Well, I've suddenly had a rush of ideas today, so here's the new chapter:

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Guardian HQ

"Alright, Sis, I've ordered the equipment you need from the factory. It should be delivered some time this evening." Prairie leaves the room as Ciel continues her work, dragging Forte with her.

Upon leaving, Prairie notices Zero entering the room. His hair seems to be all tangled up and fuzzy, making him the perfect example of someone who just got out of bed.

"X is hogging the washroom. I need to use yours…"

"It's almost noon, you should've gotten up along time ago." Prairie sighs as she points to the room. "Sis is still working, I'm sure you know where it is." Zero nods as he goes inside. Even Forte gets up earlier than him, saving the world is pretty much the only thing that Zero's good at.

Zero leaves the bathroom with a comb in his hand as he straightens out his hair. He looks across to see Ciel working on her computer.

"Ciel, you don't have to keep on working so hard…" Ciel stops working and turns to look at Zero.

"Everyday, you and the others risk your lives to help defend the world. I realize that I can't be there alongside you, so I'm just doing what I can to help…" Ciel looked Zero in the eye and walked up to him. "You did it again, didn't you?"

Zero slowly started to back away, feeling uncomfortable at Ciel's question. "Huh?"

"Even after all these years, it's still the same. Every time you go on one of those missions, I'm powerless to help you."

"Ciel, we've been through this before. You aren't powerless and never will be." Zero put his hand on Ciel's chin to lift it up a bit more. "If you keep on working like this, you'll collapse."

"Zero…" The two of them bring their lips together as Zero closes his eyes, lost in his thoughts. Her lips are still the same after all these years. Still sweet, just like her personality.

Ciel puts her hands on Zero's back as he does the same. After several minutes, Zero breaks the kiss to breath while Ciel does the same. "You sure have a lot of… stamina for a… human…"

"Thanks… I think."

Zero puts his foot beside Ciel's and trips her. Ciel yelps as she slowly falls to the ground, but Zero's hand on her back stops the descent. "What are you…"

Zero quickly puts his other hand on the back of Ciel's leg and lifts her up. "You look like you haven't left the room for days, let's go outside for a while…"

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Prairie sits in the command center as she monitors Innerpeace as Forte looks out the windows to see the sky. "Look, there's someone there!"

Prairie stands next to Forte as she sees a small figure on the ground, seeming to wave at them. "Guess we better lower the base and see what he wants." Prairie presses a few buttons as the airship slowly descends.

After it reaches the ground, the door lowers as Prairie and Forte go outside. "Who're you and what's your business here?" Prairie takes a closer look at the out-of-breath boy. He was about Vent and Aile's age with black hair and amber eyes.

"My name… is Edge. I'm an employee… of the factory you ordered… from…" Edge takes a second to catch his breath before continuing. He pulls out a parcel and hands it to Prairie. "These are the equipment you ordered."

"I see… thanks." Prairie prepares to leave, but Forte pulls on her uniform, pointing to Edge to show he has more to say.

"I was leaving the factory when it happened. A whole army of mechaniloids attacked, lead by one black reploid with metal blades on his shoulders. The factory's been completely taken over!"

"What!? Come with me back to base and we can discuss things." Edge nods as he enters the door and the base starts to move upwards into the air. Prairie goes to the computer and types in a few coordinates.

"A huge mechaniloid army is gathering at the factory!" Prairie presses a few more keys as she looks at the monitor. "There are also seven other bases outside of Innerpeace that's been taken over. Armies are slowly building up in each base! We need to warn the others quick."

"I was wondering if…" Edge thinks of some words to say. "I can be a Guardian as well! I have no where else to go, and I can't stand by and do nothing while this is happening!" Prairie nods as she scribbles something on a piece of paper.

"Talk to a Guardian in this area and there'll be a trial for you to pass. If you manage to pass the trial, then you'll be acknowledged as a Guardian." Edge nods as he heads off. "Come on, Forte, let's go gather the others."

Prairie and Forte enter their own room and find a note on the table. "Let's see: Me and Zero have gone to Innerpeace. From, Ciel. Guess we need to wait until they come back."

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Innerpeace

"It's an Irregular attack!" Zero and Ciel barely manage to step out of the way as a horde of humanoids run past them. Zero steps in the way as Irregulars appear.

"You've all picked a very bad time to attack!" Zero's helmet appears on his head as he slashes at the Irregulars. "Ciel!" Zero turns to find Ciel surrounded by Irregulars. I don't have enough time to save her…

Ciel reaches into her pocket and pulls out a bomb. She throws it at the Irregulars, destroying all of them in one attack as the recoil knocks her down.

Zero catches Ciel before she falls to the ground. "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I think so. I've sprain my ankle, so I can't move." Zero kneels down with his back to Ciel and she gets on his back.

"When did you start carrying weapons with you?"

"Well, I might need to defend myself in case you aren't around, and I guess I was right about that after all." Zero nods as he jumps into the air, shooting down Irregulars and slicing them while carrying Ciel on his back.

"I think we've got all of them…" Ciel looks around to scan the area. "Wait! There's two people over there!"

Zero quickly dashes there to find two unconscious reploids. One is a dark purple color with a white helmet while the other reploid is a combination of white and light blue. "These two look familiar…"

"Those are the two reploids who serve Model W!" Ciel exclaims as she remembers Phantom's attack on Guardian HQ.

"Well… what do we do with them?" Ciel sighs as she weighs their options. If we bring them back, then they might attack us or tell Phantom and Model W. Still, there has to be a reason that they're injured like that. Maybe they've changed.

"Conviscate their weapons and let's head back to base. I want to know why they're injured." Zero nods as he takes their weapons and the four of them warp out.

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"Ugh… where am I?" Prometheus slowly opens his eyes and sees the face of Vent. He quickly rips the blanket away as he searches for his scythe.

"We've taken your weapons, so don't even bother trying anything. Hey, Aile, is she awake yet?"

"What do the two of you want with us?" The door opens as everyone else enters the room. Ciel looks at Prometheus and Pandora.

"The two of you are awake. Would you two mind explaining why we found you unconscious outside of Innerpeace?"

"Phantom, Pandora, and I were sent to attack Innerpeace. Phantom just said something about the weak having no place in the world…" Prometheus looks at Pandora, telling her to finish it.

"Phantom attacked, and we weren't able to defeat him… The next thing we know, we woke up here…" Pandora stops talking as everyone else looks at the two of them.

"Well, do you think they're telling the truth?" Vent looks at Zero and the others as they think the question over.

"I wouldn't put it past Model W to do something like that. This could possibly be the truth…" Zero looks at Prairie. "What should we do with the two of them?"

Prairie rubs her forehead as she thinks all the events of the day over. "We need as much help as we can get right now. They can stay at Guardian HQ, but we'll be keeping a close eye on the two of you."

"Do you think we'll really join you losers!?" Prometheus attempts to sit up, but Zero silences him with a glare.

"You two don't really have much of a choice right now. Are you going to go crawling back to Model W and beg for forgiveness?"

"Fine…" Pandora sits up as Prometheus grumbles. The tense atmosphere is still in the room as Prometheus and Pandora exits and walks around the halls. Prairie looks at the others in the room.

"Come to the Commander's Room. I have something you all need to see." All of them nod as they follow Prairie."

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"That's a nice lie, isn't it?" Pandora and Prometheus stop to see a Guardian with jet black hair and amber eyes.

"What are you talking about?"

"It isn't that hard to see what the two of you are planning. Get into the base and send information to Model W from the inside."

"You shouldn't try to talk about matters that you don't understand." Prometheus grips onto the scythe that's been returned to him.

"Don't worry, I won't tell the others." The boy turns away as Prometheus yells and swings his scythe, sending a large wave towards the Guardian. The Guardian steps aside in one swift motion without looking back as the wave passes harmlessly by him.

"How rude of me to not introduce myself, for now, you can call me Edge." The Guardian walks off as Prometheus shakes his fist at him.

"We don't have time for this, Prometheus."

Prometheus nods as he gets out a communicator hidden under his cloak. "This is Prometheus to Phantom, we've managed to infiltrate the Guardian Base…"

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"As you can all see, we're surrounded on almost all sides by Shademan's troops." Prairie points to the red areas on the map. The door opens as Edge walks in, followed by Prometheus and Pandora.

"I see you've managed to become a Guardian, Edge. We were just talking about Shademan's troops." Prairie continues on to show the area on the map and finishes up as they leave the room.

"Prairie?"

"Yes, Forte?"

"I have a bad feeling about the three of them…" Prairie thinks over everything she knew about Edge, Prometheus, and Pandora. There's something unsettling about Edge for sure, I have a feeling he wasn't telling us everything, but we can't make any assumptions yet. We can't just let Prometheus and Pandora go, this is the best choice of actions for now.

"Don't worry, Forte. If anything goes wrong, we still have Zero and the others here." Forte nods as Prairie looks over the area Shademan's troops were gathering.

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"They actually thought they got rid of me." A figure moves closer to a pod as it starts to open. "Ahh, looks like he's finally complete."

Where am I? Another figure emerges from the pod and looks at the other figure in the room. "Who are you?"

"I've brought you back to destroy the chosen ones, Vent and Aile. I'm sure you still remember them."

Vent and Aile? "I won't allow you to do that!" The red figure moves away from the black figure as the black figure laughs.

"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice in this matter."

A dark energy starts to surround the red figure as he screams in pain. "AGHHHH!" What's happening to me? A dark purple armor and a blue saber appears as the black figure laughs.

"Arise, Girouette. From now on, you will be my servant!"

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Some parts of the story probably confused you, but I'll explain everything later. As for now, Read and Review!