"Gah!" Rex felt his arms tremble as he was pushed back by one of Aion's blasts. The barrier protecting him had held, but the same could not be said for everyone else. The young driver forced himself to keep his eyes forward to avoid looking at the devastation around him. Aion's hangar was in shambles, but the mech was still completely functional despite what damage they had managed to inflict upon it.

It just…refused to go down. Was there really nothing they could do to stop it? It had started charging for something. Something terrible, but they were unable to stop it. At this rate, it was going to fire! Rex refused to let this be the end though.

Forcing himself to his feet, Rex prepared for another assault no matter how wobbly his legs were. However, before he could valiantly charge off to his death, he felt a hand on his shoulder. This prompted him to look back. The eyes were a different color, but he could not help but see Pyra looking back at him with that sad but determined expression. He knew it was both of them, but that did not change what he saw. He was not the only one that noticed it either, but no one had said anything to them.

"Rex, don't," Her voice was soft. Far too soft for the situation.

"But we can't let him destroy Alrest!" Rex pointed his blade at the mech which seemed uninterested in him so long as he was not a threat.

"Rex," The Aegis shook her head, "It's too late. We can't stop it now."

"No!" Rex was trembling now; whether in fear or anger, no one knew, "We can't…we can't lose…"

"There is still hope though," She spoke almost sagely, "There is still time. Using the last of our power, we can send your mind back to shortly after we first met. Then, you can stop this from happening. Stop Malos before it's too late, and…maybe save him from himself."

"What? You can do that?"

"It would not be easy, but it is our only hope."

"Do you…do you really think we can stop this?"

She smiled sadly, "I have every faith in you."

Rex, fully expecting them to come back with him, nodded, "Then let's do it. Let's save Alrest this time."

She smiled sadly as she started to glow, "You shall."

The next thing Rex knew, he was standing in an empty room with Pyra's sword in his hand. It took him a moment to gather himself. His mind was scattered at first. It was as if he had woken up from a thousand-year nap, but slowly his thoughts stitched themselves back together into some form of coherence. His body also ached, but he was pretty sure that was because of the fresh wound that had just been healed in a less than unorthodox manner.

Tenderly feeling the core crystal in his chest that had become so familiar and even comforting in the past few weeks, Rex remembered where he was and what had just happened. Looking around himself, he was in the chamber where Pyra had been sealed. Right, he supposed that made sense.

However, his eyes went wide when he remembered what exactly that meant. Pyra! She was with Malos and Jin. With practiced ease, Rex caused Pyra's sword to double then triple its output. Looking up, he smirked. He hoped that maybe this would be easier than he thought.

Pyra did not express it, but something was not right. Her driver, Rex, was taking longer to arrive than she had expected. She could feel his presence. He had been resuscitated just fine. So then, where was he?

The Aegis' concerns proved unwarranted as the deck below Malos' feet burned bright causing him to jump back. She was surprised when Rex jumped up from the belly of the decrepit vessel with such energy. The way he was wielding her power was not what she had expected. He seemed so…comfortable using it. As if it were completely natural. It was enough to make something, or rather, someone deep inside her stir in curiosity before disregarding it and returning to her slumber.

"You ready, Pyra?" Rex offered her a toothy grin as he looked back at her expectantly upon her landing to join him. That look…

"Y-yeah," Pyra murmured almost as perplexed by her new driver as he had been by her when they first met.

"Alright!" Rex brandished the blade at Malos, "He's still weak, so we should be able to handle this just the two of us." He looked over at Jin next, "He might be trouble though. Hey, uh, is Mythra awake by any chance, or do you have to do something for that?"

"What?" The word was echoed deep in her core, "Y-you know about–"

"Here he comes!" Rex did not wait for the reply deciding to trust them to bring Mythra out if need be. Though, Rex was not stupid. He knew that they would need their full power if Jin decided to really get involved.

Rex met Malos' blade with a surprising lack of hesitation. It should have been obvious who the better combatant was, but Rex was surprisingly holding his own. Better than he had been just hours before.

"I don't get you, kid," Malos scowled at the driver before him, "How'd you get so skilled in less than a day. I know you weren't holding back earlier. Not this much at least."

Rex jumped back from an incoming strike, "Wouldn't you like to know?" Despite his confident words, Rex was not in top form. He had noticed some of his reactions were more sluggish than he remembered and certain motions proved harder to pull off due to the lack of muscle memory. He had to remember that it had been his mind that came back, but not his body.

Though, there was something else keeping him from reaching the same heights that, to him, he had achieved mere minutes ago. He would make motions expecting for Pyra to make the practiced countermotions be that actual movement or a particular flow of ether, but it did not come. At least not when he expected. She seemed to be playing catch up, and that was concerning to say the least.

When he found a moment of reprieve, he looked back at Pyra in concern who spared him a confused and perhaps somewhat concerned glance. Something was up, but Rex did not have long to think about it since Malos was not about to stop his assault.

He was definitely forced to try harder than Rex remembered. That was a good sign he supposed, and had everything gone as he expected, then it should not have been a problem. Unfortunately, he and Pyra simply were not jiving like he was used to. That was enough to give Malos the opening he needed. He threw Rex off balance and forced him to block in an uncomfortable position. From there, it was easy enough to wrest the sword from Rex's grip and send the boy hurling across the deck.

"Rex!" Pyra yelled as she rushed to defend her strange new driver, but Malos' blade stopped her in her tracks forcing her to deftly dodge his swipes at her. Eying her sword in the distance, Pyra backflipped over to it grabbing the handle as she pushed back off. Good. She had a weapon now. Not that she had ever personally used it, but Mythra had. She just had to use that as a guide.

Well, it certainly seemed to be enough to handle Sever, but that was not really her main concern in that moment. Rex was pulling himself up, but Malos was still well on his way to ending the young driver even if he was taking his sweet time. With her path blocked, she could not see how she would be able to get there in time.

However, it seemed that she would not have to. Surprising the Aegis, the Gormotti girl and her blade stepped in to defend her driver. She could not say she had been expecting a defection, but she would take it.

The peace of mind that Rex was, for the moment, safe allowed Pyra to divert her full attention toward her immediate opponent. A skilled blade, to be certain, but even her power could overwhelm him. Not that she really cared to spend the time dealing with that while Malos was out and about.

Then there was the other player that had yet to make a move. Jin. Why was he here? And with Malos to boot? Pyra wondered if Malos had somehow awakened him. If so, that was not an opponent Pyra looked forward to facing.

With an opening in Sever's defenses, Pyra ran past to her driver deciding not to waste her time fighting Malos' blade. Instead she arrived just in time to block a strike from Malos against the now defenseless Rex after Malos had knocked the other driver unconscious. At the very least Rex was back up again, but things were not looking so great.

Rex did not know what was wrong. An injured Malos should have been a walk in the park for the two of them, but Pyra was acting as if the past few months had never happened. It was at this point that the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. Rex's knees started shaking as he looked at Pyra's form as she fought off Malos. She…the woman he…. He had never…

"Rex!" Pyra looked back as she heard the thud of him falling to the deck. This was not good. She was not sure if they could pull this one out. Especially as the Tornan warship targeted them.

Fortunately, the canons did not get the chance to fire before being hit with large blasts of flame. Pyra and the Gormotti girl's blade looked up to see a titan circling back, but Rex did not take his eyes off of the deck. He knew who it was anyway. It was the same as before.

"Rex, hurry up," Pyra hauled him up on Dromarch's back before the blade started making to intercept Azurda. All the same, Rex was numb to it all. It was slightly different – he had not had to dive after Nia for one – but it was the same basic beats. Was it all going to happen again? They had known. He knew they did. Looking back, it was obvious. They had sent him back and stayed behind. She had stayed behind.

Rex slowly awoke once more. As his thoughts started returning to him, he briefly hoped that it had all been a horrible dream, but as he opened his eyes to the almost identical sight from all those months ago, Rex's heart fell as he realized it had all been real. Everything he had witnessed in Aion's hangar…that this Pyra did not remember anything they had been through in the coming months.

"Oh, good, you're awake," Pyra smiled trying to put him more at ease.

"Yeah," Rex slowly sat up. At the very least, he knew the others should be fine. For now.

"I…" Pyra was not sure how to start, but with some down time, she had noticed something. At some point during all that chaos, something had been uploaded to her holo-emitter. Messages. One addressed for the all of them, one for Rex, and one for…her.

"Here," Pyra got straight to the point and removed her earring. The special one that was more than it seemed. Fortunately, Addam's message remained intact, but it was running low on space, "While you were asleep, I realized that some things had been added."

Rex looked at her curiously, "What?"

"This one was labeled to be listened to first. By all of us. Shall we?"

"Uh, yeah," Rex did not know what to think as she activated the holo-emitter. What appeared shocked the both of them for different reasons. Before them stood holographic representations of both Pyra and Mythra standing side by side. Pyra looked between them and Rex. Just what was going on here?

"Rex," The holo-Pyra started, "I guess by now you've realized that we didn't come with you. I'm sorry, I truly am, but we could only send one. We both agreed it needed to be you."

"Yeah," Mythra had her arms crossed, "So you'd better not screw this up. We're counting on you. And you," Mythra looked at Pyra, "Both of you. I know you're listening. We sent Rex's mind from the future. Don't ask how, just trust us. So believe what he says about the future."

"We're counting on the three of you," Pyra continued in a lighter tone, "Be careful what changes you make, and use Rex's knowledge wisely. I'm confident that you will succeed this time. And, Rex," Pyra looked down at the hand on her chest, "I'm so sorry."

After that, the message cut out leaving Rex to reach out at thin air before once again falling to his knees. Pyra was left uncertain as to what to do. It seemed that her and Mythra's future selves had become close to their driver. Especially the future Pyra. Mythra…. She was currently very much awake now, but Pyra was tuning her out while she sorted everything out very loudly. In the meantime, Pyra put a hand on Rex's shoulder causing him to tense at the all too familiar gesture.

"There's…a private message for you as well. Would you…like to hear it now?"

"I…sure," Rex swallowed, "If ya don't mind."

"Not at all," Pyra left the crystal in his hand and went to give him some space.

With Pyra out of earshot, Rex pulled himself to his feat and activated the crystal once more. This time, however, he was greeted by only the visage of Pyra.

"Rex," She spoke softly, "Please, don't hate me for this."

"I could never hate you, Pyra," Rex replied even though she could not hear him.

"I believe in you. Mythra does too, but, I really believe in you. You helped us overcome our fears and doubts once, and I believe you can do it again. I'm sorry to put such a burden on you, but I'm sure you can do it. After all I-nevermind. I believe in you. More than anything, remember that."

"I-I will, Pyra, and," Rex murmured as the image faded, "Thank you. For everything."

Time travel! Mythra ranted inside of Pyra's head very much awake now. At least in mind. She had yet to make a physical appearance.

Yes, but it seems to be authentic.

I know. Mythra sighed, "Let's just hope there aren't any paradoxes or anything."

Pyra gave a sympathetic sigh. Though, she could not get the image of Rex looking longingly at the future Pyra, nor the way she had looked when talking about him. She wondered, why her? Why would he pick her over Mythra?

Pyra's head snapped toward where they had left Rex upon hearing footsteps.

"Hey," Rex said quietly, "You, uh, alright?"

"I'll be fine," Pyra spoke noncommittally.

"And Mythra? Is she awake?"

"Yes, she's been rather…active."

Hey!

Rex chuckled, "Yeah, I can imagine. Um," The young driver was not sure how to address this, "Look, I'm sorry about before. I was expecting something else, but–"

"It's alright, Rex."

Rex smiled gratefully, "But we still have a world to save."

"Right. But we should be careful about changing too much. The more we change the less your knowledge is worth."

"Alright. Guess I'll need to save it for the more important stuff. Speaking of which, we should get going. The others should be around here somewhere."

"Alright," Pyra nodded, "Let's go."

A/N: I'll leave this here as a one shot for now. If you'd like to see more of this idea, let me .