Another update and the next chapters might come a bit faster as we're already halfway through the story already!

And I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter, Ushindeshi! Thanks as always for the review!

EDIT: Again with the missing horizontal lines. One of the reasons why I don't like the uploads in this site.

End of Era

Chapter 11 – Past Connections

"Again, Dad?" Estelle asked with an unimpressed look on her face, "Can I just go on patrol in the city or something? I heard another attack there last night-"

"Stop," Vent's voice was stern as he stood in front of his children in the training room, "You got hurt when you got into a fight with that guy from yesterday. Your mom isn't going to be happy if I put you in danger again."

The female brunette let out a sigh, "You get hurt all the time, Dad. You always told me that getting hurt is cool because it shows how much you've been fighting for good."

"I didn't-" Vent was in denial, though it was hard to come up with an argument when he recalled doing so. He let out a defeated sigh as he put a hand over his face, "You've been hanging out with Ashe too much that you're getting more and more like her in terms of arguments… Just train here and be good kids, okay? I'm going to see Fleuve today."

"Whatever!" "Yes, Daddy!"

Estelle watched as her father stepped out of the training room while Oriel had already busied himself with swinging practice using a wooden sword. The oldest of the siblings was holding the blue Biometal in her hand as she turned to the targets used for shooting practice. She had her Biometals, but she wasn't allowed in the fields to battle. So what was the point of her being given the Biometal anyway? Was it just given to her because she had been nagging for it so much in the past but not because she was capable?

She let out a sigh as she turned to look at her younger brother practicing. She brought up the Biometal in her hand and looked at it in sadness. She recalled Fleuve's mumbling she heard when she passed by the lab years ago. She had a chance to transform, but Oriel couldn't at all. They shared the same blood, but they had different fates. It wasn't fair at all.

A sudden jolt of pain was felt in her heart as the image of the tragedy from years ago replayed in her head as she watched Oriel swinging his wooden sword. Her shoulders tensed and her grip on the Biometal tightened as the image of the pink-clad former commander was replaced by the image of her brother. She wouldn't stand still if her brother got hurt, especially when she had the ability to be able to fight. Yet, she wasn't allowed to do any actual fighting to hone her skills.

She had to better to be able to protect Oriel. To protect everyone she couldn't before. Oriel couldn't fight, so it was up to her and Storm to go to the battlefield. Storm had his experience, so it was her turn to get some experience herself. But… she wanted her brother to see his sister in the process of developing into a true fighter.

"Hey Oriel," the younger brunette stopped his training for a moment as he looked at his sister, "How about we take a walk in the city… well, I guess more like a patrol? Storm should be too busy training or doing some other fighting stuff and I need a partner for the patrol."

"What about Dad?" he had lowered the wooden sword down as he looked at her worriedly, "He looked mad when you went to the city without asking him the last time."

"Hey, heroes don't need permission," Estelle reassured him with a smile, "They only need power and courage to fight. I already have both!"

He was still looking at her in doubt, "Okay… but you're not going to blame me when we get caught, right?"

"Nope!" she replied confidently, "And we're not going to get caught if we're really careful!"

The door leading into Fleuve's lab slid open as Vent entered, seeing an unexpected guest in the room.

"Thetis! How have you-"

"Can you tell me anything, Fleuve?" the reploid wasn't paying attention to Vent as he was focused on the older scientist, "I can't ask my wife about her when she's still out there, somewhere…"

The scientist stood in silence for a moment, looking at Thetis as he was thinking of whether or not he should answer the question. He turned back to his computer, typing a few things on the keyboard before a humanoid-like image appeared on the screen along with some data and chart beside it, "It seems like Rose didn't tell you about Iris as well…" he looked up at the screen himself with his back turned to the younger men, "From the information I got from Rose, it seems like Iris is actually one of the new model reploids whose production had been stopped many years ago."

Vent and Thetis had shocked expressions on their faces.

"B-But how?! My wife told me that she and Iris were both humanoids!"

"She told you, but she could be lying," the scientist had faced them once more, "I have no intention of making you suspicious of your own family, but the red triangle hidden by her hair is solid proof of this fact. The internal organs she has are all man-made, but they all look and act the same way as the ones humanoids have in them. It's very easy to deceive people into believing her to be humanoid, but the secret will be exposed when she matures because they can't bear any children in any way."

"Hang on a sec, Fleuve," Fleuve directed his attention to the stern tone coming from Vent, "I thought Master Mikhail of Sage Trinity had stopped the production a few months after the announcement made by Master Albert. So why is there another one around?"

"She's Iris, not just another one!" much to the brunette's surprise, Thetis had lashed out at him, "I… I know she's different, but she's just a little girl! She's my daughter! She doesn't know anything about all this!"

Vent let out a defeated sigh, "S-Sorry, I didn't mean to say it wrongly, but… after more than ten years of halting the production, don't you think it's strange that we can find another new model reploid? I mean, I remember Master Mikhail giving us live feed about the destruction of the factories."

There was a bit of a pause from Thetis as he tried calming himself down before talking, "I think… I've heard someone saying that a few reploids for that model went missing around 9 years ago…"

"That's…" realization hit the brunette as his eyes grew wide, "That's around the time Grey went missing! But… I don't think…"

"He isn't the one to do it, I trust him…" Thetis spoke up, though there was still a hint of doubt in his voice, "But before we get to that point, you haven't answered my first question, Fleuve. About Iris' compatibility with Model L like me, now that I can tell that we're not related at all."

"Master Albert was the one who made the entire concept of the new model," Fleuve started, "If you remember what happened all those years ago, I think you'll understand what I mean when I said that. For the reason on why he made it to be very human-like, I'm afraid I don't have the answer to that."

"To have the Mega Men fight each other…" Vent recalled the events when he and Aile first met Grey and Ashe, "I guess he was also trying to build a strong Mega Men who would obey his every command, in case his plans to become Mega Man King failed…"

After a few moments of silence, Thetis let out a desperate sigh, "I don't like this… I feel like there's an enemy involved in everything up to this point, but we don't know who did it and for what purpose…"

"I think… Grey might know something about this…" Vent pointed out, "I feel like if we can find him, we can find out what's going on in the world," he turned his attention to the door, "The problem is…"

Fleuve nodded in agreement, "Yes, I'm quite aware of that," he turned back to the monitor behind him, "I'm not sure if the Commander is going to be happy about this, but I may have a method to try and track him down from the communication signals."

"Please, Fleuve. I'll take responsibility if Aile finds out about this."

The brunette siblings had just walked for a few minutes, but Estelle had already sighed over a dozen times out of boredom. She was expecting something interesting to happen while she was on patrol, but the peaceful city was running the way it was supposed to be without any noticeable issues. She had to put aside the heroic actions for the day as there wasn't anyone to be fought or anyone needed saving.

Estelle let out yet another sigh as she dragged her feet, "Ugh… patrols are boring…"

"It's peaceful again today, I guess we should go back soon before-"

"Nah, I'm not going back to the base either," Estelle had a bored look on her face, "I'm getting sick of seeing the same stuff over and over again…"

"Then I'll go-"

"No, you're staying with me," the older brunette had grabbed Oriel's arm as he tried walking the other way, preventing his escape, "You're going to stick around with… huh?" as she was going to scold Oriel for trying to run away, her eyes fell on three cloaked people by the river under the bridge they were on, "I spot suspicious people!"

"Estelle, don't get us into trouble!" Oriel was trying to break free from his sister's grip, "Those people are scary!"

She let out an annoyed sigh, "You won't be a hero if you keep on being a coward like this," she pulled him her way with ease as she led them to the stairs at the end of the bridge, "Come on, let's go!"

"Is it not there?" the shortest of the three cloaked people asked the biggest one digging things in the river.

"I can't detect a signals resembling him, My Lord," the big figure stood up before getting up from the river, "Shall we search in another area?"

"Yes. I believe it should be somewhere in the city's rivers."

"Hold it!"

The three people turned to the source of the feminine voice, looking at Estelle as she put a hand in front of them to motion them to stop.

"What do you want?" the human-sized person asked coldly, "There aren't any restrictions for trying to dig in the river."

"Yes, but your cloaks are making you very suspicious people," Estelle pointed at their cloaks, "I'm on patrol today and I demand you take off your cloaks right now!"

There was a long pause as the three looked at her, not moving at all or having any noticeable response. Oriel had come out from Estelle's back, noticing the deathly silence between them, "E-Estelle, I think we should leave this to the adults…"

"Let's move to the next location," the shortest one spoke up before the three of them began moving again, walking past Estelle as she kept her position.

"H-Hey!" she realized the ignorance coming from them, prompting her to grab the regular-sized one's cloak as he was the last one to walk past her, "I said remove your cloaks so I can identify-"

Estelle let out a gasp as she saw the glowing red eyes hidden under the cloak, "Let go, human," the brunette didn't respond as cold sweat began to make her hands wet. Seeing that Estelle wasn't responding to the warning, he grabbed her wrist and yanked the hand away from his cloak, almost throwing her to the river.

"Estelle!" Oriel ran over to his sister in worry, "Are you okay?"

Her eyes grew wide as she stared at the cloaked people going up the bridge, "W-What was that…? That cold sensation…"

"Do you seek for power?"

"Huh?" Estelle turned to Oriel, who was looking at her in worry, "Did you say something?"

"Yeah, I was just asking if you were okay-"

"No, did you mention something about seeking power… stuff?"

Oriel paused as he stared at her, "You didn't hit your head, right?"

Estelle let out a sigh as she shifted her position to try getting back to her feet, until something bright had caught her eyes. She quickly ran over to the object, ignoring the mud sticking to hers and Oriel's clothes. She picked it up and rubbed the mud and moss covering it, revealing itself to be a brown rock with three blue crystals on it.

"What… what is this ugly rock-"

"You hated the killer of your friend. Let me help you get your revenge. I shall lend you my power!"

"Ah!" Estelle let out a shriek as she threw the strange rock away, "I-It spoke!"

"But it's just a rock!" Oriel protested as he tried pulling her sister up again, "Come on, we have to go back and clean ourselves before Dad finds out!"

Estelle let out a slow nod as she took Oriel's offer to help her back to her feet. Her eyes remained fixed on the rock even after her brother had unknowingly left for the stairs without her. She approached the rock once more, picking it up only to stare at it once more.

There was no response this time.

"As ugly as you might look like, I think I'll take you back for something useful…"

Before I forget, I'll let you guys know that this story and another story from a different fandom called 'Forgotten Memories' will most likely be my final uploads in FFN. I'll still finish them, no worries, but the next new stories will be up in my AO3 instead (link to my AO3 should be in my profile).