Two months later…
It was early- way too early for Vent's liking. Yet, for just this once, he didn't particularly mind it either. For the first time in two months, Vent was able to breathe freely. In just a short amount of time, almost every citizen on the country had come together to help rebuild the highway and portions of Areas G, S, and T; all of which were residential areas effected by the fall of Slither Inc. After recovering and waking up from his scrape with Serpent, Vent had immediately went to help Sho at Giro Express.
Keeping busy was what distracted Vent from Aile's recovery status which, for quite awhile, looked dismal.
Vent wasn't even there when Aile woke up. Work at the warehouse went on for longer than Sho had expected, so Vent had stayed as late as the Reploid needed him. At the end of his shift, Vent would have gone to his room and slept, but Giro Express no longer felt like a home to him so he took a transerver back to Guardian HQ. When he stepped off the transerver, he almost didn't realize that Rush had been waiting for him. It took the bark of the mutt to gain Vent's attention.
"Hey boy." Vent said to Rush, petting the Reploid dog. "Anything fun happen while I was gone?"
To this, Rush gave Vent a rather ecstatic bark before giving the boy many licks to the face. Affording a small laugh, Vent pushed the mutt off which then lead to Rush heading toward the door, taking a look at Vent happily in indication.
"You want me to follow you?" the boy then asked.
Rush gave another happy bark in reply.
"Alright," Vent relented, "I'm following."
Making good on his promise, Vent followed Rush through Guardian base. It didn't quite click to Vent on where they were going until he saw the sign of Aile's room in the infirmary. Rush waited patiently for Vent at the base of the door. He looked on at the boy as if the mutt knew something Vent didn't. Vent looked down at Rush before looking at the door- carefully, slowly, he opened it to find something that nearly made him faint.
"Aile!"
There in the middle of the room, using Muguet to stable herself, was Aile. Hearing her brother's voice, Aile looked up to face Vent. Her skin was paler than usual, her face was sunk in as if she was death itself, and she just looked absolutely weary; but Vent didn't care- Aile was alive and awake and certainly unprepared as Vent rushed toward her.
"Easy! Easy! Easy! Easy!" Muguet demanded in rising pitch as Vent pulled Aile in for a rather tight hug. But Vent ignored the nurse.
"You're alive!" the boy repeated in relief and astonishment. "You're alive! You're alive!"
Despite him absolutely crushing her, Aile let Vent have this moment as she carefully tried to place her chin on his shoulder. Hugs were nice, she'd have to do this more often now.
. . .
Muguet permitted Aile to leave Guardian HQ the next day- but she could not go too far. Aile didn't care where she went as long as it was out of HQ. Thankfully, Vent knew a small takeout place near the highway and from there they just relaxed. The highway had been cleared since the cleanup of Slither Inc was underway, so there was nothing stopping the twins (and Rush, who had tagged along) from sitting at the edge of the highway bridge and just relaxing.
"So..." Aile then lulled; sitting so she was just barely at the edge of the road, one foot propped on the edge and the other casually dangling below, "What happened while I was out?"
To this, Vent uncomfortably shifted a little. Unlike Aile, Vent was sitting a good inch away from the highway's edge and was keeping his legs crossed.
"Prairie had me investigate Area N." he finally admitted.
"Really?"
Vent gave a small nod as he remembered a dual voice shout 'Ware wa meshia nari!' at him the same way the Biometals used their thought-speak. He didn't know what it meant, but the voice that said it had given him the chills. If he remembered correctly, even Model Z trembled slightly at the voice.
"Yeah..." Vent then said, if only to shake himself from his thoughts. "I could barely write the mission report after."
"Area M was pretty weird when I went through." Aile agreed. "I can't image what it would be like closer to that anomaly or whatever it was."
Vent just gave a small nod as he tried to divert his attention elsewhere- remembering for a split second that the ghost had eyes that flickered some other color before returning to that bloodshot red. The color had been familiar, as if they were the eyes of someone he knew, someone that wanted him to find them and save them…
"Prairie came by the infirmary almost directly after I woke up." Aile then spoke up, perhaps sensing that Vent was remembering something that troubled him. "She told me that in my current state, I am no longer fit to go out on field missions."
"Really?!" Vent immediately questioned, trying hard not to sound immensely pleased. Admittedly aggravated at his thinly veiled enthusiasm, Aile ignored him to go on to say,
"But then she said that I could still have a potential here on base. She wants me to understudy her."
"Why?" Vent then quizzically asked.
"You haven't heard?" Aile replied, mirroring his confusion.
Vent shrunk a little before bitterly mumbling, "Apparently not..."
"Prairie plans on stepping down as the Guardian's commander some time in the next two years or so. And since she's been taking me in under her wing, everyone assumes that I'll fill in for her when time comes."
"Why two years?" Vent questioned, although he was rather perplexed on why she wanted to step down at all.
"Dunno," Aile admitted with a shrug. "I only overheard it this morning, and I haven't had the time to ask her directly."
"So it's just a rumor..." Vent said, mostly to himself, as he made himself relax again. Aile knew that it likely was the truth, in some form, but kept her opinions to herself. Instead she reclined backwards onto the pavement and took a deep, relaxing breath in. A sharp pain in her abdomen made her sit back up again; Vent hadn't noticed the disturbance, but Rush had. The wolf-dog nudged Aile with concern and she smiled back at Rush before giving him a good scratch on the ear.
"Vent, I think I want to go back to HQ." Aile announced quietly. The boy looked up at her (maybe catching a hint that something was off but not knowing what) and immediately got up after. Together, with Rush taking guard from behind, the three went back to Guardian HQ.
After Aile had made it safely back to the infirmary, Vent was alone once more. Letting his mind wander, the boy let his feet take him to his room in Guardian HQ. On a shelf above the small bed were two photographs- the one of Pandora before Model W, and one of him, Girouette, and Juno when he was much, much younger. They were reminders.
Still working autonomously, Vent got the photograph of his family off the shelf, plopped down on the bed, and gently traced the picture frame. He didn't mean to run through every memory he had of them together, and he certainly didn't mean to start crying either.
"Vent...? Are you alright? You seem so… out of it."
"No… I.. I'm not…" the boy quietly wept. "Everything's the same, but it's all so different..."
'I miss them too.' the soft thought-speak of Model Z resonated, almost scaring Vent. 'But time keeps moving forward, so we must keep going too.'
"Model Z..." Vent then sighed. "Did they ever… Was Juno always…?"
'Vent, listen to me: do you remember when Juno left Giro Express?'
The boy gave a small nod.
'Up until she came back, Juno could not hear me. She knew of me, of course, because Girouette could never say no to her, but she couldn't hear me like you can now. Girouette did not want you to come with him for the exchange with the Guardians, but as you're aware, Juno had gone missing a week before. With Sho leading the warehouse, he had no choice but to bring you. When you fell over the cliff because of the bike's engine, Girouette nearly stopped functioning. Then Juno came, possessed by Model W and another that I can't name at the moment, and he lost his hope. He just… couldn't take it. Vent, Girouette and Juno loved each other very much -enough that just watching them interact made me sick- never, ever forget that. They loved you just as much and Girouette wanted anything to have you three safe and together again. His last wish was that, even if he did not survive, that you and Juno could find each other. Maybe you could even save her.'
"But she's dead Model Z, just like Boss."
'The report never mentioned that her body was recovered from the site, Vent.'
Carefully taking this information in, Vent -in a delay- had a hard time relating what this had to do with the matter at hand.
'It's time for you to face destiny and carve out a new future for yourself.' Model Z then instructed. 'It's a struggle that you and every living thing on this planet must cope with. You have the strength, Vent, I know you do. Use it.'
"Facing destiny and carving out the future..." the boy then repeated softly. His grip on the photograph starting to tighten as a sense of determination filled his body.
"I have something I must protect." the boy then declared, "And I will fight for it! I will fight for what I believe in, and that's a promise!"
