Sorry for the delay! Honestly this chapter has been sitting in my folder unfinished until a few days ago because of the major writer's block. Somehow I'm making it work while I'm getting rid of the block...

Ushindeshi: Aile's thinking of putting everyone out of harm's way by pushing them away from her, though someone in her family is taking it the wrong way...

End of Era

Chapter 5 – Painful Old Memories

"Hey, Ashe!" Vent called out as he caught up to the silver-haired hunter when she was heading for the transerver room, "I'm guessing you're heading back to the Hunter's Camp again?"

"Yeah…" Ashe nodded as she replied, "I think this is my best lead to find him…"

"I see…" Vent didn't know how to reply, but there was something else in his mind that he wanted to ask, "Hey, can I ask you something else?"

"If it's about what happened back then, I've told you everything," Ashe replied flatly, "And I can't do anything to help with Aile if you can't do anything about her yourself."

"Uh… that's not what I was going to ask…" the question meant something to him, as Ashe had been with his kids more since Aile distanced herself from him and their children, "It's about Estelle's progress… in training."

"She's not good with swords, if that's what you're wondering about," Ashe let out a grin, "I think she's got more of Aile's genes in her than yours. That includes them being early risers like her and not heavy sleepers like you."

"Thanks for pointing that out," Vent replied sarcastically, "I just want to ask you if Estelle is hanging out with someone other than you and Oriel."

"I don't think that has anything to do with…" Ashe turned to him with a sly grin on her face, "Oh… am I talking to Estelle's doting father? Is Papa Vent worried that a guy might snatch his little girl away?"

"No!" Vent declined, "I'm seeing her less often in the airship and I'm worried if she's hanging out with bad people in the city!"

Ashe let out a sigh, "If something bad happens, Atlas will contact the base and you'll know about the bad news. And knowing Atlas now, not even a small pickpocket will get out without a big fuss."

"But-"

"Besides," Ashe continued, "Don't you think that you should give her a little more credit? She's already 15 and I can tell that she can at least fend for herself in case something happens. After training her for many years, I can say that she's strong enough on her own."

"She's still not acting like her age, though," Vent spoke up calmly, "That's why I'm worried that she's going to get bad influence from unknown people."

"Nah, she won't," Ashe stepped into the transerver room, "She might act like a little kid, but she's definitely not naïve," the hunter had her back turned to him as she spoke, "You're her dad, aren't you? Shouldn't you at least put more faith in her when Aile is simply too busy to care?"

As Ashe disappeared from the room, Vent stood still in his place as he took Ashe's words in consideration, 'Put more faith… in Estelle…'

A woman with short brown and orange hair let out a loud gasp as she woke up from her afternoon nap. She was trying to calm herself down while cold sweat was dripping from her head, though it hadn't been working too well when the nightmare she had just now came back to her mind. Sleeping certainly wasn't her most enjoyable thing to do even if she needed her daily rest at night. Her lack of sleep at night had driven her to sleep while on duty, though her subordinates understood her enough to bother her.

"Mother," the sudden voice from the other side of her desk had given her another shock, "I apologize for surprising you, but did you happen to have that nightmare again?"

"Storm…" the woman let out a tired sigh as she rubbed her face, "Yes… I should've listened to your father then and handled the base defense instead…"

The young teen, who had his mother's brown eyes and his father's green hair, walked away for a moment and returned with a glass of water, "Here, please have some water."

"Thanks," the woman gulped the whole glass of liquid before handing Storm the empty glass back, "If you're done with today's training, you can take a day off for the rest of the day."

Storm looked at his mother in surprise before he nodded and saluted, "Yes, Ma'am."

"Chief Atlas!" one of the Guardian members in the land base came to her desk, "We have two visitors from the airship base. Should we let them through?"

Atlas let out one of her rare smiles and nodded, "Yes, although Storm is most likely the one our guests are going to see."

"Very well," the Guardian member turned to Storm, "Captain Storm, please come with me."

"Yes," the teen gave him a nod as he proceeded to follow him.

"Storm, a moment?" Atlas called out, which then got responded quickly as Storm turned to look at her, "Don't let your guard down. You're going with Commander's daughter and son and we'll have to answer to her if something bad happens to them."

Storm gave her a firm nod before taking out a red metal object and showing it to her, "Yes, I will."

"Hi Storm!" the green-haired teen noticed the familiar brown-haired pair when he walked out of the base, "Long time no see!"

Storm gave her a smile, "And I'll bet that you two are here without your parents knowing again."

"I already told her but she wouldn't listen!" Oriel protested, "I want to ask for permission from Mommy and Daddy but Estelle said no."

"Because Daddy's answer will always be a 'no' and her answer will always be 'study hard in your rooms'!" Estelle sighed in annoyance before looking around at the wide training ground outside the base, "At least you're lucky you have some space to-wait, is that a shooting range?"

Storm watched as Estelle ran off to the other side of the field, "I'm starting to think that she just wants to try the training facilities here rather than to visit…" Storm turned to Oriel, who was watching his sister running in excitement to the shooting range, "So uh… how are you doing today, Oriel?"

"The shooting range sounds fun!" completely ignoring Storm's question, Oriel had also run after his sister, "Estelle, I want to try too!"

The male teen chuckled before he followed the two siblings to the shooting range.

Storm sat on the bench near the shooting range with a complete shock written on his face. He had to teach the two newcomers the basics of using the training busters to shoot at the beginning. Moments later, Oriel got his turn after Estelle let him go first and he had beaten his personal best score on his first try. Estelle, on the other hand, had single-handedly beaten his mother's, Atlas' best score on her first try.

He knew from his parents' stories that the commander was good with shooting but they were never too detailed on how good she was. When he saw the commander's own two kids in action, he could conclude that the commander's shooting skill was way above his mother's and her children had inherited that same skill. His skill was second to his mother, but the commander's family's was far above theirs.

"That felt so good!" Estelle smiled in satisfaction as she and Oriel took a seat next to Storm, "I wonder why Dad didn't bother training us with busters and forcing us with sword training instead…"

"My dad mentioned that Vice Commander Vent was really good with swords," Storm responded, "Maybe that's the reason?"

"But I hate it…" Oriel commented, "My body hurts all over after training with swords…"

"That's not everything, though," Storm turned to Estelle before turning his attention to the object she was pointing at sticking out of his pocket, "We still haven't got our Biometals, but you already have yours and you're already a captain. I mean, you're a year younger than me!"

"I don't think this has anything to do with age," Storm rose from his seat as he took out the Biometal from his pocket, "Besides, I don't like how I've been given two Biometals at once when I was as old as Oriel right now. Getting both of them at once and so soon meant that I was forced to train harder and a lot more."

"At least your parents are still there with you," Estelle commented, prompting for Storm to look at her, "I'm mostly trained by Ashe using my dad's battle data because she is always busy telling us to study and my dad is too busy obeying her every command."

Storm looked at her and her disgusted look as she never referred her mother, "Don't hate her too much. She must've suffered as much as my mom has."

"What happened to Chief Atlas?" it was Oriel's turn to ask, "Did she get hurt?"

Storm let out a sigh. It seemed to him that none of her parents had told them about his family's history, "No, but it started during that big Maverick attack years ago."

The young Storm was hiding in his mother's office as he watched his father running towards the medic wing. From the number of Guardians running around in the hall, the young boy felt that something had happened. He decided that he would follow the Guardians to the medic wing once the hallway wasn't too crowded.

He had snuck into the medic wing and found his father standing beside one of the beds while talking to another man in a different white uniform. There was another man behind him and he was wearing purple clothes and a red scarf over his mouth with some bandages over his left eye. As his father was talking to the man in white, the bandaged man simply lowered his head as if he had failed on something.

Storm couldn't hear what his father was talking about that he walked closer, but the bandaged man noticed his presence. The two exchanged looks for a moment and as if the man knew that the boy couldn't be seen by anyone in the room, the man acted like the boy was never even there. He was feeling grateful to whoever he was and he was able to hear the conversation more clearly.

"I'm sorry, there's nothing else I can do to save them," the man in white said, "Chief Atlas' wounds were too deep that the baby couldn't survive."

A baby? They never mentioned to him that he was about to have a younger sibling!

"H-How…?" the weak voice of the chief was heard.

"The baby was still in their early stage of development, though the symptoms should've been noticeable," the man continued, "Although, I must say that the symptoms on humanoids can be different for each pregnancy."

"Then those times when you felt like you had a bad meal could've been it," his father replied quietly, "Sorry…"

"No… it's my fault…" his mother weakly replied, "I should've… listened to you… then…"

"No," Storm saw the bandaged man from before stood up, "I have failed."

"No, I still owe you for getting Atlas out of there in time," his father rejected, "If you weren't there, she could've…"

"A failure is a failure," the man walked towards the bed, "With this fatal failure, I shall resign from my position in the Guardians."

"W-Wait…" his mother called out, but her calls went deaf to the man's ears as he walked towards the door.

"Siarnaq…" the man stopped, "Whatever you might think about today, you still did what you could for us, for the Guardians. You aren't a failure, but you're a fool for thinking that you are one."

The man didn't reply as he continued his walk out of the room. His name was Siarnaq and he had saved his mother even if he couldn't save his unborn sibling. Just like his father said, his mother would've been killed if Siarnaq hadn't been there. Although that loss had put his mother on a lot of pressure and stress, he was still glad that his mother was alive.

He couldn't feel as hurtful as his mother was, but he knew that he had lost someone that day. It was nobody's fault, but his mother kept blaming herself for that incident. His father had also blamed himself for not being able to prevent his mother from going into the battlefield. That Siarnaq had blamed himself for not being able to do a better job.

"They never mentioned about my unborn sibling to me at all," Storm continued, "When my mom had her nightmares, she simply told me that it was just a nightmare about her battle at that time."

"Your parents changed too, huh…" Estelle spoke up quietly, "My mom completely shut herself from us since then too… My dad doesn't look like he's changed, but I think he's holding everything in for our sake and become very obedient."

There was a sudden loud banging sound on the other side of the walls, prompting the three to get up from their seats, "W-What was that?"

Storm turned to the base's door and saw a few Guardian members coming out with weapons in their hands, "From the looks of it, something bad," Storm turned back to the two, "Stay here. I have to go and take care of this with the others."

"Wait," Estelle grabbed his arm as he was leaving, "I'm coming too, but don't worry about us getting in your way."

"It's going to be dangerous outside," Storm asked, "Are you sure you're ready? You don't even have a Biometal to help you, you know."

"Don't worry," Estelle casually gave him a peace sign, "I'm an expert in hiding and running away from trouble."

"Fine, just… stay out of any signs of danger-"

There was an explosion coming from the gates leading out to the city before a bunch of mechaniloids came pouring into the field. Some of the Guardian members on standby had started dealing with the Mavericks, but they obviously need the power of a Chosen One to help them.

"They WHAT?!" Vent yelled in the hallways of the airship, "They never told me that they would be travelling to the city!"

"It's true, Vice Commander," Atlas' voice came from the communicator, "Storm and the other Guardian members are dealing with those mechaniloids right now but I still can't get in touch with Aeolus to help."

"Don't worry, I'll be right over there," Vent cut the connection and ran towards the transerver room to head towards the city.

Even if Vent had stayed away from the control room, he had completely forgotten that his conversation with Atlas could still easily be heard through the commander's network.

"You broke your promise…"