It had been a month since the Lifehold Core had been secured and the power recharged, everyone's mimeosomes no longer in danger of shutting down. Much to Soleil's displeasure, they were still not back in their human bodies yet, and she still didn't remember who she was before the White Whale crashed on Mira. Eleanora promised her that she'd go through NLA's records and see what she could find, but there were no guarantees–even she didn't have access to everything in the city, apparently.
Countless BLADE members had praised her for proving to be better than her mentor, Lao, and stopping him before he could doom everyone else. Soleil could only weakly smile or nod in response, unable to think of a proper response. While over time, the praise and such died down, there was still the occasional "You sure showed that traitor!" comment.
Soleil felt irritated one evening as she walked through the commercial district: she had dealt with Nalu's garbage of using her, and it was thanks to Lularita that she had learned her lesson against using people for profit. Not long after that, she had attempted to round up HB, Celica, and Lin for collectible hunting in Primordia, only for all of them to have turned her down due to being busy.
She sighed; she shouldn't let this get to her, she's had worse days, and yet…
"Oh, hey, Soleil!" Justin's voice called, and Soleil straightened up when she saw him hanging out near the fountain. She smiled as she approached him.
"Justin, hey! Nice to see you! I haven't seen you since before the attack on NLA!" Soleil greeted.
"It's nice to see you too! I heard you were part of the group that secured the Lifehold Core; it really seems you are NLA's heroine," Justin noted.
Soleil's smile faltered for a moment at that. "A-Ahaha, I just happened to be at the right place and the right time, that's all," she responded, shrugging.
"You're amazing, though! You took down both the leader of the Ganglion and that traitor in one fell swoop!" Justin praised.
Soleil balled a hand up into a fist for a brief moment, sucking in a quick breath. "Lao reacted how he did because his family didn't make it on-board. And he helped us, in the end, he turned on Luxaar," she reminded, fighting the urge to grit her teeth.
"Even if he did help in the end…the tale of a heroine rising up and defeating the monster threatening to ruin our very way of life was almost perfect! You almost had a bona fide origin story, but then he messed it all up…" Justin complained, sighing and folding his arms.
"He didn't mess it up!" Soleil retorted loudly. "The world isn't divided into pure black and pure white, damn it!"
"Are you really defending him?" Justin asked, raising his eyebrows.
"I'm not saying Lao is blameless, I know he screwed up and could have doomed us all, but you know what?! He's not a complete villain!" Soleil shouted. "He's not this evil traitor who only serves as a plot twist for your stupid tale of there only being good and evil with nothing in between!"
Soleil could feel everyone's eyes on her, and her face turned beet red when she realized she was a bit too loud. Justin himself looked alarmed, silent at Soleil's response.
"Why is she defending Lao? I heard he's responsible for someone's husband dying," a BLADE commented to a Ma-non nearby.
"Wasn't Lao her mentor? I wouldn't be surprised if she's defending him because she looked up to him," someone else asked their friend.
"I heard he was planning on trying to convince her to turn against NLA too!" the Ma-non squeaked. "She could've been a traitor too!"
Soleil tried to retort, but she couldn't find the right words. All she could do was stomp away, not wanting to hear anything else. A short while later, she boarded her Skell and flew off toward Primordia's northern edge. Why couldn't she have just shut up? Why did she have to go and blow up at Justin?
She sighed, leaning back against her seat. Justin likely didn't mean any harm, she'll apologize later after some time by herself. Likely a day away from everyone in NLA. Or a week. Maybe a month, but that might be pushing it.
At some point, she landed on one of the beaches, parking and leaving her Skell before going to sit near the shore. Soleil closed her eyes as she listened to the waves, the tide occasionally rolling up close to her boots before pulling away. There was the occasional noise of an indigen chattering, but it sounded far enough away for her to ignore it. In a way, this beach felt oddly…familiar…but where could she have seen this beach before? On Earth? Or maybe some other, distant planet, one far away from Mira–
The sound of something snapping prompted her to open her eyes and immediately stand up, looking around as she reached for the sniper rifle on her back. She saw a flicker of movement near what was likely a cave, and Soleil slowly walked over to it. She frowned as she realized the entrance wasn't big enough for her to drive her Skell in, unfortunately…and she was on her own.
Soleil took a deep breath before entering the cave. So far, it seemed to be pretty linear, just a single tunnel winding deep into what was probably a mountain, only a few non-aggressive blattas here and there. She honestly expected a tyrant to pop out of hiding and attempt to maul her, from how bad her luck today had been.
Without warning, the floor suddenly turned into a steep drop, and Soleil yelped loudly as she tumbled down for a few moments, eventually hitting a pile of what she hoped were flowers. She grunted as she slowly sat up, looking down to see a patch of bright yellow flowers beneath her. Soleil squinted at the flowers, trying to remember where she saw them…
Right, a mission a while ago in Primordia, before Lao left NLA. Lin had discovered a similar patch of flowers while they were hunting down a forfex, and she made a comment about how they reminded her of buttercups.
"They're this golden-colored flower that used to be on Earth!" Lin had explained to Tatsu and Soleil as they stared at the flowers. "They're really pretty, but…don't eat them if you ever see them. Seriously, they're toxic."
So why was this patch of flowers in a cave? Soleil glanced up, noticing a hole in the roof of the cave that allowed sunlight to filter through. Maybe a seed or two wound up down here somehow, and flowers started spreading from those seeds…
The sound of footsteps caused Soleil to immediately look up, prepared to grab her sniper rifle again, only for her to freeze when she saw the figure just ahead of her. There was a shirt of some sort and jeans on instead of the familiar Sakuraba light gear, but…she recognized Lao in an instant.
Neither of them moved right away, the two just staring at each other with wide eyes. Soleil blinked several times before sitting up and pinching herself, heart racing when she realized that no, she was very much awake, and that was Lao standing before her.
"L…Lao?!" Soleil stammered. "You're alive?!"
Lao flinched and instantly held a finger up to his mouth, and Soleil nodded. "You're alive?" she repeated, much quieter this time.
"…I am," he confirmed, frowning deeply. "…why are you here?"
"I-I saw something, there was something near the cave, I went to investigate, and the next thing I know I'm falling into a patch of golden flowers," Soleil explained, quickly. "I just came to Primordia to relax, I didn't…I wasn't intentionally looking for you, I…"
Lao simply leaned against a wall as Soleil attempted to explain herself, folding his arms. "…I see," was all he said, quietly.
Soleil fell quiet, eyes starting to water. "Lao…I missed you so, so much!" she admitted, standing up and taking a step away from the flowers. "I thought…I thought you might never come back…"
"What about the Core?" Lao asked, glancing at Soleil. "Aren't they working to give everyone their bodies back and all?"
Soleil shook her head. "…no one's back in their bodies yet. Elma, Yelv, and a handful of people went to make sure the Core was functioning properly, and all they told us was that it might take a while for everyone's bodies to be given back to them."
Lao raised his eyebrows. "…is that so? I wonder…" he mumbled.
"Lao…how much do you remember of…that whole thing in the Core? When you…" Soleil began, reluctantly.
Lao winced, looking away. "…all of it."
Soleil cringed, lowering her head. "…I'm…I'm sorry, I wanted to try to subdue you so maybe somehow, we could have restored you to normal…"
"Forget it. I don't think I could've been saved," Lao said, shrugging. "You saw me."
"There had to have been something," Soleil responded, shaking her head. "We have several races of xenos living with us now! Both the Tree and Cavern clans of Prone, the Wrothians, the Ma-non, the Orpheans…hell, maybe L or Celica might know something about the whole chimera thing!"
Lao slowly shook his head as Soleil looked back up. "…the chimeras were a man-made thing. I don't think anyone would have known how to help."
Soleil bit her lip, unable to stop herself from running over to Lao and hugging him tightly. He grunted in surprise, almost falling backward.
"…please…come back with me," she begged. "Come back to NLA, Lao. Please."
"…Sol, don't you have anything better to do?" Lao quietly asked, slowly hugging her back. "…you know I wouldn't be welcome there."
"That's not true!" Soleil argued. "Doug and Lin miss you too!"
"And the rest of NLA?" Lao prompted.
Soleil fell quiet at that, grip loosening. "…you have me there, but…Lao, please…"
"I can't go back," Lao answered. "I know I'm in enough trouble as is. Plus…honestly, I don't know what I am anymore. I can't tell if I'm human, in some back-up mim, or what, and I don't want to find out the hard way."
…he had a point, as much as Soleil hated to admit. He was in trouble for stabbing NLA in the back, and she doubted doing the same to Luxaar earned him any sort of forgiveness. Hell, he almost came close to wrecking the Core, but…
Soleil found herself whimpering, and she had to pull away to wipe away the tears threatening to form. "…please, at least let me come see you every once in a while! I swear, I won't bring anyone else, I'll make sure I always come alone, I…I…"
She hated that she was tearing up in front of Lao. Here she was, seeing her mentor for the first time in a month, and she was crying and pleading for him to let her visit every so often. Lao's expression softened as Soleil cried, and he sighed.
"I don't mind you visiting, but…please, don't bring anyone else here if you can," Lao asked. "I want to stay away from the others for now, at least."
"G-Got it! I promise I won't bring anyone else here!" Soleil stammered, nodding. "If you don't mind…I'll go now, Lao."
"Thank you. And Sol?" Lao began before Soleil could leave. "…thank you for stopping me at the Core. I'm proud of you and Lin."
Soleil couldn't help but smile, snifling as she wiped away the rest of her tears. "Th-Thank you, Lao."
"You're welcome. Now go on and head home, before Vandham himself comes stomping in here looking for you," Lao prompted.
Soleil nodded, leaving the cave.
–
"You seem to be in a good mood," Elma noticed later that evening, Soleil helping Lin cook dinner. Soleil had found herself smiling all the way back to NLA, no longer in a foul mood.
"Ah…just found a small little cave in Primordia. Took my frustration out on a few blattas there," she responded, shrugging.
"Really? Where was it?" Lin asked, a curious tone in her voice.
"Ah…west side, near one of the beaches," Soleil quickly said. "Don't know the name of it, though."
"Sounds interesting! You really shouldn't go off into caves by yourself, though," Lin reminded. "Remember when you ran into that lava cave to save Professor B?"
Soleil sputtered. "He was kidnapped! I couldn't leave him there!" she argued.
"And you almost got stranded on a platform in the middle of the lava," Elma pointed out. "Which had several mortifoles on it."
"…okay, that was dumb of me," Soleil conceded. "I promise I won't go running into random caves."
"Good. How's dinner coming along?" Elma asked.
Soleil fell quiet, letting Lin and Elma talk with occasional comments from Tatsu. She was happy she found Lao, and yet…he didn't know if he was still in a mimeosome or was in his actual human body. Maybe one day they'd find out…
Until then, Soleil was content with visiting every so often, far away from NLA.