Title: A Visit to Veda
Pairing: Lockon(Neil)xTieria
NOTES: This fic is AU: Neil Dylandy is alive, and this takes place after Celestial Being's final fight with the Innovators. Assumptions are Neil continued to be Lockon Stratos after the four year timeskip.
Author's Note: This fic is dedicated to my dear Audrey. Thanks for the idea, babe~! ^^
The darkness is cold, and the light of the faraway stars is even colder.
Deep in the blackness of space, resting in the moon's shadow, a consciousness quietly sleeps, waiting for the day of its awakening.
* * * *
Neil Dylandy exited the small transport shuttle, propelling himself through the vacuum out of the docking area. He glanced occasionally at the holographic map he held in his hand. A bright orange thread wove in and out of the maze-like structure, showing him the path he needed to follow.
"We're going now, Haro," he said, glancing down to the orange, spherical droid tucked under his arm.
"Going now! Going now!" the little robot chirped. "Visit Tieria! Visit Tieria!"
Neil chuckled to himself as he navigated the corridors. Though untouched for a year now, the station looked exactly like they had left it – not exactly a good thing, Neil thought, narrowing his eyes as his thoughts darkened, drifting back to that unforgettable battle, so long ago.
The last time I was here, Setsuna was with me, wasn't he? … he thought, navigating the labyrinthine corridors. He found himself in a familiar elevator, rocketing to the upper echelons of the building. We had been sent here that day for one final mission. To fetch something …
As the elevator doors opened, his thoughts snapped back to the present – he was now facing now an imposing-looking double-door that towered several feet above him.
"I'm counting on you, Haro," Neil said, tossing the little droid forward.
"Got it! Got it!" Extending a wire, the orange Haro docked into the door's access panel, and for a minute, it made little chirping noises and flapped its little panels as it tried to obtain access.
Neil didn't expect it to take too long – as long as Veda recognized Celestial Being, getting pass security wouldn't be too hard. So he was surprised when Haro announced, "Decoding at 90 percent! Further identification needed!"
Further identification? He sighed slightly. Tieria, you never change. You always put double-locks on your door, even on the Ptolemaios –
"What sort of identification?" Neil said, approaching the double-doors.
"Entrant is recognized as Gundam Meister, Lockon Stratos. Further identification tests require –"
"Oh for crying out loud," Neil Dylandy – Lockon Stratos – muttered. "If you know it's me, let me in, already!" he shouted, banging a fist on the doors. "TIERIA! I know you're in there, stop being anti-social!"
"Vocal identification confirmed!" Haro announced, unhooking from the access panel. "Access granted!"
Neil felt his eyebrow twitching as the double doors spread inward, and a dozen so other doors pulled back to reveal the entry way into the super-computing existence that was Veda.
"Honestly," he muttered, as he drifted into the towering, cavernous shaft of pulsating data, all basking under the soft purple glow of the overhead lights, "you always had your own way of doing things, Tieria."
* * * *
Millennia of data. All of humanity's memories, hopes, dreams, plans, dreads and desires. Thoughts, ideas, calculations of everyone alive and who has ever lived.
To be one with Veda – it's like coming home. It was all I ever wanted. I understand everything now; I am at peace with myself.
But as I sleep, I wonder: What is this strangeness that I feel? This sensation of something … missing.
I ask; I wait; but Veda doesn't have an answer.
"TIERIA! I know you're in there, stop being anti-social!"
A voice. Warmth. A heartbeat. Biological existence, within Veda.
Am I needed already?
Through the eyes of Veda, I can see him, from every angle, taking in the minutest detail of the mint-coloured irises of his eyes and the way they shone translucently in the soft light, hear the sound of blood rushing through his veins. I didn't need the data that was now flowing through me to tell me who he was.
* * * *
{Lockon Stratos.}
A voice filled Neil's head, and he glanced up.
"Hey, Tieria! Long time no see! Though … I can't actually see you …"
{I am technically all around you. There was a brief pause, lasting a mere second. Veda tells me that you have been sent here by Sumeragi Lee Noriega to check on the condition of the station. There was no need to come into Veda itself.}
"Well, I—"
{Further data tells me that a Celestial Being technician was originally meant to be sent, but you volunteered to do the job yourself. A job not necessarily fit for Gundam Meisters.}
"Well, the Earth's having a bit of a peace right now, there's no particular need for Gundams to make an appearance."
Another pause. {I can see that.}
"Yeah, you can, right?" Neil said, looking distressed.
There was a moment of quiet. Neil glanced around, wondering to himself if facing the bright purple lights overhead was as close as he could come to talking with Tieria face-to-face, when the voice came again.
{I cannot read your thoughts, Lockon Stratos. Unfortunately there are some things even Veda cannot do. Please tell me why you have come here, and why I've been brought out of stasis, if humanity hasn't even come close to initiating the dialogues?}
Neil smiled. "I wanted to visit you."
{Visit … me?}
"Yeah. I missed you."
There was a moment of silence, and Neil fancied he could see the lights around him dancing about even more frantically than usual. {I … missed you, too.}
"Oh? Then I'm glad I'm here," Neil chuckled, surprised to feel a prickling sensation at the sides of his eyes.
{Still}, the voice of Tieria said in his head, and he was amused to hear the familiar disapproving tone still there, {to come all this way … and wake me for such a reason … there really wasn't any need, Lockon Stratos. You are much more needed with the rest of Celestial Being.}
"Heh. Don't tell me you weren't feeling a little bit lonely, all up here by yourself?"
{I am not by myself. I am with Veda. And Veda is linked to the databanks of all humanity. I could have easily appeared on your personal computer screen in your own home and have a dialogue with you, just like I am now.}
"You needed a wake-up call," Neil said, by way of explanation. "Besides, I felt like seeing you in person. This is as close as it gets."
Lockon Stratos.
"Yeah?"
{When a friend pays a visit to another friend for the first time, it is only common courtesy to show the visitor around the house, correct?}
"I … guess so?"
{Then I welcome you to the Veda station, Lockon Stratos.}
"Yeah," Neil said, laughing genuinely this time. "Thanks. Don't mind me."
****
Besides the mass of machinery is took to host and compute the history of human existence, the Veda station also had enough space left over for surprisingly hospitable luxury apartments. Neil marveled at the gilded rooms that, he supposed, had housed the Innovators while they were still lording over humanity from their lofty pedestal. It seemed a bit much.
When he jokingly asked if he could stay the night, Tieria told him that the life-support eco-structure of the station would last a single person at least a millennium.
Neil shivered inwardly. He couldn't imagine spending a millennium alone in space, amidst all this cold luxury.
"It's a bit weird, talking to you like this," Neil admitted sheepishly, as he strolled through the carpeted hallways of the station's apartments. "I'm much more used to seeing your perpetually pissed-off expression when I'm talking to you."
{I see. Would it be better if there was a hologram for you to talk to?}
Right next to him, a perfect hologram of Tieria Erde, just as he remembered him, appeared, wearing his purple Celestial Being uniform. Neil was a little startled at first, but felt sorely relieved. Here at least, in front of him, was Tieria's face, that painfully-familiar red glare staring from behind his spectacles.
"Is this better?" the hologram of Tieria said, and Neil nearly cried in relief hearing his friend's voice now with his own ears, instead of as a disembodied voice in his head. It was starting to get a bit creepy.
"Yes, yes! Much better! Why didn't you do this ages ago?"
"I thought it wasn't necessary. You spend most of your time talking to a robot," Hologram-Tieria said, inclining his head towards Haro tucked under Neil's arm, "I thought there wouldn't be much difference."
"Of course there's a difference!" Neil said incredulously, "Haro's physical, right in front of me, and to top it off, he's much cuter –"
He stopped mid-ramble when he saw the small smirk on Tieria's holographic lips. Even though he was just a video projection – and Neil was certain his imagination had to do something with it – but there was a subtle mischievous light in Tieria's crimson eyes just before he turned away and started walking.
Did he … just tease me?
He followed behind his not-quite-so-human host, marveling how even though his friend was now technically just a bunch of circuitry and electrical particles travelling at lightspeed through fibrous chambers, he still possessed the humanity Neil knew he had all along.
* * * *
"Tieria?"
"Yes, Lockon Stratos?"
They were sitting on a darkened platform, facing a towering, sloped window that looked out into the deepness of space. Infinite stars spread out across the darkness, still and small and quiet.
"Sometimes I wish you were back with us. In Celestial Being."
Tieria looked puzzled. "But I am always with you. As Veda, I have access to Celestial Being's systems –"
"That's not exactly what I meant," Neil said, with a small smile. "I mean, as a Gundam Meister. Before you lost your body and synchronized your consciousness with Veda. Y'know … I miss those days. I missed talking to you. You always had interesting things to say."
Tieria looked at him. His forehead was creased so slightly, the light of the stars reflected perfectly in his eyes, which were now a flickering violet in the semi-darkness. Woah, pretty good for a hologram, Neil marveled, feeling his throat grow dry.
"Lockon Stratos. I am happy, being a part of Veda. To be with Veda was all I ever wanted ever since I came into existance. I can accomplish so much more now, for the sake of humanity's future.
"But there times I miss being human … I miss the feeling of rain, and the feeling the air grow warm after sunrise. Dreaming while I sleep at night. Being able to cry.
"As Veda, I can access the memories of thousands of people, and experience their lives as if they were my own. But I don't have many memories I made for myself. Ever since I was born as an Innovade for the sake of Celestial Being, all I had known was to fight.
"Until I met you."
Neil could feel the blush now creep from his neck to his face, and was glad the room was dark enough to hide it. "C'mon, you're overreacting– "
"I want to thank you, Lockon Stratos. For saving my life, and giving it meaning."
Neil looked at the figure before him, who looked so real and so delicate in the faint starlight. Unconsciously, he reached for Tieria's face, and was taken aback when his fingers passed right through his friend's pale cheek. He snatched his hand back.
Tieria returned his look of surprise. "Lockon –"
"Sorry, kinda forgot you weren't real, ahahah," Neil said, awkwardly laughing. What's gotten into me?
"Lockon," Tieria said, more quietly this time. A look of distress passed across his face, before he regained composure. Suddenly he stood up. "Lockon Stratos. Follow me, there's something I want to show you."
* * * *
They were in a remote part of the station. Neil marveled at how many levels of security shielded this particular section, which the holographic Tieria bypassed with a simple wave of his hand.
"We're here," Tieria announced, as they stood before an inconspicuous-looking door set against a grand, opaque glass wall.
"Ah," Neil said, smiling in puzzlement. "Where's here, exactly?"
Tieria's hologram glanced at him, then stepped aside, gesturing to Neil to enter first.
The room was dark, lit only by a sleepy blue light coming from several glass capsules. They looked a lot like medi-therapy bays, big enough to hold a human body, filled with a clear, sparkling liquid. They were all empty.
Except for one capsule. Right across from them, in the centre of the room, a pale, sleeping body lay frozen in stasis, pale and ethereal. It was the body of a boy, who looked to be in his teens.
Purple hair fanned out around his face, and though his eyes were closed, Neil was certain, if they were open, they'd be a brilliant shade of red.
Neil didn't say anything. He strode to the side of the capsule, and gazed in wonder at the person sleeping in his capsule. "So … this is your body. Or will be."
"I suppose so. I did use the DNA from my previous body as a reference. It will be another year before it reaches an appropriate enough maturity," Tieria explained. There was a note of anxiety in his voice.
Neil laughed a little – but inside he was fighting against a surge of emotions. Overwhelming sadness melded with euphoric happiness as he stared at the body in the capsule, and for a moment he was rendered speechless.
"Lockon?"
Neil blinked, and turned to face his friend. Tieria looked upset, so endearingly upset. It took everything within Neil's being not to reach out and hold him right there and then.
"You … didn't want to see this, did you?" Tieria murmured. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought you here –"
"Tieria." Neil held his face in his hands and shoulders shook as if he were about to cry, and for a split second, the entire Veda system went through a flicker of complete shutdown as Tieria panicked, searching all of humanity's technological archives for something to at least give him a clue to what Neil was thinking. No such luck.
When Neil raised his head, he was laughing. Tieria's momentary panic subsided, mellowing down into a mild confusion. Veda returned to its mode of normal operation. On Earth's surface, people hardly noticed the power outage that had spanned across several cities, which lasted approximately a nanosecond.
"I'm not upset," Neil said, wiping away tears of mirth. "I was just … I don't know, overwhelmed, I guess. The last time I saw your physical body, you were …"
His voice trailed off, and realization dawned on Tieria. His hologram shook its head in relief. "I was dead," Tieria said bluntly, and saw the immediate flash of pain in Neil's eyes. "You and Setsuna retrieved my body and ensured it received a proper burial. I thank you for that."
Neil smiled, but it was strained. He placed a hand on the glass surface of the incubation capsule, and his fingers left wet trails in the condensation. "I don't know, I just … I thought I'd never see you like this again," he said, and his voice was quiet.
Tieria didn't say anything for awhile. Deep within the vaults of Veda, Tieria's consciousness longed for a physical body, right now – if he did, Tieria knew, he'd be feeling an exquisite pain in his chest at this moment. He would press himself to Lockon's back in what he hoped was a comforting way, place a hand on his face, let him lean on his shoulder. But as a hologram, all he could do was stand there coldly.
When Neil spoke again, his voice was soft. "How long did you say it would take again?"
Tieria's voice was equally quiet. "A year."
"A year." Resignation burned in Neil's eyes. He leaned in closer to the capsule, so his cheek was brushing its side, his face inches away from the sleeping boy in the capsule, separated by glass. "I'll wait."