What Nia Saw
"Rex! This isn't funny!"
Even as she shouted at the team's... leader, she supposed, Nia somehow suspected whatever had happened wasn't the salvager's fault.
"Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeex!"
It'd be one thing if he had managed to vanish like a ghost as some sort of childish prank... but there was no way that he'd have managed to get everyone else in on it.
Right?
That was preposterous. Dromarch would never have approved. He'd never agree to something so vicious.
Would he?
"Dromarch! Pyra! Mythra! Morag! Shellhead! Anyone! This had better be some awful joke!"
Because she really didn't want to consider any alternatives.
Her eyes drifted to the left, and the only way that she could see to proceed. If they had gone anywhere, it would have had to have been forward. With a deep breath, Nia clenched her jaw and stomped forward, shouting with far more confidence than she felt, "I swear, once I find all of you, I'm gonna give you all a thrashing like you've never..."
The shift happened so quickly that she wasn't even entirely certain when it happened. By the time she found herself on oddly faded grass she was several steps in and whipping around revealed nothing of the metal-paneled corridor she had been advancing through.
"What in the..." she began, perplexed, until something else gave her no time to think much further.
"There's the flesh eater!"
Nia whipped around to her right towards the source of the bellow. Pratorean guard of Indol, just like the ones that had hounded her for years. But that made no sense! What were Pratorean guard doing here? It was impossible!
However, as seven of them quickly appeared upon the rise, their flaming staves brandished above their heads, something told Nia that they weren't going to be particularly interested in an existential discussion of how they couldn't be real. With Dromarch nowhere in sight, or any ally for that matter, the better part of valor dictated that she find somewhere else to do her thinking, and quickly.
Even running at top speed, she quickly picked out recognizable landmarks, and knew intimately where she was. The upper levels of Gormott, and the vast plains where her speed would give her the advantage. Those mere humans chasing her weren't going to have much chance of...
… not catching her as she had apparently not recognized a small divot in the field and sent her toppling face first into the clay-like soil of Gormott. While not the hardest landing she had ever received, it wasn't exactly pleasant either, and cost her time that she couldn't afford to lose.
The flesh eater didn't even have time to get to her feet before the Pratorean guard was upon her. The only thing she could manage was to roll onto her back and face death. That was the more honorable way to go, right?
Nia turned about just in time to watch as all seven pursuers... ran right past her, showing so little concern that one even stepped on her stomach and continued on without even the attempt at an apology. All the air rushed out of her chest, and by the time she got her breath back, the Pratorean guard were already gone.
"What... the bloody hell...?" she gasped as she finally pulled herself off the ground, and bellowed in the general direction that her not-actual-pursuers had presumably retreated, "Oi! You all get back here and get what's comin' to you!"
Funny that, how bravery had a tendency of showing up when it was no longer needed.
Her fuming was interrupted by a familiar voice issuing a familiar greeting, "My lady..."
Nia was so excited to hear Dromarch's voice that she didn't process the tone until she turned about and saw the seething anger furrowed on his face. She took two steps in his direction, only to receive a warning growl in response. "Dromarch..." she mumbled, aghast. Dromarch had never been angry at her before. "What... what is the matter with you, you twit?"
The white tiger blade snarled angrily, "For once in your miserable life, can't you be silent?"
Any barbed response Nia might have had died on her lips, if through nothing but shock. What sort of warped hell had she fallen into?
"I have tried to be patient, held my tongue as you made one reckless, poor decision after another," Dromarch growled, pacing in circles around Nia like he was stalking prey. "I dutifully served as your blade without complaint, and where have you lead me? Following the musk of some boy into a lifeless ruin."
Nia managed to regain use of her throat to reply, "Now you wait just one bloody moment..."
Her blade interrupted her with a roar. "Every choice you have ever made has been disastrous. How many charismatic people have you clung to looking for some sort of meaning you can believe in, no matter how deplorable or vile? Look where that has taken us!"
"What was I supposed to do, then?" Nia finally retorted. "Stay hidden in some cave, living in constant terror of Indol?"
Dromarch lips again turned up in a growl, "You should have never taken flesh in the first place. You knew that was wrong, even at the time. The first of your many poor decisions."
Nia might as well have been stabbed. "But... Dromarch... then you never would have..."
"I would have preferred oblivion to this wretched curse that has been following you!" The white tiger blade took three aggressive strides forward. "In fact, I think I shall embrace that oblivion and end your foolish life once and for all!"
Instinct was really the only thing that saved Nia, shifting to her own blade form as Dromarch pounced, her saber materializing in her hand and cutting through the air directly in Dromarch's path. It wasn't entirely effective, as the tiger managed to score a potentially deep gash across her right shoulder, but it was already regenerating closed as Dromarch fell with a much more grievous wound across his face and belly.
"Watch it, furball," Nia warned. "I'm not exactly toothless myself. Now settle yourself down and we can talk about this."
"No more talking!" Dromarch roared, charging forward despite his wound, eager to attack again.
This time Nia stopped him with a blast of water that sent him harmlessly tumbling several meters past Nia. "Bloody hell! Stay down, you prat! I don't know what has gotten into you, but if you make me kill you, I'm not going to carry that guilt!"
Her only warning that something else was coming was a glint of pale blue light out of the corner of her eye, and Nia ducked under than spun away as the flash of a distinctive scythe shape cut across her vision. As she righted herself to address the new arrival, she again found herself dumbstruck. "Roc? What... what you doing?"
The birdman leveled one scythe at her, and said, "I've learned about my old driver, and what you did."
Nia blinked in confusion and replied, "Say wha?"
With a smug air, Roc added, "Or would it be more accurate to say... I learned what you didn't do."
Then it sunk in, and Nia replied guiltily, "Oh."
She had almost allowed herself to forget that shameful night. Unfortunately, Roc was determined to rip open that scabbed over memory. "You could have saved Vandham. He didn't have to die trying to save you. But no... you were just so scared of everyone thinking you were a monster, you let a valiant, good man die."
Nia didn't have a response to that. There wasn't a satisfactory retort she could offer anyway.
"I can't imagine Vandham's death was the only time. Tell me, Nia. Just how many people could you have saved? How many people have you let perish because they weren't a cute boy?"
"S... say wha...?" Nia blubbered.
Dromarch joined in again, his wounds from the exchange he had with Nia astonishingly healed, "Oh, indeed, my lady," he snarled, the title he gave her dripping with scorn. "I had to humiliate myself, look like an addled old animal jumping at shadows, while you finally used your power to save a life. But I'm sure it was just coincidence that Emperor Niall was a bright eyed boy just starting to blossom into a fine young man. He certainly would appear to be your type, it would seem..."
The two blades started advancing, and Nia backed up in response, her saber warily waving between the pair. "You stay back!" she threatened, her voice wavering with panic.
"Is that why you let my previous driver die?" Roc teased, "Did an older man not get your thighs properly humming? Does it take a smooth youthful face to stir your empathy?"
"Did you realize that you had no chance with Rex, and thought you could win the affection of someone else? Aiming awfully high with the Ardanian Emperor, don't you think?" Dromarch added.
"Shut up!" Nia shouted back, "It wasn't like that at all!"
To her amazement, Roc and Dromarch eventually did stop advancing on her, but she was so fixated on keeping them at bay that she didn't stop to think of the reason why. That reason made itself known as she made one final step back and her foot kept right on going past where the ground should have been, throwing off her balance, and sending her tumbling right off the flat back of Gormott and down towards the Cloud Sea.
She screamed as she plunged. The Titan was clearly at low tide, and she wasn't certain how soft of a landing it would be when she impacted the surface. This was why she hated heights... it gave her way too much time to think of how badly she was going to die.
A resolution to her fall came far quicker, and far harder, than she was expecting. She landed back first on something that was very distinctly not the Cloud Sea. Opening her eyes, she found herself staring up at an open night sky, with no sign of Gormott anywhere.
"What bloody hell..." she grumbled in confusion. How does a Titan just up and disappear?
And where the hell was she, anyway?
The healer slowly sat up, her fingers distinctly touching metal. She was on a ship... but there was no Titan overhead keeping it afloat on the clouds.
Her ears flattened and the blood drained from her face. She scrambled to her feet to confirm what she already knew; that this was the Monarcas, the ship operated by her old allies of Torna.
"Well, well... look what the cat dragged in." Ahkos's voice cut like fingernails across chalkboard from behind her.
Nia whipped full about towards the fore of the ship, where Akhos, Patroka, and Mikhail had somehow materialized out of thin air. "Where the hell did you lot come from?" she accused, so angry that people could apparently teleport now and she couldn't that she lost sense of the peril she was in.
"We should be asking you that question, Nia," Patroka noted with the emotionless, unreadable tone that she had become famous for. "After all, you're the one that dropped from the sky on us."
Okay, maybe she was the one that was teleporting. She clenched her eyes shut, and tried to imagine any place other than here.
"What are you doing?" Mikhail asked. "You need to poop or something?"
Nia figured she might as well answer honestly, "Trying to teleport away."
Patroka nodded slowly, "Riiiiiiiiight," then added in a stage whisper to Ahkos, "I think she's lost her mind since she left."
Well, if Nia was popping in and out, it was clear she couldn't do it willingly. The healer opened her eyes, and groaned in surrender. "Damn it, alright, let's get this over with. Kill me and be done with it. I don't care anymore." It's not like she had a snowflake's chance in Mor Ardain against all three of them anyway.
Ahkos, of all people, showed hesitation. "Before we do anything, I just need to know something. Why?"
Nia blinked. "Why... what?"
"Why betray us for some scrawny human boy? We were on the verge of achieving everything we had planned for. A world at peace without those damned humans causing strife. And you... you ruined all of it because of the Aegis's driver! I had every measure of our symphony composed to perfection, and you decide to go on an impromptu solo!"
He threw his hands out in frustration, then dropped them morosely. "What... what reason could you have possibly had to betray us? Especially for some filthy salvager!"
Mikhail shrugged and with a suggestive smile offered, "If you were just looking for some companionship, you could have come to me any time."
Patroka then deadpanned, "Okay, I can think of one reason."
As Mikhail winced from the verbal blow, Nia's attention - and her neck- was grabbed by something else entirely. She had anticipated Malos or Jin, but instead was greeted by an entirely different surprise. The big, meaty hand clenched tightly around her throat turned out to be Urayan, and attached to a body that had no business being alive.
"V... V... Vandham?"
She had never seen that look of anger on the mercenary's face turned on her before. But it made no sense! She knew Vandham was dead. She watched his burial, for the Architect's sake! How was any of this possible? What was going on here?
"I never really liked you, did you know that?" the mercenary growled. "I have a nose for that sorta thing. I sensed you were trouble somehow. I figured it was because you were part of that Torna group, and I tried to warn Rex about my suspicions, but he insisted you were alright folk, and I pushed my worries down."
"Van... ham..." Nia gasped. Oi, she had forgotten just how strong the mercenary was. It was everything she could do just to breathe.
"But no, my sense was picking up on you being a flesh eater, wasn't it? Unnatural monsters that cause nothing but trouble for everyone. There's a goddamn reason the practice fell into dark art, and you need to be put down like the rabid beast you are!"
Her vision was getting blurry, and she could feel her heart slowing. Even if she had wanted to fight back, she had no energy to do so. This... was really it.
Nia found herself oddly okay with this. If anyone would have had a legitimate grudge to take out on her, it would have been Vandham. She... deserved it.
Instead, he seemed to have a much slower death in mind. She could feel him rear back, then the mercenary declared, "Just like you left me to die, so do I leave you!"
Then he threw her overboard towards the unforgiving Cloud Sea.
Nia hit the clouds hard, and a part of her thought about not fighting it, and instead sinking into the depths. She'd pass out long before any pressure crushed her after all. There were worse ways to die. Not many... but there were.
But another part of her had different ideas, and had forced her tired body to the surface before she could think to do otherwise.
Her lungs filled with air, and she gulped it down greedily. Since she apparently had already decided for herself to survive, might as well run with it.
Her eyes cleared, revealing a very tall cliff face filling her vision, a cliff that definitely had not been there before. The Monarchas was gone, and could never have even fit within the cove that she now found herself in.
She was no longer confused or angry at this. She just wished whatever was responsible would stop and either let her live or die in peace. She earnestly no longer cared which.
"Hah! I told you you could do it, Nia!"
Her eyes narrowed to dots at the sound of the most blessed voice she had heard since this entire adventure started. To her right, on the shore... waving his arms like a lunatic and cheering... and Nia realized where exactly she was this time. The cliff outside Fonsett Village, the one where she saw children diving and had been petrified of the thought of doing it herself.
"Rex," she whispered, terrified of what was about to happen. The healer wasn't sure what she was going to do if Rex turned on her like everyone else so far had. She'd likely just kill herself before she let him even try.
But something was urging her arms to move, to swim towards the shore. It was almost like her will wasn't even her own anymore. Something wasn't going to let her die yet. Something was determined to make her suffer.
Something needed to go to hell.
Rex met her at the cloud's edge, and she barely processed that she was somehow back in her driver clothes before the salvager pulled her into a tight hug. "See! It wasn't that scary, was it?"
"You..." she muttered, confusion again returning at the affection Rex was showing. It was as unnerving as the scorn she had been getting from everyone else. "What is..."
She never got a chance to finish her question, because Rex stole the words off her lips with his.
Nia decided to take it for what it was, returning his kiss with urgency. Why the hell not? Nothing else in this goddamn ordeal was making any sense. At least this topsy-turvy world was pleasant so far.
When he finally broke away, he no doubt confused her flushed expression for embarrassment, because he rubbed the back of his head and apologized sheepishly, "I'm sorry... I know you don't like displays like that in public, but I was so proud of you for mmmmppph!"
Nia had taken the initiative and kissed him this time. After all that she had gone through up to this point, she deserved it. She was going to enjoy this, damn it.
Finally, Rex pushed himself away, clearly dumbfounded by Nia's forwardness, "Well then... I guess the fall scared you more than I thought."
Nia allowed herself a wry smile, "Rex, you have no idea."
He jerked a thumb back towards the village, his lips turned upwards with a half grin. "Aunt Corrine's probably nearly done with dinner, and you know how she hates it if her hard work gets cold. Come on."
The salvager took her hand without a moment's hesitation. Whatever was going on here, Rex clearly had gotten over the juvenile hang-ups of affection that he was rather famous for. There was an ease in his touch that spoke of considerable familiarity. Whatever was going on in this version of Rex's life, she had apparently been an important part of it for a long time.
She was torn between two parts of herself again. One wanted to stay in this world forever. The other part of her wanted to turn back time to when this relationship started then stay in this world forever.
Then Rex stopped just before the aquifer between the city entrance and Corrine's house, his head turning to the east and up the rise that led to the outskirts of the town. "Actually... if you don't mind, Nia. I think I'd like to speak to Pyra first."
Nia's eyebrows rose. Pyra? Here? And he wasn't draped all over her? This she had to see.
She laced her arm around his before taking a firmer grip of his hand. "I don't mind at all, Rex. Let's go talk to Pyra."
Apparently, that was not an answer Rex was expecting. He winced and leaned away nervously, asking, "A... are you sure? Normally you hate when I want to talk to Pyra, and you certainly never want to join me."
She pulled him back towards her and tried to grin disarmingly, "Maybe I realized I was being unfair. Come on now."
That was Nia's first sense that she didn't understand what she was walking into. The second was when he started taking the steps up to the cemetary, and not towards the other houses. The third was when he stopped in front of a still fresh stone marker with a dull green cross core crystal mounted in the center.
The fourth was the etching on the stone below the crystal. "Here lies the Aegis of Alrest. May she have the peace in death that was denied her in life."
Every inch of Nia's skin went cold, and it felt like her heart stopped before dropping out of her chest. "What... what happened? What is this?"
She shrugged out of Rex's hands, her eyes locked in terror at the gravestone, even as the salvager was understandably confused, "What do you mean, what happened? Nia... you were there!"
"No... no... no!" the healer insisted, again pushing herself away from Rex. "Not... not like this! This was not what I wanted! This isn't anything I wanted at all!"
"Nia, you're not making any sense..."
This time, Nia shoved him with enough force to knock him down. "Stay away from me! This isn't right! Where am I? What is all this bollocks for?"
Nia turned to run, tears mucking up her vision, but was only able to go one step before everything went black and she collided with a vaguely woman shaped figure. A woman with a rather impressive bosom judging from the way Nia's head bounced animatedly into the pillows before the healer toppled over completely.
Wiping the tears from her eyes as she stood back up, she recognized the woman in question then exclaimed in relief, "Mythra! You're alive! Thank heavens!"
Then Nia processed that Mythra didn't look very happy, and braced herself for the worst. "Please... if you're going to torture me, just kill me instead. I can't take any more of this."
"Twenty four hours," the blond aegis said simply and sternly.
Nia needed a little more context than that. "Eh?"
"Twenty four hours," Mythra repeated. "The boy hadn't even been awake for twenty four hours before you slid right on in."
And that didn't help any. "Wha?"
Mercifully, the aegis gave her something at last. "Spirit Crucible Elpys."
Nia blinked in response.
"The shades of Adam."
Her brows furrowed.
"I love you, Rex!"
The healer's eyes bulged, her pupils narrowing to dots. "Oh."
Mythra crossed her arms, and scoffed, "That's all you're going to say for yourself? 'Oh?' You couldn't even wait for my core crystal to go cold before you tried to slide on in on that boy?"
Nia had no idea why she was defending herself over something that in the grand scale of things was so trivial. "I didn't mean to or anything! It was an emotional moment, I had just come to terms with who I was and what I could be, and he was right there being all understanding and in awe and it just blurted out and I felt like an arse the moment I did because you're right and you had just been captured and Rex was understandably worried and I could have made an absolute mess of everything but it was okay because Rex misunderstood me because he's a dense git like that but that doesn't excuse that I said it and that I shouldn't have said it and..."
Another pair of arms wrapped around her shoulders and arms tenderly and a gentle voice soothingly said, "Mythra, that's enough."
Nia turned her head to see Pyra leaning over and hugging her warmly. "Pyra... you... is it really you?"
"Yes. This is the real... us," the redhead aegis replied. "Or at least the two of us momentarily being able to interact separately. As you've noticed, this space allows for a lot of things that normally wouldn't be possible."
Nia huffed indignantly, "Yeah, that's one way of putting it."
Pyra nuzzled Nia's shoulder briefly. "I'm just glad that someone else sees how special Rex is." Then the embrace tightened just to point where it became uncomfortable, and Pyra added, "Though that confession of yours was poorly timed."
The healer surrendered on that score. "Fair," Nia admitted flatly.
The redhead finally broke the embrace and sided up to her alter ego. Mythra's posture had softened, and Nia felt like at least this interaction wasn't going to turn ass up.
She hoped.
Pyra smiled weakly, then said, "Rex... might need you, more than you realize right now."
Nia sensed immediately that she had hoped too soon. "What? Why?"
Mythra cut straight to the point. "That little scene you saw back there? That was one potential future."
"One... potential... future?"
"Every little thing we do has the potential of having multiple effects," Pyra tried to explain. "In this case, events have been set in motion that no one can stop, and the possibilities of what will happen next are so numerous that not even the Architect can accurately anticipate what exactly will unfold from here."
Mythra then took over again, "In most of the scenarios that unfold, Pyra and I... don't survive. For one reason or another. I won't even begin to try and explain the variables. We'd be here until the sun burned out."
"And that's why... Rex might need you," Pyra finished. "In case Mythra and I don't make it, It puts my heart at peace to know that someone who deeply cares for him will be there for him. I just want you to promise that if the worst does come to pass... that you will move on... without regrets. For Rex, and yourself. Don't let me taint your happiness, okay? Can you do that?"
Nia rubbed the back of her neck nervously, "Well... oi... since you're being so sincere about it, I suppose I'd have to, huh?"
Mythra rolled her eyes and retorted sarcastically, "Yes, I'm glad you're so willing to make that honorable sacrifice for us."
"Mythra, have you paid attention to Rex? Think about the trouble that boy is going to get into the older he gets. If you don't die here, you might just wish you did."
The blond aegis considered this, then said in agreement, "Yeah, you might have a point, come to think of it."
Pyra's jaw dropped, scandalized at the slander being thrown about. "Okay, clearly we're done here." The redhead clasped her hands in front of her chest, and look upwards before she said, "Father, I think she's ready. Mythra and I need to catch up to Rex, then they all should be ready to talk with you."
And then, at the end of it all...
The aegis's complete form had torn down the bridge that separated her from the rest of the team, and Nia watched as Rex learned of the entire deception. The salvager's heart crumbled much like the bridge, followed by his increasingly despairing pleas to Poppy before his body failed him and he collapsed into a boneless sobbing heap.
The healer stepped forward after everyone else had made their own appeals. He looked up, and Nia saw a glimmer in his eyes. A faint one, but one nonetheless. A shard of hope that was immediately eclipsed as Pyra gave him the entirety of her core crystal, breaking their link. It dropped to the floor, turning that lifeless dull green that Nia remembered from the potential future she had been shown.
It looked like that worst case scenario Pyra and Mythra had spoken of was about to come to pass.
The collapsing World Tree didn't allow for much further discussion, but as they retreated, Nia once again saw that wound in Rex's eyes as they momentarily made contact climbing into the escape shuttle. She also saw that shard of hope, but it was so very small, and the darkness in his eyes was so very big.
At that moment, Nia couldn't comprehend what she was supposed to do. How could she possibly fill that hole that had emerged? How could anyone?
"Pyra, you better come back from this," Nia thought. "What would be the point of giving him life if you take away the reason for living it?"