"Rex! It's charging!"

"Huh?"

The bewildered salvager turned just in time to see the Aligo that was rapidly approaching. He raised his sword to block, but it was too late; the monster had already crashed into him, sending him flying backwards.
"Gahhhhh!"

"Rex!" Mythra yelled. Now nothing stood between her and the Aligo, which was already readying its next attack. Unfortunately, picking a fight with an Aegis usually never ended well for the opposing party; as the monster lunged forward with its jaws wide, Mythra skillfully leaped back and, with one swift slash to its chest, dispatched of the creature. With that problem out of the way, the blonde Aegis ran over to her fallen Driver and offered him her hand. "I don't know what's going on with you today Rex, but you're almost never that clumsy."

"Thanks, I guess," Rex weakly replied as she pulled him up.

"So, what's going on? I mean, you seem really out of it."

"It's nothing."

"Rex. You were almost downed by a monster that was barely any trouble when we first arrived in Leftheria."

"Everybody has those days."

Mythra crossed her arms and huffed. "Whatever. But I can tell that something's bothering you."

"Nothing goes by you these days."

"Well?"

"I received a letter from Zeke a few days ago. I can't read, so I had Auntie Corrine read it aloud to me. What the letter said got me thinking."

Mythra raised an eyebrow. "What did it say?"

"Why don't you read it for yourself? I really only remember one thing, and even that may not be accurate."

"Fine. Where is it?"

By the time the two arrived at Corrine's house, Rex had already disappeared, presumably to help Pyra with shopping, leaving Mythra alone to locate the letter. She started at Rex's desk, rummaging through the cluttered mess of things. "What was that about people cleaning up after themselves Rex?" she thought to herself, remembering their recent conversations with Ahkos and Patroka. Eventually she gave up hope and left the room. The blonde Aegis was about to go outside and find Rex, only to find what she assumed was the letter lying on the kitchen counter. Mythra sighed deeply. "This better be worth it," she mumbled as she unfolded the paper.

"Chum,
A few days ago, I stumbled upon an interesting discovery, one that I think you'll be very interested in. I was reading through a bit of the older Tantalese records when something caught my eye. I know you may think I'm pulling your leg, but I assure you I am not; what I discovered was that the Tantalese people once possessed the technology to transform Blades into humans. At first, I passed this off as fictional, but after reading several accounts of successful transformations, I went and asked Dad. He said that the technology was sealed away to avoid attracting unnecessary attention from neighbouring nations, but now that Tantal has opened its doors to trade, he is considering bringing it back again. I instantly thought of you and your relationship with Pyra. I mean, you guys are different than say…me and Pandy. She's an Aegis; she doesn't return to the core state once you die, and her memories remain. I remember specifically that she said that she wished to one day grow old and live together with the person she loved. What I'm getting at is this: you now have the opportunity to grow old together. Once you are able, visit me in Tantal; I'll fill you in on details there.

Signed,
The Great and Mighty Zekenator"

Mythra visibly flinched as she read those last words. "He just had to ruin it, didn't he?" Still, the letter opened up a whole new world of possibilities to Aegises and Blades as a whole. They could live as they always wished. "What do you make of it?" came a voice from behind.

"Huh? Rex?"

"Pyra's still out shopping; but I ran out of hands to carry the stuff, so I came back to drop them off. Well? What do you make of it?"
"…I think it's fascinating."

"Not the machine, genius. I mean what do you think of Pyra going into it?"

The blonde Aegis went silent for a moment, contemplating the question. "I guess I'd be happy for her. If it truly does work the way that Zeke described, then she will be able to live the life that she always longed to live."

"But what about you?"

Mythra looked away. "I don't know. I feel as if it is my duty as an Aegis to watch over Father's world. Wasn't that why…I was summoned in the first place? To protect the world from Malos?"

"Malos is gone now. The world is at peace."

"But for how long? I…don't want to let Father down because of my own selfishness."

Rex sighed. "It seems like you think Pyra shouldn't go."
"I created her as a scapegoat. I created her because I did not want to come back. I created her so that I could run away from all of this. If anyone were deserving of going in, it would be her. I want her to live a life that isn't tied to being an Aegis. She had to deal with the problems I had caused; I just want her to be happy."

"You should talk to her about it."

"So should you."

"Yeah, I will."

Just then, the door creaked open. "You'll what?" came Pyra's familiar voice. Mythra jolted up and turned to the boy. "You're going first. I gotta think of what to say," she said in a low tone before dashing out the door. Confused, her ruby-haired counterpart, after freeing herself from the heavy grocery bags, slid into the open seat beside Rex. "What was that all about?"
Rex suddenly found much interest in the ground beneath him. He wasn't exactly sure how he would bring this up to her. "U-um hey, Pyra. What's up?"

"Stuff got too heavy, so I had to come here," she said cheekily. Rex chuckled and leaned his head against her shoulder. "You could've asked."

Pyra raised an eyebrow. "I did ask. I asked for you to come back once you dropped off the first bunch of stuff at the house." The salvager scratched his cheek nervously. "O-oh yeah. Right, well…I got distracted."

"Uh huh. So, what were you and Mythra up to?" She asked innocently.

"Um…stuff."

"Stuff…?"

"A letter. From Zeke. Pyra…remember what you said when we were up in the World Tree? How you wanted to eventually be able to grow old and one day close your eyes forever?"

"Of course. I still wish it were possible. I would love to live as any human could."
Rex's lips slowly curved upwards. "That may now be possible." He watched as his Blade took a moment to digest what she had just been told. "Are you certain?"

Her Driver nodded. Pyra's eyes widened slightly; without warning, she tackled the boy, knocking him over. "Rex! Do you know what this means?" She exclaimed.

The smile on his face grew wider as he nodded. The two embraced. "I'm a bit concerned with how the thing works, but I guess we'll find out once we get to Tantal. The letter's from Zeke after all, which questions its credibility."

Pyra giggled. "Give the poor guy a break."

"Whatever. You should talk to Mythra about it though. I'm no Blade, so I can't really understand how you guys feel about everything. Plus being an Aegis comes with certain duties and responsibilities; I wouldn't know anything about that either."

"You're right," she said as she rolled herself off the boy underneath her and headed off to find her sister.

Mythra stood alone on the cliff where she had been reawakened, pondering over the recent events. The blonde Aegis' thoughts drifted back to the War five hundred years ago, or more specifically, the Driver who led her and all of Torna into battle. She knew what it was like, having someone to love. But Addam was long gone. Now that Malos was no longer a threat, Mythra did not know what to do. She wanted to live her life as a normal girl, but she felt a certain guilt whenever she thought about it. It wouldn't benefit anyone, and her immortality would be lost; she could no longer protect Alrest should the need arise. There was also the matter of Father. He created the Aegises; what would he think if they just threw away their life to live as an "inferior" being?

Meanwhile, Pyra finally reached the top of the cliff; she had caught sight of her sister's figure from outside Corrine's house, which led her up here. "There you are. I was wondering where you had disappeared off to," she called out. Mythra didn't turn.

"I assume you've heard about the tech in Tantal?"

"I have. And I've decided that I would like to use it. I know it seems a bit selfish, but you know how I've wanted to live as a normal girl for a while."

"Yeah. I've known about that for some time already. You've had that wish ever since our fight with Morag in Torigoth."

"Will you be all right with that?"

"Well yeah. It would benefit you more, and you deserve it more than I ever could."

"How do you mean?"

Mythra paused for a moment to gather her thoughts. "I mean, there's Rex. Your relationship would finally work out with you as a human; the person I love is…already dead."

"Mythra…"

"Remember why I constructed you? It was so that I could run away from this world, away from my problems. I don't think someone who does that deserves the privilege of becoming human. Besides, I would be better off helping out Rex as his Blade."

"You know, I really think there's room for more than one person. I'm sure we could get you into another; there's no reason to limit our options."

"But Pyra…we were created as Aegises. I can't just throw away that privilege for my own selfish reasons. I mean, you have good reason to do it, but me? I don't have anything going for me."

"But I've decided. I'm going to stay an Aegis. That way…I can repay what you for what you did to me."

"But Myt—"

"No buts. I know you're going to say something along the lines of 'I got to meet Rex because of you' or something like that, but that doesn't take away the guilt I carry, Ok? It's my choice." The blonde Aegis placed a comforting hand on Pyra's shoulder. "I want you to live as you should have."

"Mythra…"
The ruby haired Aegis, unable to control herself anymore, threw her arms around her sister. "Thank you," she whispered. Mythra stood there awkwardly (she was never one to express much physical affection), but a faint smile was etched on her face. Maybe this was the first step to making things right, she thought as she returned the hug.

Hello everyone! I know. I'm really, really late. I had some stuff come up, and I didn't really like the way this chapter turned out. It took me a while to fix it into something acceptable. I also wanted to flesh out Mythra a little bit; I hope that her reasoning behind being hesitant to use the tech will be satisfactory. The last chapter will be the final chapter, and a full explanation as to why Tantal possesses this technology will be given then. As the story comes to a close, I wanted to take the time to thank everyone for sticking around for this long. When I first started this, I wasn't expecting a lot to be honest. Xenoblade, despite being an awesome series of games, doesn't have a huge community, but I was pleasantly surprised at the turnout. So thank you all.

Anyway, on to answering some questions posed in reviews.
How could Rex be a salvager if he could not read a map or tell how much money he got from each load of stuff

Yeah, that's kind of a plothole, but it can also be easily explained. First of all, when Rex was a salvager, he was employed by Bana, a scheming, two-faced businessman. Throughout the events of the game, we see that he is obviously a bad guy, but why does Rex work for him still? I like to think that Bana hires Rex because Rex can't read. Because he can't read, Bana can give Rex the wrong amount of money for payment without him even knowing. In the case of the him being able to read maps, I don't think you necessarily need to know how to read words and letters to read a map. All Rex needs to know is where to find the goods; a simple X on the map will suffice. Even if there were still problems reading, he could always just ask Gramps or use his salvager technology that he has on Gramp's back. Thanks for the review though! It really got me thinking.

I just finished the game and I feel like the ending left me kinda wanting more. So now I'm reading fan fictions to help fix the hole the ending left me. I'm glad you're writing this after the game and I can't wait until the next one

Thank you for your kind words! I normally don't really respond to positive reviews in my chapters (I feel like I'm being a bit proud when I do that), but I couldn't respond to your review for some reason. I want you guys to know that I read your reviews, and that I'm not ignoring you.

That wraps it up for today. Thank you all again, and I hope to see you soon for the finale!