.

“Are you the one who fulfils this role?” she asked her, curious now.

“Nah, not all the time. I’ve just done the job occasionally - Trish is his healer partner in the Syra squad.”

From personal experience then, Melia mused. But we do not exactly have any medics assigned to the mission beyond my more limited capabilities. Hmm…

Zeon seemed to be deep in thought himself. Seeing his princess ponder the question internally, he spoke up with a proposal of his own.

“Lady Melia,” he began. “If you would hear it, I have a request of my own.”

“Please, speak it,” she commanded.

“Would you allow Eunie to join us on this mission as well?”

The reaction from Maxis was immediate, and Kallian’s face almost certainly showed a new distaste for the both of them just as quickly. As one could predict, Zeon’s mentor rushed to salvage the situation.

“Please excuse Zeon’s rudeness, Your Highness! He forgets his station!”

Melia couldn’t help but notice that he’d directed his words to Kallian, not the person who Zeon had actually asked. That may have been for the best, consider the prince’s response to his plea.

“Perhaps the princess would be better served by a subject that would not so casually stoop to insubordination,” he admonished. “These actions must force us to reconsider your pertinence to this mission.”

She supposed that was a reasonable course of action - Guardsmen did not typically ask their princess for favours. But despite this, she turned to the prince with a disapproving frown.

“Kallian, please. Older brother you may be, but you need not be offended on my behalf.”

Turning back to Zeon and ignoring her brother’s surprise, she made her decision.

“If this would be your only condition for your services, then I accept. Please prepare yourself for immediate departure tomorrow morning.”

Zeon bowed in reverence, and Eunie awkwardly followed suit. “You are most gracious, Lady Melia. Thank you, truly.”

With her objective completed, Melia farewelled her two late additions, alongside Sir Maxis, and left with her brother to return to the Audience Chamber.

“Why did you agree to his request, dear sister?” Kallian asked, confusion clearly evident. “The girl is not even a member of his squadron. From what Maxis told me, she is something of a mercenary, affiliated with the guard through her jobs and nothing else.”

“There is more at stake than her profession, brother,” she rebuffed. “Zeon appears to be a significant asset in my personal protection, but his apparent tendency to get injured made my own healing skills feel woefully inefficient. With Eunie’s assistance, the entire squadron should be better off.”

“You believe her to cover a blind spot in your preparations?”

“I do.”

Kallian considered her resolve, and his confusion waned to light disapproval.

“I see the wisdom in your choice,” he admitted. “However, I am still wary of Eunie. She seemed rather irreverent at first, and then simply uneducated afterwards. I have met very few people who would act in such a way… and most of them were Homs.”

“Perhaps you have your answer, then,” Melia suggested. “Surely it is not unheard of for a High Entia to live outside the capitol?”

“I have no knowledge of such an occurrence, but that may simply be for lack of trying. Regardless, I suppose you’ll have to teach her some respect during the course of your task.”

“Come now, dear brother. Would it not do me good to have someone who I can speak frankly to, and will speak frankly to me in return? After all, that was why you agreed to Sir Maxis’s request.”

Her guess must have been at least a little accurate, because Melia noticed Kallian look noticeably more awkward after her accusation. “And why would you presume that?”

“Because as Father so succinctly put, such late adjustments to a deployment, especially one concerning the princess, are far from standard. It makes little sense otherwise.”

Found out as he was, Kallian could do little else but chuckle. “I suppose it doesn’t.”

As they continued their return trip, Melia thought back to the two subjects she’d just agreed to join her, and stepped back in her thought process to ask herself an important question.

I wonder why I felt so certain it was a good idea. For all intents and purposes, Kallian is right - I had no need to agree with Zeon’s request. And yet I believed with all my heart that it was the correct course of action… Perhaps I am more impulsive than I had realised.

She didn’t think any more of it as she approached the audience chamber, ignorant of how Eunie had barely kept herself together throughout their conversation. In her apartment, the healer lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling, still in disbelief.

“Fire and sparks,” Eunie cursed. “The Queen isn’t the Queen, she has a brother and a father that seem even more important than she is… and now I’m following her and Zeon into some forest to kill a bird. What the snuff is with this world?!”

~~~

Mio could hardly believe they were in the place that became the Urayan tunnels. She had always found that hard to believe, but going further into the beast only made it even stranger.

“It’s so pretty,” Sena articulated. “All these towering Saffronias, and the water reflecting them…”

Mio hummed in agreement. “They’re even larger than the ones at the Lost Colony.”

So swept up in the scenery as she was, she almost missed the sudden shuffling of feet somewhere beyond where they were standing. She turned to look around for it, but before Sena could ask her what was wrong, it was accompanied by a voice.

“Ha ha ha! Looks like all that chat about the Aegis was true!”

The mysterious male voice, unrecognisable to even Vandham, prompted Rex to speak up as eloquently as it deserved.

“Who’re you?”

His rather simple response prompted more footsteps, and Mio turned to the road ahead of them to see two hooded figures suddenly walk out from behind the rocks. Before either of them spoke up once more, she was taken aback by how outlandish their outfits were - the one on the left in particular, almost certainly the voice’s origin, was wearing a coat that did not cover his chest. All that did cover his chest was… far too many belts.

“That’s a heavy burden you have there,” the man began, now identified as the voice’s origin. “Sure you’re up to it, pipsqueak?”

With his proposal of sorts over, he turned to the girl that must have been his Blade and shared a nod. Mio made this assumption because she appeared to have a tail with a… light bulb on the end of it? How weird.

“See sense, step aside and let the big boys take charge,” the man continued, stepping forward as he did. “C’mon! Yield the merchandise!”

His peculiar wording, and perhaps delusions of grandeur, only made Rex exponentially more confused.

“Huh? What? Vandham, do you know this guy?”

“Never seen ‘im in my life,” he unfortunately answered, leaving Rex to turn towards the rest of his friends and ask much the same thing.

“Uh, Mio? Sena? …Nimue?”

They all shook their heads, though Nimue was noticeably less confident in her denial. Perhaps sick of not being recognised, the duo huffed in disappointment before removing their hoods with a flourish. 

Their faces now visible, Mio found… more things covering their faces, or rather their eyes. The Blade girl’s eyes were covered by strange looking glasses, while the man’s left eye was covered by an eyepatch. Her first instinct was to look for the insignia of one of the Six houses, but it quickly became apparent that it had nothing to do with them. A good thing, too, because now she could return her attention to the Blade’s other light bulbs - one in each of her shoulders, and one on her small hat, for a total of four.

She also spied the Blade’s core crystal, which was a similar colour to her green hair, though a strange shape. Seeing her side by side with her presumed Driver, Mio got the impression one of them had dressed to match the other, which was… strange.

“Wait… are you…”

Rex’s attempt at recalling the name of their roadblock seemed ambitious, and sure enough he quickly fizzled out, to the man’s frustration.

“You really are a bunch of rinky-dink, bogus, two-bit, no mark Drivers, aren’t you?”

The onslaught of descriptors was far less interesting than the fact that the Blade seemed to be… mirroring his gestures? Okay, this encounter was quickly taking a turn into the bizarre. And yet she barely had time to ponder this before the Driver finally introduced himself… in rather exaggerated fashion.

“Behold the mighty Zeke! Von! Genbu! Bringer of Chaos! Mostly known as Zeke. And often addressed as… THE ZEKENATOR!” He paused briefly to grandly gesture to his Blade, then pull out the weapon on his back. “Behold my Blade, Pandoria! And this is my sword, the Purple Lightning Dreamsmasher! If you want a taste, come and get it!”

As Zeke stood ready in a fighting stance, Mio’s party remained silent. When his challenge was finally answered, it was with Rex’s short and unimpressed response.

“…We’re good.”

And with that, he started to walk past what had been a very ineffectual roadblock so far. Mio and Sena looked at each other briefly, considering their options, before they shrugged and followed him. It didn’t take long for the so-called Bringer of Chaos to splutter at his unjust treatment.

“Good?! No?! W-wait… Wait, you barbarians!”

Zeke and Pandoria used this moment to rush back in front of the group, appearing rather quickly from behind them. More than Mio would have thought was natural, but she wasn’t exactly an expert on Blades.

“This guy…” Nia complained, clearly wishing he’d just left them alone. “I’m tired of ‘im already.”

“Eh, I dunno…” Sena contended, surprisingly. “I still find him kinda funny.”

But appreciation of their comedy routine was clearly not what Zeke and Pandoria were going for. 

“Gah!” Zeke spat, frustrated. “You think you lowlifes can lick the three of us?”

Mio was about to ask him what he even meant, but Nia cut in first.

“Three of you? I count two - lost someone?”

“Huh? Oh, get a load of this… Our beloved mascot… Turters, reveal yourself!”

As cool as he could make it, Zeke reached into the pocket of his coat to pull out… nothing.

“…Huh? Turters? Turters?! Turters, w-where are you, boy? Turterrrrs!”

As he searched frantically for what she could only assume was a missing turtle, Mio leaned towards Sena to ask a burning question.

“Hey Sena?”

“Yeah Mimi?”

“Does this guy remind you of anyone?”

Sena squinted at the Driver as he frantically combed the dirt below him, but eventually shook her head.

“Not really. This sort of attitude in Aionios would just get you killed, right? Unless you were a Consul, I suppose. Does he seem familiar to you, Mimi?”

“He does,” Mio confirmed, “but it’s weird. I can’t think of who I’m comparing him to…”

She trailed off just in time to watch him swipe what must have been Turters from Pyra’s hands, then scoot off far too fast.

“Not as weird as he is,” Sena joked. “‘Handling a man’s turtle’ isn’t a phrase you hear every day.”

“No kidding…”

Rex had reacted to this strange display in much the same way Mio would, though the observation was no less bizarre from his mouth.

“…He could have just grabbed Pyra there. Why’d he go for his turtle instead…?”

“Ugh,” Nia groaned, quickly gaining a personal distaste for him. “What an idiot.”

Zeke heard her derision, and paused his enthusiastic appreciation of his mascot to baulk at the insult.

“Gah…! Listen, whatever! She’ll be mine soon enough. Got a problem with that? Then come at me! And don’t hold back!”

He capped off this declaration with his attempt at a winning smile, which made even Sena cringe a little. But Nia in particular took it as the last straw.

“What! Is this guy for real?”

“Surprisingly…” Nimue suddenly chipped in, having been quiet since he mentioned his name. “Perhaps I’ll leave him to you, Nia.”

“Oh, no worries. All the more for me.”

“Meh, Tora think he and Poppi also sit out,” the Nopon Driver told them. “Too many Drivers for one man and Blade, Tora thinks.”

As Nia pulled out Dromarch’s Twin Rings, she gave Tora a half-lidded stare.

“Okay, I think you’re just using that as an excuse. But hey… I’ll let you off this time.”

As Mio extended Sena’s hammer, and Rex pulled out his Aegis Sword, Vandham got to planning. “Rex, Mio, you’re up front with me!”

“Got it,” they both responded, following him to meet with the so-called Bringer of Chaos.

Though he had been the one to instigate the fight, Zeke wasn’t overly impatient to start it; he moved towards them at a light pace, with his Blade’s sword at the ready by his side. By comparison, Rex wasn’t too keen on waiting, and so pulled ahead of Vandham to get the first swing in. His horizontal strike was predictable, and Zeke didn’t have to try overly hard to block it, but his confidence in doing so suggested a certain amount of skill that their goofy introduction did not create the impression of in Mio’s mind.

The Zekenator didn’t wait long to respond in kind, hitting back with an exaggerated swing to try and knock the Aegis’s Driver away. For the most part he succeeded, knocking Rex off balance, leaving Mio to be the next one to attack. She swung Sena’s hammer down from over her head, keen on testing the limits of his strength, and found that Zeke’s initial attempt to block it was insufficient. But he had still been prepared for that - he’d left enough space to avoid the mallet regardless, and was quick to sidestep away from further attacks.

That much wasn’t too worrying. She’d thrown the attack out to test his response, after all… But the next part of his counter wasn’t as expected.

“Stratospheric Thunder!”

With aplomb, Zeke responded with an aptly named leaping sword uppercut, landing squarely on Mio’s underwhelming guard with the Meteor Smasher and sending her up with him. Tumbling through the air, she was thankfully caught by Sena in a quick-thinking save, preventing any follow-up from her foe before Vandham arrived to even the playing field. And arrive he did, quickly forcing the enemy Driver to reevaluate his method of blocking when two weapons came at him at once.

Perhaps surprisingly, the leader of the Garfont Mercenaries still met considerable resistance. Even with his Dual Scythes coming at Zeke from a myriad of directions, he still managed to parry them with his incredibly long sword. Sometimes he was even blocking both at once, though often when he did Vandham’s strength quickly became apparent. Following one such clash, he disengaged at an awkward angle for Vandham to recover from and used the opportunity to ready a more powerful attack, holding his sword horizontally and gathering energy.

“Dynamic Spark S- Ow! Do you mind?!”

Zeke had been interrupted by a blast of water from Dromarch, commanded by a continually unimpressed Nia.

“Sorry, but I do have some issues with the so-called Zekenator. Luckily I also have solutions. Rex!”

Her call was swiftly answered by the leaping Driver, Rex’s sword slashing down from above. Zeke barely avoided it, but to Mio’s surprise, his retalliating swing still managed to nick Rex’s arm. Pyra and Rex both responded to the cut, but it was clearly much less painful than Akhos’s assault last night, meaning they managed to keep their guard up. 

Nia was quick to use Dromarch’s healing in response to their injury. Feeling the ether wash over her, too, Mio looked to Sena to hopefully come up with a strategy.

“I think I’ve got an idea,” her friend spoke up. “But I’m gonna need you to give me that back for a bit. And probably support me like you were a Blade.”

“Really?” Mio questioned, surprised. “What’s your plan?”

“A Blade special, of sorts. But I want it to be a bit stronger, which is where you come in.”

“Alright then. I’m with you.”

As Mio gave Sena her hammer back, and held her arms out to keep up the Driver-Blade connection, she turned her eyes briefly back towards Zeke. He was still fighting Rex, and Vandham was chiming in, but his Blade suddenly came to intercept. She pushed them both backwards with a barrier, and for her troubles, Zeke tossed her weapon back to her. Which meant…

“Go, Pandoria!” Zeke commanded, seemingly excited by the prospect. “Electric Circus!”

“You got it, my Prince!” his Blade agreed.

Mio was initially distracted by thoughts of ‘Oh wait, she can talk,’ though that quickly faded to more serious concerns about what this attack would actually be. Nia was quick to move out the way, but Rex and Vandham weren’t in such good positions to do so, as Pandoria removed the hilt of her Blade weapon like it was some kind of wand. Something told Mio this wasn’t too weird, for some reason, though that may have been because the blade part had another role to play.

And that was the real issue. Sena was still preparing her hammer, now wreathed in flames, but she probably couldn’t move while it was charging up. That meant Mio had to block the incoming strike for her, and she was woefully underprepared for that - not that she couldn’t take a hit, but her specialty was avoiding attacks, not blocking them for other people. Still, absent of any other option, she rushed forward to defend her friend just in time for Pandoria to raise the sword’s edge out of the ground.

Pointing her wand forward, the electricity-infused blade moved as she directed, landing a strong blow on both Pyra and Roc’s guards. But as she pulled it backwards, it arched towards Mio and Sena both. Mio braced herself for the hit, watching the incoming weapon with trepidation… only for her vision to be filled with white fur.

Having suddenly jumped ahead of her, Dromarch stood tall, protecting her and Sena both from Zeke and Pandoria’s special attack. Though the exertion visibly tired him, he seemed mostly unharmed, to her relief.

“Dromarch…” she trailed off, shocked but grateful.

“Do not worry for me, my Lady,” he reassured, dismissing her unsaid concerns. “I am not so frail as that.”

Shocked by his selflessness, and his slip of the tongue, Mio felt compelled to say more.

“Still-”

“Okay! I’m all set!”

Her attempt to do so was interrupted by Sena’s triumphant declaration. Realising the importance, she turned back to her and saw her hammer positively erupting with fire, her face determined. Mio immediately resumed the golden connection, understanding what had to be done, and with that reassurance Sena sprinted forward. With her hammer trailing behind her, it was a shockingly familiar action.

Meanwhile, Zeke was none the wiser.

“Haha!” he laughed, trying to play cool as always. “Do not underestimate the power of the mighty-”

“Hammer Revolution!”

His grandstanding was swiftly interrupted by Sena jamming the flaming Comet Mallet into his face, where its head promptly exploded, sending both him and Pandoria flying. Pushed towards the cliff, Zeke and his Blade skidded to a halt with sweat beading on their foreheads, leaving Mio little time to muse on the attack name she’d heard before.

“G-good try,” he complimented, panting as he did. “Not bad. Buh-b-b-but! Wipe yourselves down, and get ready for my super-ultra-mega-move!”

Nia was not convinced this special attack even existed.

“We’re waiting with bated breath…” she egged on, “for your super-duper-whatever.”

Though it was perhaps true that he’d been mostly hot air so far, Mio still began to wonder if aggravating Zeke further was really a good idea when he and his sword began crackling with electricity as he charged whatever his attack was.

“You asked for iiiit!”

Making a slash in preparation, Mio had to shield her eyes from the bright light it emitted. She opened them again just in time for his sword to begin gathering the electricity to make his sword larger.

“Bringer of Chaos!” Zeke shouted, raising the Purple Lightning Dreamsmasher above his head.

Jumping into the air, he hung there for a second as he declared the name of his attack, before plummeting back down to the ground.

“Ultimate Lightning Fury Slash!”

Mio prepared to dodge, but she surprisingly didn’t have to - Zeke had embedded his sword into the ground before him, still quite a distance from his foes. Not even the strange symbol that his landing created, emblazoned briefly in lightning, reached her or Sena, and yet Zeke looked at them with an unrivalled confidence.

Unfortunately for him and Pandoria both, that confidence didn’t last long. As Mio quickly heard, and Pyra first noticed the visual signs of, the cliff edge they were standing on had begun to shatter at the point of impact. It stayed attached just long enough for Zeke and his Blade to look shocked before it crumbled and they fell, crying out as they did.

“Wh-what just happened?” Rex asked, dumbfounded. “They…”

“Ugh,” Nia groaned. “What an idiot.”

“Don’t see that every day,” Vandham considered.

Though they all stood stunned for a second, Nia was quick to encourage them to keep moving.

“Come on. That’s enough nonsense.”

“Indeed,” Dromarch agreed, seemingly forgetting his slip of the tongue earlier.

And so most of their party followed them; Rex and Pyra, Tora and Poppi, Vandham, and even Manana. But Roc noticed Mio and Sena looking over the cliff in concern and stopped to check on them. Mio, glad to see them stay, was quick to ask what was on her mind.

“Hey, are they… going to be alright?”

Roc was surprisingly nonchalant, perhaps inherited from Vandham. “Ah, there’s water down there. They’re probably fine.”

“That still seems-”

“Don’t worry, Mio.” Nimue suddenly interjected, having stayed behind herself. “If I know anything about what sort of person he is, he’ll be rather resilient.”

“Well, if you’re sure,” Sena relented, before coming to a quick realisation. “Wait, do you know something about this guy, Nimue?”

She considered her phrasing briefly before answering. “Not exactly, but I’ve heard of his kind before. An unlucky sort, but very resilient as well. Something tells me they’re unfortunately well versed in these situations.”

“Indeed,” Roc agreed. “Besides, we can’t do much now. Best to keep moving forward.”

“I guess you’re right,” Mio agreed. “Let’s not keep everyone waiting.”

But as she walked beneath a Saffronia tree on the cliff path, she couldn’t help but think back to Zeke and his… Well, antics seemed like an appropriate descriptor. Nia couldn’t seem to stand him, but she honestly would have found him funny if not for the circumstances. And then there was that familiarity…

I don’t know what it is, Mio mused absentmindedly, but I can’t help but agree with what Nimue said. Why do I find him familiar? Even his Blade… I just don’t understand.

But though those questions were burning in her head, they were still ultimately shelved to consider later. Because as the fight had concluded, there were two other issues rattling through her brain - Sena’s familiar skillset, both similar to Mio’s sudden new elemental powers and yet borrowed from her Ouroboros form, and also something more unexpected. 

Why had Dromarch protected her… and called her ‘my Lady?’

She wouldn’t get an answer to those questions yet, or those about Zeke, but she hoped she would some day. After all, she had little doubt they would cross paths with the Bringer of Chaos again.

~~~

Taion couldn’t really explain it, but he’d felt a bit… on edge, since yesterday. Ever since his training session with Jac and Yachik, he was feeling a strange sort of tension that even Adenine couldn’t pinpoint. In hopes of working through this frustration, he’d decided to go to the training ground of the barracks, though he was unable to stop himself from overhearing conversations as he made his way over.

“Did you hear?” one Driver asked their co-worker, seemingly excited. “The Special Inquisitor is coming to visit!”

“Really?” their colleague replied, sounding quite unconvinced. “What would the Special Inquisitor of Mor Ardain come out to see the rookies for?”

“What, do you really expect me to know that? Look, it’s true, I heard Barnham talk about it!”

“Hey, you were the one who brought it up.”

Once they’d made it to the outdoor space, Adenine was quick to ask him a question about the same conversation.

“Do you have any idea who they’re talking about?”

Taion answered with a shrug, not exactly enthused at the topic.

“Her name is Mórag Ladair. She is a high ranking officer in the Ardainian Military, perhaps even the highest, and is described as the Emperor’s Representative. She seems to be especially notable to the soldiers here because she’s gained a reputation as the Empire’s most powerful Driver.”

“…You don’t seem to share their enthusiasm.”

Despite himself, Taion answered her observation with a tired sigh.

“A high ranking officer in a militaristic empire is not exactly my ideal person to meet,” he explained. “My previous experiences with commanders on a smaller scale have often been pleasant, and shown proper care for their charges. But for the commanders at the pinnacle of each hierarchy, including those who answer to their rulers, the worth of their soldiers’ lives becomes second to the war they’re propagating.”

Adenine initially looked a little confused at his obvious distaste, presumably because he joined the military anyway. But upon further thought, the answer must have come to her.

“Of course… You’re not here to fight for the Emperor, you’re here to find your friends.”

“Correct. The longer I can avoid pointless conflict, the better. But if the Special Inquisitor is coming to see us, then perhaps we should try and keep a low profile. Well, as much as you can keep a low profile when you’re… Uh…”

“Ah, I suppose that is a concern,” Adenine agreed, picking up on his reference to her strange body. “Regardless, I suppose we should do some simpler training exercises for today. Or perhaps we could just hide in our room…”

Taion started considering the merits of both options, even if one felt sillier, but his thoughts were interrupted by a voice that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

“Well, well, well… Look who it is. The bookworm, and his book.”

“That voice…” Taion whispered in disbelief. “It can’t be.”

“Honestly, I’ve heard of bibliophiles, but I’ve never seen one go so far as to sleep with his book. Not until you showed up, heh!”

But the more he talked, the more Taion could deny it no longer. Turning slowly, and ignoring his obvious bait, he found himself once again facing the ever-insulting D… or rather, the man once known as Blackblaze Dirk. And somehow more shockingly, by his side was what appeared to be a dead ringer for his Moebius armour at first glance. That at the very least was quickly disproven, as the snakes on the shoulders and blue crystal in the chest keyed him into the figure's identity as a Blade.

“Taion?” Adenine asked concernedly, confusion growing on her face. “What’s wrong?”

“Dirk,” Taion spat, unable to hide the distaste in his voice.

Adenine’s confusion quickly grew more vivid, no doubt sensing the familiarity he was unable to hide.

“Dirk? Who is-”

“Oh, so you’ve actually heard of me after all?” Dirk quickly interrupted, his contemptible grin growing in the revelation. “You hear that, Zahak? I’m already famous with the newbie!”

Zahak must have been his Blade, considering the way he responded to Dirk’s inquiry. And his response somehow made things feel worse, with the way his deep tone and equally detestable toothy smile reminded him of D and J’s Interlink.

“That is a shock. Perhaps you’ve already done enough to warrant a passage in some article I missed?”

Taion was quick to correct whatever fantasies they had brewing in their sick heads, though most any origin he could tell would be strictly a lie.

“Oh, I wouldn’t call you famous, and I haven’t read about you in any good source. No, I think infamous fits my impression of you better. The whispers haven’t been kind, you know.”

The undeniably vitriolic edge to Taion’s retort caught Adenine by complete surprise. Having only known him for a short time, she had never seen him at his worst - petty and unsociable, much like he was around Eunie at first. But while his Interlink Partner had at least sacrificed himself to try and atone for what he had done as Moebius, D had been the very person Joran had sacrificed himself to kill. From Eunie’s traumatic flashbacks of her death, to his attempted murder of Queen Nia, Taion had no sympathy for the monstrous man.

“Heh,” Dirk chuckled, still seemingly unphased. “Well, they’ve been kinder to me than they’ve been to you, Spectacles. Oh, the things they’ve told me, even beyond what you do to your Blade…”

The way Dirk worded that was enough to make Taion grimace. But clearly he wasn’t near done, judging by the way his slasher smile grew ever wider, and his eyes somehow more crazed.

“They tell me how you’re an overconfident braggart, a soldier who trained without a Blade before his lucky break, and so thinks he’s better than anyone else here. They tell me how you lord your fancy Blade over others, assuming her unique appearance translates to strength. And they tell me that, despite your posturing, beneath all your bravado… you’re still just a weak child.”

The sheer breadth of his ridiculous accusations made Taion scoff, but a brief glance to Adenine revealed her clear discomfort. He had gained the impression she wasn’t the most easily social person, so he could understand how Dirk’s continued accusations about their relationship were wearing on her. Eager to get this farce over with, Taion decided to try and toss out his conjecture in one fell swoop.

Unfortunately, he hadn’t quite turned off the sarcasm.

“Your jealousy is touching, Dirk, but you need not project so fervently onto me; it will do little to solve your myriad of problems.”

As intended, the swift retort had quickly silenced his assertions in their entirety, but in their place was a quiet rage that Taion hadn’t quite accounted for.

“Heh. Think you’ve got yourself a silver tongue, eh? Well, newbie, it’s high time it stopped flapping!”

Gesturing to his Blade, he was suddenly tossed his yellow claw-like weapons, some exceptionally dangerous variation of Knuckle Claws. Entering a clear fighting stance, Dirk glared at his least favourite co-worker with a clear resolve.

“Right here, right now… You and me. And don’t think you can say no.”

Taion’s initial retort that he was uninterested in sparring had been silenced before it even left his mouth. Unfortunately, he got the impression that Dirk wasn’t lying about not letting him go, leaving him with little choice in the matter. He would have to defend himself.

But before he made that decision, he had someone else to consult. Turning back to Adenine, he quietly asked her the all-important question.

“Are you alright with this?”

Her reaction was complicated, beginning with surprise before transitioning to serious deliberation. Yet despite her earlier discomfort, when she spoke up once more it was with obvious conviction.

“Don’t worry about me. After all…”

She paused to pass him her weapons and start her affinity link.

“We have to teach these two a lesson in humility, don’t we?”

Taion smirked, pushing up his glasses habitually as he returned his gaze to his opponents.

“Of course. Let us deal with this posthaste.”

“Heh,” Dirk scoffed, readying himself for the fight. “I’d like to see you try.”

Then, without so much as a countdown, he rushed at Taion with his claws out. Slashing down at him in a V shape, he was forced to quickly block with both of Adenine’s weapons, clashing against Dirk’s strength until he could manoeuvre around the sharp edges. Unfortunately, it seemed quickly apparent that Taion wouldn’t overpower him in a straight contest, so he had to be trickier.

Though the element of surprise was gone, Dirk didn’t let up on his assault. He kept slashing one claw after another, making Taion have to weave around his range to both dodge and block the strikes. But as much as he was avoiding damage for now, he wasn’t dishing out any either, and that had to change. All he needed was an opening…

“There!”

Having gotten frustrated with his patience, Dirk had overswung and lost his balance. Taking his opportunity, Taion dashed in with a gut punch, catching the former Moebius by surprise and leaving him a little dazed. Hoping to continue his assault, he attempted to follow up with a powerful uppercut. But his strike never landed.

“Don’t get ahead of yourself!”

Suddenly appearing in the way of the blow, Zahak blocked the attack meant for his Driver as the snakes on his shoulders hissed. Caught off guard by the sudden reversal, Taion attempted to regain his balance and force his way through, but the malicious Blade had no intention of letting him pass. He deflected the two hastily offered swings that Taion first offered before kicking the fledgling Driver down, buying enough time for Dirk to recover and throw him back the claws.

“Here’s a lesson for you, brat! Crush them, Zahak!”

Dirk’s Blade responded to his order with unsubtle laughter and a wicked grin, pointing one of his glowing yellow claws at his opponent.

“With pleasure. Now, Unstoppable Spear!”

Knowing full well how dangerous that attack was from D & J, Taion scrambled to his feet, but he’d gotten sloppy - he wasn’t going to be quick enough. Bracing for impact as best as he could, he held his breath…

“Ah!”

…Only for Adenine to take the brunt of the attack. Though her barrier had slightly weakened it, Taion could still see the burn along her metallic arm.

“Adenine!” he cried out in concern. “Are you alright?!”

“I’ll be fine,” she reassured through a wince. “This will heal.”

Despite the ferocity of the attack, she seemed no less determined to protect him, standing proud if gingerly. But her foes refused to be impressed, Dirk scoffing at the defiance.

“That so, eh? How about we test that theory, girly!”

Receiving Zahak’s claws once more, he charged to strike, but this time Taion was not the target. Setting his gaze purely on Adenine, Dirk was striking with truly murderous intent - he could tell by those manic eyes. Believing he wouldn’t physically make it in time, Taion only had one choice, one ace up his sleeve. 

Focusing less on Adenine’s weapons and more on his own, Taion waved his right hand and summoned forth a wall of Mondo. Unprepared, Dirk’s slash clanked against the talismans, prompting an indignant cry of “What?!” from the Driver. In that instant, the strategist of Ouroboros saw a new opportunity, and rushed forward from his position with his focus back on the Knuckle Claws.

Before Dirk could tell what was happening, he pushed through the Mondo to perform a powerful dashing punch to his chest. Empowered by their teamwork, the blow sent Dirk clean across the training arena, barely missing the fence that surrounded it as he rolled along the dirt. Seeing his Driver struck down once more, Zahak jumped backwards to protect him, no longer willing to take any chances on their prey.

“Taion!” Adenine called, moving to his side. “That was superb!”

He allowed himself to be a little smug at the praise.

“Naturally, though I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“True, our teamwork is making many strides.”

Even as he celebrated a brief success, Taion’s eyes didn’t stray from Dirk and Zahak. As he stood watching, the malignant Driver forced himself upright, and he could tell there was a deeper malice in those eyes than there had been before.

“Though it seems our sparring partners have taken umbrage with that,” Adenine corroborated, watching as Dirk grimaced at the newbies he’d underestimated.

“So you’ve got a couple extra tricks up your sleeve, brat,” he noted without an ounce of respect. “That’s good. Means I don’t have to feel bad about this next bit. Zahak!”

The demand was punctuated with a pass of his weapons. The Blade seemed to slowly understand what his Driver wanted, and for the first time, he seemed truly shocked.

“Really? You want me to-”

“Yes, damn it! Show them the true face of death!”

At the last of his words, Zahak slowly rose into the sky, and Taion felt a chill in the air. Bracing himself once more, he was surprised to see his Blade step in front of him.

“Adenine?”

She turned to him and held her hands out, determination in her eyes.

“I believe it’s my turn.”

“Are you sure?”

“Of course! Logically he stands no chance against us.”

Taion wasn’t sure he shared her confidence as a dark aura surrounded the opposing Blade, but he did trust her. Passing her back her weapons, he gave Adenine a nod.

“All right.”

With her Driver’s approval, she turned back towards Zahak and raised her hands into the air, gathering the wind in her fists. As the two Blades stared each other down, the air grew thick with tension, their Drivers looking on.

“Let’s end this,” Adenine declared, readying herself just as Zahak finished his own preparations.

“Oh, I will, girly!” he returned in confidence. “Time for you to go… Beyond Dea-”

“Enough!”

But his battle cry was swiftly interrupted. A silver whip, wreathed in blue flames, knocked him out of the air and interrupted his attack, leaving Dirk stunned. But before Taion could say anything about it, another whip raced in front of Adenine, forcing her to dissipate her gathered ether in surprise. Their sparring firmly stopped, he expected Dirk to be indignant at their interruptor, only to find his face flushed with… fear?

Something about that idea set off alarm bells in his head. There was something Taion was forgetting, or more accurately someone-

Oh, spark.

Turning towards the source of the interruption, he found Dirk’s fear to be shockingly well founded. Standing there at the entrance of the training ground, retracted whips in her hands, was a woman in military attire that was simultaneously formal yet clearly for battlefield use. By her side was almost certainly a Blade, matching the blue of the whips’ flames with her outfit and hair, and that was what finally cued Taion in.

Mórag Ladair was said to work alongside the ‘Jewel of the Empire,’ a Blade passed down through the royal family for generations named Brighid. She was most recognisable for her characteristic blue flames that subverted the much more common red of other Blades. There was no other explanation.

They had just been stopped by the Special Inquisitor of Mor Ardain. The very same woman Taion had been hoping to avoid.

Chapter Text

Walking back along the cliffside path out of Colony 6, Noah could not help but remember last night’s encounter with Metal Face. He shuddered involuntarily, before pointedly turning back towards the path towards the marsh to attempt to forget it.

Leaving at midday, the entire group began their journey through Satorl Marsh. He got the impression Otharon and Juju wouldn’t be staying with them forever, which was fine, but he had become concerned about how long Leater’s squad would reasonably continue to follow Shulk and Reyn, knowing that their mission was for all intents and purposes complete. Of course, Noah initially had no intention of following the wielder of the Monado in his quest for revenge, but that was before he had seen Xord.

He was still grappling with the death of the Faced Mechon, and all the questions he had raised. Whatever her was, or rather, whatever they were, all the Faced Mechon seemed to believe Shulk was important. If he wanted answers about this world, there was little choice but to follow him… if he was given the choice.

That desire to know more about his new world did have a lighter side to it, thankfully. Noah did not recall any place specifically named as a marsh in Aionios, so he was incredibly curious about what it would look like. After minutes of rather quiet marching, he was finally given his answer… in the form of a path of dead-looking trees.

“Well, here we are,” Dickson suddenly introduced. “Satorl Marsh. I promise it’s prettier at night.”

“Prettier?” Noah questioned, noticeably dubious.

Hearing his doubt, Dickson gave him a smirk. “Heh. I’ll let it speak for itself. More fun that way.” Clearly uninterested in explaining himself further, he chose instead to explain their trajectory, the reason they were going through the marsh in the first place. “We’re aiming to get inside the Bionis. We can get to the upper regions from there.”

The prospect was rather surprising to most everyone, though Sharla was the one to vocalise it. “Wow… I’d never thought about going inside the Bionis.”

“The closer we get to the top, the more monster trouble we’re gonna run into. The only things that venture this far in are the Nopon Merchants, and curious types like me.”

Dunban, of all of them, was the most experienced with Dickson's knack for adventure. He couldn’t resist the opportunity to make a jab at his old comrade’s choice of path.

“You really know all the fun spots, eh, Dickson?”

His friend chuckled but didn’t change his tune. “You wanna get to the top? Then this is the only way.”

As much as Noah was trying not to harp on Dickson too much, sometimes he felt like it wasn’t even his fault when he said things like that to his friends. Dunban had been to the Great Sword before, right? Did he not know about this somehow?

“Did you really travel the same way before?” Noah eventually articulated. “For the Battle of Sword Valley, I mean.”

Dickson took the questioning like he’d been expecting it from the youngsters, though perhaps from Shulk instead of Noah. He launched into an explanation almost like he’d prepared it, though it was more likely that he’d simply explained it before.

“The route we’ll be taking is the oldest route up there, and it's the only one that isn’t Homs-made. It’s a little imprecise, but it does the job if you’re travelling light. Once we start talking about armies, though, it stops being practical very quickly. That’s where the hover transports came in - they don’t go that far, but they can make the same ascent as this route can.”

Leater sighed, seeming to remember a detail she’d not thought on for some time. “Right… The same transports the Mechon broke and that are still being fixed.”

Noah suppressed a sigh of his own. This seemed as good a proof as any - he was being far too paranoid for his own good. 

Shulk cut off any more of his musings with a determined declaration. “We’ll push on. No matter what.”

Dickson, proud of his boy, patted him on the back as he walked by. “That’s the spirit, Shulk.”

And with that, they all set off through the marsh. Noah lagged behind a bit, but he was quick to get moving when Riku dropped in line with him.

“Something bothering Noah?” his Nopon friend wondered.

“Not exactly, though I do still need to have that talk with Dickson,” Noah clarified, speaking a little hushed. “No, at this point I’m just thinking about this marsh…”

“What about? Curious as to what Dickson meant?”

“Well, a little. But more importantly, these trees… They look like the ones from Elaice Highway.”

Riku took a moment to observe the marsh’s dead-looking decorations, and after a second of contemplation hummed in acknowledgement. “Riku suppose he sees what Noah means. But what is bothering Noah about it?”

That was going to be harder to explain, but Noah supposed there wasn’t a better solution than just trying. “It’s just… Elaice Highway was nothing like this place. Satorl Marsh, by all accounts, is grassy and swampy. Elaice Highway was part of a desert - if anything, the dead trees fit in there more. Why would that be happening?”

His friend mused on his answer for a time, but his retort ended up catching Noah rather far off guard. “Is friend not just overthinking this? Trees may not have leaves, but on second look, they also do not have light-fruit, nor even blue lines on trunk. Appear to be different species entirely.”

“They are not-”

Noah’s indignant return died in his throat as he realised the truth of Riku’s words. They were not the same trees at all - he was seeing ghosts. He couldn’t help but sigh once more.

“Riku, help me,” he moaned. “I’m seeing things.”

The Nopon laughed at his overly dramatic realisation. “Friend Noah gotten too used to dealing with world-shattering conspiracy. Forgotten how to live like normal human.”

“Sure seems that way…”

Unbeknownst to them both, Ethel, walking ahead of them with Bolearis by her side, had watched the exchange with curiosity. Unable to hear their discussion, she still saw all too well his frustrated body language. It was only a matter of time before her Captain caught her in the act.

“Something up, Ethel?”

Returning her eyes to the path in front of her, she shook her head. “No, it’s nothing. Just observing some of our allies.”

“Wondering about Noah, are you? I’m afraid you know him more than me. Though, now that you mention him, what were you talking about when you wanted him to explain what happened yesterday? Didn’t think he would have done too much on his own… No offence to the guy, but he seems like a team player more than a Dunban type, right?”

Ethel couldn’t help but smirk at his blunt curiosity. “Oh, you’d be surprised. But you’ll have to wait a bit longer - I don’t think I’d do it justice without his explanation.”

“Ah, fine.”

With his badgering placated, a comfortable silence settled over the group as they marched through the marsh, Noah none the wiser to her talk.

~~~

The training ground had become deathly silent, despite being filled by many more faces than it was previously. Unprecedented as it was, it was by no means unexplained - on the contrary, the sudden presence of two women made it expected.

“Y-your Grace! I didn’t mean to-“

Mórag Ladair did not care for Dirk’s excuses. She cast him a stern glance that halted his tongue before scolding him properly.

“Did not mean to do what, Dirk? Kill your fellow soldier? I would sincerely hope not, as in such a case, I would have you swiftly arrested for gross misconduct. Or, perhaps… treason.”

Dirk was already a pale face, made paler by the Special Inquisitor’s entrance, but he still found an even more sickly shade in response to the clear threat. Seeing her continue to gaze at him expectantly, he could only return a nervous nod.

“Good, you understand. Both you and Zahak will report to Captain Barnham for disciplinary action immediately.”

The small gathered crowd, having seemingly followed Mórag into the area, were just as shocked as Taion was to see him respond so quickly. Pushing through the watchers to make himself scarce at high speed, he didn’t spare a moment for his Blade. Zahak, having not been given any assistance to recover from his whip strike, had to force himself upright to follow his Driver in reasonable time.

But with their ‘sparring’ opponents gone, Taion and Adenine were left alone with the Special Inquisitor and the Jewel of Mor Ardain, watched by the needling eyes of the onlookers. Taion was unable to stop himself from swallowing nervously, as he internally considered the consequences for their part. Especially knowing that Dirk had faced the disciplinary judgement of the Captain… likely with some of Mórag’s notes from her own opinions on his behaviour.

In contrast, Adenine did not seem particularly fussed about the development. If anything, seeing the dubious duo be reprimanded appeared to have been rather cathartic, which gave Taion the impression she had gained a newfound respect for the woman. He wondered how long that would last.

A tense moment passed without a word, but Mórag was the one to speak up once more.

“Taion and Adenine,” she began, her intentions imperceptible. “I would like you both to come with me.”

That was not what Taion wanted to hear. But he couldn’t exactly say no, and there was still a small crowd in attendance, so he stood to attention and agreed, Adenine following shortly after…

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Yes, Your Grace!”

…Though she was noticeably less sombre. Regardless, he walked as calmly as he could towards the Special Inquisitor, then followed both her and her Blade until they reached a particularly opulent office for the barracks. From her careful steps within, he got the impression this wasn’t her office per se, but she must have been borrowing it from someone rather important considering the decor. It reminded him of how Consuls would generally take over the Commander’s office whenever they were in attendance at a Colony.

As she took her seat behind the desk, casting a brief furtive glance at a particularly extravagant clock, Mórag let Brighid stand proudly at her back.

Gesturing at the chair in front of him, she told Taion, “Please take a seat.”

He initially made to do so, but stopped when he realised something he wasn’t happy with. Mórag looked towards him curiously, as if seeking an explanation, and he was compelled to answer.

“Adenine should have one too.”

It was not phrased as a question - he was resolute in his belief. Mórag recognised this, but her response was not indignant.

“I see.”

Her short answer was calm, but neither was it the full extent of her response. In recognition, she gestured behind him, towards a second chair placed against the office wall. It seemed she was accepting his request.

“Thank you.”

Responding with as much graciousness as he could, he brought Adenine’s chair over to desk and moved his own to create more space. His Blade thanked him as she got comfy, seemingly oblivious to his gambit. But, as he sat down in his own chair, Taion thought he saw the barest hint of a smile on the Special Inquisitor’s face.

He didn’t have much time to wonder about that, though, as she quickly addressed him once more.

“Have you two had many interactions with Dirk and Zahak?”

That was a surprising angle to go for. He expected her to ask for an explanation, not a review of their history. Unfortunately for him, this question had traded explaining his actions for lying about his past, but he could hardly tell her the truth.

“No, we have not,” he answered. “Dirk approached the two of us when we arrived at the training ground today, seemingly with some sort of bone to pick. Admittedly I rose to his provocations somewhat, but regardless he was there with the intent to get on our nerves, and… teach us a lesson, you could say.”

The explanation of events seemed to surprise Mórag and Brighid both. For the first time since she’d arrived, it was the Jewel of Mor Ardain that responded to him.

“You believe the fight was premeditated?” she questioned.

Taion considered her scrutiny and found it was not wholly unwarranted. After all, in this world they’d barely met. It was only his experience in Aionios that coloured his view, so perhaps it would be best to moderate his confidence.

“Perhaps I am assuming too much - I don’t exactly know him very well. But I could not help but assume so by the way his Blade was all too prepared for his decision.”

Mórag evaluated that detail behind discerning eyes. When she had made a silent choice, she turned not to Taion, but to Adenine, and asked her a different question.

“And you agree that the two of you have not previously interacted with either Dirk or Zahak?”

Adenine nodded confidently. “They have doubtlessly seen us around the barracks, but I cannot say I’ve previously had the… pleasure of interacting with such specimens of Driver and Blade.”

Taion was tempted to try and dissuade such unsubtle shading, but surprisingly, Mórag looked like she agreed, sighing in frustration.

“Yes, I’m afraid that the two of them exist as a frustrating intersection of high martial effectiveness and low discipline,” she explained. “As you may have guessed, they are not unknown to us, having been previously reprimanded for similar instances of disorderly conduct - whether that be to fellow soldiers or leadership. There is, however, one significant difference in this case.”

“There is?”

Taion had to stop himself from facepalming at his Blade’s earnest curiosity. The phrasing of that declaration could not possibly be good, so he had no intention of opening that can of worms, but Adenine had missed the subtle hint of suspicion.

“Indeed,” Mórag continued. “The two of you have only been enlisted for a little under a week, and yet you have already caught Dirk’s attention. Admittedly, this could be related to your apparent latent skills, but such a case has not so readily brought him to conflict without a prior interaction before. So either he has shifted from his previous pattern… or there is history you are not telling me.”

At her last insinuation, she had turned her eyes squarely on Taion. She seemed to believe Adenine wholeheartedly, but not him, which was… concerning. He had not previously needed to so vigorously protect his secrets, but Mórag was clearly an intelligent foe - he would need to be more careful in the future.

A tense quiet followed her thinly veiled accusation, finally letting Adenine in on the hints of suspicion in the room. The realisation seemed to confuse her, as if she was trying to reconcile how both Mórag and Taion could possibly be telling the truth. Of course, he wasn’t, but he wasn’t about to explain that while Mórag was still in the room. While she was grappling with that, her Driver was trying to plan a way to explain himself, very aware of the potential consequences of being found out.

And yet, he never had to try to convince her. Mórag herself broke the silence, rising from her tense posture to a more amicable one in an instant to continue their discussion.

“In any case, we are not only here to discuss Dirk and Zahak,” she suddenly revealed.

“…We aren’t?” Taion sputtered out in confusion.

He could almost swear he saw her smirk again.

“While we happened to be present at just the right time to interrupt your spat with them, we did not come to this facility to discipline troublemakers. We are here, instead, to seek the assistance of skilled soldiers. Skilled soldiers we can trust.”

And that somehow made Taion even more confused. If there was anything this conversation had made apparent, it was that Mórag did not trust him. So why was she bringing that up?

“You seem shocked, Taion.”

Of course she noticed, he grumbled internally. How do I explain that?

“Well, as you noted yourself, we have not been enlisted for even a week,” he reasoned. “If nothing else, I would have assumed that would disqualify us from the designation of ‘skilled.’”

Brighid scoffed at his explanation, though seemingly not out of malice. “You are remarkably humble, but you do not need to lie for our sake. Barnham was quite resolute in his belief in your skills, Taion, and your teamwork with Adenine appears to be improving every day. Of course, part of the reason he believes in you so wholeheartedly is because you once told a fellow soldier you were military trained.”

He winced, belatedly remembering his encouragement of Jac and Yachik.

“I suppose I did say that.”

Noticing his hesitancy to say any more, Mórag stepped in. “Your story has admittedly made me curious. I know that you awakened Adenine as your inroads to joining the Ardainian Military, but though Barnham was quick to note your confidence in awakening a Blade, he never did find out why you wished to enlist. Considering what you have said about being trained, I can only assume you previously resigned.”

That would be a reasonable assumption, but admittedly Taion was not aware of any restrictions on such a practice. In fact, he was not overly educated on the Ardainian Military structure - he could only hope she did not question him on it. 

When Mórag did ask him her next question, although it thankfully avoided the topic of previous service, what she asked was just as hard to explain his way around.

“For what reason did you enlist once more?”

There was a single true answer to this question; he had joined to find his friends, scattered through the new world. But Taion was speaking to a woman who, for all intents and purposes, represented the very nation he had enlisted for. Telling her he had no interest in patriotism could have disastrous results. He would need a different approach…

His attempt to think of such was interrupted by Adenine pulling on his sleeve. Confused, he turned to face her, and she whispered a suggestion in response.

“Tell her the truth.”

The truth? The mere idea should have been absurd, and yet… He could see where she was coming from. Though it was undeniable that people often hid sides of themselves for personal gain, the Special Inquisitor of Mor Ardain had insofar been a surprisingly reasonable woman… if incredibly perceptive. Perhaps there was much to be gained from trusting her a little.

“This may sound selfish to you, Your Grace…” he began hesitantly. “But in truth, I joined the Ardainian Military in the hopes of locating my wayward companions.”

The sincerity seemed to surprise Mórag, though that may have been related to how outlandish it sounded.

“Truly?” she questioned, dubious. “I would have thought there were simpler ways to reconnect with lost friends.”

“I’m afraid most normal means have a certain infeasibility to them. I was separated from them quite recently, and through mechanisms I cannot hope to understand, leaving me with the need to both travel to find them in unknown locations, and sustain myself in the meantime. Though I was… apprehensive about returning to the military, I didn’t believe I had much choice.”

His reveal seemed to have shocked the room, even Adenine - she knew he wasn’t in the military for the fighting, but this was the first time he had implied a dissatisfaction with the military as a whole. Mórag seemed to need to consider his explanation seriously.

“Are you that dedicated to finding them?” she eventually asked.

Taion let himself smile. “I can say without a shadow of a doubt, that without them, I would not be here today. There is no cost too great.”

“…So it seems.”

His reasons explained, Mórag briefly turned to Brighid as if to ask her a question. Though she said nothing, her Blade still nodded all the same, prompting her to return her gaze to Taion and Adenine.

“Allow me to explain the reason I am here, then. There is a mysterious Blade terrorising Alba Cavanich, stealing from shopkeepers, factories and military bases, and the military’s efforts to apprehend them insofar have proved fruitless. At first, this was purely attributed to the assigned soldiers being overwhelmed, but a recent discovery has suggested there is additional foul play involved.”

She paused, seeming to briefly evaluate how much to divulge in her head before continuing.

“To be candid with you both, concerns have been raised with the Emperor about internal security. In hopes of overcoming the issue, I have decided to assemble a team of skilled Drivers I can trust. For the short term, this will be purely in service to apprehending the rogue Blade and discovering their origin, but in the long term this may take other forms. I am asking if you two would be willing to join them.”

Well… that wasn’t where Taion expected this to go at all. It would have sounded too good to be true for most any other soldier in this nation, if he wasn’t wrong. But there was one catch to it that Taion noticed, even beyond the strange generosity.

“Forgive me if I am overstepping, Your Grace, but… you have just heard of my reason for enlisting. How would dealing with an issue on Ardainian soil help me achieve my goal?”

“It would not directly contribute, that is true. But while you are serving under my command, perhaps I can help you find them. After all, Mor Ardain’s information network may well be the most vast in Alrest.”

The more Taion conversed with this woman, the more her wits seemed to show. That was a tantalising prospect, one he should have no reason to refuse. She’d cornered him into a deal that seemed to be good for both of them. Still, if he was going to accept her deal, then he needed to check with someone else first.

“What do you think, Adenine?”

She leaned her cheek on her fist, her arm propped against the arm of her chair, and smiled at him.

“I think this prospect sounds like just what you need. And I have no objections to it - all the better for the opportunity to prove ourselves, I say.”

And that was all he needed to hear. “Well then. I suppose we shall take you up on your offer, Special Inquisitor Mórag.”

For the first time, she fully showed him a smile. “Thank you Taion, Adenine. We shall be seeing more of each other soon - Captain Barnham will report you further instructions, so please meet with him at a later time. I will let you both go, but before I do, I may as well get a head start on your request.”

“A head start, Your Grace?”

“A description of one of your friends should do. I will use it to try to ascertain their location.”

One of my friends… Taion considered mentally. If I was going to find someone first, I would want to find the person who would be most likely to help me find everyone else. And knowing them, if I was to pick one person who everyone else would gravitate towards…

“Her name is Mio. She’s a Gormotti with yellow eyes, short, light grey hair and light skin, and she’s a bit shorter than me.”

He hoped his specificity would be enough, and it certainly seemed like it would be. At least, considering the way both Mórag and Brighid reacted to his description with some surprise, anyway. He was glad he didn’t go with Sena considering that - explaining her as having hair incredibly similar to Brighid would do him no favours.

…Perhaps that was something to muse on later. They had few other similarities, but Brighid’s blue flames were apparently unique, and yet Sena’s hair looked just like it. Strange.

“That will be all then,” Mórag concluded, satisfied with his answer. “Thank you both for your time.”

Bowing in acknowledgement, Taion and Adenine left the office and shut the door behind them, uncertain but hopeful about their deal. Waiting a few seconds until they were long gone, Mórag and Brighid remained in silence, until the Blade sighed.

“Perhaps we should have expected this,” she grumbled, walking to the other side of the desk. “And yet, to hear her name here, of all places… I can scarcely believe it. Almost as little as I can believe that you didn’t dismiss him on the spot.”

“Is it so hard to understand?” her Driver questioned. “Beyond a connection to Mio, and therefore the Aegis, he gave me no reason to doubt his trustworthiness.”

“Please tell me you are not forgetting about his obvious experience with Dirk, Lady Mórag.”

“I am not, no. But I believe Barnham’s discussion with him will reveal the truth of that. More importantly, though, is there not an opportunity here to learn more about Taion and Mio both?”

The sudden pivot to learning the mysterious duo’s secrets left Brighid rather confused. “How so?”

“Mio was undoubtedly military trained, and it seems apparent that Taion was too. That would suggest they were part of the same army, even the same squadron. Does that mean he is also a Flesh Eater? And does that mean Mio’s experience is the reason they both left? Is there some remnant of the Silver Chair involved, or was it a ploy of our internal detractors? These are the unknowns we may yet answer if we keep him close.”

“…I concede your point. We shall have to keep an eye on him, but it represents as good a reason as any to attempt to locate the Aegis’s group.”

“Indeed.” 

Standing from her seat and briefly glancing at a window, Mórag frowned, unable to decipher what would happen next.

“Whatever this all means, I fear it heralds turbulent times ahead for Mor Ardain.”

~~~

In another metallic city, in another world, Lanz found himself in the company of the terror twins.

Well, that’s what he had nicknamed them in his head, anyway. Though it was great to see Segiri again, it seemed that in the influence of her twin sister she was far more mischievous than he remembered. And Fugiri was even worse - dragging him around and prodding him for personal info constantly like she was his new toy. And that was only yesterday! 

Today, though, she was dragging him somewhere new he’d never been before, Segiri following behind as always.

“Hey, where the snuff are we even going?” he demanded to the determined girl holding his hand in a vice grip. “Egil and Vanea haven’t taken me anywhere near here.”

Fugiri just laughed at his confusion, but Segiri found it curious. “Have you not explored the Central Factory?”

“Central Factory? Is that where we are?”

“Mhm.”

Lanz chuckled lightly to himself at the revelation. “Nah, I haven’t even left Agniratha. Suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that this was somewhere different… We did take one of those transporters to get here, after all.”

Fugiri took the opportunity to explain herself. “Well, Agniratha doesn’t have much to do in it, so when we’re not working with Egil or Vanea, we come down here. It’s a lot more lively!”

“I suppose I got that impression,” Lanz concurred. “But if it’s a factory, then I don’t really get why you’ve brought me here.”

“Why? Because you need a new outfit!”

“Oh, right… Wait, what?!”

His only answer was a seemingly endless giggle from Fugiri, as she finally dragged him to their destination in a moderately sized room.

“Hey, hey!” Lanz grumbled, finally free of the twin’s grip. “What do you mean about me needing a new outfit?! Mine’s just fine!”

“Nuh-uh!” she rebuffed. “You’ve gotta try something else on! Isn’t that right, sister?”

“Heh, like she’s gonna agree with you-”

“She is correct,” Segiri unfortunately seconded. “We cannot have our little brother going out dressed like that.”

“Going out- What are you two even on about?!”

“Making you presentable. Now, what colours would you like to wear?”

Lanz was quiet for a second, hoping for them to suddenly reveal they were joking, but no such relief ever came. Realising he had little chance of changing their minds, he sighed.

“…I wear blue and black the most. Don’t think I’d look bad in orange either, honestly.”

Fugiri smiled, pleased he was going along with it. “I think we can work with that! With that out of the way, though, about your shoes-”

“No heels.”

His demand was met with an immediate groan of disappointment. “Whaaat? Come ooon, Lanzy! I’m sure you’d look great in them, like Egil does!”

The use of Sena’s nickname caught him off guard. For a moment, he was stuck up in his head thinking about his lost friends, oblivious to the twins’ concern. 

“Here’s to us, the mighty weaklings!”

“What’s that in aid of?”

“Do the right thing. Come on!”

“I’ll keep going, while my flame still flickers… to the bitter end.”

“I am not gonna slack off! I’ll train every day, thinking of you.”

“Lanz!”

Suddenly brought back to his senses by Fugiri’s shout, he had to briefly get back his sense of place. When he was back to normal, he found both of the twins in front of him, concern written plainly on their faces… though perhaps more obviously on Fugiri.

“Are you okay now?” Segiri asked him, worried. “For a brief moment you were unresponsive to us both.”

“Were the heels that bad of an idea?” Fugiri wondered, panicked in her tone. “Or was it the nickname?! I’m sorry, I’ll stick to Lanz from now on-”

“Hey now, enough of that,” Lanz interrupted, stopping her concerned rambling. “I was just caught up in remembering some old friends, it’s not your fault.”

Neither of them looked particularly convinced, but Fugiri was the most obviously worried.

“Still…”

“Look, you two can call me Lanzy if you want. I don’t mind, really. Still gonna veto the heels, though - Egil can rock them all he wants, but I’d rather avoid stumbling around like an idiot.”

With his repeated reassurance setting in, Fugiri finally calmed down, letting out a sigh of relief. “Phew… That’s good to hear. I was a bit worried we wouldn’t get a chance to dress you up!”

“You know, I’d rather you didn’t talk about me like I was your new doll.”

“Heehee… Sorry, Lanzy.”

Now that the air was clear, the twins got to work getting Lanz dressed up in something new. And clearly this room had been made specifically for this purpose - not only did it have a fitting room, but machinery designed to make Machina clothing was installed into the bowels of the factory and connected straight into the space. Eventually, the curious facility piqued Lanz’s interest enough to ask about how it came to be.

“Vanea made it for us,” Segiri revealed. “She wanted us to have something fun to do with our spare time when we weren’t out on our jobs, and this was one of her attempts to do so.”

“Attempts?” Lanz picked up on. “What, didn’t it work?”

“Mm… I suppose I misspoke. We have greatly enjoyed using the fashion-ator, but we have also enjoyed her other creations just as much.”

The fact that Vanea had created other entertainment for the twins was illuminating, but Lanz could barely concentrate on it because he was too busy laughing.

“Is that really what this place is called? The fashion-ator?!”

“Hey!” Fugiri exclaimed, pouting in distaste. “We named it ourselves, thank you very much! I happen to think it’s a wonderful name.”

“Heh, sure it is…”

Lanz couldn’t help himself from ruffling the more energetic twin’s hair, something he’d done to Valdi before. Fugiri was a bit shocked by the action, having been taking his measurements when it occurred, but she didn’t seem to mind him doing it at first. It was only when her pout returned, perhaps caused by her remembering what he’d just insinuated about the twins’ naming skills, that she pulled away.

“Well, getting back on topic…” he redirected, figuring that was done with for now. “What else did she cook up for you, anyway? Can’t imagine fashion would keep you two busy for… Uh, how old are you two, actually?”

Fugiri, having moved away to glance at a computer screen, didn’t try particularly hard to remember the specifics. “Uh, I think we’re over a thousand, at the very least…”

“We are both one thousand, two hundred and twenty-seven years old,” Segiri interjected helpfully. “Egil and Vanea knew our ages before our memory loss, so there is no imprecision beyond the additional days.”

Lanz, familiar as he was with the old Segiri’s quirks, found her knowledge to be a little amusing amidst its familiarity. “Quite the noggin on this one, huh Sis?”

He’d addressed the comment to Fugiri, who chuckled in return. “Indeed! She has always been exceptional at memorising things. I suppose I’ve always preferred thinking on my feet, but that’s why we work so well together.”

“I suppose I get it, but a little bit of both never hurts, right?”

“Well, duh! We’re twins, after all!”

“Heh, right…”

Lanz’s mind briefly wondered as he thought on their apparent ages. In Aionios, Segiri and her sister were third-termers, barely out of their pods. Yet here they were, a literal millennia under each of their belts, and he still recognised them both… It made him wonder how similar the Queens were to their younger selves.

He didn’t think on that tangent for too long, if only because he belatedly remembered why he’d asked about their ages in the first place. “Anyway, I'm still curious about what else you guys do.”

The gentle reminder thankfully reached Fugiri, who was more than happy to list it out.

“Oh, right! Well, we have our own Mechon workshop, which is pretty fun… though that’s more Segiri’s playhouse. Then there’s our Face maintenance stations, and even my personal favourite, a fun training area where we get to test our Faces against some big Mechon! Sometimes even Faces, if Egil lets us! And then there’s the archives, which we check out for some reading. Occasionally.”

“Let me guess - that’s more Segiri’s thing than yours?”

“Hehe, bingo!”

The mention of her hobbies brought Segiri back into the conversation, seemingly a bit defensive of her interests. “It does not hurt to learn more of our history, sister, especially considering the time of learning we lost. Besides… you didn’t even mention the kitchen.”

Her last admonishment seemed to be particularly embarrassing to her, and Lanz could see why. Though the mention of it was somewhat surprising to Lanz, Fugiri responded to her insistence with an unimpressed sigh.

“Oh, right… the kitchen. You know Lanzy, to tell you the truth, I do not get her fascination with food. We’re Machina, for stars’ sake - all we need to live is ether and water! And yet, ever since she discovered the concept of it, she begged Vanea for a way to make some for herself, and now she actually has it she’s barely gone a day without some unnecessary sustenance. She's even made me eat it a couple of times.”

Fugiri turned to look at him expectantly, seemingly hoping he would agree.

“Finally,” Lanz began, a satisfied edge to his voice. “Someone around here is normal!”

The peculiar phrasing took a second to dawn on her, just long enough for Lanz to return his gaze to the still-embarrassed Segiri.

“It was an uphill battle making Egil even get me some food, and he and Vanea both thought I was a weirdo for actually eating it. Glad I have some solidarity in this crazy world, eh Segiri?”

Her twin sister found his admission of such to be… unfathomable. As she looked between her real and her hastily adopted sibling, Fugiri’s face slowly morphed from shock to unrelenting confusion.

“By Meyneth,” she cursed. “There’s two of them.”

“Hey, no need to be so dramatic,” Lanz admonished. “You make it sound like we’ve been tainted by something. Is this what you always have to deal with, Sis?”

Segiri nodded her head sadly, clearly not above drama herself.

“Yes. It is truly terrible company we find ourselves in, don’t we?”

“Ain’t that the truth. At least we have each other, right?”

In solidarity, Lanz raised his hand, and Segiri eagerly took the opportunity for a high five, to her newly crowned brother’s delight. Sensing that she’d truly lost them both, Fugiri eagerly attempted to redirect them towards the goal they’d initially set for themselves.

“Well, enough of that! We’ve still barely started on getting Lanzy a new outfit!”

“This is true,” Segiri corroborated. “We have gotten rather distracted. If this was your aim, Lanz, then it was very effective.”

“That seems a bit far-fetched, sister. There’s no way he-”

Lanz’s guilty expression belied the truth, as Fugiri unfortunately realised.

“Oh, you sneaky little man! …But still not sneaky enough, Lanzy.”

Their ‘little brother’ sighed in defeat. He was in for a long day, if the twins’ work so far was any indication.

~~~

The expedition to Satorl Marsh continued unabated through shallow water and drab wetlands until Sharla had noticed something ahead. This turned out to be a Nopon merchant caravan, which was a curious but not entirely unexpected sight… at least to Noah. What was markedly less expected was their revelation of the marsh’s apparent danger at night, something Dickson was happy to confirm. Considering what he’d said earlier about it also getting prettier, Noah was left a little disappointed.

Once they’d finished their business with the caravan’s Nopon, they walked back over the wooden boardwalk they used to reach them in order to head further in, as the sun began to dim in the sky above. As it did, the barren trees slowly lit up on the ends of their branches, until the balls of ethereal light began to float up from their origins and into the sky above. Once the night had truly settled in, a colourful fog settled around them, briefly reminding Noah of the black fog before he saw its true nature.

“It’s beautiful,” Shulk exclaimed, stopping to admire the scenery. “I’ve never seen anywhere like this!”

Dickon looked rather pleased with himself at Shulk’s observation. “Y’see? This is why I’ve been saying you need to get out of the lab every now and then!”

“Heh, I suppose you’ve always known best. Wait…”

Trailing off and resuming his walk when he noticed a light in the distance, Noah and the rest of their party were quick to follow him. The light turned out to emanate from some sort of strange, tall lamp post, with an architectural style Noah almost recognised… but couldn’t place.

“This lamp…” Shulk wondered aloud. “It has a very strange glow.”

“It’s a remnant of the High Entia,” Dickson quickly revealed. “They’ve hidden themselves away in the upper reaches now, but at one time they controlled this whole area.”

“Good for them,” Reyn commented, seemingly not very interested.

“It’s the perfect place to get some shut eye. The lamp will keep the monsters away. We’ll be safe if we rest here.”

“Ah, perfect,” Miller graciously accepted. “I’m desperate to get my boots dry, and the sleep doesn’t hurt either.”

“Don’t think I’ve ever heard you put something above sleep,” Ashera commented. “I suppose you’ve finally grown out of being a lazybones, Miller.”

“And I suppose I’ll take that compliment, even if it was rather backhanded, Ashera.”

“Oh? Has he grown a backbone now, too?”

“Oh, I’ll show you a backbone, alright!”

Noah stifled a laugh at their banter, watching Leater stand between them in hopes of dissolving the conflict. Opting to ignore it and help set up camp instead, he was glad to see that many hands did indeed make light work. It afforded him the chance to take a seat and rest next to Riku, even if he wasn’t ready to sleep quite yet. He wasn’t the only one - Sharla took the opportunity to sit with her brother and Otharon, Reyn was busy chatting with Dunban and Ashera now her brief spat had faded, and Leater stood with Miller, seeming to be discussing something more serious than he’d expected.

That just left Shulk, Dickson, Ethel and Bolearis. Shulk was sitting by himself at first, leaning against the ether lamp, but Dickson soon went over to talk to him. Ethel and Bolearis, meanwhile, initially conversed amongst themselves before joining himself and Riku.

“Hey guys,” Bolearis greeted as they sat down. “Not tired yet either, huh?”

“No, not quite yet,” Noah confirmed. “What’s keeping you two up?”

“Heh. Well, you could call it a burning curiosity. Y’see the Lieutenant Colonel and I were just dying to hear the story of your crazy transformation the other day. Hell, we even heard from Ashera that it happened in Colony 9 too!”

“Haha… I see.”

Noah’s awkward laughter belied a certain discomfort in talking about the topic. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before everyone else noticed the gathering and came over to check on it, starting with Ashera.

“Oh, are we finally hearing about what on the Bionis that thing Noah transformed into on the elevator was? Thank the stars, the wait was killing me!”

Emmy and Miller were quick to notice her joining them and join in themselves.

“I’m not going to force you, Noah,” Leater began, “but as your Captain, I feel compelled to ask anyway.”

“And I just really want to know,” Miller added.

Sharla popped over to agree with everyone else, arriving with Juju just as Reyn and Dunban sat down nearby.

“Me too, honestly,” she echoed. “It helped us win, no doubt, but it was still rather scary… Kind of like a Mechon at first glance.”

“I told him the same thing.”

Shulk's comment signalled that he too had joined the circle, Dickson just behind him. With their movement, the entire camp had joined them, expectantly waiting for their answers… It left Noah feeling rather nervous. But he was still compelled to give them at least a palatable reason, even if it was more than he’d wanted to tell. He’d have to be careful about how much he said.

“Well?” Ashera prompted, growing impatient. “Go on, then!”

Turning to Riku for some last-minute reassurance, his Nopon friend gave him a confident nod.

“Alright,” Noah began. “So, to give the answer I’ve already told Shulk… that form is known as an Ouroboros, or an Interlink. I can take that form because of a strong connection I have with someone else - it’s only with her help that I was able to use it twice now.”

“Her?” Sharla picked up on. “Is this your way of subtly telling us you’re taken?”

“Uhh… Not intentionally?”

“Hold on, I was just joking! Is this mystery girl really your…”

Noah flushed with embarrassment, realising that he’d let that detail slip. Mio hadn’t been so lucky in keeping him a secret, and she’d apparently been teased about it somewhat, so he was hoping to avoid that detail for a little while. Perhaps he could ignore it somehow…

“Indeed! Friend head over heels for her.”

Hearing a traitorous voice confirm the truth, Noah turned to his side to see Riku’s smug grin.

“Riku!” he exclaimed in shock. “They didn’t need to know that!”

“Why not? It the truth.”

Noah tried his best to formulate a retort, but he only found himself a sigh. “Look, I didn’t really think it was important. Who she is to me doesn’t matter for what they need to know.”

“On the contrary, Noah,” Ethel disagreed. “I believe that was vital information.”

“Vital? To what?”

A chorus of light laughter was his only answer, though he couldn’t help but notice Shulk’s contrasting discomfort. In an effort not to dwell on it, he attempted to move the conversation forward regardless.

“In any case… It is the strength of our connection that forms our power. I believed I had lost it for good before we reconnected in a moment of desperation, just like what happened on the elevator.”

The explanation sat with the group for a quiet moment, before Otharon spoke up for clarification. “Well, I suppose that helps us understand how you used this… ‘Interlink.’ But what it doesn’t tell us is what an Ouroboros really is, or how you originally obtained it.”

And that line of questioning is exactly what he feared would come up. There was no concept of ‘Ouroboros Stones’ on the Bionis - the person who created them was from a whole other world! So how could he explain the origin of his abilities, or even why he was alone in his ability to use them?

“I think you’re missing the point, old man,” Dickson cut in. “Look at ‘im - he probably doesn’t even know the answer to your question. On the other hand, I think Ethel was right on the money. Who’s this mysterious lady, beyond being your partner? And, more importantly, where is she?”

Noah’s eyes grew stormy, frustration growing in his heart. How was he supposed to answer that?!

‘Oh yeah, she’s in a parallel world to ours and we can’t ever meet each other again! By the way, there’s a whole other world parallel to ours!’

Not a chance, he’d sooner be labelled insane. But his companions kept staring at him expectantly, even if some of them seemed to be slowly getting the impression it was a heavier topic than they’d realised.

“She’s far away now,” he eventually answered, giving them a version of the truth they could hopefully stomach. “Further than I can reach with my real self. I don’t know if I’ll ever truly see her again, beyond my dreams. But still, she’s the light of my life… the only reason I’ve made it this far.”

An almost mournful quiet settled over their camp in the wake of his response. Though most everyone felt too awkward to comment on it, Sharla seemed to feel a certain kinship in his story.

“So… something tore you apart.”

Noah could barely bring himself to answer her, but Riku swooped in, responding in his place.

“Afraid so, friend. Riku, Noah, and other friends, all separated in ways hard to understand. But not all hope lost - Noah found Riku, after all. Should still find more friends along the way.”

“You’re searching for more of your friends?” Leater asked, noticing Riku’s wording. “Not just her?”

Noah hummed in agreement.

“I believe some of them are closer than others,” he elaborated. “If I keep searching across the Bionis, I hope to find them.”

“Across the Bionis…” Ethel repeated, an idea forming in her head. “Of course. You told us you believe one of your friends to be a High Entia, don’t you? The one with the wings on their head.”

A shocked gasp rang out from almost the entire gathered crowd, only really excepting Bolearis and Dickson. Bolearis could easily be explained by him already knowing, but though Dickson was quiet, he still raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“You believe what?!” Miller exclaimed, getting in first to articulate his disbelief. “How is that even…”

Before anyone else could repeat his confusion as he trailed off, Dickson spoke up to give his take. “Well I’ll be damned. Someone with wings on their head sounds exactly like a High Entia. Not sure why you’d have to ‘believe’ it though, in that case.”

“I said the same thing!” Bolearis agreed. “But he did have an explanation, even if it just made me laugh.”

“And that was?”

“He didn’t ask them what they were!”

Noah’s companions erupted into a combination of understanding and laughter, Noah joining in somewhat awkwardly at first. But even he had to admit it did sound funny in the context of the new world.

“Damn, that does sound like Noah.” Miller joked. “I don’t even know him that well, but I just kinda got the vibe that he wouldn’t want to be rude or something.”

“Really?” Ashera disagreed. “He was plenty disrespectful to me when we sparred!”

Noah’s Captain was quick to jump to his defence, a smirk on her face. “He was being snarky, Ashera. And I seem to recall you quite enjoying that banter at the time!”

“I did, that’s true… But, if we’re splitting hairs here, he was being insubordinate to a superior officer! Pretty sure that’s not supposed to fly, right Teach?”

Dunban just laughed. “Don’t look at me - I never became any sort of Captain.”

“Oh, come on, that’s just disappointing… Ethel, you can back me up, right?”

“I’m afraid I’m rather lenient on that front,” the Lieutenant Colonel revealed with a wry smile. “A certain foul-mouthed Captain has little regard for proper military hierarchy, and I’ve often humoured him.”

“Hey!” Bolearis exclaimed. “You can’t just throw me under the bus like that…”

Letting the lively conversation fade into the background, Noah leaned back and relaxed. Maybe it was true he hadn’t found Eunie or Lanz yet… and he didn’t know how long he’d be waiting to see Mio or the others either. But despite all that, Mio was right - he just had to keep moving forward, and he’d make it eventually. 

And with company like this, he figured he had a pretty good chance of making it in one piece… Even if he still didn't really trust Dickson.

~~~

“All done!”

Fugiri’s joyous declaration marked one seal of approval to Lanz’s new outfit, and Segiri’s earnest nod made two. That meant the only one left to give it the okay was Lanz himself, and so with some trepidation he turned to the mirror.

“…Woah.”

His look had changed rather drastically, and certainly was closer to the outfits of his new people. But he felt it was still less overdone and closer to his style than Egil’s attire - perhaps the lack of a headpiece helped, or maybe it was the thankful lack of heels, but either way, he liked what he saw. His new boots were mostly a metallic grey, more pointed than his old combat boots, but they still mirrored the blue circles on the top of his old boots that were once power frames before they stopped working. 

In keeping with that theme, his new pants were thankfully made of an easy to move in black material for the most part, but also featured grey shin guards with blue highlights. Above that he wore a new vest that kept his arms out, as he had requested, but it still matched the more robotic style of the Machina with various lighter grey lines webbing across the darker material beneath, along with two small blue sections near his chest and some dots running across the edges near his arms. Of course, he also wore gloves, though this time he wore a fingerless variety - they were less bulky than the gauntlets he was used to, but still maintained the metallic black colour and blue highlights.

Over that ensemble he wore a new coat, which his new sisters hadn’t been keen on at first but soon found hard to imagine him without. It did have some major changes from his old Ouroboros attire, including being shorter - it stopped halfway down his thighs as opposed to below his knees. In design it replicated the rippled fabric of his old coat with a more metallic flourish, but it was rather static above his waist, opting for a solid, lighter blue on the front and grey on the back, before petering out to an almost skirt-like flowing bottom half that was a darker blue on both sides. The shoulders did opt for a lighter grey, popping out a bit further to resemble shoulder pads.

However, the coat’s most striking change, beyond a notable lack of fur, was on its back. It now featured twin spikes that jutted out from near the shoulder blades and towards his head, which despite their blue highlights and black colour actually resembled his Ouroboros form a bit. Maybe that last change would be difficult to deal with in some situations, but Segiri seemed confident she’d made it so it could be worked around. And that was good enough for him.

“Damn, that’s not bad at all! You two are better than I thought. I can work with this, absolutely!”

“Did you have so little faith in your big sisters, Lanz?” Segiri asked him with a hint of offence.

“Ah, don’t take it personally. I don’t really know… anyone who’s done anything like this before. I didn’t have much to compare it to!”

“Well I’m glad you like it Lanzy! ” Fugiri accepted. “Even if I wanted to make more changes…”

Lanz couldn’t help but laugh. “Sorry Fugu, but I was being very serious about those heels. Trust me, you’ll be happier not picking me up every five seconds.”

“F-Fugu? I, uh… don’t think I like that one, Lanzy.”

“Ah, sorry mate. Not particularly well trained at coming up with nicknames, I’m afraid.”

“Perhaps it needs some workshopping, but it is a respectable start.”

That last comment had come from a new voice, and Lanz was surprised to find it belonged to Egil. He was with Vanea, too, which surprised him; it was the first time he’d seen the family all together.

“Egil!” Fugiri exclaimed, rushing over to meet him.

Though Segiri did not voice it, she must have been happy to see them, too - she went to meet Vanea only a little slower than her sister.

“I see the twins have got you a new look, Lanz,” Vanea greeted, looking him up and down. “It suits you.”

“Hey, thanks!” Lanz graciously accepted. “Took quite a while to get right, but we got there in the end! Maybe you two should give it a whirl.”

Egil smirked at his offer like he’d heard it before.

“Oh, we have both done just that in times before. But, admittedly, our new outfits never quite stuck… I can only hope yours lasts the test of time.”

“Egil, mate, be straight with me for one second… When you say they never stuck, do you mean they didn’t last longer than a week, or are you saying they lasted years?”

Though Egil hesitated on answering, Segiri was more than happy to provide.

“The longest he ever wore a new outfit was 2 years and 80 days. Vanea at her longest wore an outfit for 2 years and 81 days, notably changing back the day after Egil did.”

Lanz gave the brother and sister a funny look, attempting to decipher whatever strange circumstances were hiding behind those numbers, but found no answer beyond it being mildly embarrassing.

“Well that’s a new look on you,” Lanz teased. “Guess even an old man has his childish moments.”

Unable to truly refute him, Egil settled for clearing his throat and redirecting the conversation. “In any case, we are returning to Agniratha. Would you care to join us?”

“Ah, fine, ya spoilsport.”

Egil shot Lanz a playful glare, which he responded to with a mischievous smirk. The obvious tension made Fugiri giggle, even as she jogged to stand next to him and dive into her own conversation on her Face. Following them with Segiri and Vanea, discussing the prospect of going to the kitchen, Lanz found himself feeling a strange tranquillity. 

It was a strange family he’d found himself stuck in the middle of, but he was happy to be there. While his companions were beyond his reach, he was glad he had others to lean on.

Chapter Text

“This place really is nothing like the Tunnels, huh?” Sena mused.

She wasn’t really exaggerating - from wildlife to plant-life, nothing about the apparent true form of Uraya reminded her of the Tunnels that bore its name. She guessed there was at least water, and maybe there were some ruins she hadn’t seen, but the shallow waters of the Farlaine Central Pools were still quite a contrast to that rushing waterway.

“Yeah,” Mio agreed, gazing out across the landscape of the Titan. “Though we haven’t had much time to appreciate it at our own pace.”

“We really haven’t, have we?”

After their encounter with the Trio of Chaos, Mio, Sena and the rest of the group had continued on through the Bluestep Ditch and down to the Farlaine Wells. However, once they reached the Central Pools on their half-hearted effort to see if they could find what became of Zeke and Pandoria, they found a small trio of mercenaries being attacked by Ignas. Making sure they were safe, their leader, Ragi, revealed they had already lost their client to the Ignas’ attack, a Nopon trader named Dororo.

And so they dived into Igna territory to rescue the furry merchant. This was made complicated not just by the Ignas, but by the strange creatures called Gyanna that lived with them. Those things keep shooting balls of energy out the flower-like bulbs on the end of their tails, and they hurt a lot more than they should have. Not to mention their tendency to jump around!

To even reach the ones that had Dororo surrounded, though, they had to fix the blocked floodgate at Pelza’s Sluice, before heading through the Tardy Gate. Then, of course, they had to save the Nopon from his Igna assailants, who were thankfully not helped by Gyanna. Once they were finally dealt with, they chauffeured Dororo back to Ragi’s group, received a reward for their efforts, and returned to just beyond the Gate to make camp, hoping to reach the capital of the Kingdom tomorrow.

“Wait, hold on…” Sena suddenly realised, sitting next to Mio by their fire. “If Uraya is a Kingdom, does that mean it has a Queen?”

The sudden moment of clarity caught Mio off guard, but after considering her claims she could only nod. “I suppose so. I’d guess that it can’t be our Queen, but we don’t exactly have any other leads on who it could be. Maybe we could ask someone…”

“Oh, good idea! Let’s ask Nim-“

“Hey, Dromarch!”

Sena shot her friend an exasperated look at being cut off, but Mio didn’t notice before she had levelled out her expression. Though somewhat apprehensive about leaving his ‘Lady’ alone, he did answer Mio’s call once Nia shooed him off - probably by telling him to stop worrying so much.

“Lady Mio, Lady Sena,” he greeted once he arrived, sitting next to their seats. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

Sena figured she should let Mio take the reins, so she turned to her friend just in time to see a complex twitch in her expression. She couldn’t help but find that weird - all he’d done was say hello, right? Still, her friend didn’t acknowledge that at all before she put forth her query for the sagely Blade.

“Sorry, we’re both having a bit of a lapse in our memories. Who’s the ruler of the Kingdom of Uraya, again?”

“Mm. That would be Queen Raqura, of the House Selosia.”

“What?!” Sena exclaimed. “Uraya has Houses?”

Dromarch nodded. “Indeed. I believe there are six in total.”

Well… there was a familiar number indeed. Sena did her best not to show it on her face, and Mio was doing much the same, though in this case she hid it by nodding and thanking the Blade for his help.

“Thanks for that, Dromarch. That was very enlightening.”

“You are more than welcome,” Dromarch accepted.

Sena thought that would be the end of their conversation, but once he rose back to his feet, he suddenly turned back around to Mio. “And… My apologies for earlier today. I did not mean to mistake you for my Lady, but it seems I lost my wits for a moment.”

The random apology only confused Sena, especially as the Blade swiftly walked away after a short bow - she had been too busy focusing on the fight to take much notice of Dromarch’s slip. But when she turned to Mio for an explanation, she saw a palpable frustration, mixed with… sadness? She had briefly reached out to Dromarch, as if to call him back, but whatever words her friend had wished to say must have died long before they left her mouth.

“Mimi?” Sena worried. “What’s wrong?”

Mio’s face became downcast, as if trying to hide her feelings, though Sena could still see her upset expression. “Just a mistake, huh?” she muttered. “Now what am I supposed to believe?”

Still unsure what her friend had even been upset about, Sena was briefly silent before deciding to try a different approach.

“Hey, what’s going on between you and Dromarch?” she questioned lightly, trying to to make it sound like a joke. “I know he protected you during that fight earlier, but you know he’s already got a Driver, right? I thought I was supposed to be your Blade!”

Though Sena expected her to not really want to answer her question, what she didn’t expect was for Mio to turn her exaggerated offence around on her. “No, Sena, you’re not my Blade - You’re my friend. Never forget that, no matter what this crazy new world tells you, alright?”

Though she found the sudden reassurance strange, Sena nonetheless appreciated the sentiment, giggling a little at the earnest response. “Don’t worry about that, Mimi. I mean, I’m not really sure where that’s coming from, but I’ll remember it. And don’t you forget that either, okay?!”

“Hehe… Okay, I won’t.”

A little unsatisfied, but unwilling to push her friend further, Sena sat beside her in a comfortable silence, watching the fire burn before them. From a distance, Dromarch looked on awkwardly - his Driver was equally as confused by his strange behaviour, but with no context for its cause she could do little but simply let it be.

~~~

Eunie didn’t exactly expect to arrive last, but it was still a shock that she had seemingly arrived before anyone else to the transporter. Then again, when she thought about it a bit more, wouldn’t it make sense for Melia to take longer? And Zeon was a Guardsman… and she was pretty sure the rest of their group would be as well…

“Queens beans, I really am the odd one out here, aren’t I?”

In an effort to feel at least a little less like that, she’d once again worn her new outfit (thankfully with the smaller heels), though she’d made sure to pack her old getup just in case. Her Caduceus Gunrod was hung over her shoulder, resting on top of her modest bag. Though she’d brought the essentials, she’d been expressly told not to overpack - apparently Zeon and the others would be providing their camping amenities.

Eunie may not have stood out as much anymore, but her loitering still made her look suspicious, just in a different way. Though she got several unenthused stares, when someone did approach, her initial reaction was that she’d much rather he hadn’t.

“If it isn’t Miss Eunie.”

The annoyingly familiar voice prompted her to turn in its direction, only to find it had come from a certain man that had… frustrated her when they’d last met.

“Ah,” she reluctantly responded. “Gael’gar. I’m not supposed to call you Sir, am I?”

“No, that is not strictly necessary. However, if you wish to do so, I would allow that.”

She couldn’t help but scoff at that presumptuousness. “Nope, no way. I was just curious if I was being rude or not. I’m almost disappointed, honestly.”

His put-upon smile faltered at the blaise admission. Seeming to realise something, he sighed before responding.

“I suppose that is only fair. We did not leave our last conversation on particularly good terms.”

“Yeah, no shit.”

In the awkward silence that followed, Eunie wondered if he was gearing up for some sort of apology. To her continuing disappointment, she did not get one, but he was at least just as eager as she was to forget their last discussion.

“I see you are once again prepared to head out,” Gael’gar noted. “Although I have heard it is for a noticeably different purpose?”

“You what?” Eunie questioned, eyebrows raised. “Who told you about that?”

“Sir Maxis, naturally. He works with me in the personal protection division of the Guard, but he was a rather conflicting bundle of emotions yesterday. While he was first and foremost proud of his protege, he also appeared rather drained. Upon asking him why, he revealed Zeon’s unwarranted request to their Royal Highnesses, and mentioned it had involved a new friend of his named Eunie.”

Ah, Eunie mused, it was just people who can’t keep their snuffin’ mouths shut.

“Riiight. Hey, is everyone in this city a gossiping busybody, or is that just a Guard thing?”

Not oblivious to her thinly veiled jab at him, he chuckled to himself before answering the question. “When it comes to being a busybody, I think you’ll find that you’ve had quite the luck with it so far. Sadly, if my years are any indication, none of us are immune to gossip.”

“Including yourself in that? Glad to see you have some self awareness.”

“Well… I am here, after all. With that in mind, I feel I must ask - have you known Zeon for long?”

Ooh, now there was an opportunity for some fun. Twisting the truth wasn’t normally her idea of a good time, but… if it was true to Zeon, did it really count as lying?

“Nope. I’ve known him for a day less than you, actually.”

His face made it all worth it. A barely constrained mix of disbelief and outrage immediately swept across it, only staying in a mimicry of nonchalance by sheer willpower. However, despite the knee-jerk reaction, his anger seemed to fade the longer he looked at her appropriately smug face.

“You’re being serious, aren’t you?” he asked almost despairingly. 

When she gave him a short nod, he sighed once more.

“How could you possibly have gained the favour of both Zeon, and the princess, in less than a week?”

“I dunno. Guess I’m just charismatic like that, eh?”

Try as he might, Gael’gar could not refute her. “…I suppose you are. Well, I must return to my duties, but I wish you good luck on your quest.”

Eunie couldn’t help but laugh at his choice of words. “Hey, no need to oversell it. It’s just a job right?”

He was surprisingly serious in response, though. “Do not underestimate a Telethia, Eunie. They are dangerous beasts, through and through - a cocksure attitude will only get you and your allies killed. If you take nothing else away from this conversation, do not forget that.”

“Alright, alright! Wow, I did not realise they were such a big deal. Guess I’ll take your advice, just this once.”

“That is all I ask. Farewell for now, Eunie.”

And with that, the Purple Creep departed once more. Well, she supposed he was a lot less aggravating today, but that was not a high bar, not that it really mattered - she wouldn’t be seeing him for a while anyway. Now she just had to wait for the rest of her impromptu travelling group to come together…

“Hey, Eunie!”

…except that didn’t sound like Zeon. Turning to the new voice, she found a whole group heading towards her - the Syra Squad, in its near entirety, with the voice coming from Trish. Only Zeon and his mentor Maxis were missing, with even Easel turning up.

“Well look at this bunch of Bunnits. What are you guys doing here?”

“We’re here to see you and Zeon off, of course,” Oleshandra clarified. “Though we’re all still a bit shocked that you’re both going on a mission with the princess at all.”

“So it is actually a big deal, then? Glad I didn’t miss something.”

Sigrún couldn’t help but sigh as she nodded. It looked as if the sudden quest had lost her no small amount of sleep.

“None of us have even met Melia Antiqua, let alone previously worked as her guard. She has spent the majority of her life within the Imperial Villa, so that sentiment is likely true for most everyone in Alcamoth.”

Well wasn’t she special. Honestly, Eunie wasn’t sure if she was the lucky one, or if Zeon was, but she supposed it didn’t matter either way.

“I guess Zeon must be with Her Highness,” Heath supposed, acting as the helpful lieutenant. “Along with the rest of the princess’s guard.”

“Oh, right…” Eunie remembered. “Zeon did tell me something about there being four others. Do you know anything about them?”

The collective Syra Squad looked at each other awkwardly, shrugged, and turned towards their captain all at once. Said captain frowned at their games, but still answered Eunie’s question for them.

“Their names are Aizel, Hogard, Garan, and Damil. I’m afraid I do not know much about them beyond that, but I do know that they have cared for the princess since she was young. This will be the first time they have been left in her sole command, alongside Zeon and yourself of course.”

The reminder that Eunie would be serving directly under the Queen for this mission, or rather the princess, was a bit of a sobering one. She would have to make sure she was at her best and most respectful, lest she catch Melia’s ire - and it seemed she wasn’t the only one to realise that.

“Right, about that…” Branden interjected. “Are you sure you’re gonna be okay working with royalty? You’re not exactly the most eloquent person I know.”

“Oi, watch it Mr. Cook,” Eunie shot back, offended. “You don’t wanna find Brog guts in your next meal, do ya? Besides, I can be plenty eloquent - you just don’t give me any reason to, is all!”

That got a chuckle out of the other squad members, including Easel, who Branden gave a pointed stare. Before there could be any thought of a comeback, however, Trish pointed out a group coming down the moving walkway from the Palace, Zeon and Maxis among them. In short order, the four helmeted Guards split to reveal Melia, who separated from them to greet Eunie.

“Good day to you, Eunie. I am glad that you appear sufficiently prepared for the task ahead.”

“Thank you, Your Highness,” Eunie accepted.

“Everyone…” Zeon trailed off, sincerely thankful. “I’m glad to see you all here.”

“Well we could hardly let you go without saying goodbye, could we?” Trish returned. “Isn’t that right, Captain?”

“Indeed,” Sigrún agreed, “though I’m afraid some of your compatriots needed a reminder to get out of their beds.”

Solon hung his head with embarrassment. “I’m sorry, Zeon. I guess I stayed up too late.”

“As long as you don’t make a habit out of it,” Oleshandra warned lightly. “We’d hate to need to wake you up in an emergency.”

“I know… I’ll keep that in mind from now on.”

“Well, that’s all we can ask for.”

Sensing the lull in conversation, Maxis left Zeon’s side to stand with the Captain he mentored. “Zeon, Eunie,” he began pridefully, though Eunie assumed that pride was mainly for Zeon. “Be safe out there, and protect Her Highness with your lives. I am certain you will make us proud.”

“Thank you, Sir Maxis,” Zeon accepted. “I will do all I can to protect her.”

“And I’ll do all I can to protect him,” Eunie jabbed. “And Your Highness, of course.”

“I expected nothing less,” Melia graciously allowed. “Now then, let us depart.”

One of her four guards responded verbally as the rest moved forward. “At once, Your Highness.”

The Syra Squad were quick to begin their own goodbyes as well, ranging from Trish’s emotional waving to Easel’s hope that they would “Enjoy the hunt.” Sigrún was probably the biggest surprise, suppressing barely noticeable tears at the farewell. Urged onward, in short order they followed the princess to the transporter, giving their friends one last wave before they were warped down to Eryth Sea.

Taking in the morning ambience as they walked across the floating islands, Eunie turned to Zeon, a smile on her face that he didn’t quite share.

“You ready for this, Zeon?”

It took him a second to respond, steeling his resolve internally.

“…I am as ready as I’ll ever be.”

~~~

Sena still couldn’t tell if she’d gotten used to mornings in Uraya. With the only sunlight coming through the Titan’s hide, it was like the days were always overcast - certainly brighter than the nights, but still a far cry from the blinding glare of a hot season. This was initially her explanation of Mio’s slightly dour mood, considering she was no doubt less used to it than she was, but that eventually fell away once they had left their camp near the Tardy Gate and she was still no better.

As they walked side by side towards Fonsa Myma, now barely more than a stone’s throw away, Sena was finally compelled to come straight out and ask.

“Hey, are you doing alright, Mimi?” she inquired, before having a belated realisation. “Did something happen with Noah?”

Yet despite her excellent guess, in her opinion, Mio shook her head. “Mm… No, not really. He did talk to me briefly, but there wasn’t much to say beyond telling me that his new friends now know I exist… though apparently still in vague terms.”

Manana, who was walking alongside them, found something almost frustrating about her reveal. “That nothing to lose sleep over! Noah too desperate to see Mio, Manana thinks.”

Well, Sena hadn’t exactly thought of it like that before, but it sounded rather accurate. He had been rather lost without her…

“Hey, come on…” her friend defended, eyeing them both off. “It’s not like he woke me up, really.”

“Okay, okay!” Sena accepted, giggling at first. “We’ll take your word for it. Still though, if it’s not Noah on your mind, then what’s bothering you?”

At least now she had an opportunity to hear the real reason. Mio considered whether to answer her for a moment, before coming out with the rather short truth.

“I had a dream last night.”

Well that was simpler than she’d expected, seemingly neatly explaining why she’d woken up disquieted. “Really? I suppose I get it. D did tell us that dreams were memories from our past lives as soldiers, after all.”

She might have jumped the gun on that, though, considering Mio was quick to continue. “But that’s just the thing, Sena. When I swapped places with M, she shared her memories with me… including all the ones of her past lives, regained from becoming Moebius. So I should know all of my dreams already. But this one was not from one of my lives as a soldier, that was for certain.”

This was getting a lot weirder. Kind of like her interaction with Dromarch yesterday, there was something going on that Sena didn’t know yet. All she could do was ask.

“How can you tell?”

“Dromarch was in it.”

“Oh…” Sene paused awkwardly, absorbing the very strange reveal. “Yeah, that’d do it. Well, in that case, what was the dream even like?”

Mio was pensive at the possibility, but still pushed herself to answer. “…All right, I’ll tell you.”

Mio, shorter than she’d ever remembered being, ran out onto a grassy lawn and towards a familiar face.

“Dromarch!”

The Blade heard the young girl calling him and turned around to meet her. Clearly he was more than used to this manner of introduction; even through his feline eyes, Mio could feel an unshakable fondness.

“Ah, if it isn’t the young Lady. To what do I owe the pleasure, Mio?”

Out of the dream, this was direct confirmation she wasn’t experiencing someone else’s memories, but within it, the young Mio didn’t think much on the familiar mode of address. Instead, she took the opportunity to climb up on Dromarch’s back, like she’d seemingly done many times before.

“I wanna explore!” she demanded, with the unshakable conviction only a child could have. “Take me somewhere, Dromarch!”

“Ah, I see,” Dromarch acknowledged, unsurprised by the request. “Before I answer that… Have you asked your parents?”

The seemingly reasonable question prompted a childish indignance. “Whaaat? But Dromaaaarch, you’re my Mam’s Blade! And Driver and Blade are… uh… one in body and soul, yeah! That should be more than enough, right?”

Her mother’s Blade was not swayed by her argument in the least. “It would be more than enough to get us both in deep trouble, young Lady. You best ask them for permission, if only for my peace of mind.”

“Fiiine,” Mio reluctantly accepted. “But you gotta carry me there!”

“As my Lady commands, then.”

It was a little thing, to ride on Dromarch’s back, but it seemed enough to fill her with glee.

“Yaaay!”

There was a palpable awkwardness following the end of Mio’s explanation, as Sena and Manana both processed what their friend had revealed. So deep in their thoughts they were that it was Mio who actually broke them both out of it.

“…So you can see while I’m feeling a bit strange about it.”

“I can see why!” Sena fervently agreed. “I mean, if you took it at face value, that’d mean your mother was Nia, which is…”

“Absurd?”

“Unbelievable, yeah. Even if you two don’t look that different sometimes.”

It wasn’t a new idea that they were suspiciously similar, but it still brought Mio to a sigh. “That’s not exactly helping, Sena.”

“Well hey,” Sena attempted to remedy, “it doesn’t have to be that! It could be that your mother was a former Driver of Dromarch’s instead!”

“So then my mother is dead?” Mio returned, sharp and frustrated.

Sena could only wince as she was reminded of exactly how a Blade was transferred from one Driver to another. That was about as far from the desired effect as she could get.

“Oh… Right,” Sena realised, disheartened. “Sorry, Mimi. I’m not really helping here, am I?”

Mio seemed to notice that her harsh tone was having an effect on her friend, but before she could consider remedying it, Manana suddenly spoke up with an alternative proposition.

“Or it could just be dream!”

Their Nopon companion had come in with a very Nopon answer; basically suggesting it didn’t have any greater meaning. Perhaps she’d learned from Riku’s tendencies after all.

“Just a dream?” Mio repeated. “I don’t know, Manana. That seems hard to believe.”

“Is not so strange!” Manan defended. “Both City-folk and Nopon have dreams in Aionios too, but because not in cycle, not have dreams about past life! Instead, dreams often bizarreness and nonsense. Can even include friends!”

Well, that wasn’t quite what Sena had expected to hear. She knew Nopon were in a different situation to what they were in Aionios, but to know it even extended this far… There was something new to learn every day, she supposed.

“Is that so?” Mio considered dubiously. “Well, I’ll take your word for it Manana, but I’m still not convinced it’s true for me. After all, I’ve had one of these dreams before.”

“Wait, you have?” Sena asked, stunned.

“Mm, I had a similar one when I passed out after our crash landing into the Titan. It wasn’t with Dromarch, but it did feature my ‘Mam,’ if my own voice is to be believed. Sadly I wasn’t looking at her, so I didn’t actually see her face.”

Well it was hard to definitively call two instances a coincidence. Still, knowing she’d potentially dreamt of her mother, Sena only got more curious about her.

“Dang. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I’d like to know more about your parents, Mimi.”

“My parents?” Mio questioned. “What about your own?”

It wasn’t really something she’d thought about before now, but even as Mio had suggested it, she hadn’t quite found the appeal yet. “Well, besides Alrest not really giving me a lot of confidence that I have any… I guess it just hadn’t crossed my mind, really. The fact that, before the Intersection, I was just like the people of the City… it still hasn’t really sunk in.”

Mio was surprisingly understanding. “That’s okay. I hadn’t really thought about it either before I met Juniper, and they mentioned their parents… although they are unfortunately no longer with them.”

Sena was sad to hear that. Juniper had been nothing if not kind, so it felt rather unfair to hear, but there wasn’t exactly anything she could do about it. In its stead, she supposed she had best concentrate on what was happening now.

“Still, what to do…” she idly wondered.

In a strange trend, Manana once again cut in with a surprise solution. “If friend had dream before, then why not wait? Mio will surely see again, no?”

Mio took in the idea with serious consideration, before humming in agreement. “You’re right, Manana. It might be a little strange to have them, but I can’t know for sure yet. I’ll just have to take these dreams as they come.”

“Right right! Besides, friends almost at Fonsa Myma now!”

“Right.”

Indeed, as they traversed the Funnystone Highway, the capital city of the Kingdom of Uraya was almost within reach. And, hopefully, so were some answers to their next destination.

~~~

Leaving the Glowing Obelisk behind, Shulk and Noah’s group continued to make progress through Satorl Marsh. As Dickson told them before they left in the morning, it was not long before the ruins of the High Entia became increasingly prevalent… though not as prevalent as the sudden appearance of dangerous-looking Gogols. Unfortunately, while the high ground was understandably dangerous because of their threat, the low ground involved pushing up through a running river, which none of their party were particularly keen on.

So they proceeded carefully through the remnants of High Entia civilization, avoiding the Gogols that would be time wasters at best, and eventually found themselves staring at a rather ineffective looking floodgate from a low cliff.

“It’s known as the Mauk Floodgate,” Dickson recalled, a not uncommon occurrence in their short journey. “But I imagine there was something else to it once.”

“Still,” Noah contended, “it’s rather… open, for something actually meant to hold water. The hole in the middle is absolutely just from damage, but don’t the other grated sections look relatively undamaged?”

“I wouldn’t bother thinkin’ about it, Noah,” Reyn suggested. “After all, that’s Shulk’s job!”

Though Noah and Dickson laughed lightly at his joke, Shulk notably didn’t say anything.

“Uh…” Reyn mumbled, confused at his silence. “Shulk?”

Finally hearing his friend’s call, Shulk jumped. His eyes widened, he turned back to the others quickly to address them.

“What? Sorry, I got too focused on that structure up ahead.”

Reyn and Noah shared a brief look. “Of course you did, Shulk,” Reyn accepted knowingly.

“Huh? Did I say something wrong?”

Noah stifled a chuckle at his lack of self awareness. “No, no. You’re just being you, as always.”

Shulk didn’t really believe him, but moved on anyway. “…If you say so. Well if we don’t have a problem here, should we find somewhere to get down? I don’t believe the water is particularly deep, even discounting our equipment quite possibly not surviving the drop.”

“Right,” Dickson agreed, turning his attention to the other side of the bridge they were near. “We should probably try to make our way down that rock face over there; it’d be the smoothest landing, by my guess.”

“Sounds right to me,” Noah agreed. “Off we go, then.”

And down they went, carefully descending the damp rock, though not without some cursory complaints about wading through water. These were promptly quashed by the truth that there wasn’t actually a dry path through or around the Mauk Floodgate - it seemed the marsh had reclaimed any such method by the march of time. 

Beyond the gate they found a rather breathtaking sight, as the fog slowly parted to reveal a grand stone structure against the rock wall. Though the middle was largely architectural, on each end there were towering statues of what appeared to be wing-headed women, mirrored to be holding a stone bowl above their heads that water flowed in and out of. From the middle of the structure, a stone walkway jutted out across the shallow water, which was certainly their destination.

As Noah stepped up the ramp and onto the walkway, he noticed the glowing object directly ahead of him, just before the stone wall itself. Dickson, who was walking at the head of the pack, took notice but wasn’t surprised, suggesting it was important to their continued journey.

“Welcome to the Sororal Statues,” Dickson explained, pointing towards the glowing object. “The upper reaches are through that entrance. But you gotta go through Makna Forest first; Prison Island is at the Bionis Head, just above the Forest.”

“Not really seeing an entrance, so much as I’m seeing a light,” Ashera disputed, before pointing above the statues. “How’s that gonna get us up there?”

“It’s a lift - a nifty bit of tech once you get it running. Seems you’ll have to get access to it first, though, seeing as the stairs aren’t there.”

“How are we s’posed to do that?” Reyn question, scratching his head. “There’s not just a switch or anything, right?”

“I doubt it. When I last used it, you had to insert a couple of spheres called Radiants into the Adulthood Emblem, just in front of us. Supposedly, this whole setup is for some ancient High Entia Ceremony. The thing is, I didn’t take them out, so someone or something else did - probably Ignas.”

“Eugh, Ignas…” Bolearis groaned. “Bloody pests.”

“Huh…” Miller mused, an exaggerated disbelief on his face. “I wasn’t aware you hated your kin so much! I’m almost appalled, really.”

“Heh. Yeah, can’t say we get along great at the family reunions. Kinda like how you go with the Brogs, actually.”

“Oh, come on! That’s not even remotely accurate!”

Ignoring the banter of the two boys for now, Leater considered their options to find the lost artefacts. “Is there any chance they took them back to their original places?” she asked Dickson. “I don’t know where else we’d look for them.”

“It’s as good a shot as anything. Suppose we should split up to cover more ground, looking at how big this group is, even if it’ll be splitting up soon.”

Noah raised an eyebrow at the sudden assertion. “Splitting up?”

“Heh… Otharon’s got something he’s been meaning to say, first. Right, old man?”

Surprisingly, the Colonel actually nodded, turning to Sharla in particular to explain himself. “It pains me to say it, but this is the point where I turn back. I must see to the survivors of Colony 6, and I’m also very concerned about Colony 9.”

“I understand,” Shulk nodded. “Thank you for everything.”

Seeing the wielder of the Monado address him, Otharon grimaced briefly before saying his piece. “I might have said a few things I shouldn’t have, back in the mine. Forgive me.”

The apology was definitely not what Shuk had expected, but he rebuffed its necessity quickly. “No, it’s okay.”

“I owe you my life, young man,” the Colonel re-emphasised. “I’ll never forget it, Heir to the Monado.” His conscience abated, he returned to his soldier with a question. “Medic, will you stay with them?”

“I want to help Shulk,” Sharla confirmed, nodding. “The Mechon must pay for what they did.” Despite her resolve, she paused to hang her head. “…And I’m sure Gadolt is out there somewhere. If he is, I have to find him.”

“Find him, for me too,” Otharon agreed. “Good luck.”

Noah was about to farewell him too, but Juju spoke up before he could. “Sharla, I want to go with Otharon.”

Well now. Noah didn’t exactly know him very well, but considering what had been implied about the buggy he was being rather level-headed.

“Are you sure?” Sharla asked her brother.

“Yeah. I’ve never seen anything cooler than Shulk smashing Mechon with the Monado! …But I’m just slowing you down.”

Noah thought that was a rather mature thing to admit, but Reyn was more keen to encourage him. “No way, kid! You just need to shape up, like me!”

“It’s okay,” Juju reassured. “I’ve made up my mind. Compared to you guys, I know I’m pretty useless. But that’s cool! Because I know what I can do. I’m going to go back to the Colony and help the survivors rebuild their lives.”

Shulk and Reyn were quick to encourage him, and Sharla quick to hug her brother, but as they did so Ethel stepped forward.

“I suppose we should say our goodbyes as well,” she revealed. “It cannot just be the Colonel who is defending the Colony. To support him, Bolearis and I will return to Colony 6.”

Noah frowned at a truth he should have foreseen. “You won’t be joining us?” he asked, unable to hide his disappointment at the familiar scene.

“Sorry mate, we can’t…” Bolearis confirmed. “At least, not yet. But I wouldn’t be so quick to assume you were staying with Shulk and the others, ‘Soldier’ Noah.”

For the second time since he joined the Defence Force, Noah winced in realisation. However, when he turned to his commanding officer this time, she didn’t give him a raised eyebrow and a jovial smile - instead, she looked at him seriously before nodding to herself.

“Riku,” she suddenly addressed. “You’re going to stay with Noah regardless, right?”

His Nopon friend nodded confidently. “Of course! Riku cannot leave Noah - must keep friend on straight and narrow.”

“Since when did I need help to do that?” Noah questioned, but only received a raised eyebrow back. If he was referring to N, then that was a rather low blow for his standards.

Leater did not have those implications to dwell on, and quickly answered Riku with an explanation for her question. “Okay then… Here goes. Soldier Noah, Mechanic Riku, here is your new assignment; accompany the Heir to the Monado, and search for your missing friends. Is this mission acceptable?“

Noah took longer than he’d like to slowly respond. “Oh. Well, yes, I can accept that goal, but I don’t know how to feel about abandoning my post…”

Miller couldn’t help but agree. “Uh, Captain? I don’t want to pull an Ashera and be insubordinate here-”

“Hey!”

“-but I don’t feel too great about this either. Not to downplay our contributions too much, but Noah is kind of a big deal with that sword of his! Comparing our unit of three to just the two of us, it’s not even a competition!”

“I know, Miller,” Leater admitted, “but still…”

“Come on, Emm! There’s no way Kantz is gonna let this slide - how else are you gonna get to be Lieutenant Commander? This is your chance-”

“I know that! ”

Her sudden pushback was felt throughout the entire group, but the soldiers of Colony 9 especially - they all remembered how Kantz had once derided her for her inability to keep Miller under proper supervision. Her oldest squad member, for his part, shirked back from his questioning immediately, giving Leater enough time to properly finish.

“I know he won’t be happy with me, and I know you’re just concerned, Miller. But this isn’t the time for me to be selfish. What we can do, and what Noah can do… those are two very different things. And I can tell - he’s meant to be out there, on the front, turning the tides of war in our favour.”

Miller had to take on her argument in silence for a brief moment, before he managed a dry laugh at his own expense. “Well, shoot… there’s no stopping you, Emm. At least we can say I warned you, huh? Hope whatever you have me doing next isn’t too boring.”

“Heh…” Leater chuckled, sincerely glad. “That we can. Thank you for believing in me, Miller.”

“Aw, come on… No need to get sappy on me now. I’m just being a good soldier, right?”

The crowd they’d seemingly forgotten watched in fascination at the scene. Some, like Dunban and Otharon, looked impressed with the young Captain’s resolve, while others appeared to not quite agree with her choice, like Dickson and Bolearis. Ashera found the emotional dialogue more entertaining than meaningful, snickering quietly to herself, though with the dignity to at least cover her mouth.

“And thank you for believing in me, Captain,” Noah interjected. “You’ve been as good a commanding officer as I could ask for.”

“Hey, why are you making this sound final?” Leater challenged. “You’re still my subordinate! I’m just lending you to another squad for a while. In the meantime, we’ll help rebuild Colony 6 to its former glory - that’s how I’ll make my mark.”

“Hey that’s the spirit!” Ashera concurred, almost proud of her fellow Captain. “Don’t worry Emm, I’ll keep him safe.”

Noah had figured that was what his Captain was referring to by another squad considering their shared leadership position, but Leater was quick to rebuke her. “Ignoring your continued desertion for now, I never said it was your squad, Ashera. I’m lending him to Shulk, or at the very least to Dunban.”

“Ah… Right. Of course that’s what you’re doing. You know, I get it, but I can’t help feeling that it's such a dreadfully dull choice.”

Dunban had been listening to the farewell silently, but saw fit to debate the supposedly insipid idea with his pupil. “Do not forget why we are here, Ashera,” he reprimanded. “We do not fight to end our boredom, but to save our world. There is always wisdom in a reasoned approach.”

“I’m well aware, Teach,” Ashera accepted, “but I don’t have to enjoy it.”

With their group of 14 having already dwindled to almost half of its original size, it was Shulk who remembered how their farewells had actually begun.

“Dickson, are you leaving too?”

His mentor was quick to confirm just that. “The Mechon may be gone from Colony 6 for now, but that doesn’t mean we’ve seen the last of ‘em. When they launch another attack, and they will, Colony 9’s gonna need my help.”

Shulk seemed a little disappointed, but saw the reasoning plain and clear. “Yeah, I guess you’re really needed at the Colony.”

“This ain’t the last you’ve seen of me,” Dickson reassured, to Noah’s disappointment. “You should be alright for now. Look after the Monado.”

“You can bet on it! We won’t let the Colony down.”

“You’ll make us proud, Shulk.” Finished with his charge, Dickson changed the focus of his conversation to a somewhat surprised Reyn. “You, on the other hand, need to buck up your ideas! How else are you gonna protect Shulk?”

Although not expecting the personal rebuke, Reyn still took his advice in stride. “Hah. Thanks for the heads up, Dickson.”

“Good luck. Hope I see ya in one piece.”

“What, no advice for the rest of us?” Ashera scoffed jokingly. “Not even Dunban?”

Dickson laughed at the faux outrage. “Noah and Riku got their talking too already. As for Dunban, I know full well that nothing I say to that beast matters… And you ain’t much better!”

“Heh,” the Hero of the Homs chuckled, watching as his pupil frowned. “You never change, old man.”

“And don’t you forget it. Now then, let's figure out a game plan for these Radiants, shall we?”

~~~

After one last stone brick staircase, Mio and Sena could finally see their destination - the beautiful Fonsa Myma. Strolling through the Gwenith Paddies, they looked in awe at the stone walls and towering domes that so contrasted the one City they once knew. However, their attention soon shifted when the rest of the group stopped to look at a Titan warship to their left.

“War with Mor Ardain is looking more and more likely by the day,” Dromarch observed, taking in the size of the vessel.

Even Vandham seemed surprised as to the scale of it, viewing the fleet in its entirety. “Looks like they’ve expanded the military program. That’s a lot of warships…”

“And even more soldiers…” Nimue noted, seemingly familiar with the scale of the militarisation.

Unfamiliar with Titan ships in general, the Blade’s comment made Mio shift her gaze to the groups of armoured men nearby, who could only be the soldiers of Uraya’s army. Poppi, however, found the visual appearance of the vessels more notable.

“These ships look different to normal ships.”

“Yeah, we don’t muck about with our Titans much,” Vandham explained. “No need for it - Us Urayans like things pretty natural.”

“I’ve seen Urayan ships before, back in Argentum,” Rex remembered. “It’s like the total opposite of how Ardainians use ‘em.”

“That could be one reason why the two are always at each other’s throats,” Dromarch supposed.

Gramps, strange font of knowledge that he occasionally was, ended up agreeing when considering his experiences. “They’ve been like cats and dogs for a long time…”

Mio was only just starting to understand just how long Gramps had apparently lived for, so it took her a minute to understand exactly what ‘a long time’ would even mean. For far too long the most that meant to her was just a single ten-term lifetime, and even with M’s memories as a reference, she still needed to get used to knowing Rex used to live on Gramps in the first place! More than that, though, Mio thought about how strange it was to actually know a difference between two warring nations - Keves and Agnus were only superficially unique under the thumb of Moebius.

While Dromarch was keen to ponder the reason for their disagreements, Nia was quick to give her opinion on her preference. “Well, from where I stand, the Ardainians are just worse. All that metal’s just bad taste.”

“It’s easy to think that way, but you’re not considering how the Titans themselves feel,” Gramps surprisingly contended.

“Huh? Don’t all those modifications hurt?”

“When Titans live with humans, that’s just the way it is. I used to have a hut on my back, and a crane stuck where the sun doesn’t shine. I never complained, not even when Rex fired up a grill on my shoulders.”

Mio was in the midst of imagining how Gramps used to look when Rex contested his supposed struggles. “Hey, you used to like that!”

“Mm… Well, yes, I did like that… In fact, I miss it!”

“Heh. If we did that now, we’d end up with roast Titan!”

“Indeed!”

Pyra couldn’t help but giggle at the longtime duo’s routine, and Sena was right there with her - Mio and Nia smiled at it too. The exchange ended their group’s brief stop for philosophising, prompting them all to leave the Gwendle Repair Dock and head over a bridge into the city proper. Mio couldn’t help but slow down as she took it all in, even if something about the architecture felt strangely familiar. Sena was taking her time too, making her wonder if she felt the same.

They hadn’t travelled far into the city before they stopped at a strange scene in the commercial district - a group of people lining up before some soldiers at a table. Sena tilted her head at the visual, vaguely similar to lining up in front of the Commissary at a colony, but something about it still felt off.

“What’s that?” Sena quickly articulated. “They’re lining up for something.”

Vandham, as expected, was the one in the know. “It’s a distribution centre. The government tries to use them to ration out what little resources they have… But, in practice, it’s just first come, first served.”

Mio frowned at the nature of such an enterprise. Vandham had clearly explained it as being born out of necessity, but its almost competitive nature reminded her of colony ranks a little. She wasn’t sure if she was just being overly concerned about it until the little girl at the front of the line, about to take the last package for the day, was knocked out of the way by a much older soldier cutting in line.

“Come on!” the man immediately appealed, as if he hadn’t just forced a child to the floor. “I’m a soldier - been busting my gut for this country! That should be going to me, not the likes of you!”

If Eunie was here, she was sure that man would already be unconscious on the ground, but Mio was unfortunately a more reserved sort. Instead, she watched in disgust as the girl got back to her feet and stared the soldier down, barely holding back tears. She held a brief iota of hope that he’d see the error of his ways, but his response quickly quashed that.

“Uh? Don’t look at me like that! Respect your elders, you snot-nosed brat!”

His anger at such a sad display appeared to be the last straw for Pyra, who was quick to go to her side.

“Are you okay?” she asked concernedly, before quickly switching attention to direct her anger at the soldier. “What do you think you’re doing?! She’s just a child!”

“What? Who the hell are you?!”

With Rex quick to join her in distaste, Mio got the impression the Aegis and her Driver were about to make this dispute their business, despite Nia’s misgivings. Vandham and Roc ended up just standing back, and Nimue was eager to leave well enough alone. Tora seemed to consider following Rex but hesitated, in part because of Manana’s own dissuasion.

“Rex, this isn’t our business,” Nia attempted. “Leave it!”

Considering that Rex proceeded to scoff, this clearly didn’t work. “Being an adult isn’t just about barking orders,” he contended. “Sometimes you need to help someone weaker!”

Taking his treatment of the young girl into account, perhaps it wasn’t shocking that the soldier found the idea of taking on a kid’s advice so appalling. The repeated slight seemed to make him particularly angry, considering that he answered the argument with a growl.

“Shut your face! You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about!”

Just as Nia had probably feared, the violent soldier revealed himself as a violent Driver when he pulled a pair of twin rings from his back and called his common Beast-type Blade to assist him. But his method of actually calling his Blade over though was rather bullish, in that he did so by taking a swing at Rex. Pyra was quick to step in to block that sloppy attack, of course, but that only signalled the start of the fight.

Once things had been confirmed to go to violence, the rest of the crowd was quick to disperse, leaving only their group and the duo of soldiers to watch on. Notably, neither of the soldiers made any attempt to interfere with the spat, despite occurring as a result of their station, suggesting to Mio that they were perhaps being lenient on their compatriot. As for her companions, Mio saw the wisdom in Nia’s reservations but felt an instinctive pull to help.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Sena asked her, no doubt aware of her thought process.

“Probably,” Mio confirmed. “We’re supposed to be the responsible adults here, aren’t we?”

“Isn’t Pyra 500 years old or something?”

“Come on now, let’s not get into semantics…” Mio punctuated her joking chastisement with the drawing of Sena’s hammer. “There’s a pretty good chance M was older, after all.”

“Heh… smart alec.”

The duo in agreement, Mio dashed in to interfere, sticking the Meteor Smasher right in front of the Driver just as he was about to run at Rex.

“Huh?!”

“Can’t say I enjoy your penchant for picking on kids,” she condescended, “but your Blade technique is somehow almost as bad. Suppose it makes sense you’d be a bad Driver, huh?”

“You bitch! Who’re you to talk down to me?”

“A better soldier, for one thing. But somehow I think I ended up a better adult, too.”

Her stern stare didn’t quite have the desired effect, unfortunately. After a brief moment to process what she’d said, the Driver was back on his tirade.

“Bugger off! Like hell I’d believe that - you barely look older than a teenager! You haven’t seen a minute of duty!”

“Right, right… It’s always heartwarming to see someone tell me the sacrifices my friends and I made were for nothing. But really, what I went through doesn’t matter - I’m telling you to stand. Down.”

“Yeah? And why should I do that?”

“Because you haven’t gotten it through your brain who you’re actually dealing with, here. In case you missed it, there are more people here than just Rex, and any one of them would wipe the floor with you two. But more than that, the Driver and Blade you were dealing with are, no offence intended to your partner there, easily strong enough to end your service far too early, by themselves, if they wanted to.”

Something told Mio that some of her friends would have taken great joy in watching how quickly this soldier’s opinion of her changed, his resolve quickly fading. Seeing the writing on the wall, she figured a quick ultimatum would make him scamper away.

“So here’s the deal. Give that package back, and leave that girl alone. A good soldier knows their limits, after all, while a bad one dies from their blind courage.”

Shrinking away in fear, perhaps at the delayed realisation of the number of Drivers actually present watching his shameful display, the soldier stuttered out a desperate plea for an explanation.

“W-who are you?!”

Looking between a stern Mio and unimpressed Sena, he eventually landed his gaze back on Pyra. In his newfound clarity, he realised exactly who he’d been fighting.

“Th… the colour of that Crystal! You’re… Waaaah!”

Desperately, the now informed Driver ran off up the stairs and dropped the package with a frightened cry, and his two compatriots ended up scrambling after the runaway. Mio would have possibly laughed at his embarrassing display if he hadn’t just implied he knew who Pyra was.

“Sparks!” Mio cursed. “I’m sorry, Pyra… I forgot about your Core Crystal.”

“No no, it’s okay.” Pyra consoled. “He would have known eventually anyway, and you were just trying to help. Guess I should have been wearing my cloak, huh?”

“Still, that’s not good…” Gramps pointed out. “He’ll be bringing others before long.”

“The rumours about Pyra must have travelled pretty far,” Vandham considered. “Even grunts like him have heard of her.”

Poppi, astute as ever, got to the heart of the issue quickly. “But who spread rumours?”

“From what I hear, it’s some fancy-pants Nopon merchant.”

That didn’t ring any bells for Mio, and Sena looked just as clueless, but Rex had to consider it more deeply. She supposed he did say Argentum was full of Nopon.

“Excuse me, mister Vandham?”

The young voice finally reminded Mio of the reason there was a fight in the first place. The blue-haired girl, now holding the package, had approached the hulking mercenary without much of a sense of fear. Though first confused at the address, Vandham quickly recognised her.

“Uh? Oh, well if it isn’t Iona! You grew a fair bit - how’s Grandpa Cole doing?”

Iona’s sad silence and hung head seemed to be more than enough for him to get the message.

“Ah. Not too good, then.”

Rex’s curiosity about most anything Vandham soon got the better of him. “Who’s this, then?”

Roc was happy to explain, clearly familiar with her too. “Oh, this is Iona. Vandham’s old friend takes care of her.”

While Pyra introduced herself to the young girl, Vandham was quick to laugh at his Blade’s implication. “Heh! Like he’s not your friend, too. I swear you two had more in common then I did, baha!”

“What can I say? Cole’s penchant for performance was simply inspirational.”

“So I know who to blame when you’re being cheeky in a fight, then! Still, let’s not screw around and find out - we better beat it before any other soldiers show up.”

All in agreement, the Aegis’s band, with a young passenger, began their ascent through Fonsa Myma.

~~~

It had taken a bit of planning to figure out how Noah and Shulk’s group would split up for both safety and convenience. With four Radiants to find, and half of their group leaving, each of the groups would need at least one person who was staying behind. In the end, it was decided that the group would first split in two before separating further once they had reached their destinations.

The supposedly more adventurous sort, consisting of Ashera, Riku, Leater, Miller, Shulk, Dunban and Dickson were told to take a shortcut through the Basin Cave that opened near the Sororal Statues, pick up one of the Radiants on the way through, and emerge near the Altar of Fate where they would find another. This would free Dickson, Miller and Leater to leave once it was obtained, beginning their trek back to the Colony by reaching the meeting point at the Silent Obelisk.

Noah’s half of the group was much more centred on Colony 6, including Colonel Otharon, Juju, Ethel, Bolearis, and accompanied by Sharla and Reyn. Their path would take them back through the Mauk Floodgate and near to the Exile Fortress, where the group would split in half - Noah, Ethel and Bolearis heading for Igna Territory, while their remainder braved the poisonous Dark Swamp.

It was on their way back to the Fortress that Noah struck up a conversation with his soon-to-be-leaving companions, Ethel and Bolearis in particular.

“I can still hardly believe it,” he remembered, “that you were holed up in those mines for more than a month. It must have taken incredible resolve to stay strong through all that time.”

“Oh, it was no walk in the park,” Bolearis responded jovially. “But for my part, I was just carried along by Ethel’s determination more than my own.”

“Is that so?”

“Yep. Doesn’t surprise me much, considering what she's fighting for.”

Bolearis’s cryptic comment came as something of a surprise, considering that Ethel fought for little beyond her country and her allies in Aionios… with the exception of her rapport with Cammuravi. Noah was about to ask him what he was referring to when the Lieutenant Colonel cleared her throat.

“I see our ordeal hasn’t kicked any of your bad habits, Captain,” she chided, clearly very familiar with this exchange.

Bolearis at least had the grace to look remorseful. “Ah! Apologies, ma’am.”

“I suppose I can at least give you the benefit of the doubt that most of our allies already know the story, but I would appreciate more discretion in future, for what it’s worth.”

Seeing her reprimanding of her subordinate, Noah was simultaneously well aware of the proper respect to pay in this situation, and incredibly curious. In the end, that curiosity won out, perhaps buoyed by his perceived familiarity with her past lives.

“Apologies if I’m overstepping my bounds, Ethel, but I can’t help but be curious,” he began. “Is there something more specific you’re fighting for than just survival?”

The earnest request definitely frustrated her a little, judging by her sigh, but to his surprise she did answer him.

“Very well… I suppose I owe you that much, considering how you came to our rescue. The simple truth is that I fight for revenge. The Mechon took from me the person I held most dear,  and so I fight to destroy them all, unable to accept my death until it is done. In that way, I suppose I am not dissimilar to Shulk or Dunban… though my wounds are older.”

Her explanation made Noah feel somewhat uneasy, for reasons he found hard to explain. Her caring so much for another wasn’t so strange, considering how both versions of her had a powerful connection to Cammuravi, but for better or worse, when the Crimson Lotus had first fallen before their eyes, so did she. But this new Lieutenant Commander was an Ethel who had outlived her strongest bond.

“You seem troubled, Noah,” Ethel observed, jolting him from his musings. “What concerns you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he apologised. “It’s nothing that serious… I just didn’t imagine you fighting for revenge. You demonstrate yourself as a disciplined leader in spite of that.”

“Hm. You make it sound as if your experience with revenge is rather more extreme.”

Noah thought back to Jeremy in Colony 4 and his efforts to poison his friends, simply for the crime of associating with Agnus.

“I’ve seen it consume people whole. Even after they learned the truth of what they despised, they refused to accept it. In the end they were no better than the people who murdered their friends - both caught in a pointless cycle of violence.”

“Blimey,” Bolearis eventually responded, having taken a moment to ruminate on what Noah had told him. “Where have you been to see something like that?”

“Ah… I’m afraid that’s a long story.”

“Connected to your missing love, I imagine?” Ethel guessed. “Well, I can see the signs - we won’t pry. Will we, Captain?”

The messaging was thankfully obvious to Bolearis, who cleared his throat in response. “Loud and clear, ma’am.”

Their conversation finished just in time for the group to split. Farewelling Juju and Otharon, and promising to make it back to Sharla and Reyn later, Noah followed Ethel and Bolearis into the heart of Igna territory behind the Exile Fortress. Defeating some patrolling Igna on the way, they made their way through while looking for their instructed location - a small, shallow pond taken up mostly by a smaller island, marked only by a lone tree.

Sure enough, they found just the location they were looking for, and they could see the bright orb beneath the tree, glowing a pleasant blue that shone through the mist. Unfortunately, it was just as visible that it was once again guarded by a mean-looking Igna, apparently named Aggressive Cornelius. Dickson had explained that he had stolen it without being caught last time, but something told Noah they wouldn’t be so lucky this go around.

“Silly question but…” Noah couldn’t help but ask as they watched from a distance. “Did Dickson make up the name, or is this Igna a known quantity to Colony 6?”

“The latter, surprisingly,” Bolearis confirmed. “More than one plucky recruit has gotten in a scrap with that menace. Hence the ‘Aggressive’ in his name.”

“What about ‘Cornelius,’ though?”

“Heh. Think someone named it as an unflattering comparison to their uncle, actually… Though that’s probably a bit morbid to think about now.”

That was a thought Noah could have gone without, but he supposed sticking his head in the sand would not help him.

“We can ruminate on that later,” Ethel reminded. “For now, let us get what we came for and go.”

Creeping ever closer and observing its pattern of patrol, the impromptu trio approached the water’s edge and whispered their plan of attack.

Ethel was the one to make the final call. “I trust your light steps, Bolearis. Retrieve that Radiant - we will back you up if necessary.”

“Ah, fine,” her Captain reluctantly accepted, preparing to lightly wade through the shallow water. “But you better be quick about it.”

“Rest assured, Captain.”

But while the duo of soldiers from Colony 6 prepared for the expected, Noah began to notice something strange. While most of the mist in Satorl Marsh took on a predominantly white colour, something about the fog surrounding the Igna was much darker. And the way it was gathering around the island… He could almost call it familiar, but if it was, then that meant-

“Hold on!” Noah called out, remaining as quiet as he could. “Something’s not right about that island-”

“Don’t lose your nerve, Noah,” Ethel reprimanded, quieting him down as her Captain began to cross. “Bolearis will be fine.”

“But that fog is dangerous-”

“It is fog, Noah - a condensation of water, like the clouds in the sky. What danger could it possibly pose?”

Desperate to prove his point but aware he wasn’t getting anywhere, Noah reluctantly bit his tongue. He could only watch as Bolearis stepped out of the water and onto the island, timed so that Cornelius had moved away and faced elsewhere. He should have been safe… but nothing was ever quite so simple.

As soon as he made to grab the Blue Radiant, the aggressive Igna jerked around towards him. Screeching in anger, his eyes glowed a disquieting orange, and the fog surrounding him began to cling to his body in a visible black aura, diffusing into the air in dark motes. To add to his threatening presence, both Cornelius’s body and his two clubs crackled with an orange lightning, the same colour as his staring eyes.

“Guys?! A little help-”

Bolearis’s urgent cry for help was interrupted by the Igna’s immediate rush, barely blocked by his guarder. 

“Bolearis!” Ethel cried.

Quick to recognise the danger, she ran over to the small island with Noah following shortly behind. Ethel was the first to reach him, pushing the Igna away with her own dual weapons, but despite her own impressive strength, Aggressive Cornelius somehow had enough of his own to push back against her. Not that Ignas were generally weak, but their strength wasn’t normally so extreme!

Noah attempted to free her from the clash by striking the Igna’s exposed back. His plan did succeed after a fashion, only instead of his sword finding its mark, it met thin air. In retaliation, Cornelius twisted himself towards him with unnatural speed, and immediately resumed his offence. Noah had to block and dodge frantically, barely avoiding the second weapon as he parried the first.

Ethel, eager to regain the Igna’s attention, retaliated with a jumping strike from above, finally landing a hit on the monster. But, despite the twin cuts down his back, Aggressive Cornelius still stood tall, turning his head to hiss at his foe. Using her brief shock, he struck towards Ethel once more, only this time he was stopped by Bolearis’s guarder.

As Ethel and Bolearis traded blows with the fog-hewn Igna, Noah remembered a strange detail. The Monado couldn’t hurt a Homs (and apparently not a Nopon either), but it could hurt monsters. If that applied to Lucky Seven now, too… then he had a plan. Drawing the true blade from its sheath and preparing it with his red gauntlet, Noah cut across the Igna’s back once more.

Although Cornelius still managed to avoid the brunt of the strike, his blade still found purchase on the Igna’s hip, creating a deeper cut than Ethel’s weapons had done. Enraged, he turned his full attention to Noah, and rushed forward, just as planned. Swinging his right-hand club first, it found no purchase as Noah blocked with his gauntlet-covered hand, leading to a second attack from the left. But that was the monster’s final mistake, as Noah parried the desperate strike, leaving him off balance. 

With both of the monster’s weapons barely within his grip, Noah had no resistance as he finished the job with one final thrust through the Igna’s chest. Removing their foe from his sword, Noah watched as Aggressive Cornelius briefly spasmed in defiance before finally succumbing, allowing the black fog to disperse back into the air.

“What the spark… was that?” Noah managed as he looked down on the Igna’s corpse, breathing harder than usual.

“I thought you’d have the answer to that, Noah!” Bolearis contested. “You were the one who warned us about the fog… even if we ignored it.”

“Well, I knew that the black fog was dangerous, but that’s not normally how it behaves. I remember it as an omen of an Annihilation Event, and the destruction from which could well have turned you into nothing more than dust by itself. But instead of that, it appeared to possess a monster… and make it stronger, somehow.”

“Yeesh… not sure if I got off better or worse than having a close encounter with being suddenly destroyed. Well, at least the coast is clear - how about I grab that Radiant like I promised, ma’am? …Ethel?”

Bolearis’s concerned call to his Lieutenant Commander was at first confusing to Noah, until he suddenly realised that the fog had not disappeared but simply dispersed, still hanging in the air - an observation that filled him with dread. Slowly turning towards Ethel, he saw her hunched over, clutching her face and covering her right eye, while the fog amassed once more… only this time, it was surrounding her.

For a time she groaned in pain, writhing around as Bolearis called her name in vain, before she suddenly stopped. Her arms limp at her sides, as she slowly stood tall her right eye became visible… that is, her glowing right eye. It was just like how she appeared when controlled by Moebius! 

Right on cue for his realisation, she suddenly drew her rapiers and entered her combat stance. Although she briefly considered Bolearis, it quickly became apparent her attention was on Noah specifically - and she was not in the mood for negotiation.

“There you are…” she suddenly began, echoing a memory Noah had wished to remain buried. “You monster!”

Before he could even blink, Noah was beset by the charging soldier. He was immediately glad he had yet to sheathe his weapon, considering he was afforded no time before her onslaught. Unfortunately, just as Noah remembered of her under K’s control, Ethel was more nimble than he was - her twin weapons stinging his armour at speeds he could barely maintain half a defence against. The gauntlet of his Blade provided some protection on his left, but that was cold comfort, considering he was having trouble even attempting to land a hit.

His limits had been made clear - he couldn’t do this alone. But to his relief, he wouldn’t have to, as Bolearis suddenly charged in to push her away from her prey.

“Ma’am!” he shouted desperately. “Ethel! Come on, snap out of it!”

Noah half expected Ethel to not even respond, immediately striking back like the Igna before her. But to his surprise, she actually stopped to hear his plea, even if she proceeded to scoff at it.

“Do not defend that beast! I must destroy that aberration for the sake of our world!”

“Damn it, what’s gotten into you?! What are you seeing him as?”

“A monster,” Noah repeated. “She can’t see the real me at all.”

As much as the confirmation was given with the intent of being helpful, it was fair enough that it didn’t actually calm Bolearis down at all.

“So what, then?” he questioned frantically. “How do we snap her out of it?!”

“Unfortunately, I only know one way… and that means we have to fight.”

“Fight her?! Ah, crap… guess it can’t get any worse than it already is.”

Ethel had stood back and watched in what could at best be called confusion, but their conversation seemed to have confirmed her unsaid suspicions.

“So you’re siding with that monster? I’m warning you - stand in my way and you die!”

“Sorry, ma’am,” her Captain couldn’t help but apologise. “But we ain’t going down without a fight!”

“Then so be it! I will cut you both down!”

And that was the last of their negotiation before the fight began in earnest. Despite her assertion about Bolearis, she still focused on Noah much more than him, which was probably a bad thing; it was hard for him to keep her attention off the duo’s supposed attacker. Thankfully Noah did have experience taking the brunt of enemy attention, but that wasn’t normally Ethel’s attention.

Bolearis cut her off where he could, going for a more pragmatic approach to strike at her weakest sides and moments. Unfortunately, like Cornelius before her, it appeared that the fog had somehow improved her perception, allowing her to dodge with precision and push him back far enough to return her attention to Noah. This repeated a couple of times, with no sign of a change, until Bolearis finally broke through.

Charging at Ethel with far more ferocity than previously, perhaps in realisation that she would not return to normal on her own, Boleraris finally forced the possessed commander’s hand. Gritting her teeth, she had to make a concerted effort to dislodge him, and once she did her frustration was obvious. Turning squarely to her Lieutenant, she followed up with a series of wickedly fast blows that knocked him to the floor.

But with her attention occupied, it was finally Noah’s chance. Ensuring Lucky Seven was facing properly with the blunt side out, he went in for the decider; a quick strike to the side of her head. To his relief, she didn’t dodge before the edge made contact, but this was short lived.

Though his attack was successful, Lucky Seven did not so much make contact as much as it bounced off her head. It barely registered, but it was felt just enough for her to notice and turn towards him ominously.

“Sparks sake!” Noah cursed in frustration. “I should have known it wouldn’t work!”

“So unfortunate!” Ethel mocked, more than likely unable to see his weapons. “But I will never lose to the likes of you!”

The echoes of her derision in the Eagus Wilderness were potent, but didn’t distract him from her imminent attack. As she prepared to rush him down, Noah was well aware his normal strategies wouldn’t work. He would need to do something unexpected… and when he looked down at the weapon he had once thrown away in a final act of defiance of his supposed fate as a soldier, one such idea occurred to him.

A monumentally stupid idea, mind you, but perhaps the time for planning like Taion was over. Then again, he didn’t think Lanz would even do this.

“Ah, snuff it. Here goes…!”

“Raah!”

The moment Ethel began to move, Noah responded not by dodging, or by blocking… but by throwing Lucky Seven right in her face. Magnified by the shock of the bizarre action, the same repulsion that had made his attack worthless knocked Ethel off balance, leaving her weapons loosely held. Capitalising on the opportunity, Noah rushed in, grabbing at her wrists and dislodging them… leaving the duo in a struggle of pure might.

“Sneaky… Mudder!” Ethel cursed as she fought against his grip.

Unfortunately, Ethel was rather strong in this reality, too. As he did his best to keep her restrained, Noah felt the strange presence of the black aura shrouding her and felt it loosening his grip. He doubted he could hold her back for long… which was where their third came in.

“Now, Bolearis!”

Ethel had just enough time to look dumbfounded before being hit over the head with the Captian’s guarder, finally knocking her unconscious and dispelling the black fog from both her body and their surroundings. After a brief moment of tense relief at their success, Bolearis and Noah both abruptly remembered who they’d just knocked out and quickly checked up on her.

“Phew…” Bolearis sighed in disbelief, “she’s still breathing. Think she would have killed me if she died.”

“Heh,” Noah chuckled. “How would she have done that?”

“No idea, but it wouldn’t have been pretty, that’s for sure. Well, I know it's a long shot, but do you know anything in the way of healing for her?”

Noah frowned at the very fair question, initially intending to answer with a no. But then he remembered Shulk’s own occasional healing - obviously far less effective than Sharla’s ether rifle, but nonetheless good in a pinch. He’d done plenty of healing in Aionios… surely he could at least try?

“Well, it’s not something I do very often… but I can give it a go.”

Remembering how it felt to use Arts through his gauntlet, and focusing in particular on his training with Eunie, he let the Ether flow through his hand, and…

“Blimey. Not bad at all for a novice.”

As Bolearis had complimented, his attempt had worked, to Noah’s surprise. In response, Ethel began to stir, the Ether flowing into her and partially healing her injuries. As her eyes slowly opened, Noah was relieved to see no trace of the red, or perhaps orange, Iris that had previously appeared.

“Ma’am!” Bolearis greeted in relief. “Thank goodness that’s over. I don’t ever want to have to fight against you again!”

“Bolearis?” Ethel recognised, tired and confused. “Noah? What was I… What happened to me?”

“Well… Exactly what happened to that Igna, basically. Gave you that same aura and everything. Only real differences were that you had only one orange eye, and that you were after Noah specifically - at least until I started getting in your way.”

Noah, who briefly left to pick up Lucky Seven from the ground, nodded when Ethel looked to him for confirmation.

“I see…” Ethel accepted. “Then I must apologise to you both. You aren’t hurt, are you?”

“Don’t worry, my armour took the brunt of it,” Noah reassured, grabbing something else off the floor. “We got what we came for, anyway - the Blue Radiant.”

Bolearis laughed at his irreverent response. “Well, we did get roughed up a little, but he’s right - it's less cuts and bruises and more dirt on our faces. Still, Noah, I gotta ask… Are we safe now?”

If Noah was telling the simple, unvarnished truth, he would have likely answered ‘no.’ But the reason he wanted to say that was complex, born of the confusion of the black fog being present in the new worlds at all. From what the Queens had explained, it was a byproduct of the merging worlds, so if the two were now separated, there was no reason for it to remain. But then again, how separated were they when Moebius remained, and Noah could communicate with Mio from afar?

Noah couldn’t say all that to Bolearis, naturally, so he gave him the short, and somewhat untrue, version instead.

“The black fog’s vanished, and I haven’t seen it anywhere else - we should be safe for now.”

“Phew!”

While Bolearis had responded almost with glee, the fog’s victim was not so jovial. Having risen back to her feet in remarkable time, she gave Noah a discerning stare before she addressed him once more.

“This fog… I have not seen it before, in all my time as a soldier. And yet, when I say those words… I feel as if I should have. Noah, be honest with me - is there something about that black fog that you’re not telling us?”

Though Noah believed telling her the truth would bring no comfort, her eyes were overpowering. It was strange to believe, but Noah had no doubt that she would catch him lying. So, as he often had since waking up on Bionis, he compromised - he told her part of the truth.

“The fog is connected… connected to another place. The same place my partner has gone. I don’t understand its presence here, not yet… but I will search for the reason.”

Ethel took in his words in silence for a brief moment, before responding with a smile.

“That’s all I ask for. In the meantime, I suppose we shall avoid fog-hewn beasts unless absolutely necessary.”

“Yeah… That would be for the best, I think.”

“Well then!” Bolearis interjected, satisfied with their heart-to-heart. “I think that’s our job done, Lieutenant Commander. We better head to the Obelisk and meet the others - there’s still quite a trek to go, and we’re bleeding daylight out here!”

“Right you are, Captain,” Ethel agreed. “Safe travels, Noah.”

“Good luck with the rest of ‘em! Don’t lose your edge out there, mate - we’ll keep Colony 6 safe as houses.”

Noah nodded in appreciation. “Thank you both. I’ll do my part too - I’ll see this war finished.”

“That’s what I like to hear!” Bolearis encouraged, grabbing his hand for one last handshake. “Show your fangs for us, okay? See you later!”

“Safe travels, Ethel, Bolearis.”

With Colony 4’s legendary leadership farewelled, Noah could only watch as they disappeared into the mist of the marsh, leaving him to his own devices. It had been brief, but Noah couldn’t help but be disappointed to see them go - Leater and Miller, too. Still, they were right that he had a job to do, and for now, that meant returning to the statues with the Radiant in hand.

~~~

Mio wasn’t sure how to feel about the fact that Cole ran a theatre.

Sure, she could accept on a base level that it was just a place where people could watch performances. But M’s memories painted that theatre as a lonely and terrible place, a symbol of just how depraved Z’s intentions for Aionios were - nothing more than amusement. It was going to take more than a dictionary definition to get over her bad impression of the concept.

Still… the way Vandham explained it, she was rather curious about the performance. So against that negative association, and with some encouragement from Sena and Manana, she followed Rex and the others into the theatre. And what she saw… well.

It was simply incredible.

One of her first memories of Noah that weren’t given from M was his introduction, when he declared a desire to play his own melodies. At the time, she had liked the sentiment, but hadn’t exactly understood what playing a song for something other than remembrance meant. It was only through her time with Noah, reinforced by her experiences in the City, that she began to see music for its own sake.

But this performance did not simply play music for the sake of it. Every combination of familiar and unfamiliar instruments, even that of vocal performances, melded together for the purpose of the scene, elevating the performance in ways she couldn’t have conceived on her own. And the actors! Moebius had always likened their soldiers to bit parts in their own play, but here everyone involved shared a desire to perform, and it showed in their performance.

The story too was captivating, but for a markedly different reason. Entitled “the Heroic Adventures of Addam,” Mio did not expect the story to name and feature a woman descended from above known only as the Aegis. Immediately upon hearing her name, Mio, turned to Pyra with concern, only to find her enraptured with the performance, distilling her concerns somewhat. Perhaps it was simply a fantastical imagining like the Founders Tale books - after all, the Aegis had blonde hair instead of red.

Mio had found herself just as invested as Pyra was, so the story’s tragic ending left her feeling a little hollow. Despite her emotions, they didn’t wait around long after it had finished before heading down to meet its author, though not all of them could actually fit in the small study - Nimue, Manana, Tora, Poppi and Dromarch all ended up standing outside.

The moment Vandham spotted a man in a brown cloak inside, he chuckled familiarly. “Crikey! Still collecting the junk, are ya?”

Well aware of who the voice belonged to, Cole turned to the mercenary to defend his taste.  “Watch it, you bruiser! Don’t make fun of a man’s hobbies.”

“Some greeting for your old comrade!”

Nia looked between the old playwright and massive mercenary and frowned, repeating in disbelief, “Comrade?”

“Yeah,” Vandham confirmed. “I was a freelancer, before the firm got going. Believe it or not, me and this old fella tore up a good few battlefields back in our day.”

Cole agreed, but with a raised eyebrow. “We sure did. And, thanks to that bleeding heart of yours, we almost never got paid!”

Vandham’s boisterous laughter showed just how little this detail actually concerned him. “Says the guy in the theatre troupe! You can’t be raking in much dough either.”

That old argument long settled, Cole only responded to it with a huff before asking the important question. “Well, what can I do for you, friend?”

“Cole… You’re old, ain’tcha? Old enough to know how you cross over to the World Tree… Get to Elysium, I mean.”

“Elysium? But why… Why would you want to go there?”

Cole hadn’t been focusing too much on the group beyond Vandham until he asked his question. Figuring perhaps it was at the request of a new friend, he scanned the room until he spotted Pyra.

“That Core Crystal! You… you’re…” His initial shock was familiar, but the way he regained his composure after that initial reaction was more unique... and strange, therefore.

“So the Aegis is back among us…” he confirmed to himself before properly addressing Pyra. “Who is your Driver?”

“I am.”

Rex’s interjection could have been borne of pride in his status as Aegis Driver, but Mio suspected it was more like just eagerness. Cole, however, responded in disbelief.

“You? But you’re so young…”

He’d barely processed the news when Vandham came in to reaffirm his earlier question. “How about it, old man? Do you know the way or not?”

“Hmm… I dare say if you’ve trekked all this way to ask me, you’ve already tried going yourselves?”

“Yes, we have,” Mio cut in, feeling like she should give the group a playful jab for once. “Despite my objections…”

“Hey, I’m sorry!” Rex apologised earnestly, though she was unsure if he got the joke. “Either way, we couldn’t make it.”

Cole was not surprised in the least. “No wonder. No one can get to the tree while that thing is guarding the way there - it won’t let anyone past. But… a long time ago, there was a man who went up the tree. Met the Architect, too.”

Rex was as shocked about this information as Mio was. Hearing that the figure she’d once mentally compared to Z had actually been reached by a man who lived to tell the tale… That was new. 

“There was…?” Rex repeated in shock. “Really?”

Cole nodded. “Yeah. I’ll wager anything he’s got an idea how to get there again. You should try asking him.”

“Who was it?”

The room’s sudden silence was deafening. Cole was happy to explain that someone knew the secret, but reluctant to actually lead Rex to them. Rex, for his part, was persistent.

“Please, tell us! I’ve gotta get to Elysium, no matter the cost!”

“Well, I can tell you,” Cole relented. “But first I’d like to have a word with her, if I may. With the Aegis, I mean.”

“With Pyra?”

The request was the sort of thing that screamed ‘keeping secrets,’ but Pyra was unbothered.

“Of course,” she agreed, following Cole into an offshoot that might have been his bedroom.

In their wake, Mio and Sena found themselves anticipating both good and bad, unable to read the intentions of either missing person.

“What do you think they’re talking about, Mimi?” Sena asked in a vain hope she’d know something new.

But Mio was only human. “I have no clue. But I suppose we can only hope for good.”

“Right… Still, though, there is one thing I’m wondering about; does Cole look a little… off, to you?”

“Hmm… Maybe? I mean, he’s old, so it could just be that, right?”

“Yeah, I get what you mean. Still… something doesn’t feel right with me. Guess we’ll just have to stick around and see if we find out, huh?”

“I guess so…”

Unaware of Minoth and Pyra’s discussion of times past, all the the faux Driver and Blade could do was wait.

~~~

“Well look who finally decided to show up! What took you so long?”

Ashera’s snarky greeting was Noah’s welcome back to the Sororal statues, Blue Radiant in hand. It wasn’t hard to spot the other three among their now seven in number; Ashera held a white one in one of her hands, juggling it up and down, while Shulk eagerly inspected the rainbow one up close, not yet cognizant of Noah’s approach. A fourth, rather dull looking one was in an unimpressed Sharla’s hands, but for some reason Reyn was looking at it guiltily.

“Well…” Noah trailed off, awkwardly remembering his brief ordeal. “I’ll tell you guys later.”

After a subtle prod from Dunban to bring Shulk to attention, the entire group gathered together to confirm what needed to happen next.

“So, uh…” Reyn began, scratching his head. “Does anyone actually remember how we do this? I remember somethin’ about the four holes near the centre, but other than that…”

“Reyn must do better next time!” Riku chastised in a familiar display. “Dickson said he use in blue top left, rainbow top right, white bottom left, and dull one on bottom right.”

“Hey, lay off, furball! I had to run through a poison swamp for that thing!”

“We know, Reyn,” Sharla sighed. “And I’m glad you were willing to do it for us. But we should focus on what we’re here for.”

“Well… I s’pose I could let it slide.”

Dunban let the banter finish before he issued his direction. “If that’s all, then let’s get this done. Noah, Ashera, Shulk, Sharla… if you would be so kind?”

“You got it, Teach.”

With the four Radiants in their appropriate (but probably interchangeable, now Noah thought about it) pedestals in the Adulthood Emblem, the group stood back and watched. And it was quite a display - a white light, first shining in the centre, slowly travelled outwards on the eight lines, before reaching their outermost points. Once it did, it shot upward from each ending, spinning together above the Emblem just as a white beam shot up from the centre.

Aware as they were of the expected outcome, the party still waited for the result with bated breath. But Noah in particular noticed something worrying - as soon as the white orbs spun from the edge, the area seemed to darken around them. It was enough to make Noah nervous… and it soon became obvious his nerves were well founded.

As the Satorl Guardian descended to the walkway, no-one could miss its glowing orange eyes or dark aura. Noah could only curse as he realised what had happened.

“Fire and sparks… Another one?!”

“Another what?!” Sharla questioned, perturbed by the strange sight.

To Noah’s confusion, it was Riku who answered. “Can it be… Fogbeast?!”

“Fogbeast, huh?” Ashera repeated, just before the monster screeched at its opponents. “Sounds like a good time! Let’s go!”

Her intentions clear, Ashera was the first to strike at the Satorl Guardian, which Noah was relieved to discover was much less agile than Aggressive Cornelius had been. Seemingly, the Ansel made up for this weakness by instead being much more durable than average - Noah was quick to join her, alongside Reyn, Dunban and Shulk, but it was not quick to fall even with the many swords attacking it. 

Sharla opted to stand further back near Riku, shooting when she could and monitoring the party’s condition. This was certainly appreciated, considering the tricks the Guardian was employing. Beyond occasionally dashing away from a big hit, the supposed Fogbeast would spin and create a tornado around itself, and stab with poisonous claws, which Sharla could thankfully cure.

Still, the overactive bird wasn’t invincible; six Homs attacking it would have worn it down eventually regardless. When it did finally fall, it echoed the fog-hewn Igna that guarded the Blue Radiant by having its eyes dim to normal and fog aura disperse back into the atmosphere. Soon enough it disappeared into ether, leaving the ancient ceremony complete.

“Finally…” Reyn huffed, “it’s done. What was up with that thing, anyway?”

To Noah, it was certainly uncomfortable in its unexplained relation to the black fog, but it was still largely unfamiliar. However, in a rather frustrating pattern he should have perhaps remembered, Riku seemed to be quite familiar with its concept.

“Riku unsure how, but no mistaking… That was Fogbeast.”

“Fogbeast?” Noah repeated, confused and a little jaded. “What even… Why would something like that be showing up here?”

Ignorant of the warning signs that name was giving Noah, Shulk could only respond with relief at the end of their trial. “Whatever it was, I’m just glad it’s gone.”

“Indeed,” Dunban agreed. “Well, Dickson said the path should appear once we defeat it, which should happen…”

Before he could even finish his sentence, a series of steps towards the lift floated up out of the ground, creating the perfect path onward to the upper regions.

“Right on cue!” Reyn exclaimed. “That’s perfect - let’s get outta this creepy swamp before somethin’ else jumps us.”

Noah was keen to agree at first, but then he stopped. Just like before, the black fog wasn’t gone yet - it had briefly thinned after the Guardian’s defeat, but now it was coalescing again. And if Noah was seeing correctly, it was coalescing right behind him, where-

“Mudder!”

Noah barely dodged in time to avoid a familiar blade splitting his head open, and frantically dodged the follow up strikes from the Twinsaber by deflecting the strikes with his own weapon. “Ashera?! What are you-”

He gasped as he noticed her red right eye, and how her body seemed to be crawling with the black fog. Twisting back towards his allies, he faced down Ashera in the direction of the Sororal Statues, her normal grin replaced with fury.

“Where the snuff have you taken me?!” she demanded, oblivious to the darkness clinging to her. “You definitely don’t look Agnian… but you aren’t my comrades either. Who are you?! Answer me!”

Ashera pointed her blade towards Noah as she demanded his response, but Noah was too busy thinking about her words. She spoke as if she had never left Aionios, but more than that, she spoke as if she didn’t recognise any of them. If she was reliving memories, in the same way Ethel seemed to relive her control by K, then it was not a recent memory from her last life.

The situation was precarious, but he had to figure out a response fast - none of his new friends would know what she was talking about.

“Ashera!” Dunban yelled, raising his voice uncharacteristically. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Don’t give me that!” Ashera bit back. “I don’t even know who you are!”

Before he could attempt to reprimand her further, Noah cut him off.

“Don’t bother, Dunban,” he cautioned, raising a hand. “It’s just like what happened to Ethel. She’s been possessed by false ideas about us and herself.”

“She’s what?!” Reyn exclaimed in disbelief. 

Ashera, meanwhile, seemed to find his response rather funny, in some morbid way.

“Oh, I get it now… You’re one of those City quacks, aren’t you? They did always say that you lot would try and put ridiculous ideas in our heads. Told us to kill you quickly if we ever saw you! Well… I’m more than happy to do just that.”

As she returned to a fighting stance, Noah frowned. The combination of Bolearis and himself were forced to knock Ethel around to free her from the black fog’s grip, returning her to her senses, so it would make sense to try that approach. But while she would no doubt retaliate against their attempts to do so with lethal intent, they had to avoid hurting her as much as possible.

Though it felt impossible at first, when Noah glanced at his left hand he was struck with a possibility.

“Wait… I think I have an idea.”

As he made to unsheathe his sword, Shulk regarded his apparent revelation with a dubious look.

“What are you talking about?! We can’t hurt her!”

“We’re not going to… not too much, anyway. We need to knock some sense into her, like Ethel, but if we don’t want to hurt her while we do it…”

With a flourish, Noah drew Lucky Seven, forming his gauntlet on that same hand. He used it to fully prepare the blade, but it was a habit more than anything - the sword wouldn’t be the most important thing for this fight.

“…Well, my sword can’t cut a Homs, can it?”

The statement finally afforded Shulk some clarity, even if it still confused him. “But if it won’t cut her, then how do you plan to wear her down?”

Noah couldn’t help but chuckle, before gesturing with his gauntlet once more. “What, did you think this was just for show? It’s not my preferred form, but I have been taught how to throw a punch. And if this thing catches a sword, then it won’t budge one bit.”

It had been enhanced by the Legendary Smithpon, after all - it had Origin metal, too.

“You had better know for sure what you’re doing, Noah,” Dunban cautioned. “But if you’re confident you can do this… We’ll stand back for now.”

“We will?” Sharla repeated in her surprise.

“Mm,” Noah confirmed. “Let's keep it clean for now.”

As Riku, Shulk, Reyn, Sharla and Dunban reluctantly stepped away from the circular platform where the Adulthood Emblem was ingrained, Noah got into stance. His sword behind him, and gauntlet readied in front, he stared down Ashera on the opposite end of the walkway.

Okay, Noah. You can do this. It’s just another one-on-one with Ashera… with a handicap. Maybe I should consider some additional strategies.

Thinking of his options for winning the fight, he came across one that he wouldn’t have otherwise entertained.

She’s not as quippy as I’m used to, considering she normally revels in battle. Perhaps I should play myself up as the villain, wear her down with derision… act a bit more like him, as much as it pains me to say it . At least Mio won’t be here to see this…

“So you think you can take me on alone?” she questioned, offended. “Oh, I’ll make sure you die for that.”

When Noah responded, walking closer to the middle of the platform as he did, he made sure to put on a disdainful tone to his voice, one his new friends had never heard. “You are hardly threatening, Ashera. If I had to guess, you are in your fourth term?”

His insult quickly had the desired effect. “Sixth, you arsehole!”

Incensed, Ashera rushed at him, swinging horizontally towards his apparently weaker left with one end of her Twinsabre. But Noah barely had to move to counter it. Instead, raising his gauntlet-covered hand, he caught the blade in his palm, and watched as Ashera’s face fell to shock.

“What?!”

“Did you believe that would be enough?” he challenged threateningly. “Or are you smarter than you look?”

Ashera growled in response, her eye glowing brighter, and freed the blade from his palm so she could strike him on the other side. But her conscious self had done just the same move when they sparred, and Noah knew exactly how to counter it. Stepping slightly to the side, he parried the sharp edge with the dulled Lucky Seven, before striking her back with his fist, knocking her to the ground.

As she briefly lay there, Reyn looked on nervously from a distance.

“Uh, Noah?” he queried concernedly, making as if to walk forward. “Why are you-”

But Shulk held a hand across his chest, silencing him.

“He’s playing a character,” he quietly extrapolated. “One that this Ashera seems to be responding very poorly too.”

“Using mental warfare to his advantage?” Dunban rephrased. “I suppose it’s efficient, but it doesn’t exactly sit well with me, either - this is still Ashera we’re talking about, even if she’s acting completely strange.”

Ignoring their commentary despite how uncomfortable he was feeling, he kept up the charade with another low blow. “Isn’t this sword magnificent? It will never cut your skin, but it will block your Blade every time. Perfect for dealing with a boorish fighter like you.”

The possessed Ashera eagerly took the bait, springing to her feet with fire in her eyes - even the one not glowing red. “Every time, huh? We’ll see about that!”

Spinning the Twinsabre over her head, she attempted rapid strikes in both directions, forcing Noah to block the quick attacks with Lucky Seven. When he saw her attempt to stab forward, he stepped around her, and when she turned around to slash at his right side again, he took that opportunity to parry it with maximum speed.

As Lucky Seven collided with the edge of the Twinsabre, Ashera was left reeling off balance. Noah eagerly took the opportunity to land another blow square on her chest, knocking her backwards and off her feet once more.

“Hey!” Sharla reprimanded, appearing as uncomfortable as Reyn was with the duel. “Don’t overdo it! She’s still our comrade, in case you’ve forgotten.”

Noah winced a bit at her concern, glad Ashera was too busy recovering to see it. Unable to verbally agree if he wanted to maintain the ruse, he opted to turn around and give her a brief nod instead. Quickly returning his attention to the front, he found the strange obfuscation of the Undying Blade back on her feet, pure rage in her eyes. This fight was at its most dangerous, now… but it was also his best opportunity to end this.

“This diversion has been fun, but I tire of the charade,” he taunted one last time. “It’s time you stopped your resistance for good.”

“Snuff off…” Ashera growled, her breathing heavy. “I ain’t dying to some mudder like you!”

“Then you’re welcome to try… Even if it will not make a shred of difference.”

“Shut up, shut up! I don’t care what you say… You die, now!”

Ashera roared as she went in for one last rush, striking at blinding speed. And yet, channelling a strength he could not name, Noah matched her, parrying her blows without leaving his stance. The more he struck back, the more sloppy her blows became… it was only a matter of time until she was left wide open.

“It’s over!”

Noah’s shout marked that very moment, as he finally parried the twinsaber out of her hands. Not hesitating on the finish, he surged forward with a punch to the gut, leaving her crouched and winded… but not relieving her of her glowing eye. With little choice, Noah could only give one last strike to end it - a chop to the back of the head, finally knocking her both out of her possession and consciousness.

The dirty job finally done, Noah looked at his gauntlet-covered hand in disappointment at his continued lack of choice. But more than that, he felt simply uncomfortable at his actions - considering the results, it was hard to dispute it as a correct choice, but he would rather not embody the worst of N again if he could help it.

However, these internal musings were cut off early when a hand chopped him on the back, though on his neck instead of his head directly.

“Ow!” he exclaimed, turning to see the culprit stare at him with a disappointment of her own.

“What did I say about overdoing it?!” Sharla admonished. “I swear, I thought you were better than this.”

“I’m sorry… I didn’t know how else to snap her out of it.”

Sharla didn’t dignify that excuse with a proper answer, instead deciding to check up on his apparent victim. After giving her a once over, she sighed and turned back to the group.

“Well I don’t know if you were planning on heading further tonight, but that’s definitely not happening now,” she explained. “Ashera needs to rest.”

“I imagine that’s for the best,” Dunban agreed. “The day is almost gone. We best make camp for now, and head for Makna Forest tomorrow. I leave my pupil in your care, Sharla.”

“Yeah, I know… Clearly none of you boys are delicate enough to do it.”

Noah was well aware that her jab was aimed at him, but he opted to ignore it, instead turning to Riku with narrowed eyes.

“Riku know what friend will say,” his Nopon friend preempted him. “But though Riku have seen Fogbeast before, fog possession not familiar. This truth.”

“Right. Well then, I suppose I should tell you now - I encountered another one of your ‘Fogbeasts’ when we picked up the Blue Radiant, and it acted just the same. Only, that time, it possessed Ethel instead. She acted just like she did when she was being controlled by K.”

“…That very concerning. Riku not sure what has happened to black fog, but seems it now making friends relive memories of Aionios… and only people from Aionios.”

Noah had been friends with Riku for a long time - ever since he was a first-termer. He had gotten used to reading between the lines of the Nopon’s more enigmatic speech, or at least spotting when he was hiding something. But his last comment… that was a Ponio of a different colour.

“Riku. Is there something about our new friends you aren’t telling me?”

Unfortunately, his friend didn’t want to play. “Riku not sure what Noah mean. Riku simply never met them in Aionios, is all.”

“…Right. I guess I’ll go set us up, then.”

As Noah left Riku in frustration, the Nopon couldn’t help but sigh. Away from the ears of the others, he spoke a private admission.

“Masterpon… Riku cannot deny it now. Something gone terribly wrong… But more Riku try to keep same, more things change. Yet Riku must continue… this only way Riku know how.”

Though his words were unheard by any other than himself, from a distance someone else watched on and agreed.

“…This is the only way.”

Chapter Text

“Your Highness… Lady Melia… You know I would do practically anything for you, right?”

“The thought is appreciated. But please, get to the point, Eunie.”

“I’m gonna draw the line at jumping in that thing, I think.”

At Latael Shore, a pleasant beach on the border of Eryth Sea, a stubborn standoff was occuring. Princess Melia’s hunting party, as Easel would so lovingly call it, had made their way from the Centre Gate below Alcamoth, through the first hovering reefs using transporters, and found themselves at this particular beach, much to Eunie’s initial confusion. However, while her lack of understanding of why they had taken this route soon abated, it had been quickly replaced by disbelief at their next mode of transport… a floating ball of water, beaming towards the sand below.

“Eunie, I do not have time to debate this,” Melia reprimanded, petulance slipping into her tone. “The Nopon Chief has been informed to open this waypoint only temporarily, and we are certainly not taking the long way through the Bionis Shoulder.”

When Eunie only responded with a stitched brow, Zeon took his turn attempting to convince her. “Eunie, please… I’m sure you have nothing to fear.”

“You sure about that, Potato Boy?” Eunie seriously asked him, despite the included nickname. “So you’ve been through this thing yourself, then?”

“Well, no… But-”

“Then you can’t reassure me, man. Sorry.”

Eunie had expected her song and dance to be interrupted by the princess once more, but her response was rather delayed. In between that time, one of the other four members of the Guard (Garan, if she was remembering correctly) came up to her and whispered something privately between the two of them. Once she had finished, Melia came to some sort of resolution rather quickly.

“Right,” she began confidently, “I suppose you have made it clear that you will not proceed without proof, so allow me to make its safety obvious. I expect to find you on the other side, Eunie.”

Then, without another word, Melia stepped straight into the water and vanished in a flash of light.

“Wha- Melia?!”

Eunie’s incredulous exclamation fell on deaf ears, not only because Melia was gone, but because her guards were quick to follow her. Garan, clearly the one who had prompted her recklessness, had been the first to take the plunge, before Aizel, Hogard and Damil all followed not long after. Only Zeon gave the journey any sort of thought, and it clearly wasn’t his fear motivating him - it was hers.

“You’ll be okay, Eunie,” he reassured as best he could. “See you there.”

With that all-too-short resolution completed he turned and stepped through, leaving Eunie completely alone beneath the Eryth sun.

“You arseholes!” she cursed to an audience of none. “Stepping through and leaving me alone… Ah, snuff it! Get back here!”

Gritting her teeth and steeling her nerves, Eunie reluctantly stepped into the strange water, feeling briefly weightless in the bright light before suddenly emerging by landing on… a pool of solid water?

“Eh?” she mumbled out as she stared at her feet. “How am I…”

“Ah, good, you finally made it.”

The self-satisfied voice of Melia brought Eunie out of her confusion, prompting her to follow Zeon’s guidance and walk very quickly over a small wooden jetty to the dry land they had all gathered on. Once she did, she turned around to see the ball of water she had emerged from, along with the strange platform of ether that had her appear floating above the pool earlier. It also allowed her to realise that they weren’t actually alone - a lone Nopon was present to greet them, seemingly responsible for their method of transport.

“Good to see last bird lady arrive safe!” the Nopon greeted her. “Miss Melia, please head to see Chief Dunga!”

“I will do just that,” Melia agreed. “Hogard, come with me. The remainder of you should remain here for the time being.”

A unified chant of “Understood” ended that brief conversation as the Nopon led Melia and Hogard downward somewhere else. In the quiet, Zeon took the moment to return his attention to Eunie.

“I told you that you had nothing to fear.”

His satisfied tone wasn’t exactly what Eunie wanted to hear, but she supposed it was only fair that he could dish it back out. “Yeah yeah, laugh it up… But you know I had to get used to transporters too, right? Never mind about whatever that thing was.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, there was a time not that long ago where I hadn’t used one before at all. They still kinda creep me out, really.”

“I see.”

As he searched for something else to say, Eunie finally got to looking at her surroundings properly. What she found was rather… natural? She knew that they had arrived in Frontier Village, but as far as she could see, the pond they’d arrived at looked like it was sitting at the top of a really wide tree trunk, and she couldn’t see a house in sight. The only signs of civilization were the jetty and the beginnings of the staircase Melia took.

Looking in that direction did clue her in to something else, though. She could see the leaves of other trees in the Makna Forest… but they were all noticeably lower than the tree she appeared to be standing on. Either they were all incredibly short, or…

“Oh my sparks,” she cursed with a casual disbelief. “Are we standing on the tallest tree in Makna Forest?”

“We are indeed,” Zeon was quick to confirm, a small smile on his face. “And, even better than that, the Nopon village is inside of it.”

“Queen’s white wings. Guess those furballs are more impressive than I gave them credit for… Well, some of them.”

Zeon looked briefly confused at her choice of swear before zeroing in on the implication of her last sentence. “Are you familiar with the Nopon, Eunie?”

“Yeah, you could say that,” she agreed halfheartedly. “Though I only really got to know a couple super well. And they were… Well, to not mince words, they were bloody inconsistent. One of them was the best cook I knew, while the other one was technically an indispensable mechanic, but felt like a bludger half the time. And don’t even get me started on their weird Nopon tics…”

“Haha! Sounds like you were close.”

“Heh. Suppose we were…”

When Eunie turned back to Zeon quickly, she noticed his cheeky smile and tried to frown back. It occurred to her then that she must have been smiling already without knowing it… no wonder he guessed right. As she mused on her friends, though, a distinctly non-Nopon voice suddenly erupted.

“Imperial Guard, fall in!”

The sudden call came from Hogard, who had returned seemingly without Melia in tow. Aizel, Garan, Damil, and Zeon were quick to stand to attention, but Eunie was much slower. Once upon a time, she’d been as effective as any member of the Keves army under orders, but she hadn’t actually taken them in quite some time - she was getting sloppy. Luckily, Hogard didn’t seem too phased by her slow action.

“Lady Melia is waiting on the next level, beside the Prophecy Hut. We are to rejoin her and escort her to the ground level, where we are to meet with the Nopon Chief once more. Move out!”

At the completion of Hogard’s instruction, he turned around, and the remainder of Melia’s guard followed close behind. Eunie found herself at the back of the line, which was kind of frustrating at first, but once Melia joined them on the next level she was positioned behind her four original guardsmen in formation at the front, leaving her just in front of both herself and Zeon.

It didn’t take long for that to fade from her thoughts, however, soon replaced by wonder at the village itself. She’d never seen anything quite directly comparable - sure, some Nopon still used small wooden huts in Aionios, of which she could spot many as they descended, but the entire village was made of wood, barely less natural than the hollow giant it sat within. She mused to herself that Riku and Manana would probably hate the place; there wasn’t a machine to tinker with in sight, and not a hint of a kitchen for Manana’s best work, either.

In contrast, Eunie couldn’t help but smile at the numerous Nopon of all ages as they manoeuvred across the many walkways and bridges, somehow each more content than the last. She’d never seen so many at once, not even in Colony 30 or in a meeting of the Nopon Caravans. Truly, this was the Nopon in their purest form… though she’d probably get sick of it if she lived here. There may have been something approaching proof to that, too - she hadn’t seen a single other Homs or High Entia since they’d arrived.

After an expectedly long descent, Melia’s squadron finally arrived at the Central Plaza at the village’s base, and the Sacred Altar with it. With their arrival Eunie gained a brand new target to gawk at… the single largest Nopon she’d ever seen. Well, maybe she was exaggerating his relative size a little, but she couldn’t help it - his fountain-like hair more than doubled his height! Eunie wasn’t really a betting girl, but if she was…

“Good to see you made it, my dear! I could not help but worry about your journey - a bird person does not step foot in this village every day!”

The boisterous, yet somehow more eloquent than normal voice of the robed Nopon all but confirmed her suspicions, and Melia was quick to put the nail in the coffin.

“I appreciate your concern, Chief Dunga, but your people maintain this village well. We encountered no issues.”

“I am glad to hear you praise them so! Now, the Dinobeast was last seen in the vicinity of the Nopon Arch, following the path to the left of the entrance. Are your men prepared for the task of slaying it?”

Eunie shot the supposedly important Nopon a look for forgetting about her (and Garan), but he had no eyes for her - his gaze remained fixed on the princess, who had paused to seriously consider his question.

“Perhaps we should rest in the village before our departure later today,” she admitted. “It would do us good to be fully prepared, in case the Telethia finds us before we can find it.”

Dunga, whose name made Eunie snicker now that she thought about it, agreed in a very Nopon way. “Ohoho! That would certainly be wise. Please, make yourselves comfortable within our village!”

Their short conversation over, the Chief left them to return to his duties… whatever the duties of the leader of the Nopon were. Unfortunately, that meant he didn’t stay to answer what was probably the biggest burning question among their group - what were they supposed to do now? Melia’s old faithful quartet looked particularly unsure, perhaps uncomfortable, at the simple idea of chilling out in the service of their princess, while Zeon and Eunie looked between each other in silent agreement that they wouldn’t be the ones to answer the question, or even ask it.

In the end, it was Damil who broke the stalemate. 

“Lady Melia… What would you have us do now?”

Despite the simple question, Melia looked completely blindsided, unsure where to even begin. It was a stark contrast to her brief memories of the Queen in Aionios, who could so effortlessly lead her people with decisive action. 

After a couple of tense seconds, she simply gave them the directive to “Do as you see fit, and reconvene here in an hour’s time.” 

Once they had all heard the rather vague instruction, Damil and Aizel convened among themselves on how to fulfil it, before leaving the group with the explanation that they would be making a patrol, hopefully at a casual pace. Garan and Hogard soon followed suit, leaving Melia alone with the two who knew this version of her the least. Eunie wasn’t going to let that stop her, though - before Zeon could even object, she’d joined Melia by the Sacred Plaza with a smile on her face.

“Bit overwhelming, innit?”

To her surprise, Melia jumped at her question, previously lost in her own thoughts. The seemingly young princess (a description that confused Eunie’s head to no end) had to visibly consider her words before responding.

“I’m not sure what you mean, Eunie,” she eventually answered, though she didn’t seem to even fool herself.

“Hey, I get it. I’ve never been in a place like this either. Can’t quite get my head around the way the Nopon built their village… It’s so bizarre. Nothing like Alcamoth.”

To Eunie’s delight, Melia was willing to drop the mask a little after that assurance. “It is quite unorthodox. I cannot say I have met many Nopon to begin with, and yet here I am… in the heart of their culture. It’s almost suffocating.”

“You’re not missing out on much, love,” Eunie joked. “They’re happy campers if you let them do what they want, but that’s not often what you want. Getting them to do anything is a chore.”

Melia couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at her slip into her Eunie-isms, but shockingly didn’t reprimand her for it. “Are you telling me they make lousy subjects?”

Despite the obvious power imbalance, made more obvious by Zeon’s concerned expression, Eunie couldn’t resist a joke at the princess’s expense. She gasped in exaggerated disbelief, cupping her face in her hands before responding to her.

“Well I never! I would have thought the good Lady Melia was above such talk, but clearly she has no respect for the good Nopon of the Bionis! What could I, a good soldier of the High Entia, possibly say in response to such a callous remark?”

Eunie briefly worried she’d made a mistake when Melia stared at her in disbelief, but thankfully she was vindicated by her soft laughter, muffled by a gloved hand.

“Must you tease me so?” she questioned lightly, a smile still on her face.

“Well, it cheered you up, right? Pretty sure that’s my job, ma’am.”

“Is it really? I could have sworn you were supposed to protect me from something…”

The two half-Homs women briefly stared at each other with as serious of a game face as they could each muster before breaking into laughter once more. Zeon, for his part, remained just as mortified as he was in the beginning, but their joking must have been the last straw, because he quickly excused himself to do some casual patrols of his own.

Once the two girls had calmed themselves down, Melia noticed the last man of her squad’s departure and raised an eyebrow. “Zeon seemed rather upset with you. Is he okay?”

“Ah, he’s fine,” Eunie reassured. “He’s just not very fond of jokes… or very good at them for that matter. I think the concept of you laughing broke his poor potato brain.”

“Actually, about that - why do you keep referring to him in regards to potatoes? I couldn’t possibly fathom why.”

“Ooh… Now that’s definitely a story you need to hear, Melia. See, it all began when…”

Some time later, the princess could be heard laughing with Eunie once more, just as Zeon got a peculiar feeling that someone was talking about him.

~~~

Whatever Cole discussed with Pyra, it didn’t last too long - the two of them had left the side room after a short time, having confirmed that Cole would help them out. To achieve this, he set out to find something, though he didn’t say what it was… and he didn’t find it, either. After he broke out into a coughing fit, Vandham made the executive decision to call it a day, and Cole told them to come back for the mysterious item tomorrow. 

After the mercenary let their band know where they could rest for the night, there was the question of what to do next - they still had a bit of the day left, to their surprise. Not wanting to clock into the Folmarie Inn when they had a city they could explore, Mio’s friends ended up splitting up into smaller groups. Vandham, Roc and Manana were quick to bow out, heading to the Inn for an early start to their rest, while the rest of their group toured the city in one form or another: Rex and Pyra dragged Nia and Dromarch around sightseeing, while Tora and Poppi went looking for parts and supplies.

That just left Mio with Sena and Nimue, with whom she slowly explored the city as the light began to fade, replaced by lanterns. They stopped at the Sevind Palace Plaza, flanked by titanic stairways that ascended on the right and descended on the left.

“I wonder where that leads…” Sena couldn’t help but ask as she turned to her right, gazing at a grand archway.

“That is the Holy Gate of Fontana,” Nimue explained. “Follow the Great Staircase upwards and you’ll find yourself in the ancient Olethro Ruins.”

“I see…” Mio absorbed. “But where does the other half of the staircase lead, then?”

“I believe heading downwards will find you in the Ruins of Fountain Park… provided you make the jump.”

Sena giggled at the surprising addendum. “Wait, really? What, do you need to skate down those water slides or something?”

“Yes, actually,” Nimue answered with a smile. “I don’t recommend we try it.”

Mio couldn’t help but agree. “Yeah… It’d be rather inconvenient to hurt ourselves just before we were about to leave.”

“I know…” Sena accepted. “But it sounds like it’d be fun.”

“It’s probably a long way back from there, too…”

“Indeed,” Nimue confirmed. “Perhaps another time.”

Sena’s disappointment didn’t last long - turning her face back towards the half of the city they hadn’t explored revealed Fonsa Myma Port, which quickly caught her interest.

“Oh, hey, let’s check out the port instead!” she suggested, and set off before anyone else could agree or disagree.

“Hey, Sena…” Mio half-heartedly called, but her friend was long gone. “Suppose we better go after her, huh?”

Expecting a collected but subtly dissatisfied response, Mio was concerned to see Nimue look visibly conflicted about the possibility. She hadn’t really considered it until now, but Mio finally remembered an important detail about Nimue’s story - she had been to Fonsa Myma before, on the run from something. Perhaps the city was worrying her more than she had made obvious.

“Nimue?” she asked concernedly. “Should we be avoiding the port?”

Nimue took a moment to breathe before responding. “No, it’s probably fine… I doubt anyone there will recognise me.”

“As long as you’re sure…”

Receiving only a resolved nod before she stepped forward, Mio followed her new friend down the stairs to the port. Travelling down three staircases and past the Royal Guard barracks, they soon found Sena marvelling at both the docked vessels and the sparkling reflections on the water, each beautiful in their own ways. The closer ships in particular were much smaller and less militarised than those at the Gwendle Repair Dock, which was certainly appreciated against the ever-present spectre of war in the city.

“Those Titan ships are a lot more…” Sena trailed off as she attempted to find an out-of-reach word.

“Hand-made?” Mio suggested, somewhat at a loss for words herself.

“Mmm, kinda? I felt like saying ‘loose’ for some reason.”

Nimue considered their ideas before putting forth her own conclusion. “The word I would use is ‘merchant.’ After all, these vessels, unlike the warships at Gwendle, are entirely for commercial use. Each has had its own history of construction and service, giving each of them a unique style and impression, even among similar ships.”

“Right,” Mio agreed. “They’re certainly more well worn, but they remind me a bit of the Titan ship we used to get to Uraya… before its untimely passing, anyway.”

While Sena took in the sights eagerly, and they slowly walked towards the dock’s edge, Nimue came to a belated realisation about the secretive duo. 

“Apologies if I’m overstepping, but…” she began. “Would it be fair to say the two of you are more familiar with the military’s method of reproducible vessels, as opposed to the more personal style of these ships?”

Mio was somewhat hesitant to agree, but Sena didn’t wait nearly as long. “Yeah, unfortunately. We’re used to the sort of vehicles you can give a single name to a whole detachment of, y’know?”

“I see. Sorry, it must be frustrating to be reminded of it so often.”

Mio shook her head decisively. “No, don’t start with that. It’s not your fault that it feels like half of Alrest is at war. If anything, I’m glad to see that you can still broaden my horizons.”

The earnest praise made Nimue smile, though there was a tinge of something else beneath it. “You are too kind. I suppose it is the least I can do for the trouble I’ve caused you.”

“Trouble?” Sena repeated confusedly. “Nothing’s happened because you were here so far, right?”

Mio thought she was telling a pretty objective truth, but Nimue still hung on to her answer for some time… Long enough that another voice interjected before she could tell it.

“Excuse me. I believe we have important matters to discuss.”

The sudden yet familiar voice caught the trio off guard, even surprising Mio’s keen ears. But her confusion at being unable to detect their new arrival’s presence paled in comparison to her shock once Nimue responded to his voice.

“Teach?”

Turning to face the direction of the newcomer and attempting to hide their surprise, Mio and Sena both followed Nimue’s eyes to see two figures emerge from the shadow of a building, neither of whom they were prepared for. The first was undoubtedly Teach, still wearing that blue coat he was well known for, but now worn over a strange white robe with golden gauntlets and boots. He did seem to be making an effort to hide his own Core Crystal -  a strange gold case of sorts had been placed over where it used to be on his right temple using a headpiece, leaving most of his face uncovered, but its presence unmissable.

His companion had not even attempted to do such a thing. Her rectangular, dark blue Core Crystal with chamfered edges remained pronounced on her collarbone, and she walked with her Siken Ivy warfans in full view. Even her Offseer uniform remained stubbornly unchanged, as if willing to give Mio a false hope for her memories, but it only added to the otherworldly visual that allowed her present as a Blade.

It took all of Mio’s willpower to not cry out Miyabi’s name, and she could tell that Sena was struggling just the same.

“It is wonderful to see you unharmed, Nimue,” Teach responded, ignoring their presence for now. “When I received word that you had gone missing, I feared what would become of you if you had found yourself unprotected. My Blade… he would greatly mourn your loss.”

“We were so worried!” Miyabi chimed in, oblivious to Mio’s internal strife. “If Uraya went to war while you were within their nation… I couldn’t bear to think of it!”

Nimue, despite receiving what appeared to be heartfelt concern from people who Mio would certainly have called friends, noticeably tensed at their platitudes. It appeared as though Teach had put her on edge… but why?

“You know these two, Nimue?” Sena obliviously queried, trying her best to sound only a little curious.

With her interjection, Teach finally acknowledged his audience to introduce himself and his ally.

“Ah, my apologies, I have forgotten to introduce myself. My name is Teach, and this is my companion Miyabi. I am but a humble Warrior Monk of the Indoline Praetorium, and Miyabi is my ever-faithful Blade.”

“I see! Well, I’m Sena, and this is my Driver, Mio!”

Though she had been name-dropped by her friend, Mio still couldn’t help but focus on Miyabi’s apparent nature. Perhaps it was simply stubbornness, but Miyabi and herself had been the same for so long, it felt wrong for her to now somehow be different.

“She looks rather human for a Blade,” she commented dryly.

Teach chuckled at her observation, before turning it in reverse. “And so does yours, Mio. But the Core Crystal does not lie.”

“Hm.”

He was putting Mio off now, too, though not in the same way Nimue was - even more than Mio, the conversation had only made her look more uncomfortable as it had gone on. No, Mio’s concerns had mostly started because he had revealed himself to be from the Indoline Praetorium, which was the same Praetorium that executed Flesh-Eaters. It definitely put her guard up, but even after she had done that, something else about this situation didn’t feel right to her. If only she could figure out what it was…

“If the two of you have been defending Nimue on her perilous journey,” Teach suddenly resumed, “then I must thank you both. Your kindness will not go unrewarded; As soon as we safely return her to Indol, I will endeavour to find some proper method of compensation.”

Normally, Mio would implicitly trust Teach with a friend’s safety. Her former commanding officer had been stern but kind, turning his vast martial prowess that was once a destructive menace into a force of good for Aionios. But the more he spoke, the more alarm bells were going off in her head - why had he said return?

“So you intend to take me back, then. Back to my prison.”

Though Nimue’s reveal was cold and dejected, it was only with her sorrowful realisation that Mio finally understood. Nimue wasn’t running back to the Praetorium… she was running from them!

“Come now,” Teach admonished, eager to downplay the significance of that statement. “The Praetor kept you enclosed for your own safety. There are many in Alrest that would take advantage of you if you are not given adequate protection.”

“You mean like the Praetor?”

Miyabi had started looking uncomfortable the moment Nimue had mentioned her ‘prison,’ but the insinuation of the Praetor’s reasons had her turn downright pale, clamping her mouth firmly shut. Teach’s lips, too, were pressed together, though his were in the shape of an unimpressed line.

“The Praetor has no such designs on you, my friend. He has only Alrest’s best interests at heart.”

“You can’t possibly believe that. Look at you - sent out to capture me like his own personal attack Feris! You, of all people, should know that he is not what he seems.”

Teach responded to Nimue’s unfamiliar anger with a tilted head. “Have you not considered that I may be doing this because I believe in him? Can I not assuage your fears and bring this to a peaceful resolution?”

Unconvinced by her assertions, he began to step towards her… Only to be stopped by the head of a Blade hammer before he could reach her, shocking even the person it was summoned by.

“What would be the point? Words blur truth and lies so easily.”

Mio’s sudden interjection, borrowed from his own words, brought her back to Teach’s attention, giving her full view of his curious look towards her.

“Do you have any idea what you are doing?” he asked her with a sincerity that still managed to sound threatening.

“Telling you to stop, I think. She’s made it quite clear, ‘Teach’ - she’s not interested in going back. And I’m willing to make that point abundantly obvious.”

Her former commander could only sigh at her declaration. “Must we stoop to such incivility?”

“I don’t believe you’ve given us another option,” Mio rebuked. “What choice do I have but to fight?”

Teach gave her no such alternatives. Instead, returning his gaze to Nimue, he made one last plea for her cooperation. 

“Do you truly have no intention of returning with us?”

“Yes,” she confirmed. “I will not go back.”

“…Then there is no further recourse.” 

Turning away from them briefly and walking along the boardwalk, he made only a small gesture towards Miyabi before she tossed her fans. With his apparent weapons of choice in hand, he returned to face Mio, standing side by side with his Blade across from his opponents.

“Are you prepared?” he questioned one last time, entering a fighting stance.

Getting into her own position, Mio turned to Nimue, standing on the sidelines, and then Sena. She looked rattled, but still managed to get herself to nod and start the affinity link. Ready as she’d ever be, Mio nodded to her old Commander.

“Then face your defeat with honour.”

Before she could reminisce on any more familiar words, Teach was upon her - Miyabi’s fans striking the air where Mio used to be just a second before. It quickly became apparent that, in a sharp contrast to her reserved friend, he was fast and aggressive with the weapons, closer to Mio’s own Zephyr fighting style than Miyabi’s, or even Teach’s standard preferences. Clearly, this version of the All-Slayer was an adaptable Driver.

The problem was that this was not a good match for the Meteor Smasher. Finally getting some space, Mio went in to retaliate, but the lightweight Siken Ivy allowed him to weave away from the powerful strike with ease. Though she kept swinging to maintain the offence, when she finally struck Sena’s hammer into the floor of the port for a decisive blow, he was nowhere near the attack - Instead, he jumped above her and knocked her down with a quick gust of wind.

As Mio recovered, Teach was eager to capitalise on the opening with a stronger blow. Throwing the fans back to his apparent Blade, Miyabi quickly gathered Ether into her fans with crossed arms before slashing them twice together.

“Twin Moons!”

A spiral of two crescent-shaped blades of wind surged towards Mio, too vicious for her weapon alone to block. Though she initially feared the worst for her own defence, her confidence in her partner came through when Sena arrived just in time to block it. Though she struggled to achieve it, with just enough willpower she was able to deflect the Ether strikes away and into the water. Miyabi looked a little shocked at the display, but she didn’t stick around to see the result of it, quickly returning her weapons to her Driver just as Sena received her own.

“Alright, back off!” Sena demanded, before readying Ether into her hammer and slamming it into the floor. “Earth Crusher!”

Pulling it out from the ground, she sent out a wave of Earth-element Ether that surged back towards Teach and Miyabi. Perhaps unconfident in their ability to block such an attack, they both opted to leap as high as they could over the fissures… But that was where Mio came in. Grabbing her friend’s weapon back from her hands and rushing forward, she jumped to meet her foe mid-air, preventing him from being protected by Miyabi beyond the barest layer of Ether.

Swinging as hard as she could, Mio struck downwards onto the crossed arms of Teach, whose small weapons provided no edge to defend with. Taking the force on his chest, the Warrior Monk was knocked into the pavement and tumbled into the far wall. Sensing an opportunity to make him concede, she prepared to rush again, only to be stopped in her tracks.

“Snowdrift!”

Caught off guard by the sudden attack, Mio barely avoided the blast of icy wind in time to be prepared for Miyabi’s continued assault. Somehow she had regained her war fans in the time Mio had ignored her, perhaps by resummoning them, but regardless she was ruthless. Finally pushing her away with a retaliatory strike after dodging her blows, Mio tried to use the brief respite to talk her down.

“Miyabi, come on!” she pleaded. “You can’t seriously believe that imprisoning Nimue is the right thing to do!”

Though her face had been shockingly resolved until now, the personal appeal shook her faith for the first time.

“I…” she murmured, almost resembling the girl Mio knew. “I don’t know-”

“She doesn’t know you, Mio.”

Teach’s interjection was the last thing she wanted to hear, and not just because it signalled that he’d quickly returned to face her down. Despite her apparent reservations, Miyabi returned her weapons to her Driver the moment he motioned for them, resuming their golden affinity link like her slip-up had never happened. She truly knew nothing of Aionios, then…

“And what does that matter?!” Sena countered, returning to Mio’s side. “Are you just too afraid to let your ‘Blade’ form her own understanding?”

“That could not be further from the truth,” he responded, making a show of brushing his outfit. “Nimue’s safety is paramount, and only the Praetorium can be trusted to protect her from Alrest. Regardless of your apparent skills, that includes the two of you.”

“Oh, so only your group can decide what’s right for the world? I’ve heard that one before… and it certainly wasn’t true then, either!”

The furious anecdote caught Teach by surprise somewhat, though he still clearly disagreed. The difference instead manifested itself in his pointed response.

“And what do you know of the vices of Alrest, Blade? You stand in the capital of a war-hungry country, whose resolve to fight stems not from their desperation, but their envy. Their foe, the Empire, has fallen so far in its pride that it ignored the sovereignty of a nation… and it would gladly do so again. What Indol does for Alrest, it is necessary.”

Perhaps it was due to their unfamiliarity, but Teach’s story of the failings of two nations failed to make any impact on Mio or Sena, only furthering their anger instead. Though Mio was eager to respond, a furious Nimue preempted her instead. 

“And what do I have to do with the sins of Alrest, Teach?! My memory may be faulty, but what could that possibly have to do with-”

“You know full well it has nothing to do with your memories, Nimue!” Teach interrupted her, his voice rising for the first time. “Within your Core Crystal, you should be well aware of that truth.”

What the Warrior Monk was alluding to remained a mystery to the Ouroboros duo, but it seemed to tell Nimue something she had missed. “Why? Why would he-”

“It is not my place to know that. All that matters is that you are too important to lose.”

Mio had remained briefly silent for some time, but the tone Teach was taking with Nimue made her raise Sena’s hammer towards him once again.

“Stop talking about her like that!” she reprimanded. “Nimue is not an asset to be protected for your own self-interest - she’s a person! One that can make her own decisions!”

“She is a Blade!” Teach rebuked. “You should be well aware of the nature of their relationship with humans!”

“That doesn’t matter! She is as human as you and I, and you should be well aware of that!”

Though they had raised their voices in anger in turn, neither Teach nor Mio had any more words to answer with. Around them, Miyabi looked uncomfortable, while Sena tempered her anger with sadness. Nimue looked simply frustrated, remaining stubbornly stoic. Perhaps in the quiet that had followed, they had all come to the same conclusion; words alone, no matter how fervent, would not sway either party from their position. 

It was Teach who was the first to act on this reality. “This has gone on long enough. Miyabi?”

“Yes, sir,” Miyabi responded quietly.

“Show them a Glittering Melody.”

Nodding somewhat reluctantly, Miyabi nonetheless revealed her Offseer flute and brought it to her lips, tightening Mio’s throat as she did. Playing a familiar refrain, light Ether gathered around her and bloomed outwards… before being absorbed by her Driver. Now bathed in a glowing aura, Teach stared Mio and Sena down with no small amount of threat.

“Consider this your last warning,” he made clear. “You will not win against me. Stand down.”

“I’ve been up against worse than you, Teach,” Mio countered. “I’m hardly going to stop now.”

“Then this is the end, Mio.”

As he declared a foregone conclusion, he ran towards Mio once more. But though Miyabi’s fans glowed with the same power, Teach was different now - the distance between them closed far too quickly. Sena rushed in front of her to play defence, like she’d seen Pyra do before, but her attempt was fruitless; a mere second before he would have reached them, he changed course completely, stepping to their left faster than they could react to.

“Fall!”

As he shouted, Mio brought the Meteor Smasher in a vain attempt to block, but the icy wind proved far too powerful - both Sena and herself were knocked into the front of one of the buildings bordering the port. Before she could even return to her feet, he had rushed to her point of impact, forcing her to drop Sena’s weapon to roll away from his strikes. Mio couldn’t help but curse as she realised what had occurred - Miyabi’s abilities had carried over in full force, and her melody had made him much faster.

Weaving between his strikes as much as she could with her practised agility, she was still unable to dodge everything, each contact of the warfans stinging her body with their Ether-infused edge. Seeing her desperate struggle, Sena attempted to intervene, but found Miyabi in her way once more, delaying her for long enough to allow Teach to notice. 

Once he did so, he briefly ignored the unarmed Driver to focus on her Blade. Not as agile as her partner, Sena was unable to avoid his strikes, and she quickly fell to the ground from the assault. Weaponless and on the back foot, Mio was forced to consider summoning her Sundancers to defend her…

“Crystal Wave!”

…Until a flurry of Mondo suddenly pushed Teach and Miyabi away, creating crystals of ice from the ground. Their source was Nimue, having finally revealed her baton, standing by Mio and Sena’s side. The Ether in the air seemed to refresh Mio, too - a remnant of Taion’s Healer status, perhaps.

“So you’ve finally raised your weapon against me,” Teach acknowledged, sounding rather disappointed in her decisive action. “I suppose that’s only proof of your adamance.”

“I am not a prize to be won, Teach,” Nimue reminded him. “As I told you before, I will not go back.”

Teach did not dignify her resolve with a response, but the temporary formation of obstructive ice crystals gave them all a moment of reprieve from the fight. For Nimue, Mio and Sena… it was their last chance to think of a way out.

Though Mio was breathing heavily, she attempted to calm herself down to strategise. “Okay, I’m going to assume the reason why you haven’t been assisting us before now is because you don’t think you can beat him, right?”

“That is unfortunately correct,” Nimue confirmed. “Without a Driver, I lack the crutch of affinity to give me strength. My hope lies only with the two of you.”

“I was afraid you were going to say that, because I don’t think we can beat him either. I’ve fought alongside a similar power in the past, but that speed is deadly against a lumbering weapon… and Sena’s hammer is not a fast attacker.”

“So what’s the plan, then? Break for the other side of the capital and meet with Rex and the others?”

Mio was keen to agree with that idea, but there was a problem standing in their way… and quite literally at that. “There’s no way Teach lets us through to the stairs. We have to find another way around…”

“I don’t think there’s a way behind us, either,” Sena guessed, craning her head backward. “So that leaves…”

As she was returning to face their foes, she suddenly stopped and gazed upwards. Remembering their trip from Sevind Palace Plaza, she recognised the rooftops of the row of buildings and got an idea. Leaning towards Mio, she whispered conspiratorially.

“Hey, Mimi? How high can you jump?”

“Pretty high… How come?”

“High enough to reach those rooftops?”

Turning to where she was looking, Mio came to the same realisation and nodded. Turning to Nimue, she relayed much the same idea, and though she looked a bit stunned by the concept, she believed she had a method. Resolved to try it, they turned back to the front just in time to see the crystals begin to melt away, and Teach staring them down.

“No more games, Nimue,” he declared. “This ends here!”

Nimue did not flinch as she stared back at him. “On the contrary, Teach, the game’s only just begun. Sculpture Garden!”

Conducting her Mondo with a jagged flourish, Nimue’s talismans surged forward. As they did, a portion of them coalesced into solid forms, creating sculptures that resembled her, while the rest created a snowy haze. In the confusion, the trio leapt onto the roof of the closest building, Mio using her natural agility while Sena and Nimue propelled themselves with their Blade weapons.

Unfortunately, the wizened Teach, unimpressed with her showing, opted to blow the fog haze away with Miyabi’s assistance, only to find none of his targets among the sculptures. “Damn it, where did they-”

Miyabi pointed him to the rooftops, to Mio’s frustration. “Above!”

Having landed on the first of the six curved rooftops, the trio had to jump between each of the sideways peaks to keep their speed up. They had only jumped across a couple when Teach and Miyabi leapt up to join them, landing on a roof just behind them.

“You’re not getting away!” Teach threatened, fans ready to strike once more.

“Sena!” Mio called in concern, but her friend was already ready.

“I got it!” she quickly responded, retracting the handle from her hammer completely. “Cannonball!”

Throwing the ball behind as she jumped to the next rooftop, Teach had little room to move around Sena’s attack and found himself taking it head on. As it exploded with electric Ether, he was flung backwards, though Miyabi helped catch him before he went off the rooftops completely. Still, they didn’t have time to waste - as they jumped from the last of the rooftops to a landing, they had to keep running up the stairs past the tower of the Royal Guard barracks.

“Keep running!” Nimue pressed as she began to jog up the first flight of stairs to another landing.

Mio and Sena were quick to follow her, taking as many steps as they could to reach the next landing and the second staircase after that. At quite possibly record speed, they found themselves back at Sevind Palace Plaza, intending to run across it to reach the rest of the city. But, in the flat plaza, the trio was completely exposed… and that left them nowhere to hide when Teach returned.

“Nowhere to run!” he proclaimed from on high, jumping down from the rooftop of the Royal Guard barracks with Miyabi just behind him. 

He landed just in front of their group, cutting them off suddenly enough that they didn’t have time to react to his next blast of wind. It knocked them backwards, but more importantly, it left him and his Blade right in between the trio and their planned destination, reverting the situation to exactly how it had begun… only without their escape route.

“I’ll give you credit, Mio - I didn’t expect that,” Teach patronised, Miyabi’s aura still glowing around him. “But I think you’ll find that trick won’t work this time. Now, both of you… Stop your resistance.”

“Oh, snuff off,” she cursed in response, though she kept it under her breath.

The unfortunate truth was that Mio didn’t actually know any other options from here. Going backwards would just end them up in the exact same situation as before, and attempting to go up the Great Staircase was a truly pointless endeavour. Much the same could be said of going down, but it would at least be faster…

Wait, hold on… Mio remembered, what was it Sena asked about before? She wondered about skating down water slides, and Nimue believed that was what you had to do… I mean, it’s a long shot, but we don’t have much of a choice.

Returning to her feet, and pulling Sena and Nimue up with her, Mio stared Teach down one last time. Tilting her head towards Sena, it was her turn to whisper something this time.

“If you intend to negotiate,” Teach interjected, “then you are negotiating with the wrong person, Mio.”

Mio simply ignored him, letting Sena nod in confirmation. As Sena moved to relay her instruction to Nimue, Mio returned her full attention to Teach.

“Listen to me,” she appealed. “I know you listened to what Nimue had to say… I know you can’t possibly be ignorant about the true nature of the Praetorium! So why is it that you refuse to see reason?!”

“Reason?” her former Commander repeated with a tilted head. “This world detests it. No power in Alrest is immune to the maelstrom their power creates, nor the way it saps at their reason. The Praetorium is the check and balance to those powers, and in the wrong hands Nimue would undermine that balance. We cannot sustain Alrest on anarchy, Mio… I suspect you know this well.”

Mio was almost glad his response was understandable, but it was subdued by its sad familiarity. It was like fruitlessly appealing to him on the Transcendent Retreat all over again, only this time the Praetor wouldn’t suddenly appear to allow him a change of heart. At least what he said didn’t matter… only that he was distracted.

“I thought you might say something like that. If you really know anything about me, then you know I won’t just surrender… So this might not come as a shock.”

“What?!”

“Now!”

Having covertly resummoned her weapon, Sena threw it once more, only this time it wasn’t even aimed directly at Teach. Even so, the ball made contact directly at its target - the ground immediately before them. The sudden flash of light in the darkening Fonsa Myma briefly blinded Teach and Miyabi both, giving them just enough time to break for the right-hand side of the descending stairway.

“Nimue!” Mio called as they approached, and she quickly obliged. 

Using the Mondo, she froze the waterway in its entirety, creating a frictionless surface for them to slide down quickly. Mio was the first to reach it, followed by Nimue and Sena, but soon they were all descending as quickly as they could.

“Must you be so resilient?!”

Mio bit back a growl in the realisation that their trial still wasn’t over, as Teach’s voice echoed from the other side of the stair above her. Turning to face him, she saw both him and Miyabi still in hot pursuit, sliding along with the water to try and catch them.

“Uh, Nimue?!” Sena panicked, looking downward to see them still a distance from the Ruins of Fountain Park. “Can you do something?!”

“I can try,” Nimue accepted, though her tone didn’t inspire Mio with confidence.

Gathering what Ether she could spare, she sent her Mondo to try and intercept their pursuers… only for Teach to just cut through them with a grunt. Mio could see a possible reason why, considering she was still keeping the waterway frozen, but that left them with little options to halt their advance - she doubted her divided attention would allow her to create a blockade of ice.

With no other way forward, Mio, Sena, and Nimue continued to slide down the stairway, soon approaching the landing that was the Ruins of Fountain Park. From this distance, Mio could finally see the broken middle of the landing, which formed the jump they would need to take… as well as the hole the remainder of the staircase bore into, which likely formed a dead end.

“We better make this count,” Mio reminded her allies, briefly turning back to see Teach and Miyabi just far enough away to give them some safety. “Ready?”

Nimue nodded solemnly, while Sena gave her an uncertain “Yeah.”

“Don’t try it!” Teach warned, seemingly believing it futile, but his words didn’t sway them in the least.

Resolved to jump, Mio returned her gaze to the challenge. “Let’s go!”

Reaching the bottom as the water flattened out, Mio prepared to leap across to the other side… only for her jump to be intercepted by an explosion of light. Radiating outwards from the gap between Mio and the others, but positioned slightly to the right, the force of the unprecedented Ether attack launched Mio clean across the gap and rolled her across the pavement on the other side, while Sena and Nimue were sent backwards towards the centre of the staircase.

Battered and bruised, and barely avoiding falling down the remainder of the stairs, Mio had to push herself up from the harsh ground to view the aftermath. When she finally propped herself up on her knees, she grimaced at the sight of a pained Sena strewn against the staircase, while Teach hovered around Nimue in much the same state. Seeing their target and their foes both appearing unable to continue, Teach stared down Mio from across the landing.

“Stay down, Mio,” he ordered. “This fight is over.”

Even as Mio forced herself to her feet, she was tempted to agree. Her clothes were certainly worse for wear, though her black jacket hiding her Core Crystal remained stubbornly closed, and she could tell that beneath that outfit her body wasn’t doing much better. And yet… the thought of letting Nimue down, at accepting this version of Teach’s judgement of the world… it made her blood boil.

“No…”

“No?” Teach could only repeat in confusion as she hung her head.

In answer to his unspoken question, Mio called on her bonds for strength and gathered up what power she could muster as she summoned her Sundancers to her hands. While she did, a yellow aura not dissimilar to Teach’s own began to coalesce around her. Suddenly aware of her threat, Teach entered his stance with the Siken Ivy, and Miyabi positioned herself ready to protect him… just in time to see Mio return her gaze to them, eyes blazing with fury.

Teach could only stammer out a half a response in time. “What are you-”

He was given only one warning, in the form of an enraged battle cry, before Mio launched herself across the gap at unnatural speed, afterimages of a different form trailing behind her. Seeing her tear towards her Driver, Miyabi moved to intercept and block, but once Mio landed on the platform she was quick to change directions entirely, dashing behind him and striking twice before he could even react.

Grunting in anger at the challenge, Teach attempted to fight back, but Mio was simply faster. Whenever he attempted to strike back, or Miyabi attempted to block, she was already somewhere else, their vain attempts only meeting afterimages. The assault of quick strikes and thrown rings culminated in a two-bladed launch into the air, sending Teach flying upward, and Mio was quick to follow him. She watched his shocked expression with a grim satisfaction as he briefly stared her down in the sky, before his fate was sealed with a powerful blow into the Fonsa Myma waters below.

Landing back on the ruined landing as her golden Ether aura dissipated, Mio could barely believe her own actions. She wasn’t sure why, but somehow, briefly, she had felt closer to Noah than usual… and it had somehow given her a rush not dissimilar to her Ouroboros experience. Yet she could not call it an Interlink, she remarked to herself as she gazed at her unchanged Sundancers in confusion.

Her musings were cut short by a squeak of fear that she quickly identified as Miyabi. Though she had resummoned her fans to point at Mio, and was demonstrably less injured that anyone else present, her hands shook as she pointed the Siken Ivy at her forgotten friend.

“T-those weapons…” she stuttered. “You’re a…”

In her rush to save Nimue, Mio had somewhat ignored the ramifications of using her Sundancers… but perhaps that could be used. Dismissing the weapons as she stared Miyabi down, Mio reached into her pocket to reveal something else entirely - the black Offseeing flute that once belonged to Noah.

“I’m not a Blade, Miyabi - not entirely. But perhaps you already know what I’m talking about. I wasn’t lying when I told Teach you looked human. If it wasn’t for your Core Crystal I wouldn't have assumed you were a Blade at all… And I bet that’s for a reason.”

Mio wasn’t sure how to expect her to react, considering the flute was brought out in a vain hope of jolting a lost memory. But the way her face contorted in realisation was still surprising.

“It can’t be… There’s no way they’d let one escape without their knowledge! I know that, because…”

As she trailed off, Mio was surprised to see a different type of fear take over her expression. Not the personal, momentary fright that Mio’s sudden assault had caused, but a deeper pain. She could hardly name its cause, but if she were to assume, she wouldn’t hesitate to believe the Praetorium was at its heart.

“I don’t know what purpose Teach believes Nimue serves,” Mio began, “nor why he believes the Praetorium are truly worthy of it. But it's not going to happen on my watch, Miyabi. I’ll protect her, I swear.”

It took a moment of silence for Miyabi to catch her breathing enough to respond. “I… I’ll hold you to that, Mio. I… I better just…”

Not waiting to form her sentence fully, Miyabi took off up the stairs just as Nimue and Sena began to awaken from their brief dazes. Mio briefly watched her leave before letting out a long sigh and wincing, finally feeling the soreness of her body as the adrenaline faded. Now that they had some space, she knelt down to check on her injured friends.

“Sena? Nimue? Are you two alright?”

Mio was answered by a groan in stereo, both of her friends slowly forcing themselves into a position to properly respond.

“Hey, Mimi…” Sena greeted. “Ow, that stings.”

“I’ve been better,” Nimue answered quietly, clutching at her chest. “Are they gone?”

Mio frowned at the potential significance of that question. “Miyabi has left us alone, but Teach is… taking a swim in the waters below the city. We can only hope that means he’ll finally give us some peace.”

“Ah… good. I was worried you’d taken drastic measures for a moment - I didn’t want you to kill him, regardless of the circumstances.”

“…Me neither.”

As they sat in silence for a moment, Mio considered to herself how she’d possibly get both of the women up the stairs to be treated, and briefly entertained running off to grab Nia before she remembered her own injuries. It seemed no option would be particularly quick… save some intervention from another party, anyway-

“Mio?! What in the bloody ‘ell happened to you?!”

“Speak of the Gogol,” Mio answered weakly, turning her gaze upwards to see Nia and Dromarch rush down the stairs to meet them. “I’m glad to see you. We’re all a bit hurt down here, I think.”

“I can see that! What did you all even do, fail the jump across the gap or somethin’?”

“I actually made the jump, funnily enough,” Mio joked a little deliriously, giving up on sitting to lay against the stairs. “No, this is mostly from the accompanying fight, unfortunately.”

“A fight?!” Nia repeated incredulously, pausing her once over briefly. “Who even… Wait. Did that girl I passed on the way here-”

“No, no, she didn’t do much… It was her Driver doing the damage, and he’s taking a swim now.”

“…I’m not even going to bother asking what the hell you’re on about. Dromarch, go and get the others. I’ll handle this.”

“My Lady?” the Blade responded quizzically. “Are you sure you want to-”

“It’s fine, Dromarch. There’s no one here to see it.”

Mio thought that was a little rude to forget about her, missing the point in her exhaustion, but she did have enough energy left to notice that Nimue and Sena had taken the arrival of Nia as a perfect opportunity to doze off. That left her as the only one awake for… whatever she was referring to.

“As long as you’re certain,” Dromarch relented. “I shall return in due time, My Lady.”

Nia shooed him off one last time before he started climbing the stairs, likely much faster than his Driver would have been. Once he was gone, though, she looked down at Mio’s battered form and sighed.

“I hate seeing you like this,” she admitted quietly. “I can’t explain exactly why, but I have a feeling it’s because of… well. It’s probably stupid of me to be this reckless, but at least this way it hurts me less…”

Mio still didn’t understand what she was talking about until she appeared to suddenly glow. Once the bright light dissipated, in place of the yellow jumpsuit Mio had grown to recognise, Nia now wore a strange piece closer to a Blade’s attire… and with colours and lights not unlike the Queen’s formalwear. Most strikingly, however, her short Gormotti ears had grown into the long ones Her Majesty had once sported, mimicking her suddenly long hair descending in twintails down her back.

She didn’t exactly have time to process this, however. Moments after her transformation, Nia was gathering Ether in her hands and extending it towards her. The soothing energy was oddly familiar to Mio, perhaps gleaned from their brief time together before Aionios split, but regardless it was very effective - the stinging in her limbs soon died down as she felt her wounds heal.

“Thank you, Nia…”

“Shush now. Just lie back and let me patch you all up, okay?”

Too tired to disagree, Mio leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

~~~

As they had decided on, Melia and her squadron enjoyed a brief respite in Frontier Village before they went to find their target. Well, Melia and Eunie enjoyed it, at least - Eunie wasn’t sure if any of those other tight-arses actually took a moment to rest, Zeon included! Well, Melia managed to convince him to sit and rest for a bit, but it took a while before he even returned to see them. The rest of their party had little interest in leaving Melia apparently unguarded… despite the fact that the only danger the Nopon posed was an apparent desire to see how the Bird People felt to touch.

Regardless of their restfulness, Melia did eventually call them back to attention. After one last farewell from Chief Dunga, and a bit of extra gawking from the other Nopon, they all set out into Makna Forest proper… whose name was suspiciously similar to Maktha Wildwood, now that she thought about it. It didn’t resemble it too much, though - there were no ancient structures from the world before Angus (probably because she wasn’t in Agnus), and no poison swamps far below either.

Also, what was up with these Deinos things? She didn’t recognise them at all, nor the towering Deinos Sauros they made a point to avoid. Weirder still, the Sauros was apparently not a Deinos.

“But then why’d they call it that?” she complained in a hushed voice.

“I could not say for certain,” Zeon admitted. “After all, monster biology is hardly my field of expertise - I just know some trivia on the topic.”

“Oh, I getcha… You don’t know monster biology, but you know all about plants, don’tcha?”

“I… You… Nevermind.”

Eunie’s giggling earned her a disapproving stare from Hogard, but it was worth it.

Still, despite their searching, their journey to the Nopon Arch gave them no success in finding the rogue ‘Dinobeast.’ Unfortunately, the day was quickly fading away, so they made a point of doubling back to find a place to camp. They were a little stumped at first, but Garan spotted a raised area connected by winding tree trunks, which they decided on exploring. As it turned out, once they’d gotten rid of some Feris in their path, it led to a sparkling pool of water in a secluded alcove… a perfect place to rest.

Once a fire was set up and their bedding prepared, the five actual members of the Imperial Guard gathered up to decide on their rotation for guard duty, while Eunie was left to sit with the princess herself. Clearly, they didn’t trust her to be the sole watch, which she supposed made sense, even if she could go without the suspicion on her.

“I see they still don’t fully trust me to lead them.”

Melia’s frustrated tone surprised her quite a bit, but she could understand where she was coming from.

“I think Zeon trusts you implicitly, but your knights are his superiors in this mission too. He isn’t exactly known for insubordination, unless the situation is… particularly dire.”

“If you asked my brother, he wouldn’t quite agree with you. Was our lack of medical specialists truly so grave?”

Eunie snorted. “You bet it was. How were you all supposed to stay healthy without me, huh?”

Melia took the joking question rather seriously, leaving a noticeable gap before she responded. “Well… I do have two Arts that can mend wounds, but neither is anywhere near as effective as you have proven yourself. Additionally, one of them comes at the cost of my own health.”

“Snuff that… No way are we ever resorting to that, okay?”

“If you feel that strongly, then I suppose I will acquiesce.”

In the lull of conversation, Eunie spotted that the five guards had finished their discussion, beginning the watch with Garan and Zeon. Perhaps because of their now firmly directed attention to either their rest or the watch, Eunie felt more comfortable to ask a question that had been on her mind for a while.

“So, hey… About those four who were always going to come with you. Have you known them for a long time?”

Melia frowned as she considered her answer. “I have. Aizel, Garan, Hogard and Damil… I have known them since I was young. They took care of me when my parents could not - I suppose I cannot begrudge them their inability to see me as an adult.”

“Okay, not to throw too much shade on you Melia, but… Are you really an adult?”

The princess’s petulant gasp proved about as good an answer as any, but Melia did respond to her question verbally as well. “Such ignorance! I’ll have you know that I am 88 years old, well within the bounds of an adult for the High Entia!”

She punctuated her declaration with a harrumph before turning away and crossing her arms, which only made Eunie chuckle. The princess attempted to discourage this with a stare and a furrowed brow, but it only made her laugh harder. In a last ditch effort to dissuade her, she turned the question around.

“Well, if you truly believe me juvenile Eunie, I suppose I must ask - how old are you?”

Eunie couldn’t prevent herself from grimacing visibly at the question she hadn’t actually figured out how to answer yet. Melia’s answer was technically helpful, in that it told her that she could easily pass for being decades old, but judging by her reaction to the teasing she was fudging the truth about age for her own self image. 

“Uhh… You know, I don’t think about it too much…”

Her trailing voice earned her only a raised eyebrow.

Sparkin’ ash, this is frustrating! Eunie complained mentally. But I’ve gotta figure something out. Okay, come on Eunie… If a ninth-termer was ‘round about a 18 year old from the City, and 18 year olds were young adults, then…

“Still, I’d say I’m about… 97?”

Okay, so maybe adding her term number to Melia’s age was unoriginal, but if it worked then it worked! And it seemed to have the desired effect - Melia visibly deflated, seemingly aware of the possibility already.

“So it’s true, then. You are older than I am. I suppose I should have known.”

“Eh? You really think so?”

Melia nodded, a hint of frustration in her eyes. “I do. I can’t quite fully explain it, but the way you speak… sometimes it is as if you have already seen it all. I’m not sure how to rectify that with your occasional slip-ups about the High Entia themselves, but perhaps it would be easier to assume that you are simply… well travelled.”

It was strange to hear the Queen be so unsure of herself, but her observations weren’t exactly wrong. Not for the first time, her memories of Aionios made her feel isolated, surrounded by people who surely couldn’t understand everything… and yet Eunie wanted to try anyway.

“…You got that right. Maybe I’ll tell you about it someday, after all this is over.”

“I would like that very much, Eunie.”

Their curiosities sated for now, Eunie and Melia both turned their gaze to the stars above as the fire kept them warm, its embers reflecting on the quiet sparkling pool nearby.

~~~

At the quiet water’s edge, near Fonsa Myma, a figure dragged himself to dry land. Emerging from the water with a splutter, Teach groaned as he stood himself upright on the shore and briefly  stared at his hand… The same one he had used the same hand to split Mio from her allies with light. After a moment of quiet reflection, he sighed and clenched his fist.

“Sir! You’re okay!”

Miyabi’s voice signalled that his charge had found him, and so he turned to his companion despite his discomfort - unfortunately, his drenched Monk outfit was clearly not made for swimming.

“I suppose I am,” he responded as courteously as he could muster. “I’m glad that you at least appear unharmed, Miyabi.”

To his surprise, he found her expression to still be one of obvious concern, and he was unsure exactly why until she told him plainly.

“Sir, your headpiece…”

Finally made aware, Teach raised his right hand to find that she was correct - the small Core Crystal in his forehead was made visible to the world, though at least not to a crowd. Miyabi had seen this before, and was long since accustomed to it, but the visible Crystal still posed a risk in the presence of others.

“Well, I don’t believe we’ll find that one again,” he presumed. “That is rather inconvenient, much like my drenched clothing, but it's hardly the largest of my worries. Now, what transpired with our… associates, after my untimely exit?”

The delicately worded version of his question naturally did not fool Miyabi in the slightest, but she still reacted to it strangely - unable to meet Teach’s gaze any longer, she found herself staring at the ground.

“She… let me go.”

“She? I presume you are referring to Mio?”

Miyabi nodded.

“So you were not able to retrieve Nimue in my absence. I suppose that is to be expected… After all, my preparations did not account for Nimue to be in the company of a Flesh Eater.”

Though her apparent shame had been subduing her since he asked for a report, at his consolation she was visibly surprised. “Sir? You… believe her to be a…”

Her question prompted a sidelong glance, though not inherently out of malice. Instead, it was moreso fuelled by a reproach for her brief lapse of reality… Harsh, perhaps, but it was a lesson that needed to be fully understood for her own sake.

“Come now, Miyabi. You know as well as I that the Praetorium would not have let one such as ourselves roam free without their knowledge. If one considers that, only one possibility remains. You also know well that looks can be deceiving… though clearly not always, considering Mio’s comment earlier.”

His last comment was levelled with a subtle disbelief at Mio’s off-the-cuff observation. A normal person, Flesh Eater or not, would assume a person with a Core Crystal and Blade weapons was, in fact, a Blade, and yet Mio still doubted her legitimacy. It defied any explanation he could muster.

“Well, leaving that aside for now…” Miyabi redirected, rather uncomfortable with that topic herself. “What do we do?”

To Miyabi’s surprise, the Warrior Monk did not wait long to answer her. “I will have to return to the Praetor with bad news, unfortunately.”

“Huh? We’re… not going to try again?”

“There would be no point - our momentary opportunity had passed. As we speak, they are likely reconvening with the Aegis and her Driver, and we were given strict orders not to engage with them. Catching them quickly would be a bust too, considering I require your assistance in fetching my spare headpiece and possibly a change of clothes. But, all that aside…”

Teach suddenly trailed off to turn fully towards Miyabi once more.

“…I do not believe ‘we’ would be doing anything. You do not wish to fight her again, correct?”

Miyabi had previously been avoiding his eyes before her question, but as Teach singled her out she shrunk away in discomfort.

“I…” she began hesitantly. “I don’t think I can force myself to hurt her. I know I shouldn’t, but when she told me she’d keep Nimue safe… I believed her. I believed that she and Sena could do it.”

Teach had to take her reluctant admission in for a moment before he could respond. “I see… it is as I feared. It seems I have little choice but to return you to Indol; any further part in this mission would only distract you further.”

“I… Yes, Sir.”

With their next course of action confirmed, Teach sent Miyabi to retrieve his supplies before sitting in a meditative posture by the water. As he did, he reflected on the imagery of Mio’s strange power in a desire to understand it… but all he found was more questions.

That strength was completely unfamiliar to me… and seemingly unstoppable in our current configuration. I could complete the mission alone, but the repercussions would be undesirable - it could well have had the potential for me to have finally outlived my usefulness. For now, I shall simply have to use my resources well…

…And the anger of my Blade is one such resource.

Chapter Text

“I have returned, my Lady.”

Dromarch’s arrival to the Ruins of Fountain Park brought Rex, Pyra, Tora and Poppi with him, and heralded many concerned questions for Mio to field… and more often than not for Nia to dismiss. The first of these was naturally if they were all okay, to which Nia assured them that yes, they were, and that it was definitely Dromarch who healed them. Mio made a hum of confirmation from her lying position, while Nimue and Sena remained asleep in theirs.

The second of these questions was “What happened?”, to which Nia could only give the barest of details that she currently knew: they were attacked, a Blade and her Driver were involved, and Mio scared them off. This did nothing to reassure any of the newcomers, who were naturally worried that said assailants were after them, as Vandham had so warned, but Mio did her best to quell those concerns by making a grunt of disagreement. It hardly satisfied their concerns, but it did allow Nia to redirect their attention to the task at hand - transporting the fatigued trio back to Folmarie Inn.

Achieving this turned out to be relatively simple on account of the many hands, if a little unorthodox. Dromarch would have to carry the taller Nimue on his back, held in place on the stairs with the help of Rex and Nia, while Poppi would carry the shorter Sena under Tora’s hopefully watchful eye. This left the last of the job to Pyra, who would have to carry the half-conscious Mio alone. The Aegis expressed some doubts about this idea, but Rex’s faith in her was rather infectious - after his little pick-me-up, she’d be saddening herself if she didn’t do it.

“I hope I’m not too uncomfortable, Mio.”

“Mm…”

Before long, Mio was in Pyra’s arms, held aloft not unlike how a Soldier of Aionios would carry their wounded. Even in her groggy state, it was a strange feeling - she radiated a warmth that felt so much more comfortable than the unbearable heat of the desert. She ended up dozing off in the Blade’s arms, missing almost their entire walk to their accommodation. When she did wake up, it was when she was placed onto her bed for the night, as Pyra looked down at her with concern by Nia’s side.

“Pyra…” she mumbled out. “Nia. Where are we?”

“We’re back in Folmarie Inn now,” Pyra answered warmly. “Nia and Dromarch have done a wonderful job healing you and your friends up, but I’m sure you all still need the rest.”

“Yeah… You’re probably right.”

There was a brief silence between the three of them before Nia spoke up, looking a bit uncomfortable despite the familiar company. “Hey, Pyra? Do you mind if I speak to Mio alone for a minute? There’s something I’ve gotta ask her, but I’ll let her get right to bed after that.”

The request definitely confused Pyra, but she still saw no reason not to acquiesce. “Uh, sure. I’ll get out of your hair then.”

Nia responded with a quiet thanks, which Mio somewhat emulated, albeit much more tired sounding. When she was sure the coast was clear, Nia let out a sigh and explained herself.

“Mio, do you… remember what happened?”

The tired soldier responded with a confirmatory hum once more.

“I thought so… Look, I know it’s a lot to ask of you, but I need you to keep what you saw a secret. I don’t want…”

Hearing her friend trail off, Mio finished the thought for her. “You don’t want anyone else to know you’re a Flesh Eater, right?”

The accurate assumption made Nia frown unwillingly. “That obvious, huh?”

She received a single quiet chuckle from Mio in answer. “You were… more than a little transparent when it came to telling me about them, but that was the only hint I got. I wasn’t expecting the complete transformation, though - I can only half remember what it even looked like.”

Her secret laid bare, Nia was slow to speak up again. When she did, there was a sad desperation in her voice, her ears flattened against her head.

“Please, Mio. I just… I can’t have anyone else find out! If word gets out, and the Praetorium learns about what I am, I’ll-”

As her voice continued to heighten, and tears welled in her eyes, Nia was cut off by a pair of hands holding her own. Even as tired as she was, Mio was determined to calm her down… to give her the same reassurance that Nia had previously given to her.

“It’s okay, Nia. I won’t tell a soul. After all, you've saved me plenty already - now it’s my turn to protect you.”

Nia didn’t know what to say to answer her. It was an almost careless level of trust that they’d placed in each other, and yet she knew Mio was telling the truth - and not out of fear, either. She almost felt jealous of her willpower in the face of it all, where Nia had become frightened of showing her true face to anyone. Then again, something about Mio kept pushing her to be better, something she still couldn’t explain… Maybe she was just projecting onto the girl who looked so much like her.

Though Mio was content to just meet her eyes briefly, she suddenly changed course upon remembering something else. “Oh, right. To be perfectly honest with you Nia, though I do promise not to tell another soul about your secret unless you want me to… I think Sena already knows. Might be kind of good for you to know each other more, actually… And, well, I doubt telling Nimue would matter much either…”

“Hey!” Nia scoffed jokingly at the change of heart. “What’s that even s’posed to mean?! Aw, bloody hell… So much for discretion, eh?”

Mio considered explaining herself, but her train of thought was interrupted by her own yawn.

“Okay, never mind. You rest now, okay? I may be a miracle worker, but I can’t replace a good night’s sleep.”

Even as she told her, Mio’s eyelids started to close themselves unwillingly, signalling an early end to their conversation. 

“Yeah… you’re right… Goodnight, Mam…”

In her exhaustion, she missed Nia’s eyes widening in surprise.

~~~

Mio wasn’t sure if she had previously believed what Manana had told her about dreams, but on this night, the strange vision she was having quickly quashed her doubts. It didn’t take long for her to give up on its disparate parts having any real connective tissue, but that brought her no closer to understanding any of them - if anything, it obfuscated them even more.

When she first began dreaming, she opened her eyes to a burning City. Even in the unbearable heat, she was hesitant at first to name it so, but the architecture was more familiar to her than Torigoth or Fonsa Myma ever were; there could only be one explanation in such a case. Still, the revelation was not a kind one, as her brief exposure to the City of old had been the memory of M’s fate becoming sealed forevermore, forced into the fold of Moebius by N’s hand. 

However, as heartless as the dream was for showing the devastation, it was also equally as inexplicable. Aionios was gone, and N and M both had given their lives to end it - what more closure could seeing this scene once more give her? There was only one way to find out, but it brought Mio no joy to walk through the ruins of everything she’d… M had ever held dear.

As her hazy memories had predicted, in the scorched ruins of the square where children once played stood N, facing away from her in his Moebius armour. Approaching him slowly, she brought herself to his side, where Mio could see how Noah’s blue eyes had grown dim in the face of his regrets. Steeling herself, she gave him the same demand M once had.

“Noah. Tell me… Tell me why.”

But as he turned to face her slowly, N didn’t respond in the same way he once had. Failing to even answer her question, and in a voice not his own, his response felt completely out of place.

“I… I thought you were dead! I’m so glad… I was so sure you’d… I thought I’d really lost you for good this time!”

As his strange words concluded, the world shifted, and he was no longer N. At first, Mio assumed him to have simply returned to the appearance of Noah, but a longer inspection revealed that despite his black ponytail and similarly blue eyes, the man before her was someone else entirely. She supposed the scar above his left eye was a useful proof of that, though his outfit had also changed completely.

Not only was the person before her different, but the scene too. In the night atmosphere, she didn’t recognise the lake in front of her, nor the rock faces behind it. As she tried to piece together the absurdity in vain, the man suddenly laughed. It was a strange one - clearly humorous but mired in relief, and it did nothing to reassure her.

“What’s with that outfit, huh? Where’d you pick up a weird getup like…”

The comment only confused her further, but it did serve one purpose - she now recognised that she had donned M’s Moebius armour. She had never liked wearing it, so it was a reminder she’d rather have avoided, but one she could move past… After all, this was just a dream, right?

Whoever the man was, he took the moment to step closer towards her, only to stop in realisation of something. His once overjoyed face suddenly contorted to anger, heralding a very different tone of voice.

“Bastard…! That’s the reason for all this?!”

Confused as to his drastic change of tune, Mio turned behind her to see what he could possibly be referring to, and when she did, she caught a flash of a familiar colour… yet on an unfamiliar face. Their pale blue outfit, with flashes of red and orange, was unshakably similar to A’s, but without the Moebius helmet, Mio could see a head of long white hair and a face that appeared feminine. On their ear was a strange piece of orange jewellery, whose shape felt strangely familiar… and not just to A themselves.

Just as she made this observation, the figure suddenly changed appearance in a flash to the more familiar guise of A, Moebius-like armour and all, before disappearing entirely in a pillar of light. As they vanished, the scene changed once more, revealing both a strangely vibrant hill of green grass in the daytime, and a girl standing beneath a lone tree, facing away from her once more. Completely lost on what was occuring, Mio could only call out to the figure in confusion, unaware of who the long red ponytail even belonged to. 

As she turned to face her, however, Mio froze. At first, Mio believed her to be a strangely different Pyra, but a second glance at her exposed Core Crystal replaced that assertion with disbelief as she realised the emerald Crystal was not only complete, but did not even belong to the same Blade! Her face was remarkably similar, but more than just her hair was a subtly different colour; her eyes were too, their orange colour standing somewhere between Rex and Pyra’s.

That comparison quickly faded when she spoke.

“Wake up, smartass.”

The girl’s sudden demand and abrasive tone brought Mio out of her stunned silence, only to reply with a confused noise. “Eh?”

She sighed with frustration before she repeated herself. “I said-”

“-wake up, Mio!”

Jolted awake by the desperate shout, Mio shot up in bed, not feeling anywhere near as rested as she’d like. “Huh?! Nia?”

Sure enough, Nia was with her again, but where she’d previously quelled her anxiety about her secret, a new desperation had appeared on her face. Mio had no idea what was going on, so she waited for Nia to explain it… unaware of just how bad things had quickly gotten.

“Pyra’s missing,” Nia began frantically, “and they’ve taken Iona! We need to go after them!”

“Missing?!” Mio repeated in disbelief. “And who’s taken her?!”

“It’s Torna, the bastards! Malos and Akhos paid Cole a visit, and now Iona’s gone - it can only be them!”

Mio had briefly wondered if Teach had returned to take a much more diabolical approach to his mission, which had already worried her plenty, but the truth was much worse. Torna had been a frustrating obstacle last time, but now a third member had joined them… one that had fought neck and neck with Pyra and Rex together. Sure, their numbers were larger, but she didn’t doubt that Cammuravi was still present - and worse still, she wasn’t even 100% after her last scuffle.

“Sparks,” Mio cursed, trying to shake off her grogginess. “Do we know where they went?”

“Cole believes they went to Olethro Ruins, at the top of the Great Staircase,” Nia remembered, before stopping herself. “Bloody hell, I’ve gotten ahead of myself; Are you okay to fight? Sena’s up and about, but if you’re still recovering…”

Sitting upright on the bed, Mio considered the question honestly. She wasn’t lying to herself earlier - she hadn’t recovered her energy completely. But if it took all her energy to stop the wrath of Torna… they’d probably already lost.

“I’ll be fine,” she resolved. “I’m not completely rested, but I have enough in my tank - We can do it.”

“As long as you’re sure. You better get up then - we’re about to head out.”

Prompted by the frenetic energy of the whole group preparing themselves as swiftly as they could, Mio did just that. But as she exited the Inn to meet the others, she noticed that there were a couple of absentees in their lineup. Nia, Sena, Rex, Vandham, Roc, Tora, Poppi and Dromarch met her outside, so that left just one combatant missing.

“Where’s Nimue?” she asked Sena as she approached.

“Still asleep,” her friend explained. “Seems that not being Ouroboros and not having her Driver took a lot out of her compared to us. Hopefully she’s okay - Manana’s with her in case of an emergency.”

Mio sighed with a light relief at that answer. “That’s good, at least - Gives us one less thing to worry about.”

“Yeah…”

Mio was glad that at least something was planned around tonight - if Taion were here, she wasn’t sure how he’d react to the cascade of unplanned misfortunes. Though the mental image brought her some humour, the small bit of good news didn’t have long to sit before Vandham rallied them all together to leave.

“Alright then, let's move! We’ve got an Aegis to find, and a girl to save!”

“Right!” Rex eagerly agreed.

Their course plotted, the rescue party headed for the Great Stairway in hopes they weren’t too late. Heading up flights of stairs, past the Mymoma Playhouse where Cole led his troupe, and past the Uraya Merc Barracks, they finally found themselves back in the Sevind Palace Plaza. Turning to their right to look through the titanic Holy Gate of Fontana, they gazed at the Great Staircase rising behind it, and Mio wondered internally just how long it’d take to reach the top.

“Don’t think twice about it,” Roc reassured her, seeing the doubt on her face. “Just go as quick as you can.”

Nodding in agreement, Mio began to scale the stairway by Roc’s side, quickly catching up to Sena and Rex at the front of the pack. But though the first portion was quickly scaled, and Mio could see the night sky at the end of the second, Rex suddenly stopped at the landing between them, grimacing and holding his shoulder.

“Rex!” Gramps called in concern, still sitting in his grandson’s helmet even now.

“I’m okay,” Rex reassured through gritted teeth. “But Pyra’s fighting alone! She’s close though… really close!”

“Then let’s go!” Sena encouraged. “We’ve got some butts to kick!”

“Yeah! Come on!”

Surging up the remaining stairs with renewed determination, they arrived in the ruins just in time to hear the noise of battle ahead. An unfamiliar male voice chided someone for underestimating them before Mio heard an explosion of Ether, and as they all finally spotted the conflict, the same voice talked down to their victim once more.

“You can’t beat me like that!”

The man, who must have been Malos, looked to Pyra with disappointment, but his confidence in his skills received an abrupt introduction. Emboldened by seeing Pyra again, Rex ran to meet him, turning his derision backwards.

“But maybe I can!”

Slashing from above with Pyra’s sword, Rex went directly for Torna’s supposed most dangerous. Shocked, Malos could only exclaim at his appearance.

“The kid?!”

Though Malos hadn’t gotten into a defensive position fast enough, his Blade picked up the slack. Sever, if Mio remembered correctly, had come in to block the strike with a barrier of his own, pushing Rex back to Pyra’s side. Seeing her Driver come to her sudden rescue, she looked incredibly relieved - and that only increased as the rest of them surged into the Olethro Playhouse.

“Rex! Everyone!”

“Vandham!” Rex directed, turning his attention to the mercenary in the stands. “Take Iona! We’ll take care of these guys!”

“Gotcha,” Vandham quickly agreed, taking the young girl in his arms and retreating as Roc kept him safe.

As expected, ‘these guys’ turned out to be Malos and his Blade Sever, Akhos and his Blade Obrona… and Cammuravi, his face as stoic as ever.

“Well, if needs must…” Akhos reluctantly accepted, clearly playing up his displeasure. “Cammuravi, show them your true strength. And Obrona… do them in.”

Cammuravi jumped to meet Malos in the centre, though he maintained a stiff frown as he did, while Obrona agreed gleefully.

“Thought you’d never ask!”

And so the stage was set; Malos, Akhos and Cammuravi versus Rex, Nia, Tora and Mio. 3 Drivers and Blades versus 4. There was a brief and tense quiet, where none dared move, before…

“Raagh!”

…Malos surged forward, his sword-tonfa Blade weapon meeting Rex’s sword in strained resistance. Pyra was quick to push him away, but as the trigger had been pulled, the rest of them were quick to follow up that action. Cammuravi made to strike at Nia, only to meet Poppi and Tora’s barrier, while Mio took the initiative and lunged towards Akhos.

“Well, look who it is…” the pompous Driver taunted as he weaved away from her attack, “The doppelganger herself. You know, I didn’t even give you a particularly good look last time, but you really do look alike… almost too alike.”

“Oh, shove it!” Mio retorted. “What does that matter?!”

“And the same temper, too! Will wonders never cease?”

Mio answered him with a heavy strike to the floor, which forced him to jump backwards from the hammer. He gave her a smug glance as he did, which briefly confused her until Cammuravi jabbed in to stop any follow ups, very nearly burning her with the sudden attack. Stepping backwards just in time, she batted the spear away, before she was forced to step aside to avoid a strong thrust. Taking advantage of his overstep, Mio struck the warrior with her hammer, finally getting her some space.

Unfortunately, Akhos was keen to change that. Letting Cammuravi’s brief distraction play out, the moment his ally was knocked backwards he returned to the fray. Slashing downwards with both of his blades, Mio was forced to block the assault with the hilt of the Meteor Smasher, her hands on either end of the weapon.

“Come now, Mio…” Akhos chastised, slowly separating his blades outwards towards her hands. “That wasn’t very smart.”

Mio strained against the force, but didn’t back down. “Was it not? I think you’ll find…”

Pushing the two ends of the shaft together, she retracted the hammer’s handle and dropped the weapon, leaving Sena to pick up the ball end… or rather, to kick the ball end into Akhos, knocking it into his side for a hefty blow at the cost of her foot.

“We’ve got plenty of tricks!” Sena finished, quickly grabbing her weapon out of the air and extending its handle.

Eager to capitalise, she wreathed the head of the hammer in flame and swung… only to meet the defence of Obrona.

“Don’t forget me, heehee!” she taunted, pushing Sena backwards enough for Akhos to resume his assault.

“Agh, I wish I could forget you!”

“Focus, Sena!” Mio reminded her, taking the opportunity to take the Meteor Smasher back and bat one of the swords away. “Don’t let her get to you!”

“Hey, I’ve barely said anything!” Obrona argued in offence. 

“And I’d rather it stayed that way!”

After a few experimental cuts onto Mio’s guard, Akhos slowly figured out her and Sena’s recurrent weakness. Though he’d allowed her a few ripostes earlier in his assault, as the fight went longer, his strikes came quicker and quicker, forcing more dodging from the Driver and blocking from the Blade. Weighed down as always, Mio took a cut or two, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle, largely thanks to Nia and Dromarch sustaining the party.

But the status quo couldn’t last forever. Aware of their forced responses, Akhos suddenly changed his tune and delayed his strikes. Sena, believing the attack would come sooner, overcommitted to her guard, giving him plenty of time to dodge right and attack her with proper strength.

“Not good enough!” Akhos judged, as the ‘Blade’ was knocked to the floor.

Mio was quick to exclaim her friend’s name in horror, but she couldn’t face away from her attacker for even a second. Clearly wanting to make the most of it, he ran back towards the Driver and readied himself for a clean slice, one that would be much harder to block without Sena’s help. Almost dropping the hammer in order to not encumber herself further, her silent plea was thankfully answered by the sudden appearance of her Artificial Blade friend.

“Poppi, Tora!” Mio quickly acknowledged, as the young Nopon also ran over to fend Akhos off. “Thanks for the save!”

“Friend is welcome!” Poppi said back, before stepping away to let her Driver strike forward. “But skill is needed elsewhere!”

“What do you mean?”

“Rex Rex in trouble!” Tora explained. “Too much for Tora to help, but Tora knows Friends Mio and Sena can do it!”

Sure enough, as Mio turned to see how the rest of their allies were faring, she spotted Nia holding her own against Cammuravi… and Rex struggling against Malos’s strength. 

Sena, who had just gotten back to her feet, was quick to agree to the challenge. “Okay, leave it to us!”

With their new objective set, Mio had one quick idea for the response. Giving the Meteor Smasher to its creator, she gave Sena a nod of confirmation before her friend began charging the hammerhead with flames once more. Intensifying them much more this time, the ball-shaped end was soon a searing fireball, and once it was, she made an upward flipping motion with the weapon. 

As she did, she detached the head from the handle, leaving the flames careening through the air. Readying herself like a batter at home base with the handle, Sena got ready to give the hit of her life.

“Here we go! Demon Punisher!”

Striking true with the handle, the fireball was launched directly at the distracted Malos, and he could barely even acknowledge its existence before it blew up in his face, knocking both himself and Sever backwards. Rex and Pyra, just as surprised as Malos was, turned to see Mio and Sena running over with a regenerated hammer and looked sincerely thankful - it was clear they’d been having a rough go of it, even with Nia’s assistance. Unfortunately, the recovered Malos was not so grateful.

“So another brat thinks she can step up, huh?” he growled. “Fine by me. Let’s see what the lookalike’s got!”

With Sever urging him on, and his sword-tonfa at the ready, Malos charged forward. Immediately striking out with an uppercut, Mio parried the blow as best she could, before stepping around him to avoid a straight punch forward. She was not quite as prepared for his next attack, a powerful overhead strike that she had to strain against above her head.

Fortunately, she was not alone in this fight. Seizing the opportunity for a distraction, Rex quickly slung a wave of fire Malos’s way, forcing him to disengage from the clash. Rex continued that assault with two slashes of his own, though after Malos parried both he was quick to push the kid away with a kick. As he did, Mio attempted to strike his vulnerable back… but her hammer met Sever’s barrier.

“Not sssso fast, girl!” he taunted. “You can take a swing at Malos when he’s actually looking at you!”

Sure enough, Malos quickly turned around, attacking from his position behind Sever just in time for the barrier to fall away. With her weapon still out of position, Mio dodged his first strike, but once the second one came she swung her own weapon to meet it in a clash. 

“I thought you were nothing special, but Cammuravi wasn’t kidding…” Malos mused as their weapons locked in place. “You really don’t fight like the rest of them.”

“I could say the same about you,” Mio returned. “What’s your deal? Are you just doing this for fun?!”

“Well, I am having fun… but that’s not my reason. And it’s definitely not Jin’s.”

Finally pushing their weapons apart, Mio gave one last powerful swing to force Malos away. But as she did, she remembered how Pyra had spoken of him and frowned.

“So you’re not the leader of Torna, then.”

Malos couldn’t help but laugh at her blaise deduction. “Oh, kid… if only you knew how funny you were. And as much as I’d like to tell you more, I don’t think Akhos wants to fall behind schedule. Right?”

With a lazy tilt of his head towards his compatriot, who had just pushed Nia and Dromarch away from him, it seemed that the message was received. Subtly smiling as he pushed up his glasses, Akhos couldn’t help but indulge in the theatrics.

“Well, I must admit I’ve enjoyed playing my part in this hackneyed tale, but…”

Obrona finished his sentence gleefully as she flew into the air. “Teeheehee! Time for the final act?”

Reaching her apex, red wisps of Ether around her briefly coalesced as she gathered power. After a second of charging up for something, Obrona released a red field filled with those same crimson motes, so similar to those the fallen soldiers of Aionios once released. Though Mio braced herself against it, the field didn’t hurt her… but it still felt strange.

Sena grimaced as she felt the same effects. “Mio, something’s off…”

“Yeah,” she agreed. “But I don’t know what…”

Unfortunately the inexperienced Rex, without the same level of Ether sensitivity, was not phased. “Uh? You’re bluffing!”

Seeing Akhos stand unflinching, with no defence from Obrona to be seen, he rushed the Torna Driver in hope of stopping whatever he was doing. Though Pyra desperately shouted to try and stop him, he did not heed her words. Not moving from his spot, Akhos simply smirked as he approached… before catching Pyra’s sword in his hand.

“What?!” Rex exclaimed, looking at his foe in confusion as he pushed up his glasses.

“You see, Blades draw their power from atmospheric Ether energy,” he explained condescendingly. “They send that power to their Crystal, where it manifests in their weapons. But… what if we were to interrupt the flow?!”

As Akhos made a closed fist, the connection between Driver and Blade severed. Pyra’s sword, once burning with the Aegis’s power, struggled to stay alive as the golden thread between its creator and wielder dissipated. As it did, Mio stared down at Sena’s own weapon to see the power dimming in it too.

“Sena, your hammer!” she exclaimed in desperation.

Her friend could only shake her head. “I can’t! My power isn’t being sent to it!”

“Mudders… This isn’t good!”

While Dromarch and Poppi realised much the same thing, Malos and Cammuravi took the opportunity to attack the trio of Drivers and Blades. Shooting off two arcs of wind Ether towards Mio and Sena, Malos blew the duo backwards towards the stands, while the Crimson Lotus stuck his lance into the ruins floor to create an eruption of fire next to Tora and Nia. The explosion of power sent both of the Drivers and their Blades tumbling backwards towards the stands.

“Empyrean Salvo!”

As they struggled to their feet, Rex finally freed his weapon from Akhos’s clutches, stumbling backwards as he did. Pyra could only watch on as he grimaced at his foe, unable to understand their reasons for hurting others.

“Why won’t you leave Pyra alone?!”

Akhos scoffed as if he should have already known, slowly advancing on the Aegis’s Driver. “Isn’t it obvious? We want the power of the Aegis for ourselves! It’s Jin’s desire… to erase all of humankind from the world.”

“What?!” Nia exclaimed quietly as she returned to her feet. Receiving no answer to her confusion, she dashed forward to intercept Akhos’s next attack, intent on forcing him to tell her the truth.

“Did Jin… seriously say that?” she questioned as they traded blows on their weapons. “Erase all of humankind?”

Her former ally couldn’t believe her reluctance, raising an eyebrow as he lazily deflected her strikes. “My, my. Surely you knew, better than anyone. You know what humans are really like!”

Mio gritted her teeth at the implication, now well aware of what Nia really was. The moment the words left Akhos’s mouth, her friend froze up, standing still before her opponent with only a grunt to show for it. As he sharpened his blades on one another and walked forward, she could certainly guess his next course… and how she had to stop it.

“Nia, what are you doing?!” Mio admonished as she rushed in to parry Akhos’s downward strike.

Akhos did not take the interruption as anything other than a cue to continue his script, standing before them both and posturing. “You’ve seen the capital. You’ve seen the ships, weapons, soldiers… All poised to invade Mor Ardain. Doesn’t it just make you want to laugh? Every corner of the world is defiled by such vermin.”

The moment he finished his speech, Cammuravi returned to take Mio on, his spear barely intercepted by Sena’s return. As Mio and Sena both were forced to back away from the Seraph’s assault, Mio finally noticed Malos returning his attention to Rex and Pyra, just in time for him to continue what Akhos started.

“But that’s nothing new,” he recalled, as if what he’d said was an old truth. “They haven't changed a bit in 500 years! No wonder Father abandoned them!”

Father? Wait-

Mio did not get to finish her thought before Cammuravi thrust forward once more, knocking her down. Sena, still standing despite his assault, found herself unable to understand how their old friend could be furthering such a goal.

“Cammuravi…” she gasped softly. “You don’t really…”

The Smouldering did not play pretend at remorse as he suddenly responded. “I told you already, didn’t I? This world does not deserve my Way - its people do not deserve their wretched lives. That is the truth I have learned.”

“Why? Why would you…”

Mio couldn’t help but concur with Sena’s horror, still no closer to understanding what had gone wrong. But as they stood against Cammuravi, Pyra forced herself to stay strong as Rex breathed heavily behind her.

“No,” she rebuked. “The only thing that hasn’t changed is you. Father didn’t want us to wipe out innocent life!”

“Why did he make us then?” Malos countered. “Get real! That’s what we’re for - to descend on the world and eliminate these pests!”

As he firmly enunciated his role, or rather, their role, he began emitting a dark power that soon erupted into the night sky in a violet flame. Standing within it, staring the Aegis down, Mio could only remark on how familiar Malos felt… to Moebius.

“Wait, that power…” she muttered. “Why does it feel like-”

“Playtime’s over,” Malos declared, cutting off any further discussion. “Let’s end it! Akhos, Cammuravi!”

Raising his swords in preparation, Akhos grinned. “Agreed!”

Cammuravi only nodded solemnly. 

What followed that… it could only be described as a firm dismantling. Malos’s first strike imbued with new power was enough to knock Pyra and Rex into the stands, despite the Blade’s barrier. Tora and Poppi’s valiant attempt at a reversal was blocked by Sever, in short order sending them too into the stands and leaving Poppi sparking. Nia found herself the victim of Akhos, and though Dromarch attempted to protect her, he only delayed the inevitable - before long Obrona had come to intercept any escape, kicking her to the floor. 

Sena, seeing the carnage, eagerly attempted to defend Mio. But without access to the Ether in the air, or Mio’s support, she was no match for Cammuravi. Though her barrier briefly held, Mio couldn’t arrive in time before Sena found herself sent to the ground by his spear. Once Rex returned to his feet, and witnessed how his friends had fallen helplessly, he continued to try and fight against Torna’s legion. But as Gramps quickly warned, he had no chance against Sever, leaving him on the ground… and Pyra alone. Though she began to run towards him, Malos was there before she had a chance, winding her in one strike.

“Hmph,” Malos grunted in amusement. “Hitting girls isn’t as much fun…”

Seeing Cammuravi standing over Sena, Akhos and Obrona looming over the weakened Tora, Poppi, Nia and Dromarch, and Malos just beside Pyra as Sever made sure Rex didn’t interfere, Mio looked to only see one Driver unrestrained. Above them, still in the seats of the amphitheatre, Vandham stood with Roc, watching the proceedings with horror. He looked about ready to rush in and be a hero… If Mio wasn’t here, she could imagine he already would have done so.

And yet… something about this whole thing felt wrong to her. This situation, a hopeless fight against enemies Mio had never seen the likes of, with a Vandham ready to likely sacrifice himself to save them… it was like nothing had changed since she’d been an Offseer in the Agnus military. But more than that, she felt like she should be remembering something…

“The Vandham name, and those that bear it, have a deep meaning for me. In the past, I… we… were saved by a man named Vandham. It’s no exaggeration to say that, without him, there would be no me.”

Mio’s eyes widened in realisation. The Queen… what she had spoken of sounded so much like this exact moment. And yet, if she had… Mio couldn’t help but believe it would end in tragedy. There had to be something she could do, but it had to be something other than an Interlink - she still hadn’t been able to contact Noah. She needed more time… and there was only one way she could think of. It was a power she didn’t fully understand anymore, but she had no choice.

“You…” Mio spat, her resolve clear as she stood tall. “You’re not getting away with this!”

Dropping Sena’s hammer and concentrating, Mio gathered power within her. But the power she brought to bear… it was not the same Ether that Blades transferred. Fuelled by her connection to Noah, as she desperately called for his aid, Mio began to draw from the power of Ouroboros in a new form… a form that was strangely dark.

“The lookalike?” Malos scoffed, tilting his head at her show. “What are you trying to do, huh?”

Mio didn’t answer him with anything but a glare. Instead, she continued to draw her power, as the Ether eventually coalesced into a shadowy sphere around her. The surge of energy created a barrier that repelled the neutralising effect of Obrona’s power … giving Mio all the strength she needed.

“Akhos!” the Blade suddenly called. “She’s somehow resisting me! I can’t cut her off!”

“What?!” Akhos exclaimed. “Malos-”

He didn’t have to be told twice. “I’ve got it! Come here, you little- What?!”

In his eagerness, Malos must have assumed her to be a sitting duck. But when he slashed in with Sever’s weapon, he met Mio’s own Sundancers, easily blocking the lazy attack.

“You believed I was helpless?” she chastised. “And yet you still aimed to cut me down?” Pushing him away from her, Mio gave the supposed Driver a look of pure disdain. “What a farce. Your superiority is as hollow as your heart.”

“Heh… Guess I’ll give you that one, girl. Still, it seems you were something special after all! I wonder what we’d find underneath that jacket, huh?”

Though his glare gave her pause, Mio let her bravado carry her on. “It doesn’t matter for what comes next. In mere moments, you will all be nothing!”

“Oh ho ho!” Akhos laughed. “A real threat! You’re not a bad actor, you know… But you’re not perfect by a long shot.”

Mio grimaced at his assessment, but it did not truly give her pause. Seeing her glare back at him, Akhos raised an eyebrow and tilted his head towards Malos, who couldn’t help but laugh.

“You know, the funny thing is…” he began, “I think you’re telling the truth, Mio. You really do have a big, bad ace up your sleeve. But I don’t think it’s anywhere near ready yet. And if it's not… then what comes next is obvious!”

Malos’s declaration shortly precluded Akhos rushing at her, giving Mio barely enough time to catch Obrona’s brilliant twinblades with her Sundancers, forcing her to block and weave his attacks before pushing him away briefly… Only to have to block Cammuravi’s spear next. Pushed onto the back foot, Rex tried to push himself to his feet to help her only to fall back onto his knees as he called her name.

“Mio!”

His shout made Mio turn to him briefly, before rolling away from Cammuravi’s thrust and striking her foe.

“Rex, run!” she shouted back at him, unable to give him attention for more than a second before Akhos returned. “Take Pyra and get out of here!”

Still struggling to his feet, balancing on his sword without Sever or Malos’s surveillance, Rex refused to give up. “I can’t just leave you here-”

“You can and you will! When I get through to him, this will all be over, but I need everyone to get out of here first! Understood?!”

Roc, who was still on the fringe of the fight with Vandham, finally realised her intentions. “Mio, wait! You don’t seriously expect us all to let you take them on alone!”

Hearing the Blade’s refusal, she turned her attention to them and their Driver with a grim determination in her eyes. “We don’t have time to argue! You and Vandham have to get the others out of here! You all have to make it!”

“And you don’t?!” Vandham contended incredulously.

“Rex, Pyra, Nia… They all need to make it to Elysium, and you’re the best chance they have! As for me… Well, I’m already running on borrowed time, aren’t I? It’s for the best that I’m the one who takes this chance.”

“We won’t allow it!”

Her sad resolution was quickly interrupted by Akhos cutting her side. Holding out despite the pain, she managed to stop him from hurting her a second time by throwing her Sundancer at him, but someone else came to knock him further away from her.

“Mimi, no!”

Her immediate threat forced away, Sena stood panting by her side, her hammer back in her hands. 

Grateful yet undeterred, Mio turned to her sternly. “That means you too, Sena! I know what you’re going to say, but you just need to go!”

“Don’t you dare say that!” Sena desperately cried. “You’re not… we’re not living with 10 years anymore! You don’t need to do this!”

“She’s right, you know,” Akhos agreed condescendingly, oblivious to their context. “Is saving the Aegis really worth giving your life away? Is this world, that so assuredly despises your very existence, worth dying for?!”

Mio scoffed at his rhetoric. “I’m not giving my life away for hers. I’m fighting so that hope can live on, against your single-minded despair! Even from what little I’ve seen of this world, I know, without a doubt… It doesn’t deserve to die just because you said so!”

Noah, come on! she called desperately, her power failing from strain. Please, I need your help!

Watching from the sidelines as Mio and Sena fought frantically against Akhos and Cammuravi, and noticing her weakening aura, Malos could only laugh. There was a hint of respect in his tone, but underneath it was pity… Pity for her fate.

“You’re quite the stubborn one, aren’t you?” he mused. “And so very naive to the scum of this world. It’s been fun, kid, but either way… I think we’ve had enough of your games.”

On his command, Sever suddenly rushed at Sena, overwhelming her already strained guard against Cammuravi. Mio called her name as she tumbled away, but in that moment of hesitation she couldn't concentrate on Malos’s own gathering Ether. All too late, she saw the darkness growing in Malos’s hands as he surged towards her, her fate sealed in his eyes.

“Goodbye, Mio!”

As he gave one last battle cry, time seemed to slow down around them. Rex and Sena shouted after her in desperation, and Mio called her partner’s name, but neither could see exactly what happened. In the contact between the two dark forces, a bright light consumed the Olethro Playhouse…

“Mio!”

“Mimi!”

“Noah!”

~~~

As the blinding light faded, Sena slowly opened her eyes. Pushing herself upright against Sever’s loosened grip, she turned her gaze towards where Mio and Malos had previously stood. Her weary eyes must have been failing her, because where she thought she was supposed to be, she only saw Malos.

W-where is she… Sena panicked internally. Surely I’ve just missed her. Y-yeah, I’ve just been knocked around a bit! I’m sure she’ll show up in her Ouroboros form any second now. All I have to do is close my eyes… Then open them, and…

Mio still wasn’t there.

No, no no no… she’s still here, she has to be! I just can’t feel her because… Because of Obrona! That’s why… why I can’t… Why can’t I…

Once more, Sena closed and opened her eyes. But no matter how hard she closed them, or how much she denied it, Mio still didn’t appear.

“Mimi… Mio, where are you? Please, I… You can stop hiding now! I… I need you to be here, okay?!... Mimi?”

But Mio didn’t answer. Mio was gone.

“No! Mimi! MIOOOOOO!!”

Unwilling to accept her friend’s death, Sena wailed into the night, unable to even see her friends’ grief-stricken faces. Her wracking sobs caught the attention of Akhos, who turned to her confusedly before making a callous realisation.

“You? Shouldn’t you be… Well I’ll be damned. You’re special too, who would’ve thought?”

Sena couldn’t even hear him over her despair. Malos, meanwhile, looked at his hands with surprise before laughing lightly.

“Huh… Guess I’ve got more power left in me than I realised. Now, where were we…”

But though the rest of her friends could only stand paralyzed, Rex suddenly rose to his feet. Rushing in desperation towards the man who had taken Mio from him, Rex screamed in anger at Malos, who didn’t flinch as he declared his righteous anger. Even as Pyra and Vandham told him they needed to go, he ran forward.

“You’re gonna pay for this! For Mio!”

Malos only smirked as he approached, before turning toward the Aegis’s driver. “Oh, how could I forget. It’s your turn, you little shit!”

Levelling the boy with a spinning kick that easily knocked him over, Malos looked down on Rex undaunted. The sound of the strike finally jerked Sena out of her misery, just in time to notice her friend’s murderer walk slowly towards him.

“Ugh…” Rex coughed as he forced himself upright. “I can’t… do it…”

Unable to make herself stand alone, Sena could only watch in horror as he rose in shaky resistance, clearly unable to stop the madman’s crusade. Yet, despite it all, he refused to give up, crying out in defiance.

“I can’t let you do this!”

But though he stood in the face of his enemy, Rex was in no position to stop him. As Malos raised the tonfa above his head and readied another killing blow, Sena made one last desperate plea.

“Lanz… please. I don’t know where you are, but I need you! I need you to help me save them!”

Malos didn’t hear her. Without fear of repercussions, he farewelled the brat that had somehow managed to give him so much trouble in his goals. As he did, two souls, watching helplessly, gave one last plea to save Rex.

“So long, kid!”

“Reeeeex!!!”

“Laaanz!!!”

As two lights suddenly grew in the ruins, time seemed to stand still once more. In an instant, Pyra had changed into something else entirely… But as she did, Sena, too, changed. Taking on a monstrous yet familiar form, Lanz by her side, Sena stood tall above Sever with nothing but hatred for the man threatening Rex.

Sena?! Lanz suddenly exclaimed from their shared mind. What the spark is going on?!

Sena answered by grabbing Sever by the neck, the Blade thrashing about in shock. Though he struck at her arms to try and release himself, she did not budge.

We’re here to take revenge, she revealed. To give these mudders what they deserve.

As she stood in stewing fury, Torna noticed both of the new presences on the battlefield. Akhos, looking at Mythra incredulously, was none too happy with the intrusion, rushing at the transformed Aegis to silence her. But just as her radiating power suggested, Obrona’s power had no effect on her - launching spears of Ether from above, she quickly countered his doomed offensive.

Malos, meanwhile, reacted to Pyra’s sudden awakening as if she was an old friend. “You awoke, at last! Mythra!”

“Mythra?” Rex repeated confusedly. “Pyra, you’re…”

The Aegis shook her head. “I am not Pyra.”

“Huh?”

“I am Mythra. Pyra… she’s a different self that I constructed.”

The sudden name change made Sena cock her head, taking no notice of the still thrashing Sever in her grip. She could tell Lanz had much else he wanted to say, in response to a very unfamiliar situation, though he seemed to understand that questions could be saved for later. But while Lanz stayed quiet, the rest of Torna finally gave their attention to their Interlinked form and collectively paled.

“How did you…” Cammuravi mumbled out, unable to process what he was even looking at. 

“And what the hell is this?” Malos guffawed. “You were supposed to return to your Core Crystal, not turn into a-”

Sena interrupted his frivolous words by throwing Sever back at him, winding him and almost knocking him off the ruins.

“You…” Akhos grimaced. “What are you?!”

“All that matters is that we’re the ones who are gonna take you all down!” Lanz offered, sensing her fury. “Let’s go!”

Turning her wings into her Ouroboros hammer, Sena sped towards Akhos, Obronra and Cammuravi, and leapt into the sky. Realising just what they were in for, they quickly rushed to scatter from their collected position, barely evading the devastating blow with their lives. The Ruins were not so lucky - the overhang she struck quickly crumbled and fell into the Cloud Sea, destroying about half of the floor.

“Okay, that’s enough of that!” Malos shouted in frustration. “Cammuravi, you deal with that thing! Akhos, you’re with me!”

“Of course,” the other Driver agreed, eager to avoid whatever he was looking at for now. “We have an Aegis to skewer!”

Cammuravi didn’t look particularly pleased at the assignment, though he didn’t complain out loud. But that was okay; Sena had plenty to work through on her own. Stomping towards the man, Blade, whatever he was, she chuckled darkly to herself at the way the Smouldering general of Agnus shuffled backwards in fear. Lanz did not share her amusement.

“Why?!” he demanded, pointing his forward to try and keep her at bay. “Why do you look at me with such monstrous eyes?!”

His stupid question made her laugh again. He cowered away from the monster, horrified.

“Well, it’s just the darndest thing,” she began, her voice a strained mimicry of happiness. “I think there’s a time where I would have called you a friend. But there’s no room for you in my heart anymore… not since you tore it in HALF!”

In a blink, she surged towards the traitor, grabbing him by the chest and throwing him across the arena. Though she attempted to immediately crush him with her hammer, she found her partner resisting her desire.

Lanz! she shouted at her friend, her anger boiling over. Why are you stopping me?!

Because that’s Cammuravi, you tirkinhead! he reprimanded. I don’t know why you’re fighting him, but you don’t need to kill him!

Yes, I do! They all need to pay… to die for killing her!

Killing her? Killing who?!

“MIO!”

Her furious revelation, shouted out loud as she finally regained control, was enough to stun Lanz to silence. As her wings once again became her Ouroboros hammer, she began to walk towards the battered traitor…

“No! Cammuravi!”

…only to find a sudden pain in her neck. Well, it didn’t hurt much at all, but it did cut through most of her Interlinked form’s neck. Grunting in amusement, she redirected her eyes towards her attacker to find Akhos, his twinblades firmly wedged in the wound, and watched as he paled.

“What a mudder...” Sena grumbled, returning her hammer to wings and grabbing him with her right hand.

As he struggled in her grip, the pain in the neck became too annoying for her, and so she finished the job, ripping her head from her shoulders. Akhos blanched further, looking as if he was ready to throw up, but that disgust quickly became fear as her head regrew, new eyes staring at him with contempt.

“Well, I guess we can leave the traitor for later. If you’re so eager, I’ll get even with you right now… by taking your friend’s life, right before your eyes. Then you can see what it’s like.”

Realisation dawning on his face, Akhos cried desperately to his Blade. “Obrona, run! Get away from her before she- Agh!”

Tightening her grip to shut him up, Sena opted to replace holding him with her hands with holding him one of her wings. Making sure it was more than tight enough, she returned her attention to the little Blade that he seemed so attached to. But he didn’t deserve her. Not if Mio was gone.

Sena…

Ignoring the mournful sentiment of Lanz in her head, she stared at Obrona in absolute disgust.

“If it hadn’t been for you…” Sena growled, “if it wasn’t for your stupid little ability… Mio wouldn't be dead. Do you know what that means?”

Obrona whimpered something, but Sena didn’t bother to hear it.

“That’s right! You’re going to die.”

“No!” Akhos pleaded from his prison. “Please, you don’t have to-”

Crushing him just a little harder, Sena disregarded his appeal. “You didn’t have to kill Mio, either, but you did! And now you’re going to pay for it!”

Stomping towards her, Sena paid no heed to Obrona’s desperate flurry of electric projectiles. The moment she realised she had no chance to stop the monster they’d unleashed, she turned to run - but Sena was faster. Before she could fly away, she grabbed the Blade’s wing like she were little more than a fly, pulling her sharply back towards her and making her cry out in pain. Replacing the somewhat weak grip with a proper one around the Blade’s waist, she briefly paused when she noticed her familiar horns… before tightening her grip.

“Akhos…!” Obrona cried out through her pain. “Please, tell me what I’m supposed to do!”

“I can’t…” her Driver sobbed. “I don’t know what to do! Nothing’s working!”

“What about… Malos? He has to… be able to do something!”

Sena chuckled humourlessly. “Well isn’t that cute. You actually pretend you’re a team! Too bad for you; Turns out your ‘friendship’ doesn’t mean shit, because none of you will be able to save her!”

She felt someone throw something at her. Whether it was Cammuravi or Malos, she didn’t give a damn. What mattered now was that Core in Obrona’s chest… and how Sena was going to relieve her of it. Ensuring she couldn’t thrash her body around with a tightened grip, she reached out towards the helpless Blade and dug her claws into her chest, pulling more and more until…

“Aaah! What… is this?! Akhos-”

“Nooo!”

…the blue Crystal was left in her hand, flickering out of its light as Obrona faded away. In her place, a cracked Core Crystal, dull and lifeless, was left in Sena’s hand. It was the only reminder that she’d ever been there at all… but that was still more than Mio had gotten.

“Obrona!”

Dropping the Core onto the ground and stomping on it to finish the job, Sena glanced towards her captive in her wing to see his response. As she had hoped, he was inconsolable, but… it didn’t satisfy her like she’d hoped. Tired of carrying around the despondent terrorist, she threw him to the floor too, stretching her wings out briefly before creating her hammer from them. As Sena stepped forward, however… Lanz stopped her again.

Lanz, I already told you-

That they need to pay? Lanz interrupted her. Yeah, I heard you the first time! But come on Sena, you know this isn’t right!

What isn’t right is that Mio is gone, Lanz! There’s not even a trace of her left here, not even a husk!

And I get that, okay?! I’m angry too, but killing them isn’t gonna bring her back! Wasn’t that our fight, to end the pointless violence? What does this prove?! That you could have saved her?!

What?! No, I… That’s not why-

“Well aren’t you three just a whole kettle of fish?”

Interjecting to their private conversation, Malos sounded half impressed and half frustrated. Sena made sure to glare at her friend’s murderer, and his Blade too for good measure, but neither Sever nor Malos flinched. As she stood menacingly, Akhos and Cammuravi formed up towards him, though it seems Akhos was only doing it for his own safety.

That did remind her, however… To her left, she found Rex still alive and well, and seemingly making great use of the new Aegis’s power. But they weren’t glowering towards their foe - they had both turned towards Sena. And while Mythra grimaced… Rex looked horrified.

“That’s enough,” Mythra suddenly declared. “Rex, let’s end this now.”

“…Huh?” her Driver eventually responded. “Oh, gotcha!”

Holding the new, white Aegis sword with one hand each and raising it towards the sky, they called together a single powerful attack… a rain of light, spearing whatever it could. Cammuravi protected Akhos as best as he could, though it was clear he wasn’t unscathed, while Sever used his barrier in front of Malos. But something about the attack got through the defence - after they had stopped, Sever too faded into a broken Core Crystal.

“Shit, you haven’t dulled any!” he cursed, seemingly uncaring for his partner in crime. “Cammuravi, Akhos, we gotta retreat!”

On his knees in despair, Akhos mourned what remained of his friend. “Obrona…”

“No time for that, Akhos!”

Unceremoniously, Malos punched the ground to create a cloud of dust. Suddenly aware of his intention, Sena tried to rush after him, but Lanz refused to let their feet move. Fighting against him with all her willpower, by the time she got herself to move, they had disappeared. Falling to her hands and knees on the edge of what remained of the Olethro Playhouse, with nothing left to do, and no-one else to take out her anger upon… Sena wailed into the night. 

She failed to notice Mythra transforming back into Pyra’s more familiar appearance, nor the way Rex’s friends slowly congregated around him, keeping their distance from her. She didn’t perceive anything at all… not until Roc appeared.

“Sena.”

Their familiar voice brought Sena out of her despair for a moment, just enough to force herself to look at them.

“I’m sorry, Sena… We weren’t able to save Mio. But still… you can’t let it consume you. I didn’t know Mio like you did, but I’m sure she wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself over her choice.”

“Her choice?” Sena choked out. “It wasn’t her choice to die! It wasn’t her decision for me to not- to- that I wasn’t strong enough!”

“You’re right. But she made the choice to save us from Malos, and that stands for something. Come back to us, Sena. Please.”

She didn’t know how to respond to him. In her silence, a familiar beeping began to flare up in her ears, and she knew what would come if she did nothing.

Hey, Sena, Lanz began, hiding his urgency the best he could. It’s not just me, or Mio - even without us, you still have people who care about you. You know that, right?

Y-yeah… Sena sniffled out.

Then you’ve got work to do. Let’s call it for now and meet up later, okay?

…Okay. See you, Lanzy.

Finally letting her partner go, she reverted from her Interlink, and the beeping stopped… leaving just Sena behind. No Mio, no Lanz… just her. Slowly getting up from her knees, she forced herself to turn towards Rex and the others, to see them crowd around Pyra’s unconscious form, only to find she wasn’t the only one crying. 

With the fighting over, Rex and Nia too realised the magnitude of what had occurred, and did their best to comfort each other with a despondent embrace. But when they turned to see Sena shuffle slowly towards them, with tears in her eyes, Nia was quick to let Rex go to rush towards her, pulling her into a hug.

“I’m sorry, Sena…” Nia apologised regretfully, surprising Sena as she did. “I didn’t save her…”

“It’s not your fault, Nia,” Sena consoled with a sob. “I couldn’t do anything until she was already gone…”

“I suppose it could be none of our faults… but it doesn’t make me feel any better.”

“Yeah…”

It was a long time before she let go of her. And yet, when she did, it wasn’t for the reason anyone would have expected. Just as Vandham called towards them, carefully recommending they get some rest despite their grief, Sena felt something strange. And she wasn’t alone.

“Wait a second…” Nia paused, letting go of Sena as she walked towards the staircase. “That Ether I’m feeling, it’s coming from inside the Titan… and it feels like…”

Concentrating on the force, Sena’s eyes widened. Whispering softly, as if making obvious she was having hope would dash it, she gave the force a name.

“Mimi?”

~~~

Something was very wrong when Mio opened her eyes.

“Goodbye, Mio!”

“Noah!”

The night sky, which she had stared into as she made one last bid for Noah’s aid, was now obscured… obscured beneath the hide of the Urayan Titan. Confused, she looked around her surroundings to find herself in the darkened Farlaine Wells, not far from the Central Pools.

What? she thought, absolutely baffled. Why am I… what happened to me? I was just calling Noah’s name, and then Malos rushed towards me. The last thing I remember was a bright light, and…

Mio’s eyes widened in recollection.

Someone grabbed my hand! But who-

“That was needlessly reckless of you, Mio.”

Gasping in surprise, Mio quickly turned behind her to find that the voice belonged to… A, their armour exactly as it had appeared on the Bionis. And yet they appeared subtly different to how Mio remembered them through Noah’s Interlinked eyes; in fact, they appeared closer to how she saw them in her dream.

“I have neglected to interfere directly with the fate of Alrest until now, for I had mistakenly believed in its ability to persist unguarded. Your bull-headed attempt has served only to make me reconsider this approach.”

And yet stranger still, it sounded as though their voice was different too, so much so that Mio could no longer believe them to be male in good conscience. She was almost hesitant to call them the same person… but that would be overly paranoid.

“You again…” Mio finally responded. “What did you do to me? What are you after?!”

“I saved your life.”

Mio grimaced, but stayed defiant. “You can’t know that! I was on the verge of finally getting through to Noah!”

A sighed, clearly expecting this answer. “So you say, Mio. But you must remember; Noah has only called you to his side twice, and you are yet to summon him once. The bond has persisted, as your Ouroboros power had so well demonstrated, but it is not yet perfected. Your suicidal confidence in his ability to save you was unfounded.”

She was reluctant to agree with them, but as she was forced to ignore the pain in her side from Akhos’s cut… Mio supposed there was a ring truth to that assessment.

“Maybe you’re right,” she allowed, “but that still doesn’t explain why you interfered - why you keep interfering! What are you after?!”

A took their time responding to that loaded question… longer than Mio would have expected. The way Noah described their first meeting, A was unerringly determined in their goals. Here, it was as if they were afraid of telling her the truth.

“Perhaps you will listen, unlike your partner,” they finally replied. “Your group’s existence in these twin worlds is an unintended artefact of the separation… your memories even more so. But though it is not time for you to take centre stage just yet, until that time comes, you must live on. We cannot afford to test the consequences of your demise; our options are limited as they are.”

“Centre stage?” Mio scoffed. “How very Moebius of you, to expect me to dance to your whims. And yet you say we aren’t even supposed to exist! What could you possibly need me alive for that would supersede wanting me out of the picture?!”

A hesitated once more, leaving a pregnant pause that was hard to miss. “Mio… It is undeniable that you are necessary. You and Noah both… Without you, Aionios does not end in anything other than annihilation.”

The sudden non sequitur made Mio step backwards in shock. “Aionios?! What does Aionios have to do with anything, it’s gone!”

Though she glared at A for an answer, her apparent saviour was not the one who answered her. Instead, a new voice joined their heated conversation… one Mio would rather have forgotten.

“My fair M… Surely thy journey hath revealed the truth of that lie?”

The sound of Y’s voice alone was enough to harden her face to a scowl, but that did not stop her eyes from widening when the creator of the Flame Clocks himself appeared before her, his helmet removed, standing by A’s side. For their part, A seemed unaware of the other Moebius’s intention to join their dialogue before he made his appearance, but through their helmet their reaction remained inscrutable - Mio couldn’t tell if they were familiar with them or not.

“Y…” she growled. “So you survived as well.”

The oft-unflappable Y chuckled derisively at her surprise. “It grieves me that you did not believe we had. We are Moebius - avatars of our master’s will to persist! As our compatriots live on in these split worlds… so shall we.”

As the meaning of those words sunk in, Mio could only glare at Y with growing frustration. “Your allies? I don’t… No! You can’t be serious!”

“Ah, but your ears do not deceive you, my dear! Beyond A and myself, many of our fold remain in this world. C, J, and S…I, T, and D… X…” Y paused to glance at Mio with amusement. “And of course, N and M. I must thank you for your contribution to our resurgence.”

“Don’t you dare call me that! Neither of us are Moebius - N and M sacrificed themselves so that Z would be destroyed!”

Y was clearly taking great amusement in her anger, though he continued to claim her name as a fact. “My, the lady doth protest too much… But I need not convince you of that truth. Rather, what thy heart must accept is of much greater import.”

“As if you would care for anything but your own existence.” Mio spat irreverently. “I shouldn’t have to tell you that Moebius is my enemy, should I?”

“O ho ho…” Y chuckled, pacing away from A as he did. “I suppose your reluctance can be afforded within reason. However, though your assumptions ground your anger, the truth is of an entirely different splendour.”

“Get to the point, Y!”

Mio’s impatience did not go ignored, but the Moebius still made sure to take his time explaining himself. Tilting his head towards A briefly as if to lazily ask permission, his blue armoured colleague gave a curt nod, seeming unimpressed with the showy nature of it all. Satisfied with that response, Y gestured his hand towards Mio.

“Verily, it was said that Ouroboros abhorred Aionios. Though your efforts proved the veracity of this more blurred than predicted, through your journey you did learn of the machinations that bore that land’s existence… the conditions that necessitated Origin. Now, here we stand, on one of two worlds, twins ever moving closer… yet never having touched.”

Y’s mere existence here was bizarre, and yet that last sentence felt especially strange. Not just for the disconnection Mio felt between his entire ramblings and her actual question, but because it was wrong - obviously wrong, in a way Y had never previously been.

“Heh, it seems your memory is failing, Y,” she joked in response, testing the waters. “It was through Aionios that I met not just Noah, but Moebius too. They obviously need to have connected for that moment, the same moment you stretched to a false eternity.”

To her further confusion, Y agreed!

“That is correct, Mio. Even though I resent your unnecessary remarks by my very nature, your assessment is observably true - the eternal now we created was founded on the precise moment of the Intersection. And yet I have told naught but the truth! As they exist in their young states, as we live and breathe upon them, Keves and Agnus have never once connected. Only through your bond with your beloved have you found a bridge between the worlds.”

Mio was starting to be convinced that Y’s sole purpose here was to drive her mad. As if his return didn’t feel contradictory enough, he was speaking in contradictions to his own just-stated truths. It defied any explanation she could muster.

“You’re not making any sense!” she contended angrily. “They can’t both be true - what you’re saying is just flat-out impossible!”

“Perhaps it should have been,” Y smugly allowed. “And yet, there is one singular explanation that would encompass this chaos… that the hands of time have been rewound. Though we are emissaries of a future yet to come, we stand firmly in the past that has become our present. That is the unmistakable truth.”

At first, Mio did not understand his argument beneath the flowery language. But, as she slowly deciphered it, she came to a realisation… and her eyes widened.

“What? It can’t be… Are you saying that we’ve gone backwards in time?!”

Y only answered her with a villainous grin, leading Mio to snarl back. Unsatisfied with their methods, A sighed before speaking up to confirm her suspicion and elaborate.

“He is correct,” they dropped quickly. “That is the metric by which I claimed your displacement.”

“Our displacement…” Mio considered, frowning as she reframed what Noah had told her of A. If they were telling the truth, it would fit with how they had spoken previously, to her and Noah both. But something about it still felt wrong.

“Indeed!” Y quickly interjected, satisfied with her acceptance. “And that is where the crux of our objective lies. Neither party should exist at this moment, and yet we cannot but exist. But, if we are not careful, our mere presence could destroy what once was… even our own conception. For that reason, Moebius now stands with a singular goal - to shield the passage of fate. And by that rationale, we stand in opposition.”

“Opposition?” Mio repeated, anticipating the likely answer. “To whom?”

“To Ouroboros, of course! As my compatriot so elegantly articulated, thy persistent memories are an unintended artefact of the final separation of Aionios… and so they are a threat. Your paramour has already seen the signs - the consequences of your unchecked interference could be catastrophic to all!”

Mio had no idea what Y was saying about Noah (well, that’s probably who he was talking about) - she supposed that was something to ask him later. What was more important in this moment was that Y had told her exactly what the new goal of Moebius was… and she could see the real intentions leaking through the altruistic facade. Preserving the future that would create Aionios wasn’t very different to their M.O. in Aionios, after all.

“All I’m hearing is that you want things to play out exactly how they need to do so your master can be resurrected by the creation of Origin,” she accused. “I’m not a puppet of Moebius, Y; If you really think we’ll let you create the Endless Now a second time, then you’re sorely mistaken!”

In a familiar tone to his discourse on ‘the betterment of life of Moebius,’ Y chastised her supposed nearsightedness. “How regrettable… yet such words were expected of Ouroboros. It is for that reason that measures have already been taken to address thy rebellious attitudes.”

And there it is, Mio thought. I knew it was never as simple as saving my life.

“…So you brought me here for a reason after all. Let me guess, you need someone to die again?!”

Though she had directed her anger towards A, it was Y who shook his head dismissively. “That is simply the passage of fate in this sublime moment. Thrash not against it - he is beyond your ken to save.”

As Mio considered that statement, she was alarmed to find that he wasn’t wrong. The Farlaine Wells were a good distance from even Fonsa Myma, nevermind the Olethro Playhouse. She’d never make it time… but perhaps she didn’t need to.

“Maybe so…” Mio accepted, a smile growing on her face, “but you’re forgetting that I’m not alone.”

Y narrowed his eyes at her hopeful tone, realising her meaning after a second. “You still have hope? How preposterous! None of your companions have yet connected to their…“

His enthusiastic disbelief suddenly halted, as if he had heard a loud noise. Turning behind him, towards the head of the Titan where Sena was fighting, Y’s eyes widened in shock. A, too turned towards the city, remaining inscrutable but clearly noticing the same thing Y did. After a second, Mio could feel something too… a wave of Ether in the air that she didn’t recognise.

“…No!” Y eventually muttered in disbelief, slowly turning towards Mio with pointed eyes. “They have already been- What have you done?!”

Mio could only smile in realisation of what had happened. “Good to hear she pulled through. Now, then… Let’s see about dealing with the real stain on this world.”

Shaking his fist as he stomped the ground, Y began to glow. 

“How dare you defy us! I shall thwart you, as is my duty as Moebius!”

As he did, Mio called to her partner… and finally reached him. 

“Hear me, Noah!”

The two titanic forms emerging at once, the Farlaine wells suddenly became the ring for a fight of giants. But despite that, A remained in their human form… before subtly vanishing. However Mio didn’t take notice at first, too busy staring Moebius Y’s true form down, while making sure Noah knew exactly what they had to do.

Mio! he shouted in surprise. Is that… Y?!

Yeah, Mio confirmed. And A’s here too… or I guess, was here. Either way, we’ve got a job to do!

Okay! It’s time to fight!

Giving Y no indication of when she would attack, Mio suddenly rushed forward at blinding speed, slamming into the Moebius’s guard as the water of the pools splashed away. The impact pushed him back slightly, but not enough that he didn’t immediately punch back. Dodging the strike to the left, she kicked at his side, before jumping over his head to avoid another fist, kicking his back as she did.

“Slithery simpletons!” Y cursed as he turned around. “You shall not eschew my judgement forever!”

Mio didn’t expect him to actually follow up on that threat immediately, but unfortunately for her he was quicker than she recalled. Dashing through the shallow water a further distance than either of them had expected, Y grabbed Mio and Noah’s Interlink by the waist, like he had done to the human forms of more than one of their group during their fights.

“Perhaps this will teach you to cease your meddling!” he suggested as he raised them into the air.

“I don’t think so!” Noah was quick to disagree, helping Mio gather power as he did.

Sending it outward in a shining halo, Y was forced to drop their combined form, the stun giving Mio enough time to kick the mudder in the face as they fell. He staggered backwards, but shot out a ball of dark energy as he did, forcing Mio to dodge as they approached him once more. Noah threw one of their rings towards him to soften him up on the approach, before Mio punched strong into his chest. They got a few good blows in before Y kicked forward, finally pushing them backwards.

“I can’t say I’ve missed fighting you, Y,” Noah mused as they stood at odds.

“The sentiment is mutual, Ouroboros,” Y growled. “Thy propensity for remaining steadfast would be admirable if not for your cause.”

“And we understand why you wanted to maintain the Endless Now, but the worlds have split apart again now, and they’re okay! There’s nothing to fear anymore!”

“How naive you are… Surely you have realised that the separation was not propitious in the least! We have gone backwards - what more reason is there to doubt your course?”

Mio could tell that Noah was frustrated at that rationale, not because it was wrong, but because he couldn’t easily refute it. Something had gone wrong, that was hard to deny… but though there wasn’t an exact logic-rooted response, Mio did have an answer for him.

“Because without the fear that created you… How can you know Origin will fail a second time?”

Y huffed in response. “So… you expect your ‘hope’ to enlighten the twin worlds?”

“Better to believe in others than to live in a world slowly dying. That won’t ever change.”

There was a moment of tense silence after her declaration, the silence of the night briefly growing uncomfortably loud as Ouroboros and Moebius stared each other down. But after that moment had passed, Y left his battle-ready stance and crossed his arms, clearly done with the fight. Reverting to his more human-appearing form, he concluded their moral opposition for now.

“Hm. Veritably… You Ouroboros are as stagnant as you claim Moebius to be. We can debate this further in the coming times, but in this moment, I shall abscond from this place. Farewell…”

And with that, Y was gone, disappearing into purple motes like Moebius always did.

Though Mio was glad at his exit, the lack of a conclusive victory to the fight left Noah rather disappointed. “Two of them here… and nothing to show for it. It feels like we’re no closer to stopping them, and now we know they’re in your world, too.”

“Yeah…” Mio agreed. “It is frustrating. But this isn’t a loss, or even a draw - we’ve saved a life this time. We just have to keep it up.”

“Right. I guess I’ll leave you to it, then?”

Mio almost agreed with him out of instinct, but then she had a thought. “Maybe not… I just realised that my friends must be very worried about me. For them, I must have disappeared after Malos’s attack - they might think I’m dead! And I’m so far from Fonsa Myma by foot-”

“I understand,” Noah cut her off, realising that time was of the essence. “I’ll help you get there as fast as we can.”

“Thanks, Noah.”

~~~

In a space on neither Alrest or Bionis, purple motes slowly coalesced to hail the appearance of Y. Where he had emerged was easy to describe as simply a void - the endless expanses of empty space lit up only by stars certainly gave it that impression. But floating within it was a strange platform with four seats… the last remnant of the Moebius theatre. One was filled with a familiar X-shaped mask, but the other figure present on the space stubbornly refused to sit upon one.

“My god!” Y greeted as he took stock of their visitor. “It fares thee well that we can present a united front in our cause.”

“Our cause?” Ontos scoffed as they removed their helmet, unimpressed with the grandstanding. “You are aberrations on these worlds - I would erase you myself if the situation allowed for it. I care not for your cause.”

“Wow, rude…” X groaned as she removed her own mask. “Are we not allowed to help out our creator or what?”

Ontos frowned. “Do not pretend to hold any affection for me - I slew plenty of your kin as A, and reduced your master to little more than an observer as Alpha. This is an alliance of convenience for you, and nothing more.”

“Okay, that’s fair. But I mean, we only hated Alpha because he was gonna destroy the Endless Now. It’s already gone, so it’s not like you can destroy it more.”

“And what of your compatriots?”

X couldn’t help but laugh. “Really? Those chumps didn’t mean much to us. But you knew that, right?”

Turning away from her, towards the infinity of the space, Ontos sighed. “I suppose I did. But that is of little concern any more - those you manipulated into becoming your allies are simply human, now. And yet…” 

Trailing off, a flash of emotion briefly overtook their face before they resumed.

“...They are not supposed to be here, either. But their existence, unlike that of Ouroboros, has melded into the world - they are within the passage of Fate. Truly… this memory is most grievous.”

Y subtly smiled, but said nothing, returning to his previous expression by the time Ontos faced him.

“If you insist on interfering, then what I say must bear no deviations. You are to act in exactly the method I instruct, and not dare to contravene my objective. Is that clear?”

Turning to both X and Y, Ontos received a grunt and a nod - it was all they could have expected.

“Then it is settled. Do not disappoint me, Moebius.”

Then they vanished in a pillar of light… leaving only the Avatars of Moebius in the dilapidated theatre.

“This plan sucks, Y. I hope you know that.”

Y could not help but chuckle at X’s blaise judgement as he sat down. “It is a necessary evil, X. She is not omniscient at this moment of time - we must take every advantage of it.”

“He still freaks me out,” X sighed, leaning on her chair’s arm. “Though the fact we’re not even seeing the same person is just as bizarre.”

“Indeed. The Trinity Processor… what magnificent technology. But for now, we must have patience. The pieces are on the board… All we need is the correct stratagem, and our desire will be fulfilled.”

“It better. After all…

Z’s way better than that prick.”

Chapter Text

Fugiri wasn’t sure exactly what she was expecting when she came down to the training arena, but this… wasn’t it.

“One… two… three… four!”

Her newly adopted brother had somehow found his way here, and he was doing something, but she had no idea what it was supposed to be. He sat on the ground, repeatedly going up and down from lying back to sitting forward, and counting his repetitions as he did. Briefly she simply stared, before a need to know finally won out.

“Um, Lanzy?” she asked, unable to hide her confusion. “What are you doing?”

Lanz turned his head towards her, looking rather confused himself, but did not stop his strange activity. “Uh… sit-ups? Gotta keep up… with my training, right?” It was only after a continued staring contest of furrowed brows and frowns that he finally stopped his ‘sit-ups’ to look back at her properly. “Why are you looking at me like I’m a weirdo again?”

She could only sigh, not keen to dignify his question with the obvious answer. “First that display in the kitchen, now this… You continue to amaze me, little brother.”

Despite her resolute belief that he was just being a ‘weirdo,’ as he had so eloquently put it, to her surprise Lanz didn’t actually understand her reasoning in the slightest. This was quickly evidenced by a counterargument in a direction she was not at all predicting.

“What, are you telling me you don’t do any sort of exercise to control that big Face of yours?” he questioned. “Pretty sure Egil does at least some - he seems pretty strong to me.”

Fugiri couldn’t help guffawing at his idea. “You’re kidding me, right? The whole point of a Face is for it to be the combatant! Well, besides their other purpose… but anyway! Why would you need to train your body to control one?!”

He shrugged. “I dunno, but the pilots I can remember weren’t pushovers out of their mechs. Figured the pattern held up, but I guess not… But surely Egil has trained a bit, right?”

She was about to deny his insistence outright until she thought about it more closely. It was true that he was plenty strong outside of Yaldabaoth, but she hadn’t actually thought about why that was until now. And admittedly, before he’d granted herself and Segiri Ruby and Chrome Face respectively, he’d sparred with them in hand-to-hand combat on occasion… with Vanea sometimes giving them a more unique challenge with her choice of whip. It was how they’d learned to use the axes for their Faces.

“Well… probably?” Fuguri eventually admitted. “But I’m not sure if it's because of his Face.”

Lanz frowned at that, before he came to some sort of realisation. “Ah! Sounds like a Gulkin and Egg situation… or something like that. Is that what that City book said?”

Ignoring his strange comment about a book with the assumption that he was simply confused, Segiri just shrugged. “Not really sure what you’re on about, Lanzy, but sure, I guess? Either way, you’re here rather late - the sun's already long since dimmed out there.”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s just that I can’t afford to slack off - she’d never let me live it down! Well, she probably would, but I’d feel like I was letting her down anyway.”

“Her? …Are you referring to one of your old friends?”

Fugiri’s gentle prodding was something of a shot in the dark, considering Lanz was yet to really divulge anything about his past to any of her family - his explanation for why he’d spaced out was as far as they’d really gotten, beyond that vague allusion to other pilots just now. But to her surprise, he did actually give her a proper answer.

“Yeah, she is. It’ll be a while before we see each other again, but we agreed that we’d keep up our training while we were apart. No way of actually checking up on each other, of course, but that just means it’s up to me to keep tabs on myself, right?”

“I guess so, though it’s not like I’m an expert…” Fugiri said. “I don’t know what I’d do if Segiri and I got separated.”

Something about her admission made Lanz chuckle as he rose to his feet. “Ah, I’m sure you’d figure something out. You’re both tough, aren’t you?”

“Well… Yeah?”

“Then there you go!” he reassured, ruffling her hair as he did. “Nothing to worry about.”

Satisfied he’d made his point, Lanz went to grab his large shieldblade, as he’d called it, from a nearby wall it was leaning against. Slinging it onto his back, he glanced at a clock above it on the same wall and whistled.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding about the time… I really let today get away from me. Suppose we better hit our pillows on the double, huh?”

“No kidding,” Fugiri quickly agreed. “Come along Lanzy, I know the fastest route back home!”

“…Sena?”

“Huh? Sorry, I missed that…”

Fugiri had already turned away from Lanz and started walking when she heard him mumble something. Only half turning her head back to ask for clarification, she quickly stopped her advance when she realised he wasn’t actually walking. She turned to face him again properly - just in time to see him abruptly fall forward.

“Lanz!”

Just barely catching the towering man before he hit the ground, and only really succeeding in softening the impact of the floor rather than actually stopping his fall, Fugiri was briefly paralysed by the decision on what she was supposed to do next. Shaking her head to try and calm herself down, she turned Lanz over so he was face up, and discovered his eyes were closed. Well, she’d gotten herself all worked up, but considering what they’d just talked about…

“Hey, you scared me!” she chastised, suppressing the tension in her voice. “What’s a big sister supposed to do when you just conk out like that, huh? Come on you big lug, wake up! I can’t carry you to your bed!”

Still he didn’t answer her. In his silence, Fugiri’s heavy breathing resounded through the room, blaring in her ears. Rattled by the stillness, Fugiri prodded at his face in an attempt to force him to do something, but he still didn’t so much as twitch.

“Very funny, Lanzy… Please, stop playing dead already!”

In a last ditch effort, she forced his eyelids open… and found his pupils completely unresponsive, rolled back into his skull. True fear gripping her now, she pleaded in vain for him to wake up.

“No… nonono, please… Lanz! Egiiil!”

Laying him down as gently as she could, Fugiri rushed to call for help, hitting the alarm installed for injuries in the arena. Segiri was quick to appear, shortly followed by Egil and Vanea, all of whom were immediately horrified by the sight. After briefly checking him over and confirming what Fugiri already knew, Vanea turned to her brother with a sorrowful but determined expression.

“He’s not responding! We have to do something - perhaps we should take him to the village-”

“No!”

Egil’s forceful disagreement caught Fugiri off guard as much as it did Vanea. The room was uncomfortably silent for a moment after his outburst, before he spoke up once more, noticeably more level-headed but still hiding his uneasiness.

“No, Vanea… We must take him to the Face pilot modification chamber. If he has not been injured, and he still breathes, this ailment is surely one of the mind. One we are not currently equipped to solve. We have held off long enough - we need to examine his memories.”

“Egil, I don’t think that’s wise!” Vanea disagreed. “We are still in the dark about him in so many ways, and I shudder to think of the consequences of your recklessness!”

“Fret not, Vanea. We need not be aggressive in our approach - a simple scan should reveal to us much of what we do not know.” His mind made up, Egil turned to two older model Mechon without any combat abilities and issued his orders. “Medical Unit M27-A and M28-B, take him to the Face pilot chambers immediately! Once you have placed him upon the operating table, prepare him for a non-invasive memory scan!”

The two units quickly carried out his orders, lifting Lanz onto a stretcher and leaving the arena with Egil two steps behind. Vanea hurried after him, Fugiri quick to follow with Segiri in tow. Quickly reaching the room in question, Fugiri was frustrated to learn that Egil would not let the sisters inside.

“But I can’t just leave him!”

Her plea did not fall on deaf ears, but the outcome refused to change all the same, as Egil told her. “My decision is final, Fugiri. I cannot have the two of you distracting us.”

Closing the door to the operating chamber with only himself and Vanea inside, Fugiri briefly stared at the wall of iron with clenched fists before turning away, despondent. Storming back towards her sister, she leant against the wall Segiri had stationed herself in front of, outwardly grimacing in contrast to her twin’s rigid frown.

“What is troubling you, sister?”

Segiri’s well-intentioned question was poorly received, earning her Fugiri’s ire in the form of a pointed glare, but that initial anger held no momentum. Seeing her sister only half-lid her eyes in worry soon dispelled it to give way to her real emotions: frustration and worry. Covering her face with her hands, Fugiri slid down the wall until she was on the floor.

“All I was doing was talking with him,” she sobbed, “and then he just lost consciousness! I’m terrified it was something I did, but I don’t know what to do about it! Can you really blame me for being worried?! I just…”

Caught up in self-loathing, she didn’t see Segiri crouch down to her level until she spoke up once more. “There is nothing more either of us could have done, sister. I know it is frustrating, but for now… we will simply have to wait, and let Egil handle it. Is that acceptable?”

Though she had to get a hold of herself before she could respond, Fugiri eventually nodded.

“Then we shall rest. You and I will be better equipped to handle whatever may come in the morning.”

With Segiri’s help getting back up, Fugiri followed her sister to their rooms. Though sleep eluded her for a while, she did eventually succumb to rest… ignorant of what was happening to her brother.

…

As more scenes played out on the display, Vanea could only grimace at the story they told. They were nearly unbelievable in their visuals, so much so that her brother had initially assumed them to simply be corrupted beyond recognition, but the longer they went the more consistent they revealed themselves to be. Egil came to much the same realisation as she, but when he did, his lack of understanding quickly morphed into recognition… and disgust.

There was some connection she was not privy to that he had noticed, and whatever it was, it had rattled her brother far more than the Monado’s new wielder had done.

“How dare he make a fool of me,” he growled, fists clenched. “I gave him my trust, and yet this is the truth his memories reveal to me?!”

His naked anger was unsettling, but it was most of all confusing. “Egil, what are you saying? His memories are saddening, but they are impossible! How could they-”

“I am saying that this boy is one of them! He consorts with the Homs anomaly as a friend, and possesses the same power! I do not revel in coincidence, Vanea - I deal with reality, and our reality is not devoid of what his supposedly impossible memories show. There can be no other explanation for his actions than that his memories are not disturbed; he was simply hiding the harmful truth!”

His piece said, Vanea could only stare dumbfounded for a long moment. When she finally found her voice again, it was quiet and strained.

“Egil, what do you mean, ‘anomaly’? What have you seen… that I have not?”

Her brother grimaced at the memory, strikingly like she had seen him do when his mind wandered to the tragedies of the past. It was her only semblance of a clue before Egil’s revelation.

“The Monado… is no longer alone. I know not where it came from, but both its brother and its wielder… Lanz knows them both well.”

Stepping backwards, Vanea covered her mouth with her hands.

~~~

After yesterday’s trials, Mio was almost surprised she actually woke up in her and Noah’s shared space. What was even more surprising was that she could almost feel the soreness of her waking body, despite not currently having a truly corporeal form. Stretching in vain, she turned around to find Noah doing much the same… though she’d hazard a guess that he wasn’t as tired as she was.

“Mio,” he greeted with a smile.

“Good morning, Noah,” she returned. “I’m glad that I managed to make it here again - yesterday was quite a close call.”

Noah couldn’t hide his wince at her recollection. “…Seems it was a long day for both of us.”

It took Mio a moment to notice his implication. “Oh, you don’t know the half of it- wait, did something happen to you, too?”

“Yeah. My night was rather eventful, too, though I can at least say Moebius wasn't involved… as far as I know.”

Mio couldn’t help but narrow her eyes at the thought of whatever had happened to Noah also being because of Moebius’s meddling. His lack of confidence spoke to how much they still needed to know, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating. In her annoyance, however, she inadvertently remembered what Y had told her about Noah seeing something, and figured out the best plan of attack.

“Well, do you mind if I go first? I think what I’ve learned should hopefully shed some light on what happened to you.”

“Sure, go right ahead.”

…

“So you reunited with Teach and Miyabi… then fought Teach and Miyabi over Nimue’s freedom… then witnessed what appears to be Nia’s true form… all before the mess with Moebius?!”

Mio couldn’t help but smile at Noah’s disbelief, in spite of the depressing memory. “I told you that you didn’t know the half of it.”

“Clearly you weren’t joking! Did you even get any sleep?”

“I did, actually. Not for too long, but long enough to have a short dream.”

That caught Noah’s attention, remembering a past conversation about her newfound habit. “You did? Did it tell you anything more about what you’d already seen?”

“No…” Mio sighed, consciously deciding to avoid mentioning her vision of the City. “This one felt much less like a memory. It was all over the place, full of people and places I’d never seen. Just about the only thing I really noticed about it was that someone showed up without any armour just before A did… and they appeared with a slightly different build, just like how I saw them later that night.”

Noah tilted his head as she spoke. “Them?”

She pointed to a memory floating in the orange expanse, revealing what she had seen during the confrontation. “They certainly spoke as if they were the same person… but they didn’t look the same, or even sound the same. You understand, right?”

“I suppose I do. Guess we can’t assume anything about them. Speaking of A, though… how did you end up where you did?”

“A took me away from where I was supposed to be… a fight with Torna.”

…

“I can see why you were so concerned about their reactions…” Noah concurred. “With a disappearance like that, I certainly would have assumed the worst.”

“Yeah…” Mio agreed, wincing at the prospect of how Noah would have taken it. “But we haven’t really talked about what happened in my absence. I know Sena Interlinked with Lanz, and something happened to Pyra, but clearly that’s not the extent of it.”

“At least we know Lanz is okay now. All we need is for Sena to ask about where he is, and we’ll be much closer to reuniting. Still, if you didn’t find out what happened… what did you talk about last night?”

“Well…”

…

Mio pushed as hard as she could with Noah’s assistance, climbing back up towards Fonsa Myma before leaping onto the Great Staircase. Eager to avoid unwanted attention, she farewelled her partner near the Ruins of Fountain Park, before clambering up the remainder herself. Though her legs ached, she pushed on as quickly as she could, until…

“Mimi?”

Just as she reached Sevind Palace Plaza, Mio finally turned her gaze forward… just in time to see Sena ran onto the landing from the stairway opposite. Her friend’s eyes, brimming with tears that had stained her face, widened as she saw Mio emerge battered and tired - but alive. Briefly stopping as if terrified she was seeing an illusion, her resolve quickly broke, and she ran towards her Mimi desperately. Mio almost smiled at the familiarity of being tackle-hugged once again… but it was clear that circumstances were different.

Holding her friend in a vice grip, as if letting go would mean she disappeared once more, Sena sobbed into Mio’s chest. “Mimi, I… I’m sorry I didn’t- I couldn’t stop- I’m so glad you’re okay!”

Unable to find the words to soothe her, Mio could only embrace her in return. Though at first she simply closed her eyes, she opened them once more when she heard many more feet join them in the plaza. As she did, she saw that her friends had arrived, and Rex and Nia were the first to meet her, coming to join their hug just as quickly.

Nia’s voice was a frayed whisper. “You’re okay… Thank the Architect.”

The three of them refused to let her go for quite a few seconds, long enough for the remainder of their group to crowd around them, with the thankful addition of a sleeping Iona in Vandham’s arms, but it was not all as she had expected. The largest surprise among them was that among them, Pyra was also unconscious, held aloft by Roc, while Poppi was still walking, but was noticeably slow in her movements. Once Mio was finally let go, though not from the many staring eyes, she let herself breathe in one last time before finally addressing the rhinon in the room. 

“It seems I’ve… caused you all a lot of grief. I’m sorry…”

“Hey, don’t apologise for being alive,” Vandham dismissed, though she could tell it was more for her sake than his own. “We’re all just glad you got out safely.”

“Rather miraculously too, I might add,” Dromarch interjected, implying the question on everyone’s minds. “How did you escape unharmed?”

Perhaps in any other situation, Mio would have explained the issue on the spot… but Mio felt the situation wasn’t quite right. Emotions were still running high, and everyone needed rest, not just the unconscious Pyra. For now, then…

“I was whisked away by someone else, taken too far away to make it back to the ruins quickly. I’m afraid a certain acquaintance of mine had taken issue with my actions, and believed I was going to die, much as you all did. After a brief spat, I rushed back here as fast as I could.”

She was yet to discuss A, or Moebius for that matter, with anyone beyond Sena and Manana, so her vague allusion went over most of the crowd’s heads, but Sena seemed to pick up the implication. It didn’t sit well with her, either.

“They were trying to protect you? That’s…”

“...Something we can discuss in the morning, I think. Is Pyra okay?”

After Mio’s firm suggestion to abandon their myriad questions for now, she turned to Rex to ask her question. The Aegis’s Driver looked surprised at first, before eventually stuttering out an answer.

“Well, I mean- She wasn’t badly hurt or anythin’ in the scrap. If anything she was the one doing the damage. It was only after she- I mean, she just passed out and went back to normal, I guess? That was afterwards, so… yeah.”

That was a very stilted answer that gave Mio more questions than it did answers… and the answers weren’t even very self-assured. But she’d just have to take his word for it - he’d probably know if something was truly wrong.

“That’s good to hear. Well, then, we better put a pin in this for now… we have some much needed rest to attend to.”

…

“That does sound rather harrowing…” Noah couldn’t help but agree.

Mio nodded in acknowledgement, but didn’t verbally respond at first, stewing in her thoughts on the frenzied night. Her partner noticed, as he often did, but was content with letting her contemplate in silence. She was thankful for that - it would let her word this next part more delicately.

“Well, now that you know everything that happened around it… I should tell you how my conversation with A and Y actually went.”

Noah picked up on the tone shift despite the already sombre mood and scowled. “I hadn’t imagined they could say something that would cause you so much grief… at least, not without saying things you’d already heard.”

“I’m afraid they had plenty of new things to say, and none of it did me any good. But perhaps I should jump into the cold water first.”

“…I suppose you should. What have you discovered?”

Mio couldn’t help pausing to steel herself before she spoke. “We are not just in our home worlds, Noah… We are in the past of our home worlds. So far hence that the Intersection has yet to even occur.”

Much as it had with Mio herself, the reveal took time to visibly set in on Noah’s face. Like the stages of grief in the blink of an eye, he took a second to even understand what she meant before disbelief quickly covered his features, slowly replaced by an internal struggle… a struggle that appeared to end in a shockingly quick acceptance.

“It’s so strange,” Noah suddenly said. “Half of my mind revolts at the very concept, eagerly reminding me that it’s completely illogical… But the other half of it had already suspected, and can only accept it as the truth. No wonder all the weapons are so basic - we’re in a history we don’t even remember!”

Though Noah punctuated his epiphany with a laugh, it was dark and humourless. Holding his face in his hands, it took some time for him to regain his composure, though Mio’s contact helped. She was holding his hands firmly to ground him when he spoke up once more.

“I had wondered, you know. When it comes to things I recognise in my world, beyond the Homs and Nopon, the most recognisable thing I could see was the familiar imagery of the Faced Mechon. Couple that with the fact people like Eunie are seen by most as myths… I should have already guessed this wasn’t a world that could create half of Origin. I suspect no-one I have met even knows Queen Melia’s name.”

“…You’re probably right,” Mio agreed, grimacing. “It just occurred to me that I probably am travelling with the real Queen Nia, after all. But she’s clearly not yet royalty - she’s a fugitive, for sparks’ sake! And regardless of that, it’s clear Alrest isn’t united enough for the sort of undertaking Origin would be either; two of its largest nations are all but warring.”

The two of them briefly mused on their circumstances, the weight of the revelation slowly sinking in for both of them. But Mio forced herself to confront those ideas later - there was still more to her story, and Noah’s own besides.

“It was Y who revealed this to me,” she forged onward as she let him go, “and A was quick to confirm it as the reason we don’t belong. Unfortunately, it also serves as the basis for Moebius’s new motivation.”

Though Noah had been grimacing, the reminder of where she’d learned this truth returned his scowl in full force. “What could they possibly be after in the past? They shouldn’t even exist!”

“Neither should we be here, either… but if they are to be believed, that is precisely the issue. Supposedly they now operate to ‘protect the passage of fate’, by means of ensuring exactly the same events play out in our worlds as they did the first time. That’s why A spirited me away from the ruins, and why they modified your sword - we would have changed history without their intervention. Only this time, they failed. If I understood them correctly, Vandham was supposed to die, but Sena interfered.”

A brief regret flashed across Noah’s face as she explained, and he had to shake off the memory of his past failure. “Good… That’s good. If there’s one thing my time on the Bionis has taught me so far, it’s that the ‘passage of fate’ isn’t absolute. Shulk’s ability to change the future with visions is proof enough of that… But…”

Though he seemed to have noticed a contradiction, he never vocalised it, trailing off into contemplation instead. It made Mio miss being able to discuss plans together with their entire team - even with Sena’s newfound reconnection to Lanz, communication between the four of them would be slow and awkward. With so much to think about, she could really use Taion’s tactical brain right about now.

“Sorry,” he eventually apologised. “We’ve got more pressing matters to talk about than speculation about our foes. Did they say anything else?”

Mio hummed in confirmation. “When I expressed my disappointment that Y had survived, he explained the apparent mechanism behind his revival - the continued existence of those who were formerly Moebius. Not only did he reveal that X had also been resurrected, but he told me that several others lived across the two worlds… though he included N and M in that list.”

Unsurprisingly, the mention of his other self caught Noah off guard. “Really? Well… did he mean separately?”

“No, he was definitely referring to the two of us. Didn’t take my disagreement for an answer, either, though I suppose that means we can assume that the others won’t actually be Moebius, which is a plus… But ignoring that drivel, there was a name suspiciously absent from his list.”

“…Z. So that’s their game - they want Origin to come about so that they get their master back.”

“Right, I think so too,” Mio agreed. “And yet, despite that, A didn’t seem to want us dead - just out of the way so that everything proceeds ‘as normal’ in their eyes. They seemed almost scared of letting us perish now, because then it could mean Aionios would only end in annihilation… Wait.”

The contradiction finally set in, and as Mio considered the implications, she could see Noah had realised it too.

“How come A wants to make sure Aionios ends…” she began.

“…if Y wants to bring back Z?” Noah finished. “That is strange -  there must be more going on here.”

“Mm. I mean, though I assume they want to revive Z, what he claimed instead was that our interference was making something go wrong… something that you had already seen.”

Noah winced at the direct address, clearly remembering something he had in fact seen. “Sparks. I think I know what he was referring to… and I can see why he’d be concerned. I better start from the beginning, then; We had just reached the end of Satorl Marsh, when…”

…

“So not only is the black fog back… but it can now possess both monsters and people?!”

Noah indulged Mio’s exasperation with a chuckle. “Yeah. And as far as I can tell, when it takes control of someone, they act like they’re still in Aionios, at some arbitrary point in time.”

“Really? It’s not just their last life?”

“Well, Ethel acted as she did when she was controlled by K. But Ashera was nowhere near the person we knew. Not only was she a sixth termer, in her own words… but she knew what the City was. She both assumed we were from it, and acted like it was something she had been taught about.”

“But how?” Mio questioned, dumbfounded. “Agnians and Kevesi only started learning about the new City once we found it. If she knew what the City was, and yet was antagonistic, then that would have to mean…”

“She must have been remembering the old City,” Noah surmised. “It’s the only thing that makes any sense.”

Mio couldn’t help but sigh at yet another complication to their journeys. “What are the chances it's not actually the same fog?”

“Next to nothing. Riku called the fog-possessed Satorl Guardian a Fogbeast, and acted like he’d seen the phenomenon before, even if the people part of the possession was apparently new.”

Mio heard Noah swear under his breath, and she was almost inclined to join him. Riku being mysterious was nothing new, but this was a rather blatant example of something he probably shouldn’t know… especially now that it was apparent that they were in the past. But she’d have to leave the grilling to Noah.

“Either way, I think you’re right,” she continued, changing course a bit. “That must be what Y was referring to… and I can understand his worry. The black fog was explained to us as an omen of Annihilation Events, and therefore a microcosm of the two worlds slowly destroying each other. But despite us being in the past, it's already appearing in your world, and I don’t doubt it will soon appear in mine.”

“Yeah,” Noah agreed. “But that begs the question… Do we take them at their word because of it? And if so, do we continue as we are or do as they say?”

Those were their greatest dilemmas, weren’t they? It was hard to stomach the thought that Moebius could be correct, but harder still to imagine that the fog didn’t suggest consequences to what had occurred… especially because no-one but Noah and Riku actually recognised it.

Unconfident in making a definitive judgement for herself just yet, Mio opted to hear more from Noah’s perspective. “What do you think?”

“…I think the fog does signify that something has gone wrong,” Noah said after a moment of consideration, “and considering what we’ve heard, it shouldn’t be appearing on the Bionis yet. But looking at how Shulk is being allowed to act, I don’t think they’re being truthful about the consequences of our interference… and so, I say we maintain our course. Only then will we be able to learn the truth from them.”

“I think I agree. I’m not exactly… comfortable with the thought of the black fog in a world that isn’t frozen in time, but if our actions were truly the culprit, then why are we the only ones being targeted, and not our amnesiac friends? They don’t have their memories, but I don’t- I can’t believe Miyabi, standing there with her Offseer uniform like nothing ever changed, would have always been here.”

“Right… where do they draw the line? Why do they have to draw a line in the first place?”

It wasn’t phrased as a rhetorical question, but it may as well have been - neither Noah nor Mio knew the answer to those questions. But it was important they knew what the questions were, at least - it gave them something to search for.

“I suppose that’s what we need to find out,” Mio finalised, “although I imagine my first question will be for Sena. We need to know where Lanz has found himself, after all.”

Noah smiled. “Right. I won’t lie, I’m rather eager to reunite with someone else who remembers Aionios. Only being able to talk to Riku is getting to me, especially considering how tight-lipped he is.”

“Maybe with his help you’ll finally be able to get a proper answer out of him?”

“If only, haha! But either way, I suppose we’ve talked through everything for now. I’m not sure about you, but I get the feeling I should already be awake by now.”

Mio giggled lightly. “I think my friends probably let me sleep in, if they didn’t join me in the act. We were all exhausted.”

“Well that’s a plus… though I don’t know if I’ll be so lucky. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Okay. See you soon.”

After one last embrace, Mio let Noah go, and slowly returned to the waking world.

~~~

Lanz was sluggish waking up, but that did afford him one benefit - it let him have a moment of calm before he suddenly remembered everything that happened the night before. The first was his memory of passing out after mumbling Sena’s name, which was quickly followed by his recollection of his rather disconcerting Interlink with his old Ouroboros partner. Jumping to his feet, he intended to rush and check on Fugiri to reassure her he was okay…

…Until he realised he wasn’t even on the Mechonis. Instead, he was in that old familiar space he took up during his Interlinks, only this time Sena was actually standing in front of him. She was normally directly below, connected more through a feeling than anything else - was that gonna be a problem? After all, he didn’t actually feel their Interlinked form this time, and Sena… was actually looking okay? She’d been almost inconsolable when he left her, but she looked more glad that she could see him than anything.

“Uhh…” he mumbled abruptly, doing a terrible job of hiding his confusion. “Hey, Sena. How are you… I mean, what are we-”

“She’s okay, Lanz.”

Well, if Lanz felt he was being abrupt himself, Sena was putting him to shame in that regard. But though she sounded relieved, he didn’t want to count his tirkins before they hatched. Not that he didn’t trust Sena, but she had been pretty convinced before - best not to be under any illusions about what was going on.

“She is? Um, that’s good, but I am a little confused what you mean-”

“Lanz, she’s okay! Malos didn’t kill her after all - she was just taken away at that moment. Look, I’ll show you!”

Well, she was at least being very insistent that she meant what she said, but how exactly was she going to- Oh. Guess the swirling memories were still a thing. Good news was that the one Sena had pointed to showed Mio’s triumphant return in all her glory, and her explanation after the fact did reassure him that it was real.

“Well snuff me,” Lanz chuckled. “She really gave us a heart attack for nothing, huh? That’s twice now she’s done that.”

Though Lanz had tried to be jovial about it, the reminder of their darkest hour didn’t go over particularly well with Sena, seeing as she laughed awkwardly in response. “Eheheh… I suppose it is.”

“Ah, sparks. Sorry mate, didn’t mean to make light of it or anything.”

“No no, I’m fine,” she lied. “I’m just glad she’s still here… And that I can talk to you, too.”

“Yeah, me too. That said… how are you feeling? And I mean really feeling, not pretending to feel.”

Lanz’s preemptive dismissal of her default answer made Sena stop, forcing her to actually confront her current state of mind. The more she thought about it, the more downcast her expression became, until she finally told him her answer.

“I feel terrible. Not just because of how close I was to losing Mio, but because of how I acted after she disappeared. I was terrible to you, I was monstrous to Torna… I acted like a villain. Like Moebius.”

Lanz winced at her introspection, unable to deny most of it with any conviction. “Hey, now… You’re not Moebius by any stretch. You were just grieving.”

Sena didn’t accept even his most meagre of consolations. “Yeah, grieving someone who wasn’t even dead! You saw what I did to Obrona, Lanz - that wasn’t justice for my friend, that was cruelty! It sounds like something N would have done. She may have been a Blade, but she was as human as we are, and yet I toyed with her life in front of her friend.”

“Hey, that’s not…”

Though he began to reflexively disagree with her comparison once more, the words fizzled as he realised what Sena was doing. She wasn’t just ruminating on her mistakes - she was actively finding reasons to punish herself for her actions. Just telling her it wasn’t that bad wouldn’t cut it; Lanz needed a more thorough dressing down of her mindset to stop her spiralling.

“Look, mate… I’m not gonna tell you that what you did was right, because… it wasn’t. But if we agonised over every person we killed, we’d have never saved Aionios, would we?”

“It’s not the same, Lanz! The people we killed in Aionios, whether we had a choice to kill them or not; they were stuck in the cycle of war forever. But Obrona’s gone for good - I made sure of that!”

“Come on, Sena, are you hearing yourself right now?! You’re making it sound like you killed Mio, not Obrona! Then again… that’s what this is actually about, isn’t it? You’re not angry at yourself because you killed Obrona - you’re punishing yourself because you failed to protect Mio again.”

Sena’s breath caught in her throat as her attempts to depreciate herself died in her throat. In its place, her anger could only outlet towards Lanz, but it was a shadow of its former self, laying bare its thin disguise.

“That’s not- Don’t you dare put words in my mouth! You don’t know a thing about how I feel-”

“Yes I do! In case you’ve forgotten Sena, we’re partners - Ouroboros partners. I felt what you did in that moment, and I’d felt it before. But I understand it, because for all that we’ve moved past our lives as soldiers, it doesn’t just leave us be. Noah may have long hated fighting… but we used to revel in it. And yet despite that, even though that instinct hasn’t left us alone, the cetri of satisfaction is long dead. After you’d taken your revenge, you were left with nothing but shame. Right?”

His friend couldn’t answer him, but her face made clear her discomfort at the truth. Though he was glad she’d at least stopped berating herself verbally, something told him that his words alone wouldn’t be enough to help her.

“I know you’re still hurting, and what I say isn’t gonna magically fix it. But I know something you can do, at least… talk to Mio. Properly. That’s the only way you’ll be able to move on, right?”

Lanz watched her expression shift as she took in his words. She hesitated for a few seconds, but eventually she nodded slowly, a sad smile on her face. 

“…Alright.”

“Atta girl, Sena. Now, then… how do we get outta here? Can’t exactly talk to your friend if you’re not even in your own world, right?”

Her dissolution temporarily abated, Sena took his question with more of her trademark attitude - she tilted her head as she considered it, before coming to a sudden realisation. 

“Wait, hold on. Lanzy, where were you when I called?”

“I was with Fugiri in the training arena. Why, what’s up?”

“Fugiri?”

Lanz was quickly reminded of all that they’d missed about each other’s new lives. “Oh right, that’s Number 13’s name in the new world. Segiri’s with her too, actually, but I’ve had to be rather cagey with them both-”

Sena interrupted his exposition with a grateful sigh, though she interrupted her own train of thought quickly after. “Oh thank the Queen, she’s okay! No wait, more importantly, you weren’t in bed?!”

“Nope. Oh… is that gonna be a problem?”

“Lanz, you don’t disappear when you Interlink anymore! Your body was still around, and it probably looked like you passed out!”

“Well, sparks,” Lanz said with a grimace, reflecting on what he’d said. “I talked about Mio giving me a heart attack, but I’ve given Fugiri one myself! And the others…” He trailed off as he remembered the concerns about his age, deciding to leave that can of worms closed for now. “I better go check on her ASAP. What’s the trick?”

“From what Mio said, you just have to wake up. We’re still asleep, after all - that’s how I  connected to you.”

That was simpler than he expected, to which Lanz was undeniably grateful. “Sweet! Thanks, Sena! Don’t forget to talk to Mio!”

“I’ll try,” she reassured him half-heartedly.

Though he’d been turning away, Lanz couldn’t help but turn back around to admonish her. “Hey, no half-assing it!”

She couldn’t help but laugh awkwardly at his insistence, but she relented regardless. “Okay, okay, I will! See you, Lanzy!”

“See you, Sena.”

And then, with their farewells said and done, they each turned away. Moving towards the lights,  their visions slowly brightened, until they finally woke up in very different circumstances; one in a comfortable bed with their friends nearby, and another in a sterile room on a hard operating table.

~~~

Walking out of Folmarie Inn after a somewhat tense (and very late) breakfast, Mio took in the midday light with a renewed sense of appreciation after a long night. She had only dined with Manana, Nimue, Sena, Nia and Dromarch, the remainder of their group having eaten at a more standard hour… including Pyra, to her relief. But the spectre of what exactly had occurred last night had hung over the old friends, leaving Nimue to increasingly wonder what she had missed.

She would get her answer soon enough, but not before a very important conversation. Soon after Mio emerged from their residence for the time being, so did Sena, and together they walked towards the Fonsa Myma Port. Arriving at a bench on the wharf, they sat beside each other in brief companionable silence before Sena spoke up.

“So…” she began awkwardly. “Where do you wanna start?”

“Well, I think we should start at the beginning,” Mio suggested. “What happened after I disappeared?”

Sena gave her a sad smile in response. Clearly she’d seen this question coming, but that foreknowledge didn’t save her from her discomfort.

“We didn’t stand a chance before you left, and it only got worse after you vanished. Without you holding Malos off, he was quick to go after Rex, and he almost killed him… but I couldn’t make myself stand up to him. All I could do was call for Lanz’s help.”

Mio grimaced but nodded all the same - she had expected as much. “So you managed to reach him?”

“I did. And with his help, I was able to save Rex… but it’s not as simple as that. Pyra reacted too, and she changed into someone completely different in the process. But I barely even paid attention to her - I was too busy abandoning everything we’ve stood for!”

Her friend’s raised voice made Mio wince, partially in empathy, but largely because it warned of a markedly darker turn for this conversation. She wasn’t sure she’d ever heard Sena so aggrieved with herself, and that had only poor implications. But she had to bite the bullet.

“Sena…” Mio finally said, calling out to end the difficult silence. “What happened?”

A sigh answered her, appearing to be a vain attempt to calm Sena’s nerves. After a second more, she finally began to explain herself, the pain of the experience clear in her eyes.

“As soon as I had realised our Interlink, I didn’t use it to save our new friends. Instead, I just let myself be consumed by my grief so I could go on a rampage of revenge, ignoring Lanz’s pleas for me to stop as I killed Obrona in cold blood! And I would have done more if Lanz didn’t hold me back. I’m as terrible as I claimed Torna to be… Maybe even worse.”

The revelation immediately created a maelstrom of emotions within Mio. Simultaneously experiencing sympathy for her experience and anger for her actions, she was briefly too stunned to speak either emotion into words for Sena to hear. But the longer she thought about her words, the more the reason why became obvious. It was grief that had controlled her… a grief much stronger than she’d expected. And yet, she still had to ask…

“But why would you let my death control you like that? I told you to save yourself, to live on… so why couldn’t you?”

Sena turned away mid-wince, answering her with little conviction. “I just couldn’t, okay?”

But Mio wasn’t satisfied with her half-hearted self-flagellation. “Why not?! You deserve to live as much as I do!”

“No I don’t, Mimi!” Her friend snapped back, escalating the back and forth with rising anger as she turned back towards her. “It was never going to be right for you to sacrifice yourself for me… for anyone!”

“Look, I understand you regret your actions, but this was before they even happened!”

“That doesn’t matter!”

“Why not?!” Mio spat in return, her own frustration cresting. “We were in an unsavable situation - what’s stopping you from accepting that it was the right thing to do?!”

“Because I failed to save you again!”

As the truth ran unburdened from Sena’s mouth and her regret peaked her anger, silence once again settled over their fraught conversation. With only the gentle lapping of the water against the port to fill the quietude, Mio was forced to finally consider an event she’d tried her best to leave behind. It may have been triumphant in retrospect… but in the moment it represented only despair.

“…We never really talked about the eclipse, did we?”

Her realisation forced tears to prick Sena’s eyes, leading her to turn away once more. “No, we didn’t. You were quite happy to just… keep moving forward, like you always do! But it was my failure that got us into that mess, and even once I learned that you had planned around it, I couldn’t just ignore that! Sparks, it wasn’t even the real you that consoled me in the prison, was it? Just M playing her part, snuff however I feel!”

“Sena…”

Mio wanted to disagree with her, but she wasn’t really wrong - it was M in the prison of Agnus Castle, speaking for her, telling Sena to stop being so hard on herself. Something about the revelation made Mio feel false, but she pushed that away to focus on what was important in the moment. And that was that her self-deprecation was rearing its ugly head again.

“I’m sorry,” Mio couldn’t help but apologise. “All this time, I’ve wanted to avoid thinking about those days… but I’ve forgotten that I wasn’t the only one in that situation, nor even the worst affected. I’ve let you down.”

“Don’t you dare say that, Mimi!” Sena contended, turning back towards her. “Don’t tell me that pretending to be someone else, and watching yourself vanish under the eclipse, was easier than what I went through!”

She was correct in a manner of speaking, but the sentiment was still flawed. Now was the time to set this right.

“I suppose you’re right,” Mio allowed, a sad smile on her face. “We shouldn’t be trying to one-up each other. Because… what I put you through, and what I experienced, they shouldn’t even have to be compared. At the end of the day, none of us are infallible, because no-one can be. We’ll always have doubts, but that’s why we move forward, isn’t it?”

As her message finally started to sink in, Sena flinched under her friend’s kind smile. Mio could tell that she still wanted to castigate herself further, but that self destructive resolve was wavering under the message. Seeing a glimpse of success, Mio pushed onward.

“Sena, you need to stop blaming yourself for things you can’t control. You weren’t able to save us alone, that’s true, but neither was I. Without M’s help, neither of us would be here now, and without Lanz’s help, you couldn’t have stood up to Torna. Even if we can’t always be the ones to protect one another, we won’t be alone in our fight. Right?”

As tears began to slowly roll down her face, Sena couldn’t help one last petulant remark. “I mean, yeah… But it’s not like Mythra couldn’t have done it on her own.”

Mio responded by embracing her best friend to comfort her, doing her best not to cry herself. “Now you’re just being uncharitable, Sena.”

They sat together like that for some time, taking in the atmosphere in silence to refresh their spirits. It was a moment Sena almost wished would last forever, but sadly Mio was forced to disentangle herself once she was reminded internally of her duties yet to go.

“So, now that we’ve touched base on your end…” she said gently, her voice tinged with exhaustion, “I suppose we should talk about what happened on mine.”

“I guess so,” Sena reluctantly agreed. “I suppose A’s given you much to talk about.”

“You’re not incorrect… but I’m afraid they’re just the beginning. We better get Manana first - I don’t want to repeat this.”

Sena tilted her head in realisation at the tone. “That bad? Maybe we should wait until you’ve given our new friends the cleaner version, then. I mean, I don’t wanna actively lie to them, but there’s gonna be plenty of new questions if we gotta take Manana aside before telling them anything.”

Mio frowned, but did not disagree as she rose to her feet. “I suppose you’re right… How frustrating. We better go and meet them, then… there’s a lot to get through, for both of us.”

Once Sena joined her, with her assistance on rising back up, they began their walk back to the Inn, lightly discussing the details as they went. Maybe their issues weren’t fully resolved, but it was a start… and that was worth the trouble. Even as they talked amongst themselves, though, Sena couldn’t help but wonder…

What’s Lanz up to?

~~~

Lanz awoke with a start, lurching forward to find himself in an unfamiliar room. The hard metal bed wasn’t exactly a far cry from the twins’ own sleeping arrangements, but his bed was remarkably softer thanks to a few choice additions he’d campaigned for. It was bizarre he wasn’t there, now that he thought more about it…

“So you are awake.”

The sudden interjection of Egil’s deep voice caused Lanz to jolt involuntarily, the tone reminding him briefly of their first tense encounter. But though that initial meeting had been fraught, he’d reverted to more of a pity for the wayward youth since… at least until now. They may not have known each other for terribly long, in the grand scheme of things, but he knew enough about Egil to know that this voice was not typically reserved for his acquaintances. 

Fighting back his apprehension, Lanz turned to his newfound caretaker with his best attempt at a neutral expression. “Egil? What am I doing here? Seriously, this bed is nowhere near as comfy as my one, aha.”

The awkward laugh did not go unnoticed, but it did not solicit a sigh of exasperation… only narrowed eyes. A heavy silence reigned over the room for painful seconds as the two Machina stared each other down, with barely a hint of movement from either before Egil spoke to shatter it.

“Cease your charade, Lanz. My patience for it has run well and truly dry.”

“Charade?!” Lanz repeated, indignant. “I don’t know what act you think I’m playing mate, but I’m pretty sure all I did was pass out-”

“NO MORE GAMES!”

The loud interjection accompanied by a strike to the operating table startled Lanz terribly, unconsciously shuffling him backwards without heed of the small platform he was sitting on. As he did, he fell down off the bed, landing shoulders first on the hard floor and cursing.

“Fire and sparks! What’s your damage?!”

“Who is Noah, Lanz?! Why does he wield another Monado?!”

“Monado?! I haven’t got a clue what the snuff you’re-”

“Do not lie to me!” Egil cut him off, grabbing him by the scruff of his vest and heaving him back onto his feet. “I have seen him in your memories, wielding that accursed sword against the Mechon, and I have witnessed that he takes up arms against us once more! And you consider that anomaly a friend. Tell me the truth - you are acting as his spy, are you not?!”

“N-Noah?” Lanz stuttered out, slowly realising the breadth of what he’d just told him. “You’ve seen him outside of my memories? You’ve seen my memories?!”

Lanz pushed himself away from Egil, who let his grip loosen even as his eyes remained cold. The leader of Mechonis was clearly not doing it out of pity.

“A misguided effort to save you from your mysterious affliction. Though your ‘sister’s compassion was clearly misplaced, I give thanks for the opportunity it afforded me to see through your ruse. As for your friend, that bug has regrettably been seen causing havoc in the time since you appeared before me. I see now that I should have been more aware of this connection.”

“You… mudder! Don’t you dare talk about my friend like that! He’s-”

Egil cut him off once more, stepping towards him as he did. “And why should I not? He is a Homs - a tool of the Bionis! His delusions of heroism will not save him from the fate he has been given, nor will it gain him my respect. All that matters is that as long as he wields that sword, he cannot be allowed to live!”

Lanz’s eyes widened as what had previously been only insults that could have been misconstrued at petty suddenly took on a much darker shade. It had always irked him that the supposed ‘Leader of Mechonis’ was in an empty city without a single Homs or High Entia in sight, especially so considering Fugiri’s occasional shade of apparent distaste with Homs traditions. But now it seemed so obvious - for a reason Lanz did not yet know, Egil detested the people of Bionis… and the so-called Sword of Origin.

“What about Lucky Seven has you so scared, huh?” Lanz couldn’t help but ask, playing up a cocky attitude. “I’ve heard it called many things, but not once have I heard it be called a Monado.”

His revelation actually made Egil pause briefly, considering his response before reprimanding Lanz further. “Perhaps it is no mystery the reason you assist him, then; you are ignorant of the single greatest threat to our race. Your friend’s so-called ‘Lucky Seven’ will kill all of us if left unchecked, and its puppet is none the wiser. You should be thanking me - I will afford this ‘Noah’ a mercy killing.”

Lanz had hoped in vain he was overreacting with his implication of exterminating his friend, but it had only become more blatant, with a casual promise to murder one of his best friends for the crime of wielding his sword. In the clarity, Lanz finally considered the existence of the imposing Faced Mechon, which could only be seen as a combat suit not unlike particular Ferronises. And then, there was Egil’s army of standard Mechon, the majority seemingly armed to the teeth. But an army for what? 

…There was only one way to find out.

“Mercy killing?! Like snuff am I gonna let you hurt him, or anyone else! I’ve been kept in the dark long enough - what game are you playing, Egil?!”

Lanz could almost see pity in his eyes for a brief moment, but it did not last. In one heavy breath, it was swiftly replaced with righteous fury as he divulged his mission.

“There is no game, Lanz - there is only war. The war to avenge our people, slain by the Titan that robbed them of their lives… the war against Bionis!” 

Lanz couldn’t help but gasp. He almost wanted to retch at the thought that he’d helped save Aionios from its endless, pointless conflict, only to stumble right into another war. And this time, he’d even ended up stuck on the side his friend wasn’t on. There wasn’t a chance he would stand for it.

“Crusty old mudder…” he cursed. “You’d think with how ancient you are that you would know better! But I guess I had too much faith in you.”

The impetuous tone riled Egil up once more, his voice rising to match. “You dare mock my mission?”

But Lanz did not waver. “Your mission is just revenge for the sake of it! Do you really think that your war will fix anything? All it’ll do is make a bunch of new soldiers ready to kill you!”

“I care not for your postulating, Lanz! My people must be avenged, whether you agree with my methods or not!”

“And I already told you, I won’t let you hurt anyone else!”

His defiant declaration silenced Egil’s rage, as he too realised that Lanz would not relent in his belief. But though his first response was a sigh of resignation… something told Lanz that he hadn’t won yet.

“I suppose I had too much faith in you too, Lanz,” Egil professed reluctantly, before clicking his fingers together. 

As if in response, Lanz heard the whirring of machines come to life. Before he could even react and turn in their direction, his arms were restrained in the arms of two Mechon, shortly preceding their remaining arms grabbing hold of his waist.

“Wha-Hey!” he exclaimed in shock, desperation edging into his voice. “What the spark are you doing?! Egil!”

The master of the Mechon paid his question no mind, instead continuing his monologue as explanation. “Fugiri will be so disappointed, but it cannot be helped - I do not believe you are lying to me about your intentions. No, I imagine that if you are left to run free, you will make for the Bionios to rendezvous with your… ‘friends.’ Perhaps a more objective leader would simply kill you for the mutiny, but regardless of your perspective, you are of the Machina. For your own safety… I will keep you under lock and key. Take him away.”

With one more wave of his hands, the two automatons began to drag Lanz away, deaf to his pleas. Lanz struggled in their grip, but his feeble attempts showed no give in his restraints.

“No! You can’t put me in a prison again! Come on, don’t do this! Egil!”

Egil’s only response was to turn away, hiding the guilt that marred his face.

Chapter Text

Slowly but surely, the sun rose on another day on the dusty Titan. As it did, Taion rose to meet it, his Blade close behind. Together they took opposite seats at their table in the dining hall of their newest abode to eat breakfast, and Adenine couldn’t help but marvel at the change from what she knew.

“The barracks was in a hubbub every morning without fail,” she reflected. “In contrast, this new outpost is remarkably quiet… though I imagine the much lower occupation of soldiers is entirely to blame.”

Taion nodded as he finished a mouthful of his meal. “Indeed. It helps that those staffing it are quite far from ‘grizzled’, from my perspective.”

As if she was summoned, one of said soldiers rushed to sit next to him, her plate clanking against the table with the speed she placed it down. “Ahhh, I’m so sorry I’m late! I’m not used to the layout of this place yet, and I got lost on my way to the bathrooms, then I got lost on my way to the kitchens, and I just feel like a mess-”

“You’re not late, Kyrie,” Taion interrupted her, holding a hand up to stop her word deluge. “As far as I can recall, Mórag was not particularly specific about the waking hour as long as we were ready at a reasonable time. Though, with that being said… I can’t help but notice that your Blade has not joined you.”

The reassurance did seem to help her somewhat, stopping her onset of hyperventilation, but Taion’s last observation made her a little confused. “Oh no… Is that a problem? Finch just said she had to find her weapon, but I’m a little worried about her myself…”

Adenine narrowed her eyes at the Driver briefly, only to raise an eyebrow shortly thereafter. “And she was being serious?”

“I think so… Why wouldn’t she be?”

“…Kyrie, Blades are quite literally connected to their weapons. The pull of the ether should be more than enough to find her hammer, which means she really shouldn’t be taking too long.”

“Oh… Oh no.”

Taion had to hold back a chuckle at the speed her expression dimmed. He felt sympathetic, truly, but the combination of Kyrie and her Blade had quickly revealed itself to be unfortunately comedic. Kyrie already struggled with her directions… but Finch struggled with remembering almost anything, from what he’d witnessed so far.

Still, when Kyrie began standing up from the table to look for her, an untouched breakfast still on the table, Taion held her back. “Don’t worry about her just yet. You’ll be much better equipped to handle your day with a meal in your stomach.”

“Ah, you’re right!” she agreed. “Guess I better eat, then.”

As the trio continued to eat, they found themselves soon joined by another Driver and Blade duo, this time with a yawn. “Morning, you lot! Man, it’s so quiet here.”

“Good morning, Jac,” Taion greeted. “Adenine and I were just discussing this topic, funnily enough.”

“My master kept insisting he sleep another five minutes,” Yachik appended stoically. “The silence of the outpost appears to have convinced him his comrades were simply not awake yet.”

“Yachik, c’mon! You didn’t have to tell them that…”

The group indulged in a laugh around the table before they resumed eating. Though Adenine was first to finish, with Taion close behind, they were still seated when Kyrie grabbed her now empty plate and took it to be washed, clearly eager to find her MIA Blade. The four remaining at the table all returned to their rooms for last minute preparations together, and they were all glad to see Kyrie’s attempts to return to her room went remarkably better than her attempt to leave it.

Unfortunately, she was still the last to leave her room, Blade in tow. Once Kyrie and Finch had met their comrades back at the mess hall, the Driver revealed that her Blade’s weapon had simply been dismissed, explaining why she had never been able to locate it… and also that she had unfortunately forgotten this crucial detail in her sleep. 

“Recalling how to find your weapon is one of the most key things you should know, Finch!” Adenine admonished, unconsciously mimicking Taion’s tendency to push up his glasses all the while. “You must do better to remember it next time.”

The avian Blade could only hang her head. “Oh man, I suppose I should…” After a brief second of contemplation, though, she was suddenly re-energised. “Hey, there’s an idea! Why don’t I ride on your shoulders so I don’t forget anything?”

Adenine and Taion both had to blink in brief confusion at her, before the Blade eventually answered her peer. “I think not. Whether such an action helps your memory or not – and I sincerely doubt that it would – I suspect it would still not assist you in remembering what should be innate Blade principles. But you do say the most unusual things, my friend. I’d be happy to record your phrases if nothing else.”

“Heh, sounds good to me! …Wait, why were we talking about this, again?”

Kyrie couldn’t help but sigh. Regardless, now as ready as they’d ever be, the six soldiers all waited with bated breath for the arrival of their new commander. Soon enough, the Special Inquisitor walked through the door, Jewel of the Empire by her side as always, quick to observe each of her newly inducted subordinates. As she did, they all rose to their feet with varying levels of calm, saluting as they greeted her with a collective “Sir!” as was protocol.

…Taion still needed to actively think about the motion of the salute, unfortunately. His muscle memory was very much wired to that of the Agnian salute across his chest.

Satisfied with their discipline for now, Mórag nodded. “At ease, soldiers. I am pleased to see you all awake and prepared.”

Kyrie and Jac noticeably brightened at the praise, and Taion suspected the same would be true of his own Blade, but the Tactician himself remained straight-faced. Meeting her expectations didn’t mean anything just yet.

The Special Inquisitor continued her introduction, undaunted by any reaction or lack thereof. “Now, I trust you all remain aware of the purpose behind your recruitment. You all must remain vigilant of this purpose as you take your…” However, she halted upon noticing the raised hand of Finch, whose half-lidded eyes still managed to convey a clear urgency to the question. “Yes, Finch?”

After taking a moment to recall what she herself wanted to ask, Finch innocently revealed her query. “Sorry, what was the reason we’re here again?”

The brief silence was deafening, accompanied by the intensity of Mórag’s stare. But she was cognizant of the lack of change in Finch’s expression despite being the target of said staring, and so her gaze quickly shifted to Finch’s driver just fast enough to maintain her decorum. 

“…Kyrie, you still maintain your understanding, correct?”

She was very quick to respond with nervous energy. “Y-yes, sir!”

“Please remind your Blade of this purpose at a later time.”

“Yes, sir…” she agreed, though the wind had noticeably been taken from her sails.

Satisfied with her acceptance despite Kyrie’s newly despondent disposition, the Special Inquisitor continued her instruction. “As I had been saying, you should all remain aware of this purpose as you take your first steps under my watch, but equally you must remind yourselves that you are not yet ready for it. You will all be tested in the coming days on your strengths and weaknesses, and at their conclusion, I will make my decision on your futures under my command.”

Taion nodded calmly at her explanation, having fully expected some sort of trial period. After all, beyond the concerns Mórag presumably had towards his own trustworthiness, Jac was an incredibly recent recruit, and from what he’d gathered the same was true of Kyrie. A special task force was only as strong as its weakest link; there was no chance that they would have been immediately placed in fieldwork.

Considering the presence that Mórag was in the room, it was somewhat shocking to hear Brighid’s voice for once, taking over for her Driver in explaining the day’s activities. “To facilitate this, you will undergo a series of training exercises under three categories: covert operations, obedience and group loyalty, and finally martial effectiveness.” 

After she had listed those metrics, the Blade seemingly called out Taion specifically, giving him a pointed glance. “You must display excellence in all three of these categories to pass Lady Mórag’s judgement. It will not be enough to be a threatening foe in a one on one fight; you will be required to dutifully follow the commands of your commanding officer, and must be able to gather information auspiciously, not suspiciously. It will be no easy task, but I earnestly believe you all have the potential to succeed.”

The Special Inquisitor had been watching the chosen six quietly, but once Brighid had finished her speech, Mórag took over instruction like she had never ceased speaking. Taion couldn’t help but find the connection between the Driver and Blade to be rather impressive, idly wondering if he could achieve that level of unity with Adenine… or if he’d had as strong of a connection with Eunie.

“Where’s Taion when I need ‘im?”

Taion’s brow furrowed at the strangely timed memory… if he could even call it that. It must have been some sort of recollection, of course, but it seemed a strange thing for Eunie to have ever said… nevermind within earshot. He was so caught up on the bizarre idea that he almost missed what Mórag actually said next.

“Please follow me outside.”

Slightly jolting from his thoughts, he nevertheless complied, following Jac and Yachik outside. Stepping out the doors into the dusty yard, Taion quickly gained a suspicion of what was to come next.

“For today’s first assessment you shall each engage in sparring,” Mórag revealed, just as expected. “As I do not have personal experience with each of your specialties, for the most part…” Mórag shot him a quick glance. “…I will use this opportunity to learn. To begin our session, I shall ask Kyrie and Finch to spar with Taion and Adenine. Make your preparations quickly.”

Not waiting to be told twice, Taion retrieved both of Adenine’s Knuckle Claws, but left his own gauntlet dispelled for now. Preparing himself with some quick stretches, he watched as Kyrie threw around Finch’s heavy Shield Hammer, a far cry from her dual guns in Aionios. The weapon itself was new to him, though, as despite surface level similarities to Sena’s own mallet, the name and design suggested a greater defensive utility… and likely weaker offensive profile, considering the heads were suspended on either side of the handle.

As for elements, Taion had been led to believe not much headway could be made with Adenine alone, on account of Finch sharing her proficiency for harnessing the power of winds. This would leave the Drivers as the likely most important factor for the duel, a status quo that Taion was quite happy with… but he was also aware of previous instruction on nurturing his connection with his Blade, and how it would likely be a factor that Mórag was looking for.

With that in mind, he turned to Adenine, who was preparing their affinity link as they had practised, and asked her a question. “Do you suspect Finch will present a threat?”

Adenine considered this with a glance in her direction. “I’m not too sure. While it's clear that she can be rather passive when she wants to be, not to mention forgetful, I doubt she would be here if she could not work alongside her Driver. After all, they’ve been together longer than we have.”

Taion nodded to acknowledge her arguments. “That is a fair point. Perhaps there’s more to their duo that meets the eye… I’ll keep my guard up.”

“As will I. But don’t fight too passively; speed will undoubtedly be an asset here.”

“Of course, Adenine.”

Taking his place so that Mórag and Brighid were perfectly between both himself and Kyrie, he gave their adjudicator a quick glance in confirmation. Once the Special Inquisitor had received the same nod from Kyrie, though noticeably less confident, both Driver and Blade stepped away from the arena.

“Fight until your foe has been knocked down,” she ruled. “Do not aim your weapon to injure; aim only to disarm your opponent. And, of course, show restraint.” 

Taion huffed at yet another pointed message but still raised his weapons in time with his opposition. Satisfied with the ceremony, the special Inquisitor raised a hand in preparation.

“Ready? Begin!”

The moment Mórag made the salute to strike, Taion dashed at Kyrie, his connection to Adenine fueling him as she pushed her Driver forward. Before the slower fighter could really leave her mark, she was forced to block his first punch, making a shocked noise as she did. Seeing an opportunity for turnabout, she pushed him away and swung, missing Taion narrowly but predictably and letting him go in for a rush of quicker blows that Finch was forced to block instead.

The avian Blade’s barrier was strong… much stronger than he expected, yet still within his own abilities to outmanoeuvre as he forced her to adjust with a sidestep. But despite his focus on the fight, he was suddenly distracted from the task; the moment he got past Finch to push against Kyrie’s defences once more, Eunie’s voice returned, louder and more unfamiliar.

“But I’ve got one last hope… one last reliable guy to call on.”

Taion couldn’t help but exclaim in surprise. “What?”

Kyrie looked at him with obvious confusion as she pulled back, clearly having not heard her words. “Eh? I didn’t say anythin’!”

Aware of how he must have looked, he began to apologise. “Sorry, I…”

But he didn’t even finish his sentence before he heard her voice again.

“Come on, Taion!”

Quietly, he mumbled his partner’s name. “Eunie…”

As his vision faded, his grip was lost, and Adenine’s weapons fell to the floor. He could hear voices calling his name in concern, but as he was losing consciousness, he could not distinguish them from one another. Falling down without another word, his eyes rolled back… and then he was gone.

~~~

As Noah stretched himself awake, the camp was startled to hear an audible crack, its volume surprising even Noah himself. Releasing the tension in his arms in response, he was dissatisfied to learn that it had not magically solved the soreness in his limbs, inherited from two very long nights worlds apart.

“Uh, are you okay mate?” Reyn asked confusedly from a short distance away, remarking on his visible wincing as he escaped the confines of his cot. “Do I need to get Sharla over here? Well, if she didn’t hear it already.”

“No!” Noah disagreed through a hiss of pain. “No, no, I’ll live. Just a bit sore from last night.”

Reyn definitely wasn’t convinced, but he shrugged it off anyway. “If you say so, man. Don’t be a joker about that sort of thing, though – your muscles will hate ya for it!”

Noah couldn’t help but smirk at the familiarity of that advice. “Don’t worry, I won’t be too cavalier. I’m sure breakfast will do me good.”

“Well, if you combo it with a stretch or two, it definitely will. Come on then.”

And it did… though he kinda resented Reyn actually forcing him to stretch. Noah couldn’t help it,  his thoughts were all over the place after his talk with Mio. And much of those thoughts were being targeted at a single person, who he had yet to see all morning. Of course, once he did finally spot the Nopon in question in a tent, he was facing away from him and tinkering with Lucky Seven, probably seeing if he could fix its new proclivities.

“Any luck, Riku?” Noah interjected, figuring he shouldn’t be confrontational despite his frustrations.

Hearing his voice, Riku jumped almost imperceptibly, but Noah had known him long enough to notice anyway. “Afraid not, Noah – solution to Lucky Seven’s tampering still hidden like Ropl in sand. Good to see friend awake at last.”

Noah hummed in dissatisfaction. “Even though you haven’t actually looked at me yet?”

“Riku is busy! Cannot take attention away from- hey!”

He was interrupted by Noah picking up the sword from its holder, finally forcing Riku to actually look him in the eyes. “Come on, Riku. If you couldn’t fix my power frame, you can’t fix what A’s done to Lucky Seven. What you can actually do is talk to me.”

A furrowed brow seemed to indicate that Riku could reluctantly concede the point about his repairs, but he still ended up being standoffish about the rest of his suggestion. “What is there to talk about?”

“I Interlinked with Mio last night.”

“Meh? Riku did not notice any Ouroboros form running around!”

“That’s because I went to her side, instead of the other way around. And I wasn’t the only one. From what Mio told me this morning, Lanz found Sena too.”

The Nopon did not fail to notice his less than jovial tone despite the revelation. “…Riku want to say this is momentous occasion, but something tell Riku there is more to it than that. Do not drag out any longer – what has Noah learned?”

Noah sighed as the moment of truth arrived. For almost anyone else, he would have to phrase this delicately, but Noah had a hunch this wasn’t new to the object of his interrogation.

“We’re not just in our home worlds, split apart once more. Rather, we’ve all found ourselves transported into the past of them…we’ve gone backwards in time. But that’s not news to you, is it Riku?”

For the first time in a long while, Noah recognised genuine shock on his friend’s face as the Nopon was left briefly speechless, unable to even sputter out his thoughts. When Riku did speak up, it was hurried and stuttered, betraying the gravity of the discovery for both of them.

“Meh-meh?! How did- Noah should not- Who told friend this?!”

“Well, Mio relayed it to me, but it was the miraculously alive Moebius Y that told her the truth. And though I wouldn’t normally trust a word they say… it all makes too much sense to be passed off as just coincidence and lies.”

Noah couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at the way his response made Riku grumble under his breath. Clearly he was displeased, but also very aware of how difficult it’d be to weasel his way out of giving an explanation. After another tense second, he seemed to give up his internal battle, letting out a sigh of his own.

“Mio has told friend the truth,” he confirmed. “Noah and friends are in the past of Bionis, while Mio and friends are in the past of Alrest. Something with Origin gone terribly wrong…”

“So you really did know this whole time. No wonder you’ve been fitting in so well. Of course, that raises the next important question… Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because Riku never planned to tell anyone! Noah was no exception.”

A gobsmacked expression instantly overtook Noah’s face at his reveal. “You planned not to?! Fire and sparks… What would possess you to keep that information secret from quite literally everyone, never mind just me?”

“Because Riku the only one who has to know!” Riku retorted, more serious than he ever remembered him being. “Think, Noah – if Riku tell anyone about the future now, what happens to the past that created them?! Riku not want to take that risk! That why Riku try to keep things on track as best he can. Seems to be losing battle, but that beside the point.”

“…You sound like A,” Noah said dejectedly, slowly taking in what the Nopon had said. “I’m guessing by ‘losing battle’ you’re referring to things you’re sure aren’t supposed to be in this time, like the black fog and Moebius?”

“Those two the most concerning, yes. But people far more numerous than just Moebius. Ashera, Ethel, Bolearis… friends not supposed to be here, Riku know that much.”

“Mm,” Noah hummed, remembering his last conversation. “Considering what Mio told me about Miyabi, I had a feeling, but I suppose she’ll be glad to hear we’re not being unreasonable.”

There was a moment of silence between the strained friends as they took in each other’s revelations. When Noah spoke up once more, his thoughts had drifted to his first days in the past, revealing one key thing he needed to know.

“Riku… I have just one more question I need you to answer for now.”

“Friend have captive audience. Go ahead.”

Noah took a breath. “Did you know Fiora was going to die?”

A beat of eternity passed before he answered. “Yes. Not when, nor how… but Riku knew it would happen.”

“And you let it happen?”

“It was as little Riku’s choice as it was Noah’s.”

Noah grimaced at the brazen assertion, but couldn’t find the energy to argue. Instead, he turned to leave, looking over his shoulder to end the conversation. 

“…That’s all I needed to know.”

Without looking back to see Riku’s reaction, Noah left the tent and returned to the tranquil morning air, hoping it would distract him from the storm of his emotions. Releasing a heavy breath as he turned his attention away from his frustrations for the moment, he began to think on exactly where they would be heading today when Ashera’s voice greeted him.

“Hey, Noah! Wow, they weren’t kidding about you pulling up okay. From what they described last night, I’d imagined you being all cuts and bruises!”

“I don’t really blame you,” Noah admitted, nervously rubbing the back of his neck as she left her tent, “but I suppose we can be thankful the fog didn’t take advantage of your true abilities. How are you feeling?”

She shrugged at his concern. “Eh, I’ve felt worse. Beyond a little pain in the neck I don’t have much to complain about.”

Neck pain? Noah noted internally. That’s strange… I made a conscious effort to avoid it. Perhaps it's a symptom of her concussion?

“Sounds like you’re still raring to go, then,” he told her after his brief silence.

“Oh, you bet. Considering this whole possession business, I’m pretty eager to leave this dump behind… I’m even kinda looking forward to the climb.”

“The climb?”

Ashera raised an eyebrow, a familiar smirk on her face that told Noah he wasn’t going to enjoy this explanation. “You didn’t hear? The stairs may be up, but the transporter doesn’t actually work. We have to climb up the statues ourselves to reach the forest!”

Though he briefly had hoped Ashera was simply joking, her expression didn’t shift to anything beyond mild bemusement, and the truth of it soon set in. Not for the first time, Noah cursed internally, blaming Dickson for yet another sleight.

I get the feeling Lanz would enjoy the climb, but suppose I can at least be glad that Eunie isn’t dealing with this nonsense, he mused later as their camp finished packing up. Though there’s always the worry she’s somehow found herself in a worse spot…

~~~

“Damil!”

Eunie called to the injured guardsman in desperation, but her shout did nothing to save him from his fate. Failing down onto his back, his grip on sword and shield lost, Damil briefly rested on the forest floor before he disappeared into light, his ether absorbed by the monster he had fought against. 

He was not the first to be lost. Moments earlier, Garan had been slain in a desperate attempt to save Damil, becoming the first domino that would decide the fate of this battle. Now only Zeon and Aizel stood with their shield aloft to protect their charge, while Eunie stood with Melia, healing an injured Hogard back to his feet.

“Lady Melia!” Aizel pleaded, within a second of reprieve from the fight. “Withdraw to the Nopon village, and let us handle this beast!”

Their temporary distance from the rampaging Telethia was certainly her best chance to escape, as long as the rest of their group held the monster off. Eunie could clearly see that, but Melia, stubborn as she had suddenly become, was not willing to accept the sacrifice of lives. Well… perhaps it’d be more accurate to say that Eunie should have seen the stubbornness coming.

“No, Aizel! Do you really expect me to run and save myself?”

“Permit us this once, Lady Melia. It is our honour and our duty to protect you with our lives!”

Before Melia, or Eunie for that matter, could chide Aizel on his cavalier attitude, Hogard dashed back to the forefront of the fight, leaving Eunie’s healing ring. “Do not fear for us. Flee!”

“Please, your Highness!” Zeon joined in, hopeful one more voice would dislodge her from her position.

Unfortunately Melia remained stubbornly insistent. “I will not. I cannot return to the capital with this monster still standing!”

“Oh come on, Melia!” Eunie condemned, exasperation leaking into her tone. “Normally I’d love to keep throwin’ down, but we’re seriously outgunned here! You’re the important one, Your Highness – get outta here!”

Before the princess could debate them further, the ground shook before them, heralding the return of the Telethia. As it landed just beyond their reach, Eunie saw something she hadn’t noticed before: a wreathing of black fog, clinging to the monster’s skin in an ominous, crackling aura. And when she finally found its eyes… they glowed a menacing orange.

Oh spark, Eunie swore internally. I don’t know what this stuff is doing here, but that’s not normal!

“Melia, I mean it! Run!”

But the princess had neither chance to flee or fight. Gathering ether around it, the Telethia roared with gathered power, flaring it off towards the battered High Entia in a surging wave. Eunie had seen that same type of attack leave Garan and Damil as nothing more than their weapons and armour, but what was she supposed to do?

Snuff it, all or nothin’!

Pulling Zeon towards her with a free hand, she slammed her gunrod down next to Melia with the other, creating a field of healing ether to try and neutralise the effects of the attack. As the wave of energy surged into them, Aizel and Hogard were left just out of reach from the combination of Zeon’s shield and her field, dissolving into the atmosphere as light just as their comrades had. With their destruction, only Eunie and Zeon remained to protect the High Entia princess as the monster took flight again.

“Aizel! Hogard! No!”

Melia’s distraught cries marked their darkest hour, as the trio who had barely held on found themselves forced to find a way out of an impossible battle. Defeat the beast or die… Eunie was completely speechless for any ideas, and Zeon looked just as shaken, his resolve crumbling before her eyes. But even as they faltered, Melia remained steadfast. Clutching her staff to her chest, she began to gather light around its point, seeking to avenge those who the monster had taken from her.

“Aizel!” she called to the ether, slowly moving her staff back upright. “Hogard! Garan! Damil! Bestow the light of your life unto me!”

However, whether by sensing the gathering power or simply hearing her voice, the Telethia suddenly took notice of the princess’s actions. Moving with a hitherto unseen speed and agility, it turned and charged at Melia once more, not bothering to launch an ether attack over simply slamming into the three remaining opponents. It had the desired effect; just as Melia was raising her staff to the sky, she was knocked off her feet, her concentration broken and gathered ether dispelled.

Sparkin’ sparks! Eunie cursed as she hissed in pain. This snuffin’ thing… I don’t know how t’ kill it! Where’s Taion when I need ‘im? …No, what am I even saying?! Interlinking’s a pipe dream!

Her head knew that to be true, of course. But as the Telethia returned its gaze to them, preparing one last ether assault that would make them all no better than clock fuel without the extra protection of their dead allies, Eunie’s heart still called out desperately to another. While Zeon stood protectively over his liege with what little strength he had left, Eunie forced herself to her feet, using her gunrod to stabilise herself as she did.

Well… may as well give it a shot.

“Eunie, get behind me!” Zeon pleaded through strained breaths. “It’ll kill you!”

“Zeon, it’ll kill all of us,” she corrected. “And nothing we’ve been doing can stop it from doing that. But I’ve got one last hope… one last reliable guy to call on.”

“What are you talking about?! Don’t be daft, Eunie!”

She laughed joylessly as she watched the monster finish its preparations. “Well mate, the good news is that you’ll either see exactly what I’m talking about… or we’ll all be dead. So let's give it one last shot.”

And right on cue, the Telethia released another torrent of ether towards them, this one dark and crackling. In defiance, Eunie gave one last shout.

“Come on, Taion!”

And her call was answered. Taion’s presence suddenly returned to her, changing their form into the familiar guise of her Ouroboros once more. Instinctively raising a shield to protect their friends, the powerful laser was dispelled, leaving Zeon and Melia very much alive… but equally as confused.

“What is that?!” the guardsman couldn't help but exclaim.

“Oi, you’re welcome!” Eunie quipped in response. When he shrunk backwards in fear, she added, “It’s Eunie, ya dolt!”

“Eunie?” Melia questioned, sounding a mix of nervous and curious. “What happened to you?”

“Don’t worry, love, it’s nothin’ permanent. Just a little something to get us over the line!”

Taion couldn’t help but scoff at that. Of course you’d assume that.

The gentle chastisement of her old pal caught Eunie’s attention immediately. Missed you too, ya dork! Thanks for the save bud.

I did miss you as well, Eunie, but I suppose we can figure out the details later. After all, we have bigger fish to fry.

“Oh, right!” she audibly agreed, turning forward to see the shock of the Telethia steadily abating. “First order of business: healin’ you two up!”

With a swish of her hands, the air around the Interlink was filled with healing energy, revitalising the depleted High Entia back to life. It was refreshing to be able to do it again – Eunie had missed the ease at which their partnership allowed her to help people. But now that they were safe… it was time to get wild.

“And for our second order…” Taion continued with confidence, “we subjugate the threat!”

Dashing fearlessly towards the Telethia, he spun the bladed wings of the Interlink in the monster's face, cutting its skin even as it attempted to fly away. The roar of pain was music to her ears, but to her disappointment it didn’t take long for it to suddenly recover its wits. Retaliating back with a full body charge, Taion was shocked to notice the magnitude of its force despite his assault - it felt comparable to some of the stronger threats he’d faced, as if rising to meet a new enemy. Now forced backwards to long range, Eunie knew exactly what to do next.

“Oh, you don’t want me in your face?” she taunted, transforming the wings into a rifle. “Well that suits us just fine! Time for a taste of our Sacred Cannon!”

As she charged a devastating beam that would sting for even the toughest Moebius, it would have been hard for the Telethia not to notice its impending doom. Unsurprisingly, it began to fly around her as she prepared the attack, charging a beam of its own in hopes of both avoiding her attack and countering in kind. Unfortunately for the monster, Eunie was the best kind of sniper… the kind that doesn't miss.

“No escape for you, mudder! Take this!”

Perfectly following its trajectory, Eunie took the shot. On a good day, her flawless marksmanship would have immediately won them the battle, rending the monster’s head from its body. Even on her worst days, it would have at least left the beast in a world of hurt, securing the victory through attrition if nothing else. And yet, despite her almost 10 terms of training, her impeccable record… Eunie completely missed! The Telethia twisted away from the beam, not even being grazed by the ether as it continued its flight.

“The spark?!” she cursed. “How did it-”

She didn’t get to finish her disbelief before it unloaded an attack in return, forcing her to block it once again. Growling as she returned focus to it, her partner couldn’t help but worry about her miss.

Eunie, what’s wrong?! Taion fretted. You’d normally land that shot every time!

I know, okay?! I’m just rusty – keep going!

As long as you’re sure…

Taking his uneasy acceptance as a cue to return to the fray, Eunie began firing off smaller shots from her wings, eager to prove her accuracy once more. But the more she continued to miss, the more frustrated she became, as Taion naturally noticed. Yet even when he briefly took over the assault… the beast still avoided everything!

That’s it, range is cancelled! Eunie declared after she’d long had enough. I’m just gonna hit this thing in its stupid face!

I was just about to suggest the same change in strategy, Taion agreed. Clearly it has a frustrating knack for dodging what it can see from a distance.

Well then, what are we waiting for? Let’s sock it to it!

Leading with a dashing kick, followed by a slash of their wings, the Interlinked duo made good on their promise to take the fight to the monster’s face. And yet, despite their naturally superior agility, coupled with the speed of their attacks, the Telethia still managed to avoid a good portion of their blows! After sidestepping a particularly well placed slash against all odds, it retaliated with its own wings and tail, once again leaving their Interlink a distance away from their overly resilient target.

This mudder! Eunie couldn’t help but curse again. Whatever that fog is doing to it, it's far beyond kosher!

I must agree, Taion grumbled. Even D was less consistent with his evasion than this!

But he was also a lot smaller… So this had better work!

Flying further into the air and flaring her Ouroboros wings, Eunie stared down the Telethia with contempt. As she prepared to fire, she gave it one last ‘spark you’ in defiance.

“You’ve been a slippery snuffer so far, but you’re still too chunky to avoid this! Eat it!”

And with that declaration, she rained down a storm of ether feathers towards the Telethia. Even now, it tried to avoid the projectiles, but there were simply too many for its large body to dodge all of them. It screeched in pain as the arrows pierced through its skin, finally slowing the monster down… but their relief was short-lived. Almost as soon as they had stopped firing, so too did a terrible omen begin – an all-too-familiar bleeping.

“What is that noise?” Zeon questioned, his concern evident even as he remained in a steadfast defensive position before his princess. “That beeping?!”

“Beeping?!” Eunie repeated in frustration. “Spark, it’s way too early for overheating! If we don’t get rid of this thing, we’re toast!”

“Then what do you suggest we do?” Taion returned, attempting to be a calming influence as always.

“I don’t know! If I did, it’d already be dead!”

Seeing her would-be saviour apparently arguing with herself, Melia called to their fused form with concern. “Eunie, what’s wrong?!”

Seeing the monster continue to move even now, Eunie growled in frustration before answering her. “We’re running out of time! This thing needs to go, and now!”

Her once-Queen took note of their desperation, but only provided a calm nod as her response. “I have an idea. Keep it constrained and I will vanquish this beast!”

“Alright, Melia, but this had better work!”