When Lyra brought them to the entrance of the Crescent Chronicle Lyner stumbled, barely catching himself before he fell over.
"Are you alright?" Ayatane asked him, leaning forward. He would have reached out to steady Lyner, but he held the Harmonious song crystal in his hands.
"It's been… not sure how long it's been since I slept. I knew that you wouldn't let Misha keep singing any more than I could, but you move so fast and I couldn't count on Flute to wake me up in time when you got there." To silence Misha. "If I was asleep I wouldn't have gotten a chance to talk to you." He closed his eyes and said, voice quiet, "And Misha was singing. How could I just go to sleep hearing her bleed her life away right next to me… I heard that song so many times it's stuck in my head, Ayatane. I just keep hearing it, over and over. I want to get it out, but do I really deserve to get it out of my head as long as it's still forced into hers? It has to stop. This has to stop." He took another step, and Lyra acted before Ayatane could.
"You're about to fall over," she said, biting her lip.
Lyner shook his head, turning around to smile and reassure them as he reached into one of his pockets for something. "Stimulant wore off." Not the teleportation's fault. Looking past her at Ayatane, he frowned. "You don't look so good."
Ayatane chuckled. "It's not really a surprise. It doesn't matter."
"It will matter to Mir," Lyner said, withdrawing his hand from his pocket still empty and pressing it to his forehead. "What will she think if she wakes up and sees that you're hurt?"
"That I managed to free her?" It wasn't as though he wouldn't recover.
"She'll think that we hurt you," Lyner said, frowning at Ayatane. "Will she really listen to the people who hurt her son? We need to get through to your mother, there's no other way to make this stop, but Misha's singing."
"What are you suggesting… No, Lyner. I can't let mother remain imprisoned because I'm weak. Buying me time to heal with a reyvateil's life?"
"Delaying will give them a chance to stop us, too," Lyner knew. "I have to let her sing if it will help the odds, though. I have to. She won't forgive me if I stop her without a plan. She's only singing so we have a chance, I can't ruin it because I'm impulsive and reckless."
"I could take you to one of my secret bases and bring us back here in the morning," Lyra offered, mouth tightening as she looked up at Lyner. The Teru gave Ayatane a look, clearly asking for him to back her up on this, or at least not push for charging in right now.
Lyner smiled at her. "You are a lifesaver, Lyra." Muffling a yawn with a sleeve, he said, "You can have anything you want, up to and including my firstborn."
Lyra frowned and poked him in the side. "Don't try and be tricky. I know Harm and Harm knows Krusche, you know."
Harm? Oh, Harmonica. But, "Krusche?" Ayatane asked. It was ridiculous to worry about this now, but still something tightened in his chest. "Is she not interested in children?" She and Lyner were childhood friends, and they'd seemed very affectionate, but he hadn't thought…
Lyner blushed. "We had the same first crush. Luke doesn't like either of us that way."
Someone didn't return Lyner's feelings? It seemed impossible, but Ayatane grabbed onto it like a dying man would a Healy C as Lyner continued, "I'm not going to have children that are born. That's why Mom jokes about expecting me to build her robot grandchildren. Misha can become a mom on her own, but Spica says she's going to do what Mom did and find some cute little Master Thieves who aren't nailed down. We're a little worried about Spica…"
Master Thieves? Well, they had stolen something very valuable away from under the watchful eyes of the Apostles and Lady Shurelia herself.
While Lyner rambled, Lyra gestured with one of her arms for Ayatane to come within reach.
Putting away the crystal, Ayatane did her one better and grabbed hold of Lyner as well as Lyra's draping purple sleeve. He could feel that there were items inside it, but they were at their destination and he had to let go to hold on to Lyner too quickly for him to make any kind of identification.
Lyra sighed. "They do that sometimes when they're exploring the tower. Especially if things are bad enough that they can't get back on their own long enough for Tenba to hire me."
"Exhaust themselves like this?" Ayatane asked, picking up Lyner and spotting a large mattress that was clearly more for jumping on than sleeping. At least that meant there was another bed for Lyra.
"Taking things." She shook her head, tufted silver hair shaking in disapproval, before she realized something. "I don't think it's all wrong! Not like Flute. It's not just progress for the sake of progress and power, humans don't live as long as we do, and they can't just teleport away, and there are viruses and monsters down on the Wing of Horus. But, because they need new medication so much… making new recipes is really dangerous. I hope that Krusche's okay. The humans are trying to evacuate the Wing of Horus, the airship pilots must be really tired by now. What if she keeps flying until she falls over while she's flying?"
"Lyner is the kind of person who would do something like that," Ayatane knew, putting him down on the bed. "Beyond all reason…"
"He's nice," Lyra said, and plopped herself down on her bed, which was a mess of pink and purple blankets. "I saw you save him. You're a virus, and viruses kill humans, but you saved him. So maybe it really is true. Maybe the Teru wouldn't have to keep someone just like me locked up all alone in the dark, knowing that all of us are out there but we're not going to help her. Harm was Misha's friend when she was in Em Pheyna before she went to Platina, but he wouldn't have, and I wouldn't have known she was there until I was a grown-up and what if I'd thought it was okay and just let it happen even though I could get past Tastiella and rescue her? I don't… I don't want Em Pheyna to become someplace that does that to people without even trying to find another way. Up in Platina they call Lyner a traitor, but… I'm a kid, so they say all the time that 'if you love someone you correct their behavior when they do bad things so they'll be a better person.' That should go for adults too! If my parents were doing something awful…" She bit her lip, wrapping her arms around herself.
"Like my mother," Ayatane agreed. "She did try to find another way once. That's why the crystal exists. But… yes. She may see it as another betrayal, but it's because she's my mother that I want to protect her from having any more blood on her hands. I hear you humans, Teru, even reyvateils call her the Mother Virus, the root of all evil, and I want to say that you're wrong, but why would you have any reason to think otherwise, when viruses," like him, "and other relics of the war still end lives?"
"I've seen a lot of the tower, and I love it," Lyra said, trying to smile. "That's why I started helping humans, even armed humans going inside the tower, even though I'd get in trouble if Flute found out. I've never been trapped anywhere," not when she could teleport, "but for other people it's horrible and they can die, and Harm wanted to do that to somebody?" She sniffled, and Ayatane's wince wasn't only because she blew her nose on one of her sleeves.
"That's probably why Lyner wanted you to have those shares," Ayatane said, both to distract her and because it was true. "You're a good person, Lyra. If there were more people like you back then, well, we wouldn't be having this conversation." He managed a smile. "Lyner truly believes in making the tower not just the last remnants of two corrupted races clinging to survival by sacrificing others, but something that will grow, and become better than the past. If he's right, if we really can heal the scars left by the past…" on Mir's heart? "I want him to be right. I want the world where I was created to be somewhere he can be right, and my mother can be happy."
"So you have to make it happen," the Teru girl said, standing up with her hands on her hips.
"Or die trying," Ayatane agreed without hesitation.
"Get some sleep too, okay? Or else your mom's going to be mad," Lyra warned him.
Mir had never given him a bedtime, but he was used to lights out in the knight barracks.
Lyner knelt next to Misha and tapped her shoulder. The song cut out, and she opened her eyes. "You have two minutes."
"Mir made a song to get through to her creators so they'd stop hurting her in order to make her sing. What Father and Lady Shurelia did to you wasn't anywhere near as bad, but your feelings got through to me." Made him go against his parents, leave the only world he knew, because she needed help. "I know that you can understand her feelings and sing that song. She used to just be a beta-type like you, who needed someone to listen, care, help."
"Communicating feelings, knowing that your feelings were heard is important," any reyvateil knew that, "but she's our… your enemy now, Lyner." It was the human she'd want to kill. Did he really think this had enough of a chance to be worth that risk?
"That doesn't have to mean anything. Not when Ayatane helped me when I needed him. If Mir's fighting to help reyvateils, then we're on the same side, aren't we?"
"Well, I know I don't want pure-blooded beta types getting treated like things," Misha agreed. "Where's this crystal?"
Ayatane held it toward her. She frowned at him, but whatever grudge she bore him for beating up her brother in front of her while she couldn't do a thing to stop him would have to wait. "Hurry up and install it."
When it was over, Misha knelt there with her eyes closed as precious seconds ticked by.
Finally, her eyes opened, and she nodded up at them. "I'm singing it. Even if this doesn't work, even if I have to go back to singing Chronicle Key, this song, the feelings in this song… she needs to hear it at least once. If I'm going to imprison her," the way Misha was imprisoned, "then I have to do this for her, at least this once!"
For the children, Mir was singing.
For him.
No, not just for him.
For the Reyvateil who was able to sing just for the sake of easing Mir's pain and loneliness even after so many generations fell alone in the dark because of the Mother Virus.
For the boy who was able to help that reyvateil despite how it went against his parents' wills and the laws of this world, the laws of how this world worked because he did not have it in him to do anything else.
Ayatane expected to be ordered into a world of black and white, of evil humans and reyvateil victims, but there were good humans and reyvatiels, even third-generation reyvateils like Aurica, who were able to choose their own paths.
He'd hoped to free her from the curse that bound her, and now she sang of her hopes that he would live free, without the curse of hatred?
This world, this shining world where he was brought into existence… It blinded him with its brilliance.
For a moment this happiness was too much to bear, but someone squeezed his hand.
Yes. He was not alone.
He, they truly could make this world a place where Mother and Lyner both could be happy. Where all these impossible joys could be held in his hands.
Lyner grabbed the crystal before anyone else could and made for the door.
Ayatane was the first to catch up with him. "Lyner, where are you going?" He wasn't intending to make a copy of it the way he had the Purger crystal was he?
"It's going right off the edge of the tower!"
"It's an example of lost technology!" Krusche argued, grabbing a hold of Lyner's coat.
"Not the kind of technology Tenba should be replicating!"
"…It's a historical artifact?" Aurica said, but she looked doubtful herself. Radolf still took hold of Lyner's arm, ready to let him go if the Holy Maiden gave the order.
"So we make a crystal that looks like it for a memorial to 'this is never happening again.'"
Ayatane hesitated, not sure if he should assist . "…It is a beautiful song."
Lyner stopped trying to kick Krusche's hand and turned to his boyfriend. Really, Ayatane?
"Lyner!" Misha yelled at him. "It's my crystal: hand it over!"
His shoulders drooped. "Sorry, Misha," he said, holding the Chronicle Key crystal out for her to take it from him.
"It's my crystal, so I get to throw it off the edge of the tower."
"So, the leader of the largest human army," stepmother of her son's boyfriend - good thinking of Ayatane to seduce him. Mir couldn't really regret that it had backfired, when it turned out so well. "Has invited me to 'Mother-Son Tower Diving?'"
Ayatane explained.
"Invading Shurelia's tower and killing her tower guardians for amusement and profit?"
The Mother Virus smiled. She liked the way this human thought.
I'd like to do Mir/Ayano bonding and how this affects (and how it doesn't affect…) how Mir dresses in AT2 this 'verse, but the PS2 I would borrow to replay AT1 is being used to play the copy of P3FES they borrowed from me.
So, a conclusion to the plot of the giftfic, and there hopefully will be omake content as soon as I can start observing things like the more exotic item effects in action, depending on memory and inspiration.
The full quote from The Tempest is "O brave new world, that has such people in it!"