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It was a strained sort of atmosphere in Frontier Village. Eunie and Noah had just witnessed the reveal of Riki’s ‘littlepon’, and that was surprising enough, but it was the next person to speak up that truly made them feel a bit crazy.
“Riku,” Eunie began slowly, and very obviously strained, “are you the son of the Queens-damned Heropon?”
“Yes.”
His single word answer made her throw her hands up in the air and walk away, muttering something about how she should have known. Noah didn’t move an inch, and their friends weren’t that much better, though they were hardly glued to the floor.
“I feel like you should have maybe said something earlier,” Shulk helpfully supplied, the first to break the stalemate.
“Perhaps. But Riku did not wish to make light of serious situation before it was resolved. Now, Riku can explain without threat of Dinobeast.”
That answer felt like a copout to Noah, but Shulk seemed to find it reasonable enough. “I guess so. Still, it sounds like you have some people to make it up to now.”
Riku hummed in agreement, before sending a look Noah’s way. “Indeed. Riku will perhaps need to do some grovelling, but will return before friends depart for Eryth Sea.”
With that assurance, he left, in short order pulled along by his sister Nene, and followed by Riki. Noah could only sigh, unable to quite reconcile the cryptic Nopon’s behaviour with the revelation of his origin. As the rest of their friends began talking amongst themselves, Eunie stomped back into the village, pulling Noah aside without a word.
“Noah, I think I get it,” she began unprompted.
He responded at first by just squinting at her non-sequitur. “Get… what?”
“Riku’s whole deal! He’s been confusing the snuff out of me, especially since we talked on the way to the Telethia, and that little stunt of his just then finally put the pieces together.”
“I see. Well then, don’t keep me in suspense.”
“Look, from what you’ve told me, it seems like Nopon in Aionios just sort of… lived forever. They all came from the worlds before, and then they just stuck around, probably slowly forgetting things over the years. So that includes Riku, too.”
“Right, but we knew that already.”
Eunie elbowed him to shut him up. “I wasn’t finished yet! We just saw that Riki is his father. And that probably means he knows all these people! No wonder he’s scared half to death about changing anything, it’s his family and friends on the line!”
Noah couldn’t help but gape a little at her deduction. The pieces certainly fit together, but if that was the truth, then it painted a grim picture of Riku’s situation. He could well have already known every single person they’d travelled with so far, including… wait.
“But that means… he knows Melia? He knew the Queen all along?!”
“Guess it does, at that. Makes me think he’s not quite so ‘common variety’ as we once thought.”
Noah chuckled at that. “I think I’ve known that for a long time, Eunie. Wonder if one of these people is his ‘Masterpon,’ too.”
“Hmm…” Eunie hummed, letting the seriousness of the discussion fall away. “Maybe? Shulk does seem to mirror him a bit.”
“…Huh. Guess he does. Something tells me he’ll never confirm it, though.”
“Oh, of course not. But at least we understand him a bit better, right?”
“I suppose.” As his thoughts returned to the Wraith, Noah frowned, grumbling under his breath. “Wish I could say the same for our situation.”
There was a tangible silence following his contemplation, Eunie too seeming to have much on her mind. When she spoke up again, though, her topic felt… rather out of left field.
“Sparks, could you imagine if we had to deal with this nonsense in Alrest instead? I don’t think I’d last a day.”
Noah chuckled involuntarily. “If we were all there instead, you mean? No, I don’t imagine it would be particularly smooth sailing. I've yet to hear of an Alrestian with wings, and poor Lanz; he’d be called a Blade within seconds. But at least he could pretend to be from some unknown Titan… which is better off than Sena on the Bionis, I suppose.”
Eunie returned his laughter. “Oh man, nothing would make ‘fire hair’ seem acceptable to these folks. And Mio’s ears wouldn’t be much better, would they?”
“No… No they would not.”
“Well, you better thank the Queen that it's not what we’re dealing with, then. Chin up, Noah - we’ll get through this yet!” Satisfied with herself, Eunie elbowed him in the side and walked away, grin on her face.
It took Noah a couple seconds for his thought process to catch up with him. When he did, he couldn’t help but smile in return.
“Did you come up with that whole hypothetical to make me feel better? You really are something else…”
His thoughts did not linger on what could have been any longer. But, in another world, on another side, perhaps it was not merely a possibility… Perhaps it was reality.
~~~===|||===~~~
Mio’s first instinct as she felt the sun on her eyes was to shut them tightly. Her second was to yawn and stretch, then cover her poor eyes with her hands so they could adapt better to her new surroundings. Eventually this paid off, and after she brushed her hair out of her eyes, she could finally squint towards her apparent choice of sleeping location… the base of a tree.
It was at this point that Mio realised both that she wasn’t sleeping on anything but the grass beneath her, and that she was completely alone. She hadn’t really been alone since the Eclipse - her friends, and Noah especially, were eager to not lose her again, even for a moment. And yet here she was, beneath a tree by her lonesome…
…and with a complete memory of Aionios.
She rose with a start, any lingering tiredness replaced by equal parts panic and relief. Origin certainly hadn’t killed her, but Queen Nia was very clear that the memories of that transient place would fade from their minds as they were reborn on their home worlds. Eager to dispel a lingering fear, Mio tapped her left temple, and… the Iris network didn’t appear. If she was still in Aionios, then her Iris would have to have been removed, but it was more likely she was in the new world instead. She breathed a sigh of relief.
Still, even if Aionios was gone, that left the question of where Mio had ended up in its place, and especially where her friends had ended up. For now, she’d need to look around and scout out her surroundings… just maybe a little more casually than a soldier would. She rose to her feet, and got ready to set off, when she noticed a strange detail about her surroundings she’d missed before now.
This small grassy area, surrounded by stone walls, featured only two trees as natural landmarks, but there were plenty of unnatural things to see. What appeared to be the wreckage of Levnises, almost Kevesi in their material, were strewn through the clearing, yet the surroundings hardly resembled a warzone - it was as if this place was a graveyard of destroyed machines. The thought was a confusing one, but as she knelt down next to the metal to give it a cursory look, Mio could at least confirm they weren’t Kevesi.
Before she could stand up to keep walking, she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Turning her head slowly, purposefully pushing down her instincts to meet the newcomer with suspicion, her eyes settled on a blonde-haired stranger in a very unusual red-and-black attire, a scrappy sword on his back. He stopped his approach as their eyes met, his widening in surprise, which gave her enough time to conclude pretty definitively that he wasn’t much like her - he was more similar to Noah and Taion, at least on first impression. Though his gaping fish mouth made her wonder if some Agnian scales weren’t hiding somewhere…
Eventually, he seemed to sum up his courage to close his mouth and step forward, approaching her with something less akin to fear than surprise. When he spoke, he expressed a curiosity that reminded her of Valdi, though perhaps less scatterbrained.
“Uh, hello. Sorry, I don’t see people other than me looking at the wreckage very often. And I don’t think we’ve met…”
Mio smiled, but shook her head, returning to her feet. “No, I don’t think you have. I’m called Mio. And you are?”
“Oh, right! My name’s Shulk. I work in the weapons development lab down in the Colony. Excuse my curiosity, but what was it about these Mechon that caught your eye?”
Mio felt like she’d been pulled in three different directions at lightning speed. Weapons development made her frown, the mention of a Colony made her curious, and her questions on what a Mechon even was made it painfully obvious just how little Mio could answer. In the end, with a consternation that must have been visible, she explained herself as best she could… which wasn’t very much.
“I suppose I was looking for a sign telling me where I was… and this wreckage told me very little. Still, you mentioned a Colony? Is that nearby?”
She wasn’t sure if her reply had the desired effect, considering his briefly narrowed eyes. But Shulk answered her anyway, any questions overshadowed by a desire to help.
“Uh, yes, Colony 9 is just down this path. You can’t miss it, really.”
Well, that explained his confusion, she supposed, though it only amplified hers. To her memory, Colony 9’s surroundings didn’t have a place like this, and this place shouldn’t have been Aionios anyway. “Alright. Is there any chance you could lead the way?”
“Oh, sure! But I’d like to get a look at today’s wreckage first, if you wouldn’t mind. I think I see an M69 over there…”
Mio didn’t even get a chance to answer before he went over to check on the wreckage he was looking at. Sighing, she followed him slowly, hearing him mutter about how the armour would be perfect as a shield, when suddenly the wreckage started shuddering. Unsure of what it could even be, she still leapt into action on instinct, summoning forth her Sundancer rings to her hands and shouting to warn him.
“Shulk! Get back!”
Rushing in front of him as he fell backwards to the grassy floor, she struck the rising shell with both her weapons straight on, pushing it back with all the force she could muster. The impact sent her foe careening into the rockwall behind it, where it promptly rolled over… revealing a now unconscious Krabble beneath.
“Oh…” Shulk sighed in relief. “It’s just using the Mechon armour as a shell. Still, that was amazing! Where’d you get those weapons?!”
Noticing his distinct change in tone, Mio fought the urge to hide her weapons away. “Oh, uh… I had some weaponsmiths improve them. They’re something of an original.”
“I’m not surprised! Those edges… are they Ether blades? I thought they were still theoretical, beyond the Monado! If only I could meet these weaponsmiths…”
Mio couldn’t help but sigh, the mystery of her current circumstances rearing its ugly head once more. “That might be difficult; I’m afraid I’m a bit lost at the moment. Hopefully your Colony will have some clues for me.”
Shulk nodded, disappointed but understanding. “Oh, I see. Well, we better make tracks then. At least the monsters shouldn’t be a problem with you around.”
“Right. Lead the way”
Then, after Shulk grabbed the metallic shell, they set off, even as a million questions still resounded through Mio’s head. She wondered how long it would take to answer them.
~~~
Taion’s lack of answers felt like a taunt.
When you wake up in a painfully white city called Alcamoth, full of people with the same sort of wings as your old Ouroboros partner, you wonder if such a circumstance was created specifically to punish you for an unknown sleight. Especially when you weren’t supposed to remember that partner existed. His one reassurance was that he was not the only wingless person in this city, even if he was far outnumbered - the fact that they were all referred to as ‘Homs’ was a very curious distinction.
Out of place and out of options, Taion took solace in research. In contrast to the vast sea of information that was the Iris network, he found a certain amount of relaxation in holding physical books so rich with the history of his new locale, all contained within a vast library. And it was certainly a history! Unlike Aionios’s near complete lack of written accounts from antiquity, so much of the world’s past was left for him to discover on the pages. Soon he found himself equipped with the names and important events that would likely shape his time here.
The first was the name of the world itself… or perhaps more accurately the two. Not unlike the great sea that stretched beneath Aionios, an endless sea stretched across this new world, inhabited only by two titanic landmasses… quite literally Titans. Beneath his feet was the Bionios, of which he was at the head, while opposed diametrically was the Mechonis. Accounts of this second Titan were far more haphazard - beyond a connection between them, known as Sword Valley, it seemed apparent that they were separated beyond just their location.
And history certainly provided the reason why. In a time very ancient even to these people, the two Titans were alive, and sworn enemies. Their battle ended with the death of both Titans, leaving the Bionios’s lifeless corpse to foster life. Not only the creatures that roamed this world too, but the Homs, Nopon, and… High Entia. By process of elimination, he supposed they were all the winged people he’d met both as Kevesi and within the city itself. If he were to assume he’d somehow ended up in the world that Kevesi soldiers originated from, that would only leave the people more reminiscent of Lanz as unknowns. It was… concerning to see their exclusion from what was otherwise a very helpful resource.
As for the land itself, it had taken Taion an unfortunate amount of time (for his standards anyhow) to realise that the Sword Valley was not only the same weapon that had been used by the Mechonis to fight the Bionis… but that it was also the same weapon that would become the centrepoint of Swordmarch in Aionios. It left little room for doubt about where he’d ended up.
What it had left much room for doubt about was… where did he even go from here? It was not impossible for him to be the only member of Ouroboros, or even the only person in the entirety of Aionios, to remember what they’d been through in the Endless Now. By that same metric, it was possible that all his friends had ended up in the reconstructed world that Queen Nia originated from… yet equally as likely that he’d find all his Agnian comrades somewhere around here, just as confused as he was.
He supposed there was only one way to find out. His time in the survey branch wasn’t for nothing - Taion was trained to find intel, no matter how difficult it was to reach, and he was very good at that job. There were answers here somewhere… all he had to do was find them. Though perhaps there was something to say about blending in a little better - these High Entia seemed to find him a very peculiar sight, their harsh eyes trained on him wherever he went.
…Amidst the eyes trained upon him, one set in particular widened in a facsimile of alarm. If he had turned to see them, he would have seen silver hair and an orange pendant, hiding a strange light in its crystal.
~~~
Sena could remember the times in her life where the attention on her felt unbearable. The first days after freeing Colony 4, Ouroboros’s arrival in Colony 9, the painful moment of the eclipse before Mio… M appeared. She had, in many ways, grown to prefer the moments where others' eyes were away from her, like a background character from one of the Founders Tale books.
She didn’t realise that the absence of attention could be so haunting until now.
The place she’d awoken in was an unbearably large factory. Despite the movement all around her, there wasn’t a single other human in sight. It was almost enough to distract her from the revelation that Origin had restarted, yet she still remembered everything. But the factory did not care for Sena’s realisation; its gears and conveyors marched on, as did its robotic guards.
They were strange, those automatons. Sena had assumed some of them to be piloted Levnises at first, but they soon revealed themselves to be completely unmanned. And yet, they mostly ignored her presence, until one particularly ferocious one rushed at her, a flying thing with claws and jets. On instinct, Sena screeched, summoning forth her Meteor Smasher to block its attack… only for it to stop.
“…Huh?” Sena murmured out, glancing at its outstretched weapon. She kept the hammer out as it retracted backwards, but could only look on as the automaton once again left her alone. “Hey, come back here! Why isn’t anyone…”
Sighing in frustration that the first thing to acknowledge her existence didn’t even bother trying to kill her before forgetting about her, she dismissed her hammer, and trudged on. To her eyes, nothing had changed. But high above her, beyond her sight, a new drone observed her movements from that point forth. It wouldn’t be long before it was used as the waypoint, as Two Face units set off to meet her, their intentions clear.
Sena heard their engines before she saw their mechs. Suddenly aware of something changing, she turned her gaze above to see two bipedal Levnises falling from the sky. Throwing herself to the side in hopes of avoiding them, she found her collision with the cold metal floor to be rather painful, but anything was preferable to being crushed the moment she left the Endless Now. Pushing herself to her feet, she summoned out her weapon and turned back to the new arrivals…
…And noticed their Levnises reminded her a whole lot of oversized Ferrons. It was kind of uncanny, actually - they both had the double axes, the single eye, the spiky shoulders. Just about the only thing missing was the Flame Clock, replaced with a very green chest component, but hey, familiarity! It made her miss Segiri.
She didn’t miss her for long.
“You. Identify yourself promptly, or face destruction.”
The moment Sena heard the voice, tinny as it was through the speaker, she couldn’t help but exclaim in quiet shock, “Segiri?”
‘Segiri’ physically recoiled from the assertion, seemingly not far from the truth. But her compatriot, their Levnis painted with red stripes, elected to make her disbelief verbal instead.
“Hey, who told you that?! Stop stalling and answer her!”
She was caught off guard by how similar this new voice was too. She wondered if this other girl was Number 13… before remembering she was actively being threatened. Sparks, if the other girl was Segiri, it seemed she’d forgotten Sena like she was supposed to.
“Oh, uh, I’m Sena! Who are you guys?”
‘Segiri’, regaining some composure, retorted in a way very similar to how she did in Aionios. “I do not comprehend. Why would you ask who we are so casually after making a guess already? And while being threatened, no less.”
“I don’t think you need to question every weirdness about her, you know,” the other reckoned. “She just summoned a weapon out of thin air, I think that’s higher on our priorities!”
“It was on my list.”
“Why do you need a list?! We have a job to do, let's do it!”
“That was also on my list.”
“Agh- Meyneth’s mercy, Segiri! Can we just finish this up?! Egil is going to be so disappointed with us if we muck this up!”
Tilting her head at the bickering, Sena figured now would be the perfect time to interject. “So you are Segiri, then!”
The two Levnises went deadly silent for a moment, before the red one almost seemed to sigh. “Okay, this has officially run its course.” Jabbing one of her axes towards Sena, she demanded, “What the hell are you, and why are you here?!”
“Sorry, but… What do you mean by that?”
“Are you deaf?! Homs don’t go around pulling hammers out of their hair… Or setting their hair on fire in general, actually. And then there’s the blue lines! Either I’ve missed a century of evolution somewhere, or you’re not a Homs, and if you’re not a Homs, and not a High Entia, then what are you?!”
A beat of silence passed before Sena found any sort of answer in her head, and it wasn’t even one she liked very much. “I mean… I’m human? Agnian, if you wanna be specific? That doesn’t really narrow it down, but it’s true. Can’t really tell you why I’m here though - don’t know myself! Aha.”
Her awkward laughter seemed to clue the two aggressors in that they weren’t being very scary, so after a second they both simultaneously returned to a much more relaxed stance. After a moment, their hatches lifted, and revealed two familiar faces… just the ones Sena had expected, though perhaps a bit older.
“Your designation was Sena, correct?” Segiri asked her, and she nodded. “I am indeed known as Segiri, and this is my sister Fugiri. If you are displaced, perhaps you could accompany us back to Agniratha.”
“Hey, hold on a second sis!” the now named Fugiri, who was definitely Number 13, protested. “We can’t be making that call by ourselves! Egil’s gotta be the decider.”
“But surely he would reprimand us more for leaving a rogue element unsupervised within Central Factory?”
“Well he- I mean- Gah, fine. But we’re not letting her out of our sight, and we’re not getting attached, okay?”
“…I do not understand your insinuation, sister.”
Fugiri just sighed, and turned back to Sena. “Okay, you can come with us. Just don’t expect anything from Egil, okay? We’re in uncharted waters here, and I don’t know how he’ll react.”
She nodded. “Uh, okay then! Not sure who Egil is, but I guess I’ll find out!”
“Yeah, you definitely will. Come on then, we’ll have to carry you up.”
“Oh, really? That sounds fun.”
It ended up being a bit scary… but still pretty fun.
~~~
Noah’s eyes stung from the wind, the dusty breeze scratching every exposed part of his body. Since waking up in a new place, painfully aware of the memories of friends, feelings, and worlds that should have been forgotten, he’d been fruitlessly roaming these dead wastes, avoiding monsters and looking for some sort of shelter. He didn’t remember the last time he’d felt so alone - at least if he’d lost his memories of his travels with Ouroboros he wouldn’t know what he’d lost.
Eventually, after what felt like an eternity anew, throat parched and legs straining, Noah discovered something he hadn’t seen before. There were plenty of rusty metal structures and scaffolds among this desert, but before now they’d all represented false promises with no potential point of access in sight. But this one, at the edge of a cliff that showed him the cloud layer he must have been above stretching to the horizon, and a strange tree piercing the sky, he found a new point of interest - a rusty, but intact ladder. Mundane as it seemed, this actually led him to an opening into an equally rusty room, any further progress halted by a flimsy-looking fan.
More on instinct than anything else, Noah summoned forth his Blade, before abruptly remembering that not only had he thrown the Blade into the sea before Origin restarted, but he could no longer access his Iris. These issues seemed to have been completely irrelevant, as Lucky Seven materialised into his hands regardless. Thankful for the windfall, Noah easily sliced the fan casing in two, allowing access to the vent beyond.
As he emerged from its furthest extremity, he found a sight that was ill fitting in such a decrepit place. It was some sort of factory, such that he could only compare to a long abandoned mirror of Keves Castle, and yet its machinery was working overtime, producing what appeared to Noah to resemble automatons. At the very least, the sight gave him the distinct impression of mechanical weapons… and an awful feeling in the pit of his stomach.
So nothing’s changed, then, he mourned. Even with the Endless Now over, people still fight. It makes me feel rather naive, or maybe just foolish, to have been so optimistic. Still, if I’m here… maybe I can-
Noah could not even start drawing his sword before a rain of bullets suddenly accosted him. Jumping away from the artillery assault, he followed its trajectory to meet the eyes of what seemed to be an automaton itself… if a well-dressed one. It held two glove-like weapons in its hands, and its face was stiff and emotionless.
“Intruder detected,” a robotic but girlish voice rang out. “Threat evident. You must be detained immediately.”
“Threat?!” Noah protested. “I just needed a place to stay-”
“Engaging!”
With not a word more warning, the robotic assailant rushed towards him. He brought up his sword to block the punch, but he was sluggish to make the movement, and his arm buckled from the metallic impact. Pushing through his pain, he made to block their second strike, only for the strike to never connect; the weapons stopped a hair from his guard, and his opponent opted to fire off the cannons within them instead. His eyes could only widen as the explosion rocketed him backwards, careening into the hard metal wall.
Grimacing as he rose back to his feet, he gazed back towards the automaton, just in time to see them rushing at him. His sword arm, bruised and weak, was too slow; his assailant steely hands tightened around his neck. He attempted to swing his Blade at his foe, but his feeble attempt found no purchase, and led to it being swiftly removed from his hands. As his vision darkened, he found one question running through his breath-starved mind…
What had he done to deserve this new world?
~~~
As Eunie stumbled through the strange market she found herself in, she idly wondered what exactly she’d done to deserve this. Colony 30 could be frustrating to work with for reasons almost entirely beholden to two factors: its commander, and its Nopon. But now here she was on some sort of weird airship on a sea of clouds, surrounded by more of the furballs in one place than she’d ever seen, and that all seemed so easy by comparison. And all they asked for was her non-existent money!
Yeah, despite waking up with her memories as intact as her clothes, Origin didn’t bother giving her any gold to, you know, live off of. Someone would have to pay for this… but she kinda needed to find out who was responsible for this mess to make that happen. Really, for now, all she needed to do was get off this oversized wood plank; she was even sick of the way the people not looking to fleece her for gold were looking at her, too.
How was Eunie gonna do that? Well, she wasn’t Special Forces for nothing. She could sneak onto a ship if she damn well wanted to, and that was basically the only plan she had.
Guess that’s the problem with bein’ Special Forces, she mused. I was the shooty one, Noah was the planning one - they never really needed me to branch out much. Better hope this works, then.
Of course, the biggest problem with actually stowing away onto a ship was finding one that would allow her to stay hidden. If she was getting this many looks, she couldn’t just blend into a crowd, not without some sort of hood. Eunie had to find some route, and hiding place, that would make her completely hidden. A larger ship would have to do, and maybe one she could approach from an unorthodox angle…
It was around the time she had this thought that Eunie came upon a peculiar sight. Off the edge of the market ship she was trapped on, a metal-suited Nopon emerged from beneath the surface of clouds, and then swam towards the ship’s edge to pull himself up with a loose rope. Said rope floated on the top of the cloudy horizon like it was buoyant… like it was water.
At least it’s not literally more snuffin’ water, Eunie frowned as she formulated her plan. Doesn’t look like his suit’s drippin’ or anything like that, either. Welp, guess that means we’re going for the swimming approach, then.
She’d probably have to time this well; there were certainly eyes on every ship moored here, and they wouldn’t just let her ride for free. Listening out now for conversations that would give her some info to go off of, much like Taion would suggest, Eunie eventually caught wind of one conversation between one Nopon… and one human with ears like Mio’s. It was the reason she decided to listen in to begin with, and she was very glad she did.
“Friend being unreasonable!” the Nopon began. “Cargo cannot well leave without approval of Chairman!”
“The Chairman that’s missing?” the furry-eared one retorted. “Look, my clients will have my hide - and my cut - if I don’t at least get this cargo going before dusk! Don’t you salesman types have a protocol for this situation?”
“Protocol has not needed to be reviewed for at least 30 years of Argentum Trade Guild operations! Carlolo has not even read codes that far!”
“Well you better get reading, then! The longer I stay around here, the worse my chances are of my ship even making the journey - I need the profit so I can get the damn thing repaired. If I don’t hear back from you in an hour, I’m honouring our original schedule and leaving for Gormott regardless!”
The taller buyer walked off after this exchange was over, heading towards some docks, and leaving his Nopon business partner stewing. “Grr… Carlolo will not stand for this! Carlolo will… Damn it, where is Carlolo’s copy of constitution?!” Then the Nopon furiously waddled away, too.
Following the path her potential captain was walking led her to exactly what she’d wanted - a large, overloaded, and rundown ship on the back of a creature, that she could easily climb aboard from the sea of clouds it rested in. She couldn’t help but smirk. Before long, she’d chosen an opportune moment to jump into the strange sea (and how weird it felt as she dived!), snuck towards a hidden side of the ship, and clambered up the makeshift panelling until she was aboard, where she found an opportune spot between a couple crates and hunkered beneath a tarp.
It was a textbook success, really - a plan executed perfectly from beginning to end. Sure, she wasn’t actually home free yet, and her space was pretty cramped, but if it worked she’d never have to complain about this issue again, and that was all she needed for now. But, her good fortune made her forget about a concern that had briefly entered her head, preoccupied as she was with sneaking her way aboard…
…What exactly was Gormott? Would it be any better than the Noponic market she’d been marooned on? She had no clue… and unfortunately, there was only one way to find out.
~~~
Lanz had been rather eager to find out what lay on the other side of the Intersection. Of course, that didn’t mean much, considering he wasn’t even going to remember Aionios at all, but for that brief moment before he forgot all the people he’d met and friends he made, he was glad to feel some hope for the future.
Then he woke up, still remembering all of that, and instantly all his hope was replaced with confusion.
Gingerly sitting up, unable to make himself rush through the process, he found himself in a pretty strange scene. He was lying on some makeshift bedding, not unlike a camping setup, and situated underneath a similarly put-together tent. Rising to his feet from his place of rest, he saw that the scenery around him was just as strange… but rather beautiful. He’d awoken on a cliffside, overlooking a huge cavern, but you’d hardly feel inclined to call it one.
Instead of stalactites and dusty rock, this place was filled with Saffronia trees - more than even the Lost Colony, he’d say. The cavern roof was a very strange material, so bright it almost appeared to be somehow letting sunlight through, making the whole place rather bright - no wonder Lanz didn’t think he was underground at first. He couldn’t help but whistle at the sight of it all - wherever Origin had sent him, it was still a new frontier, and he could appreciate that.
He must have spent quite a while staring into the distance, looking at the water pools and strange flora, or the familiar monsters, because he soon wasn’t alone. Someone new gingerly approached him, clearly not sure where to start, but eventually clearing their throat to make themselves known. Turning towards them, he was surprised to see a very familiar looking Agnian… one whose name wasn’t coming up at the moment. Probably for the best - he wouldn’t be surprised if he was one of the ‘lucky few’ to remember the Endless Now.
“Hey there,” Lanz greeted. “Don’t suppose you were the one to give me the tent, were you?”
The violet-haired girl nodded. “Indeed. I spotted you unconscious on the roadside, and figured it was best to give you some level of shelter while I went looking around the surrounding area. You appeared stable, but I am unfortunately not a Healer, so if anyone else could have helped you, it would have been preferred.”
Lanz couldn’t help but chuckle at the way she worded it. “Well, I’m made of sterner stuff than most, so I suppose you got lucky this time. Anyway, to be proper about this; name’s Lanz. Thanks for the help, seriously.”
She gave a tentative smile in response. “Don’t mention it. My name is Nimue. If it’s not too probing of a question to ask… Where exactly are you from? Part of the reason I noticed you in the first place was because I had never quite seen someone like you before.”
Ah, brilliant, she was already grilling him for info. Something about her really felt familiar now… “Where I’m from, huh… If I had to give my best answer, I’d say Keves. But something tells me you’ve never heard of it.”
To his relief, she confirmed his suspicions. “No, I can’t say that I have. Is that a Titan far from here?”
“Not sure how far away it is, but that doesn’t really matter anymore - It’s gone now.”
He had said it like it was simply a fact of life, but Lanz’s revelation seemed to make her more apologetic than understanding. “Oh, I’m… sorry to hear that. I have heard much of the crisis of the dying Titans, but I was yet to encounter someone personally affected before now. Please excuse my rudeness.”
Lanz gave Nimue his best sigh. “Ah, right. Thanks for the sympathy I guess, but honestly? Nothing much of value was lost. Sure, I’ve got people to find, but that place needed to go. We’re all better off without it.”
This reassurance only seemed to confuse her further. “I… can’t say I understand. Surely the loss of home was reason enough to mourn it?”
“Well, sure. But it was falling apart before I was born. What happened was just the end of the road. Maybe a little earlier than it could have been, but that only means we got everyone out safely. Better than the alternative, right?”
Despite that back-and-forth feeling like it was two people talking past each other at times, when Lanz gave that last explanation, it seemed that Nimue finally understood. “Ah, I think I get where you were coming from. Nothing of value was lost, because the people live on.”
“Yep. But hey, it wasn’t exactly perfect - if things went completely to plan, I’d be with my friends right about now. So, with that being said, I’ve got a question for you, Nimue: Where am I?”
Nimue’s furrowed brow finally got the gears rotating in Lanz’s head. Now he remembered - Nimue was from Taion’s past, from something pretty traumatic that ended with her dead, only for him to meet her younger self at the Lost Colony after a rebirth. She was definitely older here, and it made Lanz wonder if this was how Taion remembered her.
“…This is the Kingdom of Uraya,” Taion’s old mentor explained after a moment, reminding him of exactly what he’d just asked. “We are near the Titan’s head as of this moment, close to the village of Garfont, while we would eventually reach the capitol of Fonsa Myma if we continued towards the rear. Though, I’ll be honest… I’m unsure how you could have found yourself here without knowing at least that much.”
Uraya? Lanz thought. Like the Urayan Tunnels? Well that’s rather strange. And I can’t say I know what a village or a capitol is. Some sort of Colony, or something like the City? Either way, I can’t just stay quiet.
“Yeaaah, I suppose it is a bit weird,” he responded. “Can’t say I have an explanation either, so maybe I’d better be going to that village you mentioned. Where are you headed, anyway?”
Nimue took that question more seriously than he’d expected, though he couldn’t fathom why. “I suppose… I was heading in that direction.”
“Well that works out. How about you show me the way, and I’ll knock off any monsters that come sniffing in our direction?”
“Without a weapon?”
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that.” Summoning forth his Shieldblade and planting it into the ground before his feet, Lanz grinned at his new ally. “This’ll whack just about anything that comes our way!”
It took a moment after his gloating to realise that Nimue’s reaction was not so jovial. If anything, it looked rather disturbed. “I-I’m sorry, but… You’re a Blade?”
He squinted at her strange question. “Uh, no. I just told you I’m a Kevesi. This,” he reiterated, hoisting his weapon onto his back, “is my Blade, but that’s just a weapon. Why’d you ask that for?”
“You don’t have a Core Crystal?”
“I have no idea what that is. Unless… is that the chest doodad thing some people have?”
Lanz didn’t know Nimue could be more shocked, but he seemed to keep one-upping himself. “No, that’s… How could you possibly summon a Blade weapon without being a Blade, or a Flesh Eater?!”
“A what-now?”
Looking at his genuine confusion, Nimue went still for a second, before coming to some sort of internal resolution. “Okay, okay, I can do this. Here’s the plan, Lanz - you are going to dismiss your weapon, and you’re not going to resummon it unless we end up in truly dire straits. Then, we are going to walk to the village, where we can discuss this properly. Is that clear?”
“I mean…” Lanz wasn’t sure what to say to that, really. But she did seem much more knowledgeable about where he’d ended up, so regardless of his pride, it seemed like a pretty good idea. “Sure? But do you at least have your own weapon?”
Nimue took that moment to brandish a crystal baton from the ether, decorated with Saffronia blossoms. “Of course. I am a Blade, after all.”
“Ah. Right. Lead the way, then.”
And so they set off, leaving Lanz to wonder what exactly Origin had gotten him into.
~~~
Mio and Shulk’s walk into the Colony was rather uneventful, in the end. The monsters seemed unimpressed with the prospect of tussling with Mio, and the few that even thought to try it got a deadly glare to ensure they didn’t. Soon enough, they were out of the passage and into a larger open area, wherein Mio was forced to acknowledge that… yeah, it would be hard to miss the Colony. It was much closer to Fort O’virbus, or even the City, than the Colony 9 she’d seen - she doubted she’d find many familiar faces here.
Though she wasn’t familiar with any of its residents, at least one of them must have been very familiar with Shulk - A well-built red-headed man jogged across the almost stony bridge with metal railings to meet them. Though he was clearly very confused by her appearance, he made the decision to face all his questions toward Shulk instead.
“Shulk, you’re back early!” he noted, even as he moved to immediately grab the Mechon armour off Shulk’s hands. “I was about to go to the wreckage site to check on you, but I guess you didn’t need my help today. Well, maybe you’d have liked me to carry this thing for you, at least.”
“Heh, that would’ve been nice,” Shulk agreed. “But then you would have been much further from HQ. The Colonel probably doesn’t want you to be late for drills again…”
“Yeah, Square-tache would have my head for that…”
“You didn’t have to carry that thing by yourself to begin with,” Mio pointed out. “Just because you were my guide doesn’t mean I had to be useless.”
“Well, you were protecting me, weren’t you?” Shulk protested.
“From Bunnits and Skeeters! We were hardly in mortal danger.”
Their newcomer, who was simply watching their back-and-forth re-enactment of a conversation they’d already had on the walk over, finally chimed back in. “Anyway, Shulk. Who’s this?”
Shulk’s face showed that he’d very much forgotten to do introductions. “Oh, right! Mio, meet my friend Reyn. He’s a soldier in the Defence Force. Reyn, this is Mio. She’s… a bit lost, I suppose you could say? But she helped me out at the wreckage site, so I brought her here.”
“Goodness, Shulk, you make me sound a bit untrustworthy,” Mio sighed. “But yes, I’m Mio, and I am new to the Colony… largely because I’ve ended up somewhere very unfamiliar. Pleased to meet you.”
Reyn chuckled. “That don’t surprise me. I ain’t seen ears like those before. Still, nice to meet you too. Thanks for looking out for Shulk.”
“No worries. Hope he doesn’t make too much of a habit of it…”
“Afraid he does, at that. But I’m hardly the only person to worry for him, so it’s not all bad.”
Mio was struck with familiarity in Reyn’s attitude - perhaps he was more jovial than Lanz, but that protective spirit was certainly there. And he was similarly built too, which helped the image. “But you’re always there when he needs it, aren’t you?”
He grinned at her assessment. “Of course! He can’t take a hit, so someone else’s gotta do it for him.”
Shulk, for his part, just sighed in lieu of defending himself. “I suppose that’s the problem with introducing you to new people - you’re quick to tell them all about me.”
“Nothing she didn’t already figure out, Shulk.”
“Only because she figured you out…”
Mio couldn’t help but giggle at their familiar banter. Shulk was no Eunie, but Eunie would certainly have this sort of conversation with Lanz. The noise did seem to cue them to return their attention back her way, so she figured she’d make good on the opportunity.
“Well, now we’re here, I should probably figure out somewhere to stay. Would you know somewhere to ask about that?”
The two friends shared a look that quickly communicated their shared gaps in knowledge. As Shulk was beckoned over to talk to him in closer proximity, Mio huffed without vitriol at their futile attempt to keep their incompetence a secret - her ears could easily hear their scheming.
“Please tell me you’ve got some idea about this, Shulk,” Reyn whispered.
“Why would I know where to look?” Shulk countered. “I’ve lived with Dickson since he took me in. Surely you’d be the one with more of an idea on where to stay.”
“I live in the barracks, man! Never had to think about it before now.”
“So we’re both clueless, then. We need to find someone who actually… Wait.”
After a pause, and a meaningful look his way, Reyn reacted to Shulk’s apparent brainwave with disbelief. “You don’t mean her, do you? I suppose she fits the bill, technically. But she’s gonna chew us out for this, I just know it!”
“Do you have any better ideas?”
“Well, no…”
“It’s decided then.” Before Reyn could get a word in edgewise, Shulk turned back to Mio, resolute in his choice now. “We’ll take you to see a friend of ours. She should have an idea where to start looking.”
“Okay then,” Mio accepted, trying not to let doubt seep into her tone. “Lead the way.”
The boys didn’t have to lead her very far. A stone’s throw within the limits of the Colony, seemingly separated from its natural outskirts by walls above water on all sides, Shulk came to knock upon the door of a singular house. After a second, she heard a girl’s voice say ‘Coming!’ from inside, but it was still a second longer before the door actually opened, revealing its blonde-haired occupant. Her face visibly brightened at the appearance of the man at the door.
“Oh, Shulk! This is a surprise. Normally I’m the one who has to find you. Coming to get your lunch straight from the source for once, are you?”
Before Shulk could correct her, Reyn butted in. “Uh, not quite. We’re in a bit of a bind, and we figured we could use your advice.”
Upon seeing that Reyn had accompanied Shulk, her expression shifted to a sort of casual annoyance that reminded her once again of how Eunie took Lanz’s more banal comments in. “Oh, of course. Should have guessed that if you were both here, there’d be trouble afoot.”
Though Reyn was eager to disagree with her assessment, Shulk instead idly wondered if they were really that predictable. In the end, with neither message sinking in, the girl’s eyes split the difference between them to finally settle on Mio’s… giving her a strange sense of deja-vu in the process. Pushing both of the boys lightly to the side to get a better look at their newcomer, she was immediately curious, but put it off to properly introduce herself.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there. My name’s Fiora, and it’s nice to meet you. I would have told you all that earlier if these two had actually given you some space to breathe…”
Mio shook her head. “Don’t mention it. I’m Mio. Shulk brought me back here from the wreckage site, as I’ve found myself rather lost. I’m looking for a place to stay, and these two believed you would know better about that sort of thing.”
Fiora’s attention briefly left her to affix Shulk and Reyn with something of a disapproving stare. “Ah, right. Figures these two would be clueless about that sort of thing… Reyn’s better for bashing in monster skulls than anything else.”
Reyn did not take this as an insult, but rather a good opportunity to attempt to flee from this conversation. “On that note… If I stay around here, the Colonel’s probably gonna kill me, sooo…”
“Yes, Reyn, you can go back to the barracks. I’m sure we’ll see you later.”
“Right then, bye guys!” He didn’t even finish the farewell before starting to jog off.
Once he’d left, Shulk chimed back in. “Can you help her, Fiora?”
Fiora sighed, but couldn’t seem to summon her frustration. “Yes, I can probably work something out. Dunban has plenty of old acquaintances, so there’s bound to be a favour somewhere… And if not I can at least see if there’s an open residence somewhere.”
That was good news. Shulk seemed to agree, though he seemed to think that it was all sorted now. “Right, that’s good. Can I leave her in your hands for now? I’m eager to get started on working with that piece of armour… But I hope I’ll see you later.”
Mio expected more pushback for that, but Fiora seemed to just let him go. “Oh, alright then. Have fun with your toys.”
Shulk seemed to take her joke about his hobbies harder than she took the rejection, strangely enough… though he walked it off just the same. Mio could only stare between the two of them with confusion, and when Fiora cottoned on to her studying gaze, she looked a little perplexed.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“That boy just threw me at you and left,” Mio explained. “By all accounts he received your joke worse than you took it! What’s so special about Shulk that you’d let that slide?”
“Oh, I don’t know… We’ve just known each other for a long time. I’ve figured out what makes him tick at this point… and he ticks just like a clock.”
“A clock you feed, apparently.”
Fiora couldn’t quite explain her way out of that, so she just let it go with a chuckle. “Anyway, we may as well make the most of the day. Unlike those two I might just have a chance of finding you a place to stay. If worse comes to worse, well… I’m sure I have a fold out mattress somewhere.”
“That’s very kind of you, Fiora.”
As she led them further into the centre of the Colony, bustling with people and stalls, Mio couldn’t help but take notice of the occasional wandering eye her way. It was true, even now, that beyond a Nopon or two, she still couldn’t find anyone matching the traits of her other friends beyond Noah himself. It made her feel a bit lonely, despite the friendly faces she’d met so far.
But that gloom couldn’t keep her down. Once she had a place to rest her head, she could settle in properly, and then she’d be ready to start a proper search before long. Maybe this new world was strange, and maybe it was a bit off… but it was hardly all bad. She could get used to this.
~~~
Noah awoke with his head pounding, barely cushioned against the metal floor he’d been crumpled up on. His neck burned with pain, a searing reminder of the method by which he’d been incapacitated before. Eager to at least gauge his surroundings, his attempt to sit up failed miserably… but his back landed in the arms of someone else.
“Thank goodness Masterpon, you’re awake!”
Blinking his sore eyes awake, Noah turned them towards the face of his apparent cellmate, and found himself staring up at… Ino, rather miraculously. He forced himself to get out a strained “Ino…?”, confusion overriding his desire to rest his vocal chords.
“So Masterpon does know Ino!” she excitedly confirmed. “Ino has been beset by overwhelming sense of familiarity since friend was thrown in here, but Ino didn’t know for sure!”
“Uh…” Noah mumbled out, realisation dawning on him. “Right. So you don’t actually remember me, then?”
“Should Ino remember Masterpon?”
“Well… By all accounts neither of us should remember the other. But if you don’t remember me, why are you calling me Masterpon?”
The Artificial Blade wasn’t sure where to begin to answer him. “Well, I mean… Ino doesn’t remember a lot of things, really. Ino is pretty sure she’s related to Lila, but doesn’t remember how she was made in the first place, so… Yeah. Feels like Ino’s memory banks are full of holes, like rusty sieve!”
“I see. So you’re just clinging onto what little you can remember?”
“That sounds about right, yes. Ever since Ino saw friend Noah, Ino has felt like title was only appropriate!”
Noah affixed her with a discerning look as she leant him against the wall of their cell. I didn’t tell her my name, he noticed. She must be remembering me in parts - clearly Origin has done something to her memory, like how the Queens intended, but it didn’t work properly. Perhaps the same is true of others… and of my friends.
Taking a moment to gather himself, he looked around the room. Calling it a cell was certainly appropriate - its walls were the same rusty colour as the rest of the structures he’d seen in the desert outside, but its bars were notably less shoddy. He supposed that keeping an Artificial Blade in something so flimsy was a silly idea. Then again… wasn’t keeping an apparently aggressive prisoner in the same cell as one just as stupid?
“The people who put us in here…” Noah slowly asked. “Why did they put us together?”
Ino looked somewhat sheepish at the question. “Ino’s captors think Ino is a faulty unit from their production line. They don’t think Ino can create affinity link with anyone, let alone easily apprehended stranger. If Noah was Driver, why would Noah bring deadly weapon instead of Blade?”
Noah thought those conclusions were reasonable from what he remembered of how Ino worked, if very ill advised, but he wasn’t going to complain about the after effects of Origin helping him out. Then Ino continued, and he lost all faith in their captors’ common sense.
“Also, this is only holding cell.”
Noah could only blink slowly at her for a few seconds. “That is incredibly stupid.”
“It is.”
Deciding not to dwell on it, Noah sighed. “Well, I suppose we can use that to our advantage. I take it they took your swords?”
“Yessir,” Ino confirmed. “Ino is afraid her weapons were confiscated when they threw her in here, believing Ino could somehow use them to escape.”
“They’re probably not wrong. But what about my weapon?”
“Uh… Ino has not seen Masterpon’s sword, but has heard rumblings of very sharp blade. It is shame that weapon not here to break us out now, but… Why did Noah ask?”
Noah gave her the best grin he could muster under the circumstances, then checked the barred side of the cell to make sure no-one was present. Happy with their privacy, he remembered how it felt to summon his weapon in that brief moment before he was attacked… and brought Lucky Seven back into his hands.
“Whuh…” the artificial Blade stuttered out. “Masterpon?! Friend can… still can summon Blade?!”
“Yep,” he confirmed, before dismissing it once more. “If you can get me a bit more healthy… we’ll be out of here in no time. Just… make sure you don’t look too obvious to the guards.”
“Oh, right! Ino’s artificial lips are sealed, Masterpon. Ino will do all she can do get Masterpon back on his feet!”
“Thanks, Ino.”
Even as his throat still burned, and his eyes still stung, Noah already felt better… if not physically, then certainly about his prospects. With Ino by his side, he had a chance to get out of here, maybe even stop whatever this factory was doing. He’d be off searching for his friends in no time, and when he began that search, he was sure that no-one would be able to stop him.
They’d be together again. Someday.