Part 7: Reunion

Prairie's eyes snapped open as soon as her transfer completed. Taking a quick glance around the transfer room she was greeted by the sight of Fleuve and four other Guardian soldiers, all with rifles pointed at her chest. Vent was also standing off to one side, though he was no longer Megamerged.

"Commander Prairie transfer confirmed," Gardenia's voice said over the comm system, "preparing to scramble transerver signal."

"No!" Prairie ran to the comm panel beside the door and mashed the talk button. "Gardenia no! There's one more coming through!"

"Affirmative, canceling scramble order. Let me know when you're ready, ma'am."

A few tense moments passed as the Guardians waited, keeping their rifles trained on the transerver in case something unexpected came through.

"Vent, where did Ashe go?" Prairie said when she noticed the female Hunter was missing from the room.

"She collapsed as soon as her transfer was complete. Rose was here waiting for us and as soon as I assured her that the rest of us were okay she rushed her off to the infirmary."

"Oh, good. I'm sure she'll be okay then."

"Excuse me, Commander," Fleuve interrupted politely, "but who, may I ask, are we waiting for? We only sent-"

"Incoming transfer," Gardenia's voice echoed over the comm system again. There was a brief pause, then she continued with a note of alarm in her voice. "I'm detecting traces of Galleon and biometal data, prepare to engage-"

"No!" Prairie shouted frantically. "That's him!"

"What?!" Fleuve said, his confusion reflected in the faces of the other four Guardians. "Prairie, if there are Galleons coming through that transerver, then-"

"It's not Galleons!" It's-" Prairie paused as the transerver activated, then breathed a sigh of relief when Zero appeared on the pad in a flash of light. She pressed on the comm pad. "Gardenia, scramble the transerver signal, please."

"Already did ma'am. Figured if that wasn't your friend then he wasn't coming. Everything turn out all right down there?"

"Yes, we're fine, thank--oh!" Prairie exclaimed as she saw Zero's arm - or lack thereof - and rushed over to investigate. "What happened?!"

"I was in a hurry and got a little reckless," the red reploid said, avoiding the question. "Did we make a clean escape? Where's Ashe and Model A?" Zero glanced around the room, assessing the situation.

"We got away fine, we just scrambled the transerver signal so nobody can track us. Ashe has already been taken to the infirmary. Which is exactly where you're going!"

"No point," Zero said. "Even if this body were worth repairing, I don't think anyone here would know how."

"Oh, right," Prairie said, slightly embarrassed, "I'd forgotten about...that. Well, if it hurts, maybe we can at least..."

"I've already cut power to the receptors in that shoulder, I don't really feel much of anything there now." Zero grimaced. "Hurt like hell when it came off, though."

Fleuve abruptly interrupted their exchange. "Excuse me, but are you a reploid?"

Zero stared at the diminutive scientist for a moment, then sighed. "That's rather...complicated."

Fleuve simply raised an eyebrow in curiosity, then turned to Prairie and said, "I think a debriefing is in order."

"Yes, good idea," Prairie nodded. She went back to the comm panel and was about to push the talk button when she realized she'd left the signal open from before. "Oh, ah, Gardenia, could you..."

"Yes ma'am, I'll inform the crew to meet you in the briefing room."

"Ah, thank you," Prairie said, then added, "and please set a course for Innerpeace. Stay away from any Legion ships you detect - if any of them want to talk, inform me before responding."

"Yes ma'am," Gardenia replied, needing no further explanation - her job was to follow orders, not question them.

Prairie turned to Vent. "Are you up for this right now? You're injured, we could always bring you up to speed after Muguet's had a look at you and you've gotten some rest."

"Are you kidding? I wouldn't miss this for the world," Vent grinned. "Ashe is going to be pretty angry if we do it without her, though."

"We'll deal with her when the time comes," Prairie said firmly, though inside she was immensely relieved that the girl was being taken care of.

"Well then, let's go," Fleuve said, leading the way out of the transfer room, followed closely by Prairie.

As Zero walked by Vent he dropped something into the young man's palm. "I think you lost this," he said, then continued out the door.

"What...?" Vent opened his palm and saw the shining form of Model L in his palm.

"Hello again, young man," the biometal said. "It's good to see you're still in one piece. I sort of liked you."

"Model L! What are you doing here?"
"This team's more fun than the other one," the biometal responded. Vent didn't really believe that was the only reason, but he didn't have time to press the issue.

"Well, I'm glad you came back," Vent said as he pocketed the biometal and hurried out the door to catch up with the rest of the group.

"So am I," the biometal said, completely unheard in the fabric of Vent's clothes.


After catching up to everyone else, Vent moved up and tapped Fleuve on the shoulder. "Hey Fleuve, any idea where-"

"She's probably asleep. She took the night watch so she could brood quietly on the landing deck by herself after I had her confined to her cabin - the girl went completely hysterical when we lost contact with Legion. Quite a load of nonsense, really. I just forced her to retire an hour ago so I doubt she'll be up anytime-"

"VENT!"

Vent barely had time to turn to face the source of the voice before he was sent flying into the side of the corridor by Aile's full-body tackle.

"Ow!" Vent was about to form a rebuke until he got a good look at the girl's eyes, ringed from lack of sleep, and tinged with red from crying.

"Vent, oh thank god you're all right! I was so worried, I-oh, you're hurt! Vent, what happened? Are you okay?" Aile's voice alternated rapidly between extreme relief and worry as she looked him over, checking out his injuries herself.

"I was fine until you knocked my head into the wall just now..."

"What the hell did you think you were doing, going out on a mission without even telling me?" the girl demanded with an immediate mood swing, ignoring Vent's response completely.

"Aile, I think you should..." Vent tried to interrupt, but the girl continued on.

"Then you go and drop off the radar and get me all worried-"

"Aile..."

"-I mean, what the hell am I supposed to think, you and Prairie running off with some Hunter girl-"

"Aile!"

"-you could have gotten injured or captured or killed and there'd be no way for me to-"
"AILE!"

"WHAT?!"

Vent waved his arm, indicating their current company. "Don't you think there could be a better time for this?"

Aile looked up to see the all of the Guardians smiling good-naturedly at the two of them. Prairie was trying her best not to giggle but the mirth dancing in her eyes gave her away. Even Zero couldn't help but grin. The only one who didn't react at all was Fleuve, who thought the whole thing was a rather inefficient use of time, indeed.

"Oh no! I'm sorry Prair-I mean, Commander!" Aile stammered out as she got off Vent's chest, fiddled with her wrinkled uniform - it was clear she'd been sleeping in it, and for how long was anyone's guess - and bowed her head apologetically. "It's just, I heard the briefing message and I thought it might be about Vent and-"

"It's okay Aile, calm down," Prairie said, still suppressing the urge to giggle. She turned to look at Vent as he picked himself up off the floor. "Vent, you may be all right, but clearly your sister is not. Why don't you two go have a talk and come to the briefing a bit later?"

"Thanks Prairie," Vent said, an embarrassed look on his face. "C'mon Sis, let's go." He grabbed Aile by the elbow and pulled her back down the hall she'd just come bolting down. Even before they were out of sight everyone could hear Aile starting to fuss over her brother again.

Unable to contain themselves any longer, Prairie and the rest of the Guardians all burst out laughing. When she'd finally regained her composure, Prairie said to Zero, "it certainly has gotten a lot more interesting on board since we took those two on." She then continued down the hallway to the briefing room.

Zero began to follow, then noticed the tiny form of Model X floating up to him. He opened his palm and Model X settled gently inside.

"I think they need some time alone," was all the biometal said.

To which Zero remarked, "you may not be the real X, but you're pretty damned close."


"Are you sure you're all right?" Aile said, still checking over her sibling even as they entered the cabin they shared together.

"Yeah, I'm fine, seriously, I was kidding about the head bit," Vent replied as his sister pushed him down onto the bottom - Aile's - bunk. "I got a little more beat up than usual, but it's nothing a quick trip to the infirmary and a good night's sleep won't fix."

"Which is exactly where you'll be going right after that briefing!"

"Yeah, and if I'm lucky, Muguet will be too busy with Ashe to deal with me, so I'll get to see Rose instead," Vent said as a guilty smile crept across his face. It was well-known among the ship's crew that the motherly Muguet could be rather...overbearing, at times, whereas Rose was quiet and shy. Her good looks didn't hurt matters any, either.

"Who is that Ashe girl, anyway?" Aile asked. "I remember you mentioning her before, but I can't remember where."

"She's Model A's biomatch, from the Hunter's Guild. The one I told you I met down in the quarry near Legion when I went after that Model W fragment, remember? Actually, come to think of it, you saw her when she came on board during the attack on the Ouroboros. Red and blue armor, off-white ponytail, dual plasma pistols?"

"Oh yeah, I remember her now," Aile said thoughtfully, "the one you brought back on your shoulder before that monstrosity sank back into the ocean."

"That's the one," Vent confirmed. "She's a tough one, no doubt about it. I bet she'll be back on her feet in a day at the most."

"Well, she seemed like a good person, so I'm glad she's okay." Then Aile had another sleep-deprived moodswing, going from relieved to angry in the blink of an eye. "Which is far from what you're going to be if you don't have a decent excuse for disappearing on me like that!"

"Sorry," Vent said as he raised his hands in defense, "it wasn't supposed to be anything big. I was just escorting Prairie to Legion so she could discuss Albert and the Ouroboros with Master Thomas and Master Mikhail. Ashe volunteered to come with us, probably from lack of anything better to do with herself. With Albert and the Model W's gone I really didn't think anything dangerous would happen - I mean, it's Legion headquarters. If that's not safe then what is, right?"

"I guess," Aile said, her anger slowly fading away, replaced by a creeping sadness. "It's just...at first I was angry at you for not telling me you were leaving. But we aren't kids anymore, I told myself, you don't have to check in with me before you go out on missions.

"When we lost contact with you I started to worry, but I thought, maybe just your communicator was broken, or the Guardian Base was having difficulties, or something..." Aile's voice began to waver as emotions bubbled to the surface. Vent tried to interrupt and calm her down, but to no avail. It was like she'd broken down a barrier inside herself, and now she couldn't stop the the words from pouring out.

"Marguerite intercepted a few transmissions from inside Legion, something about mavericks attacking. We only got a few fragments before communications with Legion shut off completely. Then we picked up energy emissions indicating weapons discharge, and we didn't know what was going on. We still couldn't raise you on any frequency, and then the fires started..."

Aile collapsed into her brother's lap as her voice finally broke. "I was so worried, I didn't know what to do. I think I kind of lost it, because the next thing I remember is waking up in my cabin with Silure at the door with orders to keep me inside until I calmed down. I just couldn't stop thinking that something had happened to you, that I'd never seen you again, that you were gone, and I..."

"Aile..." Vent said softly as he tightly embraced his sister, stroking her long hair. "It's okay, I'm back now. I'm not going anywhere, I promise," he soothed.

"I felt so helpless, I knew you were down there, and you were in trouble, but there was nothing..." Tears flowed freely down Aile's face as she looked up at her brother, something Vent hadn't seen in over four years. "I lost Giro to them, and I thought that now I'd lost you too. I thought you'd left me all alone, and I..." She buried her face in Vent's chest as sobs wracked her body. "I don't want to be alone!" she cried.

Vent held his sister close as she let out all the pain she'd been holding in. He knew how much Giro had meant to his sister. Over the years since his death Vent had slowly dealt with his loss and moved on. However, his sister's feelings for Giro had gone much deeper than Vent's own, and she still felt the pain of his death quite strongly. Her acute memory of losing a loved one, combined with the terror of losing her only remaining family, while being helpless to do anything about it, had been understandably too much for her to handle with her usual calm and carefree attitude.

The two siblings remained on the bunk for a time in silence, Vent comforting his distressed sister while Aile simply wanted to feel her brother's presence again and assure herself that he really had come back to her. Finally, the girl heaved a heavy sigh and disentangled herself from her brother, sitting down on the bed beside him.

"I want to yell at you and make you promise not to do something stupid like taking on an entire horde of mavericks by yourself again, but I know it won't do any good," Aile said as she wiped her eyes and tried to get her emotions back under control.

"You're probably right," Vent agreed with a chuckle.

"Well then, promise me that next time you do feel like doing something that stupid, you at least tell me first so I can come pull your butt out of the fire before you get burned."

"Only if you make me the same promise," Vent replied seriously, looking his sister straight in the eye.

Their gazes locked for a second, the emotions in their eyes saying more than they could ever find the words for, mentally reaffirming their bond as brother and sister. Though they'd been taken in and cared for by the Guardians, each was still the only family the other had left. Vent knew he would feel the same as Aile had if their situations had been reversed.

Then Aile was back to her old self, indignantly crossing her arms and arching her back, nose held high in the air, eyes closed. "I don't have to. Unlike some people, I don't do stupid things," she said, her tone indicating that such a thing should have been obvious.

Vent laughed at her antics - it relieved him to see some of his sister's spirit returning already. "Of course not, whatever gave me that idea."

Aile cracked an eye open to look at him sideways. "So, are you going to explain exactly what happened down there or not?" Her tone implied that it wasn't really a question.

"I will, but after the briefing. Right now you need to get back to sleep. Fleuve told me you-"

"Ooooh no," Aile said as she jumped up from the bed. "If you can beat up mavericks for a whole day and still have enough energy to debrief the entire ship's crew, then so do I," she informed him.

Vent sighed - there was no arguing with her when she got like this. "All right then, don't go to sleep, but I need to get going to that briefing. I'll tell you all about it when I get back." He got up and headed for the door.

"Are you crazy?" Aile said as she grabbed onto his arm with both of hers. "I just got you back from the dead, there's no way I'm letting you out of my sight. Since we missed the start of the briefing you'll just have to tell me the important bits on the way there."

"All right then. It went kind of like this..."

Forgotten in the folds of Vent's pockets, Model L remained silent as the two siblings had their little heartfelt exchange. She hadn't really meant to eavesdrop but she'd gotten stuck in the fabric somewhere along the way and by the time she was able to escape, she decided it would be less awkward if she just stayed where she was for the time being.

Is this what Zero and Master X see in them? Model L wondered to herself. In her previous life as one of Neo Arcadia's Four Generals she had never been programmed to feel emotions like love and compassion - she was capable of them, but she didn't really understand them. The closest thing she had to a family were the other Generals, having all been designed based on Master X. But their relationships were built more on a foundation of respect for each other's power than any kind of love.

All we ever cared about was defeating the enemy, winning the next battle, and protecting Master X's dream - Neo Arcadia, a place where humans and reploids lived together in peace. Could it be that we failed to see what exactly it was that we were protecting? Master X, how painful it must have been for you to watch as we failed to see the wondrous world you strived to create right in front of us. A world full of love and freedom, where children like these are free to live and dream...

Fairy Leviathan, formerly one of Neo Arcadia's Four Generals and leader of the great Meikai army, had a great many things to think about as she continued to sit silently at the bottom of Vent's pocket, temporarily forgotten.


Author's Note

Heh, so, Aile makes her appearance. In my world, the events of ZX happened *slightly* differently than they did in the game. It wouldn't be worth writing an entire fic just to show how I think that one thing would change, and it's not really necessary for this story, either. So just use your imagination a little and work with me.

Now, you might be saying to yourself, "but if Vent can Megamerge with Model X/Z, doesn't that mean Aile can too?" Hm...an interesting question. Stay tuned to find out how that works out ;).

That's all for now. Coming up next: more fight scenes.

Canonical Notes

Only thing to talk about here is the fact that Aile and Vent coexist, and are siblings. There's various pieces of evidence that they both exist in the game world, but the sibling bit is pure creativity on my part, because it's more fun to write that way. In my version of ZX, both Vent and Aile were with their mother at the amusement park, were both rescued by Giro, and both became members of Giro Express. The stuff that happens after that requires a bit more creativity and description than I'm going to put here - it's also pretty irrelevant to the current plot. If there's any details needed I'll explain them during the course of the events in the plot.