I debated for a long time whether or not I would post this under this account or anonymous but I ultimately decided to just say "Fuck it!" and let people judge if they wanna judge. This is entirely self indulgent and based on the fact that I am weak for "Enemies to Friends to Lovers."

This was originally one of my ideas for another Aegis Swap!AU that I condensed down into a two shot. I seriously need to stop coming up with 100000+ word ideas lol

Content Warning: Referenced Suicide.

Her chains she rattled with her hands, and thus replied she:

"Stop giving me that bullshit. She was never Addam's blade. I was. I was the blade that he awakened," Malos cried, aggressively swiping forward with his sword. "He was my driver. After that final battle and after we interfered with Indol's plans, they drove him to suicide. Once he was dead, they smeared my name and made me the bad guy. Me, the person who saved the goddamn world. All the while they recaptured her and sealed her away because she was nothing but a faulty weapon that couldn't even do her job."

"What...?" Zeke asked, out of breath.

"It's true, Rex…! I lied to you. I lied to everyone. Malos was not the one who sank Torna; I did. I was the one who sank three great titans beneath the Cloud Sea," Mythra sobbed, falling to her knees. "I was the enemy of everyone…! Amalthus' coconspirator! I've killed so many people…!"

"I was created so that the world would never see that type of power again," Pyra cried out, tears building in her eyes. "We're monsters, Rex. We're beyond saving. You don't need us to reach the World Tree anymore. Ophion is dead. Abandon us, Rex." She closed her eyes, shoulders slumping. "It's what we deserve for the sins we have committed."

"No." Rex stated, crawling over to their limp body. He pulled them into his arms, clutching them close. "You may have been the person who did that. But you're not anymore. You're free from the clutches of that madman. You don't have to let him define who you are as people. You've spent this entire journey helping people. Trying to atone in whatever way you could. Don't stop now when you're so close to realizing that."

"He really has gone insane," Malos sneered. "Oh well. That's to be expected considering which Aegis he chose for a blade."

Rex ignored the comment. "I went on this journey because I believed in you and what you wanted to do. You wanted to get to Elysium and I promised that I would help you. And us salvagers… We don't go back on our promise." He stood up, standing protectively over their body. "So Pyra… Mythra. Join me!"

Rex gasped as he was teleported to a hanger. In the middle, behind Pyra and Mythra, stood a huge machine. He had never seen anything like it in his entire life.

"This is Aion. Our whole being," Mythra said.

"The power we were granted at birth," Pyra said. "Are you sure you still want this, Rex? That you still want us, despite every lie we've told you?"

He hummed to himself. "Do you love this world?"

"Yes," Pyra said. "We love this world and everyone in it."

"Amalthus was cold. He hated the world because of the people in it," Mythra said. "But you've shown us that people can be good too. That we all have the capacity to change things for the better. That violence and destruction and control is not the answer to the evil that every person, human and blade, possesses."

He smiled softly, offering both of his hands to them. "Well then..."

They took his hands. The world shifted back to the Cliffs of Morytha. It was then that he had met Pneuma, the true form of the green Aegis core. Jin and Malos were still a massive thorn in his side but stood no match against the combined strength of Mythra and Pyra. And he could tell, even then, that Jin really doesn't want to fight, either. The sadness in his eyes betrayed his words and actions. Unfortunately, Malos still wouldn't stand down. The fight between Ophion and Siren destroyed the platform they were all standing on. He remembered grabbing onto Pneuma as they fell, passing out sometime after they hit sea level.

When he woke up, he was leaning against something solid. And breathing. His eyes shot open, groaning as the pain in his body made itself apparent. He glanced down, Mythra curled up in his lap. He ran his hand soothingly through her hair, letting his head fall back against who he assumed was Malos. He risked a glance up, eyes locking on a steely grey gaze.

"Hi," He said. Malos snorted.

"Hello to you too," Malos said. "I wouldn't try moving. Your leg is broken."

That would explain the pain in his leg. But it didn't explain why they were positioned the way they were positioned. He didn't remember falling remotely close to either Jin or Malos. "I see."

"Jin's looking for the others. I'm no healing blade. Otherwise, I'd fix it myself," Malos said, shrugging.

"... Why aren't you killing me? Why haven't you killed me? I don't know how long I've been here but you've probably had the prime opportunity to finish us off," Rex asked, instinctively pulling Mythra closer. "And what do you want from me? From us?"

"First of all, you both landed on me and pinned me down. Second of all, I don't really want to kill anyone. Not you and not Mythra. In Torna, it's considered bad taste to take advantage of an injured opponent," Malos said. He waved his hands in the air to accentuate his next statement. "I don't even want to destroy the world. I just want this to end."

"What to end? What are you talking about? Why are you even doing this? Why are you both so hell bent on destroying the world?" Rex asked. "What happened that made you this way?"

Malos scoffed, shaking his head. "I wouldn't expect a child to understand."

"You can't expect me to know what you're talking about if I don't even know what happened! Which, as we've just established, is pretty much everything since I've been lied to my entire life!"

Malos grew silent which frustrated him to no end. There were so many unanswered questions in his head. How did the narrative get flipped? Why did Amalthus claim Malos as his blade instead of Mythra? What did he gain from doing that? What exactly went down all those years ago?

"What was that?" Rex asked. He was pretty sure that he had heard what Malos said but he wanted to make sure he was correct.

"It's nothing."

"You wouldn't have said it out loud if it weren't important,"

"You were supposed to be my driver," Malos said, voice thin and airy with bitterness. "I saw glimpses of the future. You were supposed to be mine. But then…"

"...There's nothing stopping you from having me as a driver, you know. All you have to do is ask," Rex said, leaning his head back. "I would say yes."

"Malos." Jin's voice said. Out of nowhere, Rex doubled over as pain erupted in his legs, white spots appearing in his vision. It felt like the bones in his legs were rearranging themselves. He grit his teeth, nausea and dizziness hitting him like an Armu. As his vision cleared up, he was able to lift his head. The Marsanes was loud and proud in the open space in front of him, Malos and Jin standing on the deck.

"We'll see you at the top of the World Tree," Malos said, eyes kept locked on him as the ship ascended into the sky. Rex let his head fall back, thoughts swimming. Out of curiosity, he tested his leg and found that it was completely healed. He hummed thoughtfully, letting himself drift off slightly as he waited for Mythra to recover.

He hadn't had to wait long for Mythra to wake up. They eventually found the rest of the others as they traversed through the Land of Morytha. A strange feeling descended upon the group as they entered the remains of Torna. It was hard for Rex to describe. The weight of the information they had heard earlier was heavy on his mind. He didn't know what to make of it. It threw a wrench in everything that he thought he knew. Could anything that he had learned be trusted? What was truth and what was fiction? As they traveled further in, they encountered an Infernal Guldo in the Tornan titan's womb. It was there that Mythra told them the truth about what had gone in Torna.

She had realized the weight of her actions as she watched Torna fall from a distance. She hadn't intended for that to happen. She had just wanted the pain to stop. Pain, she said, that came with being Amalthus' blade. It was a poor decision, she said, to express her distaste for the world in such a way. As she drifted freely in the Cloud Sea, she created Pyra, a person that was everything that she wasn't. A person that would never be able to commit the atrocities that she had. It also ended up helping her in the end as her core crystal was able to repair itself slowly over time with Pyra not draining as much energy. She had been found by Amalthus a couple of months after he became Praetor. And he was none too happy with her. Indol by in large hadn't been impressed with how she had failed her mission. They had been too weak to protest as he buried them deep beneath the Cloud Sea, wanting to wait until the truth behind the past was too muddled to discern clearly. After that happened, she said, he would use their power to sunder Alrest and name himself as its god.

The information transfer that Malos had forced upon her wasn't as one sided as he had hoped. Thus, Mythra had been able to fill in the gaps of history. The chaos following the fall of Torna gave Indol a significant advantage. With the Emperor Hugo of Mor Ardain dead, that left the country with very little opposition to their regime. And the eyewitnesses to the actual events were nowhere to be found. Addam had committed suicide shortly after the war due to grief. Minoth had disappeared, fleeing the growing prejudice against Flesh Eaters. Lora had perished in Spessia, leaving Haze's core behind and Jin as a flesh eater. Malos had holed himself away somewhere far away from the eyes of humanity. The rest of the Tornan survivors had sequestered themselves off in Genbu, shutting their borders with no hopes of ever opening them to foreigners.

All of these events left Amalthus with the prime opportunity to shift the views of the world in his favor. Slowly, over a period spanning several decades, the narrative of the war was slowly shifted. Gradually, more and more people believed that Mythra had been Addam's blade, poised to fight the evil blade Malos. It was Malos that was the Praetor's blade, the corrupted one that couldn't be controlled. Mythra had been the hero sealed away by Addam shortly before his death, actions done by a grieving man.

She didn't go into detail about what had lead up to Malos and Jin teaming up. She said it wasn't her place to say. But she said that both had fed into each other's grief, believing the only way to solve their problems was to eliminate the cause of it all: The Architect. After all, Amalthus would never have gotten to where he was had the Architect not given the Aegis' cores in the first place.

It had been hard for Rex to wrap his head around. It was hard to believe in some ways but it was simultaneously plausible at the same time. While he certainly felt betrayed in some ways, he can't say that he didn't see it coming. There were always little things that had bothered him: Gramps' reaction to Pyra, Cole's interactions with them in Uraya, Mythra's reaction to Fan, Amalthus' reaction to them in Indol, to name a few. He could never quite place what made him uncomfortable about their interactions until now. To think it ended up being something like that...

But, underneath all that betrayal… he felt sad. While he certainly felt for Mythra and Pyra (he couldn't imagine being nothing but a tool to a madman), he couldn't help but feel sad for Malos and Jin too. Yes, they did terrible things in the names of their goals. But ultimately they were all the victim of the same person: Amalthus. Just thinking about his name made him seethe with malcontent.

He carried that anger and that sadness with him as they ascended the World Tree. While the rest of his friends stared and gawked at the otherworldly quality of their surroundings, he marched forward, a sense of responsibility pushing him forward. The emotions only built as Mikhail sacrificed himself so that they could proceed. They roared in his ears, making him throw caution in the wind and unleash his wrath when they encountered Amalthus shortly after subduing Jin. The pain in the flesh eater's eyes when Patorka and Akhos fell and the fear he felt from Mythra only fueled his rage. It was through luck and luck alone that everyone except Amalthus survived their encounter.

They continued to climb up the World Tree with a begrudging Jin, one destination in mind: Elysium. As it turns out, it wasn't what any of them were expecting. Least of all Mythra. But they carried forward nonetheless. They didn't have time to speculate on what had happened to the once prosperous place.

The visions of his own insecurities he encountered via the Architect, he later found out, were some of the hardest things that he had ever done; Morag's rage and disapproval at sparing Jin, the person behind so many of her countrymen's demise, and at dragging her away from her country and home; Zeke's disapproval at his empathy for his enemies and the lack of empathy towards his friends; Nia's annoyance at getting dragged all over the world; Tora's frustration that he was ripped away from his research... It was all too much at the time. But he preserved, nonetheless. It was what he had to do.

Meeting the man himself was nothing like Rex ever expected it to be. He remembered taking a cursory glance to the side, watching as Jin held himself back. He admired, then and now, the blade's self control. Learning the truth behind the creation of their world was fascinating, if harrowing. The Architect's words left them all with more questions than answers. But it also gave them an ultimatum. They would have to stop Malos from completing his mission. And they didn't have a lot of time to do it, given that the other half of the Architect's soul was about to perish.

Jin had been the first to leave the Architect's chamber and remained completely silent thereafter, even when addressed. Rex didn't blame him in the slightest. Pneuma stuck unusually close to him as they finished the last trek up the tree (Looking back, however, it made sense). Nia and the others tried to engage him in conversation but he hadn't really felt like responding. Something significant was about to happen but he didn't know what it was. Jin decided to sit out of the final battle, refusing to even enter the hangar. Rex didn't expect him to fight, in all honesty. Watching the person that destroyed all that you ever knew kill the only person that understood what you've gone through? The person that had been with you the longest?

Who would watch that?

The fight was gruesome and harrowing. Neither party held back as they made one final push, one final effort to defend their viewpoints. As Pneuma and him ready the finishing blow, he gazed into her eyes, an unspoken question hanging between them. She nodded, turning to face the artifice. They sliced Aion in half, diverting the brunt of the force away from the center of Malos' core at the very last second. When Malos tumbled out of the artifice, Rex was there to catch him as he fell. Unfortunately, given their size difference, he acted more as a method of breaking the blade's fall. But he liked to think otherwise.

He wasn't exactly surprised when Malos completely broke down into sobs. He didn't, couldn't, offer any words of comfort. There wasn't anything to be said. The only thing that he could do was hold Malos as he cried. It was then, when he thinks back, that an uneasy feeling first appeared. Like something else was supposed to happen. But he had dismissed it in the moment, too relieved that no more people had to die.

Jin appeared surprised yet relieved when they returned, Malos in tow. They started descending the World Tree. But the feeling from earlier still hadn't gone away. There was still something that had to be done. So he stopped before the bridge over the bottomless pit, Pneuma and Malos hanging back with him.

"Rex? Is something wrong?" Pneuma asked.

"...This isn't over, is it?" he asked quietly. "The Architect's warning… it hasn't come to fruition yet. There's still something that you have to do. And I'm not going to like it."

"Rex-"

"Don't lie to me," Rex said. "You've lied to me nearly every step of this journey. You owe me the truth in at least this."

"I-" she said, before giving a sad smile. "You're right. I suppose I have lied to you enough. Once the Architect dies, we will have to destroy the World Tree as it collapses. This world will likely be too unstable to function as well. I was planning on, with Malos' help, to use the last of Aion's power to create a new world free from the vision of the Architect."

Malos nodded. "It's the only way."

She swallowed heavily. "I'm sorry Rex. But this was also another reason I wanted you to accompany me to Elysium."

Rex approached Pneuma slowly, clutching the ends of his salvager suit tightly. She placed a hand on his chest, his portion of the crystal forming into a copy of her full Aegis core that fell into his hands. She then placed her other hand over his, discreetly placing the item she had hidden in her palm into his. He gripped it tightly, not even having to ask. He embraced her, pulling her close.

"I appreciate everything that you have given me, Rex," Pneuma said. "I... will not survive this."

"I know," he replied, tearful. "Neither will Pyra, will she?"

Pneuma shook her head. "Only Mythra will survive. We… appreciate everything that you have done for us."

"I love you. Love you all so much," Rex whispered, clutching her tight. "I hope that I've given you at least a little peace of mind in all this."

"You've done so much more than that, Rex," Pneuma said, kissing him. She pulled away, eyes shimmering with years. "You've given us life. You've taught us what it means to truly live. I will never forget that."

He glanced over at Malos who watched them with resigned eyes. He approached him tentatively, awkwardly wrapping his arms around the blade's torso in a tight embrace. Malos froze briefly before lowering himself to Rex's level, clutching him just as tightly. Rex could tell that he was struggling to hold back everything that he was feeling in the moment. He lowered his voice so that only he could hear. "I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"Do you still want me to be your driver?"

"Yes. That's why I gave you my-"

"I know. But that doesn't mean I still can't be your driver now," Rex said. He gently placed his hand on Malos' core crystal, feeling the ether pulse beneath his fingers. He let Malos rest his face in the crook of his neck. "I'll do my best to make sure you're both treated fairly. I'm not sure how much I can do. But I will try."

"Thank you," Malos murmured, pulling away, nodding. "Rex."

He nodded back, grinning brightly before walking down the steps to the rest of the group.

Pneuma glanced at Jin, calling across the chasm. "Please Jin. Keep them safe for us."

The gravity of what was about to take place really didn't hit him until they reached the ship. So much of how he thought the world worked had been shattered in less than a week. So much about the people he loved had been shattered as well. He wanted to cry but, at the same time, he didn't. He didn't think he really could cry, either. The only thing that he could do was take the Aegis' at their unspoken word, their core crystals nestled safely in one of his pouches on his salvaging suit. Nia's constant, reassuring presence helped. Even Jin's attempts at comfort calmed him as they fought to leave the Land of Morytha.

Speaking of Jin, he had made yet another promise. And like he had said to Mythra, Salvagers always fulfilled their promises.

"When we get to safety…" Rex said quietly, a heavy silence filling the cramped ship. "I need to speak with you, Morag. Alone."

"Oh?"

"It's… official business, I suppose you could say," Rex elaborated.

"Ah. I see. May Brighid and Aeageon accompany me?" She asked, eyes briefly glancing to Jin.

"Yes, they can come with. But this is between me and the three of you only."

"Well then. I look forward to hearing what you have to say,"