Facts and disclosure, coming through!
End of Era
Chapter 14 – Old Data
Estelle had found herself in an empty white room, hearing nothing but the echoes of her footsteps. She felt like she had been there before, only that her previous visit in that place involved her seeing the city in her mind. The images from before were seen through someone's eyes, though she couldn't really tell whose eyes those were.
They could be hers, or they could be the eyes of another presence within her. All she knew was that she felt like she wasn't alone in her mind. Someone would always be whispering to her to destroy and give into the darkness in her heart, using their power to crush the obstacles around her. It had never happened to her before, and especially not before she picked up the strange rock from the river in the city.
The vision of the city and the big reploid being attacked came up all of a sudden. Someone had shown her the images for some reason, but it was through those images that her white surrounding disappeared. It was at that time that her consciousness slowly returned to her even if it was just for a few moments. The last thing she could remember before passing out from exhaustion was a glimpse of blonde hair in her mind.
She couldn't remember how long she had been out cold, but she found herself in the white room once more. Rather the atmosphere of hatred from before, all she could feel in the room were guilt and regret. Those were the feelings of a different presence, compared to when she felt hatred. It was the same feeling when the images of the city popped up in her mind before.
"I'm sorry, Estelle… You've been through a lot of rough times because of me…"
Estelle looked around nervously for the source of a little girl's voice, "W-Who are you?!"
"Please, don't be afraid," the voice of the girl came from a floating ball of light as it came down and stopped in front of the brunette, "I mean you no harm… never again…"
"A Cyber-elf…?" Estelle recognized the shape, but the little girl materializing in front of her was foreign to her, "But… who are you? How do you know my name?"
"In this form… I am Alouette," the girl closed her eyes as her body glowed, growing in size before she changed her appearance to the one familiar to the brunette, "Estelle, do you remember me?"
"P-Prairie!" Estelle exclaimed with a sad smile on her face, "I… of course…" tears started rolling on her cheek as she felt a mix of joy and sadness, "I… I miss you so much…"
"I know…" the former commander replied with a pained voice as her holographic image tried giving the crying brunette a hug, "I'm sorry, Estelle… It was my fault that you and your mother had to witness everything you shouldn't…"
"No, that was my fault!" the brunette had broken down as she covered her face, "I… I shouldn't be wandering out there… If I didn't, then you wouldn't be…"
Prairie put her hands on Estelle's shoulders as the brunette lowered her head, "Estelle, I've always been with you. I've always been with the Guardians, watching over all of you moving forward to live up the Guardians' principles. I've never been far from any of you…"
"T-Then… that time too…?" the brunette looked up with her teary eyes, getting a nod and a warm smile from the former commander, "You're a Cyber-elf… but at that time… why could I feel your warm heart…? I could feel your guilt… your regret…"
"That's because… I don't want you to get hurt… I don't want another victim to that Biometal… to Biometal Model O…"
"Model… O…?" Estelle had stopped crying as she wiped her tears away, "Is that the strange rock I found in the river…?"
The look on Prairie's face turned serious as she gave her a nod, "Yes. I can't tell you everything here, but I know you'll eventually find out the truth."
"But why not, Prairie?" Estelle asked her with a pleading look, "I… I'm not strong enough with Model X… I might need Model O-"
"Absolutely not!" Prairie's stern voice had startled Estelle as she slightly jumped in surprise, "You must not depend on Model O too much… no, not even Model X… I don't want you to get hurt in any way, just like how your mother desires to protect you and Oriel."
"Then tell me why I can't!" the brunette raised her voice, "I'm a Mega Man! A Chosen One! I want to protect my friends… my family… How am I supposed to protect them if I don't have the Biometals' power?!"
Prairie looked at Estelle silently as the brunette panted from her venting her anger. The former commander's expression hadn't changed, even as she faced Estelle's anger.
"True power… doesn't come from the Biometals," Prairie spoke up calmly, "They have become soulless metal storing the legendary heroes' power. But they only had their power, not their spirit, and not their will to fight. If you can't find your true strength, you won't be any different from the enemy mavericks."
"I… I don't understand…"
"You don't have to understand everything now," the former commander's stern voice echoed in the empty room as her materialized figure started fading, "This era of Mega Men is about to change. One key leading to the truth behind that change is my first name, Alouette. Don't forget that, Estelle…"
"W-Wait! Prairie!" Estelle tried reaching out for the former commander, but she could only grasp empty air as Prairie turned back into her Cyber-elf form, floating away from her as the white room around her slowly faded.
"Commander, please explain yourself!" Aeolus' voice echoed in the control room, "What do you mean by 'looking at the late commander's data'?!"
"It is as I said," Aile replied calmly, despite the shock on the other Mega Men's face in the room, "For reasons we don't know, Prairie had hidden some data that's most likely related to Grey's disappearance years ago. I've seen a glimpse of her browsing through those data in the past, but she refused to tell me anything about it."
"I knew it…" Ashe let out a whisper, "Those recordings made by Grey were actually meant for Prairie after all…"
"No doubt about it," Thetis nodded in agreement, "But why didn't any of them tell us? Was Grey's past really bad that they decided it was best not to tell us anything?"
"I… I can't say for sure…" the commander looked at him with a disappointed look, "I've managed to decrypt most of the data hidden by Prairie, but I can't find a direct connection to him. There are only mentions of the enemies we fought, like Weil, Master Albert, and even Master Thomas and incomplete parts of their research data. The only mention closely related to Grey would be the new model reploids made by Master Albert, which Grey himself had stolen."
"Aile, is there anything else other than those things?" Vent asked responded by Aile shaking her head.
"From what I've decrypted, no," the commander turned back to her computer as she tapped a few things on her keyboard before a holographic window popped up, "If you mean in general, this is the only thing I can't break."
"A password is required," Siarnaq commented in a monotone voice.
"If it's Prairie… then how about the names of the Guardian members or maybe Ciel?" Ashe suggested, also getting another 'no' from Aile, "The name of her dolls?"
"No, I've tried with any names I can remember," Aile turned back to the holographic window, "We only have one more password to try on it. It looks like Prairie wants to keep this data away from us that she had to use this kind of password protection. If we can't get this last one right, the data will be wiped away from the database."
"If that's the case, I can't risk trying to hack into the database," Aeolus commented with a desperate look on his face, "Not knowing anything about Grey and his intentions like this is bothering me…"
"The password is Alouette."
The group of adults were surprised by the voice coming from the control room's entrance. Estelle stood there as the door closed behind her, looking at the adults with bandages visible around her head and arms, "Estelle! What are you doing out of the medic wing?!"
"I'm… fine, Dad…" the young brunette had avoided her father's gaze as he gently put his hands on her shoulders while looking at her worriedly, "I… I just need a bit of extra sleep after this…"
There was sadness in her voice, which Vent was worried about, as she turned around to head out for the door, only to be stopped by the commandant herself.
"Wait, Estelle," Aile's voice was stern, but unlike the usual, it didn't sound as cold and robotic.
Estelle stood still in front of the opened door, but she didn't turn around to face her mother, "What?"
"Please tell me where you got that name."
Estelle didn't want to tell her the truth, when she was still unsure about her own emotions after her unusual reunion with the former commander. Until she could accept whatever truth she had to find out, she had to tell a lie again at her mother.
"I… I feel like I've heard that name before… from Prairie…" Estelle turned her head to catch a glimpse of the stern expression on her mother, "I don't care if you think it's a lie because you always think that I'm lying all the time."
Estelle stepped out without another word, turning the attention of the others back to Aile as the commander stood still in her place.
"Well…" Thetis started as his voice broke the silence in the room, "I don't really understand what happened between the two of you, but was she really lying just now, or was she actually telling the-"
"We…" Aile had interrupted him, forcing herself to speak, "We don't have any other options. I'll try putting that name as the password."
The commander turned back to the window without another word, with Vent looking at her in worry, "Aile…"
"Password accepted. Welcome back, Commander Prairie."
The robotic voice along with a beep came from the window, which had surprised the group, "S-Seriously? How did your daughter managed to find out about that name?! I've never heard Prairie mention anything about Alouette or something!"
The commander didn't respond immediately to the silver-haired Hunter as her eyes were glued to the lines of text being shown to her. Her eyes grew wide as a few familiar images came into view, "W-What is this…?"
"What is it, Aile?" Vent went over to her side as she showed the image of a golden knight-like armor, "Is that… a gigantic armor?"
"This isn't any ordinary armor!" Aile responded as she showed another popup window containing her own notes, "Grey mentioned this in one of the corrupt recordings! But why is it…?"
"A virus transmitter," Aeolus' statement had caught the attention of the group in the control room, "I recalled hearing something like that in Albert's lab before I got my hands on the modified Model H. It won't work without spending a huge amount of power, however."
"So that's why… he wanted the Ciel System for…" Ashe had recalled the painful memories she had with Aile and Prairie back in the past, "And that caused… the tragedy…"
"Wait," Aile had interrupted once more as she continued scrolling on the window, "There are notes here that's most likely written by Prairie…" she went silent for a few moments before she nodded, "Model O's compatibility… and a Biomatch's life connected to it… power of will…? Then he was going to either use the Ciel System or Estelle's life to power the transmitter?!"
Aeolus, who was also looking over the data, gave her a nod, "It looks like it. But what is the virus for anyway?"
Aile shook her head, "I don't know. Master Thomas was most likely interested in this twisted project as well, but it seemed like he needed the data of Model O itself to use it. He couldn't really do anything with just the physical Biometal in his hand…"
"Not just that, actually," Ashe added, "Estelle had somehow found the Biometal to transform in the city and defeat that Craft guy, but we couldn't find it anymore when we got her to the medic wing along with the other two kids."
Vent, who was listening to Ashe's statement, had instinctively reached for his pocket, before he nodded nervously, "Y-Yeah, I was the one to check her pockets but I couldn't find anything other than Model X with her."
"Well," Aeolus turned back to the commander, "what should we do now, Commander?"
"For now, get some rest," the commandant took another quick glance at the windows once more, "I'll try and find out more about Model O and that virus transmitter."
The group had dismissed itself, leaving only Vent and Aile in the control room along with the operators. The commander was aware of her husband's presence in the room, but her attention was still directed at the data in front of her as Vent was being silent.
The vice commander put his hand over the bulging spot in his pocket before he let out a sigh, "Aile?"
"What is it?"
"Can we talk? Just a short one, so it won't bother your work on those data stuff."
His question was met with her silence for a few moments before the commander's chair moved as Aile rose from her seat, "Okay, just for a little while only."